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Conan the Barbarian
Conan: The Sword of Skelos
Conan the great Cimmerian sets forth on a deadly journey to the Kingdom of Zamboula—home of the mighty Sword of Skelos.
Through the desert of death to the kingdom of Zamboula rode Conan the barbarian and his warrior woman, the fierce and beautiful Isparana. Their cargo, the fabulous amulet called the Eye of Erlik, boasted mighty magic that could make a beggar king, and a king emperor.
But soon they would learn their reward would be death, not riches, at the hands of the murderous tyrant Akter Kan. For not even the strength of Conan could defeat the invincible sorcery of The Sword of Skelos.
Through the desert of death to the kingdom of Zamboula rode Conan the barbarian and his warrior woman, the fierce and beautiful Isparana. Their cargo, the fabulous amulet called the Eye of Erlik, boasted mighty magic that could make a beggar king, and a king emperor.
But soon they would learn their reward would be death, not riches, at the hands of the murderous tyrant Akter Kan. For not even the strength of Conan could defeat the invincible sorcery of The Sword of Skelos.
246 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
About the author
Andrew J. Offutt
174 books70 followersAndrew Jefferson Offutt was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He wrote as Andrew J. Offutt, A.J. Offutt, and Andy Offut. His normal byline, andrew j. offutt, had his name in all lower-case letters. His son is the author Chris Offutt.
Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story And Gone Tomorrow in If. Despite this early sale, he didn't consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story Blacksword to Galaxy in 1959. His first novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970.
Offutt published numerous novels and short stories, including many in the Thieves World series edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey, which featured his best known character, the thief Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn (and, later, Chance). His Iron Lords series likewise was popular. He also wrote two series of books based on characters by Robert E. Howard, one on Howard's best known character, Conan, and one on a lesser known character, Cormac mac Art.
As an editor Offutt produced a series of five anthologies entitled Swords Against Darkness, which included the first professional sale by Charles de Lint.
Offutt also wrote a large number of pornographic works under twelve different pseudonyms, not all of them identified. Those known include John Cleve, J.X. Williams, and Jeff Douglas. His main works in this area are the science fiction Spaceways series, most of whose volumes were written in collaboration, and the historical Crusader series.
Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story And Gone Tomorrow in If. Despite this early sale, he didn't consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story Blacksword to Galaxy in 1959. His first novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970.
Offutt published numerous novels and short stories, including many in the Thieves World series edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey, which featured his best known character, the thief Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn (and, later, Chance). His Iron Lords series likewise was popular. He also wrote two series of books based on characters by Robert E. Howard, one on Howard's best known character, Conan, and one on a lesser known character, Cormac mac Art.
As an editor Offutt produced a series of five anthologies entitled Swords Against Darkness, which included the first professional sale by Charles de Lint.
Offutt also wrote a large number of pornographic works under twelve different pseudonyms, not all of them identified. Those known include John Cleve, J.X. Williams, and Jeff Douglas. His main works in this area are the science fiction Spaceways series, most of whose volumes were written in collaboration, and the historical Crusader series.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 27, 2024
The writing style and verbiage take a bit to get used to but after that you become fairly immersed in Conan’s world. Unfortunately, not a lot happens in this book. It’s a decent travel adventure for our barbarian but ultimately it could have been so much more, with battles and wizards and cursed objects it seems hard to make the story as dull as it is…
April 11, 2020
The Sword of Skelos was the second of offutt's three Conan novels, but is not connected to the other two which were more of a single story split in half. It's interesting that two different publishers produced books about the same character at about the same by the same authors (the deCamp/Carter collaborations being the others.) It has some interior illustrations by Tim Kirk, but they're not nearly as impressive as the Esteban Maroto illustrations in the two volumes Ace printed. It does have a lovely fold-out double-sized cover by (I believe) Bob Larkin. This one is my least favorite of the three, but it's a pretty good Conan story... offutt had a good grasp of and fondness for Howard's character and his desire to be true to Howard's vision shines through clearly.
March 10, 2024
Me ha parecido algo mas flojo que otros que ya lei antes.
Ya no seguimos la cronología y aquí Conan es un yogurin de 17 años.
El final ha sido como muy simple.
