Conan - Blood of the Serpent: The All-New Chronicles of the Worlds Greatest Barbarian Hero

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The plotting, such as it is, is so pedestrian as to render it glacial, with extended periods of descriptive decrepitude completely alien to Howard's gift for narrative thrust and pacing. Decades of inconsistency and, for lack of a better term, “flanderization” across various forms of media have led to a multitude of Conans that sometimes wildly diverge from his depiction in the original tales. Titan Books, a UK-based publisher that mostly peddles TV, film, and videogame tie-in books, mentions on Conan. My hope was that an author would become a steward to the legend and carry the torch a ways farther, similar to how Brandon Sanderson continued and concluded the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

He’s no murderer or slaver, and when his companions in arms are taken captive or placed in jeopardy, Conan comes to their rescue. Conan Blood of the Serpent is by SM Stirling is a pastiche novel based on Robert E Howard's character Conan the Barbarian.

When this force gets a new member namely Valeria of the Red brotherhood, a former pirate, shit hits the wall, no fans in those days. The fight with the “dragon” that focuses on the threat of the natural world(and Conan’s understanding of it) made Sterling’s very different approach to a Conan story make sense. Characters appear with no real development or purpose, except to be quickly dispatched to move the meagre storyline forward to an ending that takes the reader directly into 'Red Nails'.

In keeping with the motivations that Howard attributed to Conan, the Cimmerian is largely motivated by lust for the blonde pirate of the Red Brotherhood Valeria, who he is serving with in Stygia. Perhaps signaling the start of a greater revival, Conan – Blood of the Serpent is the first original full-length novel to feature Conan in nearly twenty years. I get the sense it has fallen far short of a Brandon Sanderson-like sales response; I hope it’s at least moderately profitable. Howard’s greatest creation was, as I understand it, Harry Turtledove’s Conan of Venarium (Tor, 2003).I recommend anyone who loves to read on the go check out the audiobook as it is brilliantly narrated by Bradford Hastings who brings a darkly masculine grit to the voice of our favorite hero. Stirling seemed very interested in exploring Conan's world and explaining and describing everything he could. There just isn't that much weirdness or magic going on here, which has become a big staple of the genre, as it's more SWORD than SORCERY. I don't know what the other rules were, but instead of the usual short stories we get a brand new Conan novel, and it's a bit different from classic sword and sorcery. I did not struggle to get engaged with the tale, and looked forward to each reading session (it’s a brisk 300 pages with illustrations).

I thought it was enjoyable but maybe a little underwhelming when I first completed Sterling’s portion of the book.There’ve been some stirring on the fringes of SFF communities that a Sword and Sorcery revival is on the horizon. Some Stygian nobles and a priest take offense with this strong lady and they find out that their feelings are the least that gets hurt. Oh, well, that and the sorcery that Stirling hints at, but doesn't really dive into with both feet like Howard did.