Valoración: 6/10
Sinopsis: La Espada de Skelos estaba embrujada. Malignos conjuros la habían poseído. Las más oscuras energías mágicas de los cuatro elementos se agitan en su hoja. Sin necesidad de que ningún guerrero la empuñe, puede herir y derramar la sangre de sus enemigos. Cuando Conan, el poderoso bárbaro, y su bella y fiera camarada Isparana llegan de un desierto infernal y buscan el favor y la recompensa del Khan de Zambula, sólo la muerte les aguarda en la corte del cruel tirano, la muerte que inflige la Espada de Skelos.
Ya no seguimos la cronología y aquí Conan es un yogurin de 17 años.
El final ha sido como muy simple.
Valoración: 6/10
Sinopsis: La Espada de Skelos estaba embrujada. Malignos conjuros la habían poseído. Las más oscuras energías mágicas de los cuatro elementos se agitan en su hoja. Sin necesidad de que ningún guerrero la empuñe, puede herir y derramar la sangre de sus enemigos. Cuando Conan, el poderoso bárbaro, y su bella y fiera camarada Isparana llegan de un desierto infernal y buscan el favor y la recompensa del Khan de Zambula, sólo la muerte les aguarda en la corte del cruel tirano, la muerte que inflige la Espada de Skelos.
October 27, 2021
You know, dear reader, I'm convinced this book was titled Conan the Meandering Errand Boy in its early drafts, but that didn't have the same ring as Sword of Skelos.
This is another one of those almost-but-not-quite titles. Andrew Offutt gets credit for more closely following the verbiage of Robert Jordan and Robert E. Howard. The descriptions are in that exaggerated English, as is the dialogue, of the aforementioned writers, putting us into the setting immediately and setting the stage with perfect speed and efficiency. I'm very okay with this as it sets Conan stories apart from any other fantasy pulp out there and gives them the feel of adventure.
However, an adventure is not what we get. The story starts off with murder and a few fights, but then goes on for tens of pages - I'd say thirty or more - of conversation and description of Conan's prior adventures that sort of set us up for why we're in the story we are. Not only is it page after page of unbroken conversation that I wanted to be over so we could get back to something happening, but it was all, I assume, Conan's exploits in Offutt's other books without any sense of grounding in the here and now. Following details of something I didn't read felt like a wasted effort, and rather than being focused on THIS adventure, I had to slog along being weighed down by everything that came before. Rather than being informative, it just felt like padding.
I'd like to say that things pick up once we get past all that description, and I might have been forgiving of the book if that had been the case. But nope. We meet the heroine of the story, fight some baddies in a random encounter, and then sit tight for yet more dialogue and description, tying a group of desert nomads to a girl who dies early on in the book. Useful to make that connection, but it could have been done much, much quicker. Nomad traditions and customs, their ways and history, all is here for your consumption, dear reader, and it feels baseless because the adventure still hasn't really started. That's a bit of a problem since the adventure is what I bought the book for.
Then we get to the city, and it's more dialogue and description until the last thirty pages or so when Offutt realizes he has to wrap everything up, and does so as quickly as possible. Conan gets captured off-screen, gets tortured, and wins the day without much fanfare at all because there was almost no action or stakes building up to the end. On its own, it felt rushed and ho-hum, but if this was the culmination of the stories of the other two books, then I really feel bad for anyone expecting an epic climax at the end of the journey.
So, disappointing pacing and dull plot aside, where does that leave us? Well, Isparana feels more like a proper heroine than in other Conan titles. Robert E. Howard often delegated women to the role of arm candy and prize to be won, and while that's fine for the times, it wears thin after a while. And Robert Jordan never wrote someone with XX chromosomes who wasn't a shrieking harpy or a shrieking harpy in training. Isparana shows herself to be cunning and canny, able to look after herself without overtaking Conan, and while she does have her aggressive moments, they're far less exaggerated than in Jordan's titles. I liked her character, and it was a waste that so many pages were dedicated to descriptions and dialogue that we couldn't see more of her.
I also liked the female descriptions. Each Conan author has their sweet spot on this subject, and while Offutt isn't as efficient with his wording like the one-and-done descriptions of Jordan, there is still ample time given to Isparana and the seductresses Chia. Some might say that it's excessive (which it might be) or gratuitous (which it is), but a Conan book wouldn't be a Conan book without it, so it was nice to see the detail be given its due.
Finally, a point that one might sway on is that this title has sketches of some of the objects being described in the chapter. This is a nice, unexpected detail, and perhaps serves as a call-back to pulp titles that sported their own illustrations, but here I would say the effort is unnecessary. It pads out the page count on a book that truly doesn't need such, and I already know what an arming sword, a tabard with a black inverted star, a three-legged table, and a hunting knife look like, thanks.
The rating of this book depends on how forgiving you are, dear reader, of long, drawn-out dialogue and descriptions. Conan stories are invariably about adventure and the call to action, with his cunning insight driving him forward rather than him being a man of many words and deep contemplation ala Kull the Conqueror. This title does away with all that pesky action to drive the plot forward and focuses on what Conan has done rather than having him do something new and novel here, and even when he is doing things, they aren't novel or new. The characterization suffers as a result, perhaps the one likable guy dies, and we're left with a serious deficit of Cimmerian ass-kickings. Given who the hero is, that seems like a mortal sin.
I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5 if you're a sucker for long descriptions of the character's past exploits and like the broody, moody side of Conan who talks about adventures rather than goes on them. Otherwise, the plot that can be best described as, "Conan takes a bauble to the city, and it takes him 240+ pages to do it," earns the book a 3 out of 5.
This is another one of those almost-but-not-quite titles. Andrew Offutt gets credit for more closely following the verbiage of Robert Jordan and Robert E. Howard. The descriptions are in that exaggerated English, as is the dialogue, of the aforementioned writers, putting us into the setting immediately and setting the stage with perfect speed and efficiency. I'm very okay with this as it sets Conan stories apart from any other fantasy pulp out there and gives them the feel of adventure.
However, an adventure is not what we get. The story starts off with murder and a few fights, but then goes on for tens of pages - I'd say thirty or more - of conversation and description of Conan's prior adventures that sort of set us up for why we're in the story we are. Not only is it page after page of unbroken conversation that I wanted to be over so we could get back to something happening, but it was all, I assume, Conan's exploits in Offutt's other books without any sense of grounding in the here and now. Following details of something I didn't read felt like a wasted effort, and rather than being focused on THIS adventure, I had to slog along being weighed down by everything that came before. Rather than being informative, it just felt like padding.
I'd like to say that things pick up once we get past all that description, and I might have been forgiving of the book if that had been the case. But nope. We meet the heroine of the story, fight some baddies in a random encounter, and then sit tight for yet more dialogue and description, tying a group of desert nomads to a girl who dies early on in the book. Useful to make that connection, but it could have been done much, much quicker. Nomad traditions and customs, their ways and history, all is here for your consumption, dear reader, and it feels baseless because the adventure still hasn't really started. That's a bit of a problem since the adventure is what I bought the book for.
Then we get to the city, and it's more dialogue and description until the last thirty pages or so when Offutt realizes he has to wrap everything up, and does so as quickly as possible. Conan gets captured off-screen, gets tortured, and wins the day without much fanfare at all because there was almost no action or stakes building up to the end. On its own, it felt rushed and ho-hum, but if this was the culmination of the stories of the other two books, then I really feel bad for anyone expecting an epic climax at the end of the journey.
So, disappointing pacing and dull plot aside, where does that leave us? Well, Isparana feels more like a proper heroine than in other Conan titles. Robert E. Howard often delegated women to the role of arm candy and prize to be won, and while that's fine for the times, it wears thin after a while. And Robert Jordan never wrote someone with XX chromosomes who wasn't a shrieking harpy or a shrieking harpy in training. Isparana shows herself to be cunning and canny, able to look after herself without overtaking Conan, and while she does have her aggressive moments, they're far less exaggerated than in Jordan's titles. I liked her character, and it was a waste that so many pages were dedicated to descriptions and dialogue that we couldn't see more of her.
I also liked the female descriptions. Each Conan author has their sweet spot on this subject, and while Offutt isn't as efficient with his wording like the one-and-done descriptions of Jordan, there is still ample time given to Isparana and the seductresses Chia. Some might say that it's excessive (which it might be) or gratuitous (which it is), but a Conan book wouldn't be a Conan book without it, so it was nice to see the detail be given its due.
Finally, a point that one might sway on is that this title has sketches of some of the objects being described in the chapter. This is a nice, unexpected detail, and perhaps serves as a call-back to pulp titles that sported their own illustrations, but here I would say the effort is unnecessary. It pads out the page count on a book that truly doesn't need such, and I already know what an arming sword, a tabard with a black inverted star, a three-legged table, and a hunting knife look like, thanks.
The rating of this book depends on how forgiving you are, dear reader, of long, drawn-out dialogue and descriptions. Conan stories are invariably about adventure and the call to action, with his cunning insight driving him forward rather than him being a man of many words and deep contemplation ala Kull the Conqueror. This title does away with all that pesky action to drive the plot forward and focuses on what Conan has done rather than having him do something new and novel here, and even when he is doing things, they aren't novel or new. The characterization suffers as a result, perhaps the one likable guy dies, and we're left with a serious deficit of Cimmerian ass-kickings. Given who the hero is, that seems like a mortal sin.
I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5 if you're a sucker for long descriptions of the character's past exploits and like the broody, moody side of Conan who talks about adventures rather than goes on them. Otherwise, the plot that can be best described as, "Conan takes a bauble to the city, and it takes him 240+ pages to do it," earns the book a 3 out of 5.
March 20, 2015
Andrew J. Offutt wrote three Conan stories that are often praised as the best Conan stories not written by Robert E. Howard. Having read Robert Jordan's adequate but not memorable entries into the saga of Conan, I have been reluctant to pick up any of the stories from other authors. However, when I realised that Offutt had written the original story for one of my favourite non-REH Savage Sword of Conan comics - Sword of Skelos - I simply had to take a closer look.
Sword of Skelos is the third story written by Offutt and it appears to pick up from where the previous two books finished. As such it does not really work as a stand-alone story. Fortunately for me, I had read the earlier adventures as comics adaptations and could remember enough of them to keep up with the story here.
Sword of Skelos tells the tale of Conan and Isparana travelling to deliver an amulet (the focal point of earlier stories) to one of the people who desires it. Unfortunately, the recipient turns out to be a ruthless tyrant. And, even worse, he has an ambitious court mage who has put a dangerous spell on two swords.
Overall, the story is ruthless enough to serve as a Conan story, but Conan himself is perhaps a little bit too cunning and knowing of the world to pass as the 17 year old youth that he is supposed to be in this story. Also, the story is solely an adventure story with little to no attempt to insert any of the Robert E. Howard's philosophical ideas into the mix (except for the good old barbarism vs. civilization juxtaposition).
Still, worth a read if you desire to read a passable Conan adventure.
Sword of Skelos is the third story written by Offutt and it appears to pick up from where the previous two books finished. As such it does not really work as a stand-alone story. Fortunately for me, I had read the earlier adventures as comics adaptations and could remember enough of them to keep up with the story here.
Sword of Skelos tells the tale of Conan and Isparana travelling to deliver an amulet (the focal point of earlier stories) to one of the people who desires it. Unfortunately, the recipient turns out to be a ruthless tyrant. And, even worse, he has an ambitious court mage who has put a dangerous spell on two swords.
Overall, the story is ruthless enough to serve as a Conan story, but Conan himself is perhaps a little bit too cunning and knowing of the world to pass as the 17 year old youth that he is supposed to be in this story. Also, the story is solely an adventure story with little to no attempt to insert any of the Robert E. Howard's philosophical ideas into the mix (except for the good old barbarism vs. civilization juxtaposition).
Still, worth a read if you desire to read a passable Conan adventure.
September 22, 2019
On one hand I thoroughly enjoyed this book. On the other, it didn't work for me...
This is a perfect case of 'it's not you, it's me'. This is the 16th book in the Conan paperback cannon...and my first. Hmph. Yeah, I should've checked that before jumping in head first without any clue as to what happened over the course of the 15 previous stories.
The Sword of Skelos is not new reader friendly but there is enough there to help the reader push through without having read everything prior. Though I do recommend starting at book 1, or at least the first in the series written by Andrew J. Offutt (incidentally its the book prior to this one (no.15), Conan and the Sorcerer).
Sword of Skelos is choc full of brutal fight scenes (which Conan dominates) and has some really cool characters which add a little spice to the storytelling, notably Isparana (Conan's attractive companion) and Zafra (a crafty wizard) which are fun to read and are well written.
Overall I equally liked and didn't like this book but am still happy I gave it a chance. 3/5 stars.
This is a perfect case of 'it's not you, it's me'. This is the 16th book in the Conan paperback cannon...and my first. Hmph. Yeah, I should've checked that before jumping in head first without any clue as to what happened over the course of the 15 previous stories.
The Sword of Skelos is not new reader friendly but there is enough there to help the reader push through without having read everything prior. Though I do recommend starting at book 1, or at least the first in the series written by Andrew J. Offutt (incidentally its the book prior to this one (no.15), Conan and the Sorcerer).
Sword of Skelos is choc full of brutal fight scenes (which Conan dominates) and has some really cool characters which add a little spice to the storytelling, notably Isparana (Conan's attractive companion) and Zafra (a crafty wizard) which are fun to read and are well written.
Overall I equally liked and didn't like this book but am still happy I gave it a chance. 3/5 stars.
September 9, 2023
The end of a trilogy that includes Conan and the Sorcerer and Conan the Mercenary. In it our hero enjoys the good things of urban life, which includes lots of fun but also lots of... professional opportunities. The thefts he undertakes, however, get him into big trouble and involve him with magical powers and political power games. Fortunately, however, he has by his side a beautiful warrior woman, with whom he creates a love-hate relationship, which is one of the main reasons for reading these books. Another fast-paced adventure story that in the case of these books, however, is not limited to action alone but contains other things as well.
Το τέλος μιας τριλογίας που περιλαμβάνει το Conan and the Sorcerer και το Conan the Mercenary. Σε αυτήν ο ήρωας μας απολαμβάνει τα καλά της αστικής ζώης, η οποία περιλαμβάνει πολλές διασκεδάσεις αλλά και πολλές... επαγγελματικές ευκαιρίες. Οι κλοπές που αναλαμβάνει, όμως, τον βάζουν σε μεγάλους μπελάδες και τον εμπλέκουν με μαγικές δυνάμεις και πολιτικά παιχνίδια εξουσίας. Ευτυχώς όμως έχει δίπλα του μία πανέμορφη πολεμίστρια, με την οποία δημιουργεί μία σχέση αγάπης-μίσους, η οποία είναι ένας από τους κύριους λόγους για να διαβάσει κάποιος αυτά τα βιβλία. Μία ακόμα περιπετειώδης ιστορία σε γρήγορο ρυθμό που στην περίπτωση αυτών των βιβλίων, όμως, δεν περιορίζεται αποκλειστικά και μόνο στη δράση αλλά περιέχει και άλλα πράγματα.
Το τέλος μιας τριλογίας που περιλαμβάνει το Conan and the Sorcerer και το Conan the Mercenary. Σε αυτήν ο ήρωας μας απολαμβάνει τα καλά της αστικής ζώης, η οποία περιλαμβάνει πολλές διασκεδάσεις αλλά και πολλές... επαγγελματικές ευκαιρίες. Οι κλοπές που αναλαμβάνει, όμως, τον βάζουν σε μεγάλους μπελάδες και τον εμπλέκουν με μαγικές δυνάμεις και πολιτικά παιχνίδια εξουσίας. Ευτυχώς όμως έχει δίπλα του μία πανέμορφη πολεμίστρια, με την οποία δημιουργεί μία σχέση αγάπης-μίσους, η οποία είναι ένας από τους κύριους λόγους για να διαβάσει κάποιος αυτά τα βιβλία. Μία ακόμα περιπετειώδης ιστορία σε γρήγορο ρυθμό που στην περίπτωση αυτών των βιβλίων, όμως, δεν περιορίζεται αποκλειστικά και μόνο στη δράση αλλά περιέχει και άλλα πράγματα.
December 30, 2021
This is a pretty standard Conan "pastiche" (i.e. not written by Robert E. Howard, the character's creator). It is sometimes fun but mostly forgettable and will only appeal to Conan fans with a completionist impulse. The villains are a duo: a cruel khan, Akter, and his plotting sorcerer, Zafra. There are some interesting episodes that showcase Conan's ability to interact with a different cultures, the character's "cosmopolitan" nature. For example, there is the "Shanki" desert tribe, who become Conan's allies. This tribe was interesting in that its members comport themselves in accord with a rigid code of social decorum (perhaps Offut was channeling some reading in anthropology and ethnography?). Despite the interpersonal tension and risk of violence, Conan is able to navigate the social maze intelligently. There is some horrible stuff that hasn't aged well and will ruin this for a lot of readers (e.g. sexualized violence, torture, etc..). There is one scene I hated where Conan seems to force himself sexually upon the woman, Isparana, who later becomes his traveling companion. It left me feeling icky in a similar way to watching certain scenes from early James Bond movies. If I could, I would give this 2.5 and not a 3.
September 26, 2020
How to choke the pace out of a story by clunky writing. Too many passages and whole pages were like wading knee-deep through an obstacle course in drying cement. Not fun.
September 24, 2020
En ganska rättfram palatsintrig utan speciellt många utmärkande drag. Det är lagom för tågresor, och badkar. I Kina eller under Romarriket hade författare avhandlat hela historien på 10 istället för 200 sidor.
August 29, 2012
The Sword Of Skelos is the third and final volume of Andrew Offutt's Conan novels. While I enjoyed Conan And The Sorcerer most of the three, this one remains leaps and bounds ahead of Offutt's peers in the Conan pastiche game.
Offutt does Howard proud with his writing. Unlike nearly all the rest, Offutt refrains from turning Conan into some kind of chivalrous knight figure, lets him be who he is, a barbarian, a reaver, a slayer. Conan comes alive in these pages, whereas he tends to sit quietly in the pages of other authors' pastiches. Offutt does a fantastic job of relating the adventures of a teenage Conan, sure of himself yet unsure of his standing in life and ever ready to prove his manhood. Where Conan is a construct to most other authors, he is a living, breathing, striving, slaying and very human character in Offutt's capable hands.
Tim Kirk graces us once again with his illustrations of swords, purses, amulets and the like. Not sure who the cover artist is but, despite the quality of the painting, it has nothing to do with the story. Looks like Conan and a dancing girl fighting Picts on top of a snowy peak. So much for accuracy.
And... I am all Conaned out. So many mediocre pastiches, even with the higher quality of Robert Jordan and Andrew Offutt thrown in, have led to this character wearing thin and this reader growing tired. One of the greatest heroes of literature and I don't know that I would be willing to read one more word of his exploits at this time. Where this journey began with the original, uncut tales of Conan as written by Howard, it ends with the sure competence of Offutt and many a pile of offal in between.
To those interested in discovering Conan, read Howard's original works. If you just can't stand but to read more, start with Andy Offutt, progress to Robert Jordan then go ahead and move on. It really is for the best!
Offutt does Howard proud with his writing. Unlike nearly all the rest, Offutt refrains from turning Conan into some kind of chivalrous knight figure, lets him be who he is, a barbarian, a reaver, a slayer. Conan comes alive in these pages, whereas he tends to sit quietly in the pages of other authors' pastiches. Offutt does a fantastic job of relating the adventures of a teenage Conan, sure of himself yet unsure of his standing in life and ever ready to prove his manhood. Where Conan is a construct to most other authors, he is a living, breathing, striving, slaying and very human character in Offutt's capable hands.
Tim Kirk graces us once again with his illustrations of swords, purses, amulets and the like. Not sure who the cover artist is but, despite the quality of the painting, it has nothing to do with the story. Looks like Conan and a dancing girl fighting Picts on top of a snowy peak. So much for accuracy.
And... I am all Conaned out. So many mediocre pastiches, even with the higher quality of Robert Jordan and Andrew Offutt thrown in, have led to this character wearing thin and this reader growing tired. One of the greatest heroes of literature and I don't know that I would be willing to read one more word of his exploits at this time. Where this journey began with the original, uncut tales of Conan as written by Howard, it ends with the sure competence of Offutt and many a pile of offal in between.
To those interested in discovering Conan, read Howard's original works. If you just can't stand but to read more, start with Andy Offutt, progress to Robert Jordan then go ahead and move on. It really is for the best!
May 16, 2022
I finished this mostly because I'd already invested time in it. Very nearly put it down twice, and for a Conan novel (where I'm not expecting modern writing), that's saying something. Would not recommend, and won't be reading any more by Offutt.
Pros:
Steely Thews
The usual adventurous capers
Cons:
The overt sexualisation of a child of 12
Significant and unnecessary allusions to rape
Pros:
Steely Thews
The usual adventurous capers
Cons:
The overt sexualisation of a child of 12
Significant and unnecessary allusions to rape
July 10, 2017
Great switch off your brain book by Crom! if I could give it 3.5 I would.
July 26, 2018
Conan is happily thieving away in Shadizar when a man from Iranistan tries to kidnap him. He wants the Eye of Erlik which Conan has and, after an altercation with the city guards, decides it is better to leave town forthwith and travel with Conan as companion on the way to Iranistan. On the trip to the desert they encounter Isparana, the thief that Conan stole the Eye from, and circumstances convince Conan to go to Zamboula instead. In Zamboula the Khan's new wizard has ensorcelled a sword to kill without being held by a human hand. Using his magic he is aware that Conan approaches, and he and the Khan await Conan to give him his reward. Throughout, Conan kills many men, changes clothes a lot, engages in some complicated horse trading, and is forced once again to ride a camel. He also gets tortured.
The longest and best of Offutt's three part series. Not overly complicated, it does involve Conan taking another long trip with many encounters along the way, and he gets to ply his hand at thievery fairly often. It gives Conan one of his earliest experiences with courtly life, which he does not enjoy. Conan's silly banter with Isparana gets old, but it's still an enjoyable work.
The longest and best of Offutt's three part series. Not overly complicated, it does involve Conan taking another long trip with many encounters along the way, and he gets to ply his hand at thievery fairly often. It gives Conan one of his earliest experiences with courtly life, which he does not enjoy. Conan's silly banter with Isparana gets old, but it's still an enjoyable work.
April 7, 2018
Este libro de Conan se nota que no esta escrito por Howard, aunque respeta bastante toda la idea del personaje, tiene otro ritmo y una manera algo distinta de llevar la historia, el hecho de que volvamos a un Conan con 17 años me ha descolocado bastante (el anterior y el siguiente en la antología son de un conan con mas de 50 años) la verdad es que no acabo de entender la lógica del orden de la antología "Todo Conan" no obstante es un libro igual de recomendable que todos los demas para los fans del personaje.
August 21, 2022
I am probably being kind with a 3 star review. My complaints mirror the others. A lot of unnecessary dialogue, and a sometimes clunky attempt to write like REH, and way too much wisdom for a 17 year old. The overt sexualization of children has the ring of pedophilia. Based on this book, I don't know how tempted I am to read his other Conan works.
May 18, 2019
Better than the prequel "Conan and the Sorceror" but I'm not sure where this series is going as there is a sequel "Conan the Mercenary." The sword(s) in question have the ability to obey verbal commands unaided.
January 9, 2023
Other than one hiccup (you'll find it) this is an excellent addition to the Conan mythos. Magic or mundane in the Conan universe it always provides a fun, action-packed, and driving narrative. Collect them all.
May 25, 2017
Started off slow for me and then picked up like a good Conan novel. Another good tale to add to the adventures of one of the greatest fantasy characters of all time.
April 11, 2018
Abbandonata la lettura poco prima di metà libro. Il Conan di Offutt non ha nulla del personaggio originale di R.E. Howard, pessima lettura.
September 24, 2013
Bastante bueno, no tan emocionante como los relatos originales de Robert E. Howard pero si mucho mejor que muchos de los otros autores que han tomado al Cimmerio y cuyas historias estan poco mas que aburridas.
August 26, 2011
Offut's second Conan novel (third story, the first two being combined in 'Conan the Mercenary') is again one of the earlier and better pastiches. I rate Offutt more highly than, say, Robert Jordan, in coming close to capturing the spirit of R.E.Howard.
July 24, 2008
Not bad for a pastiche. Quite a bit better than most of them.
January 1, 2009
One of the better Conan pastiches, although most of them weren't that great.
July 27, 2012
Should have been titled "Journey to Zamboula"
Conan survives more supernatural and sorcerous murderous
intent than usual, as well as a bout of torture.
Conan survives more supernatural and sorcerous murderous
intent than usual, as well as a bout of torture.
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