Customer Reviews

Age of Conan: Ghost of the Wall

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Unlike Loren Coleman's 1st Age of Conan trilogy, this latest start to another set of trilogies left me flat. The premise was good, but the pace and prose left much to be disired.

Thus, the lack of tons of good reviews - or reviews period!

Even though I didn't think Loren Coleman's trilogy was worthy of the Robert E. Howard Conan name attached to it - it stood alone on its merit. It didn't capture the essence of Conan for me, but was still a solid trilogy in its own world. Just not Howards.

This one less so. Reads like it was for elementary school kids. Sorry, but if you are going to write in the realm of Conan - only rated R will do!

This is the first book of a trilogy set in the Age of Conan (King Conan even makes a very short cameo riding by in the book). The main plot is that a young Pict must avenge the destruction of his tribe by an unscrupulous Aquilonian noble and regain a dangerous stolen artifact. There are 3 trilogies like this (9 books total) and I have now read the first book of all three of them. I would say that none of them would be mistaken for a Howard story, but overall I liked this book best of the three I have read so far. In the Howard stories Picts generally only show up long enough for Conan to split their skulls to the teeth, so its nice to learn more about them.

I would say that "Legends of Kern" has more exciting fight scenes, and "Anok, Heretic of Stygia" has more interesting characters, but this one is the best all around.

Being a Robert E. Howard fan, I'm excited that someone has finally started writing other stories taking place in his Hyborian age. However, it has to be done right, if not for the entertainment values, then out of respect for REH. Mariotte does that here. Of all the places and peoples of the Hyborian world to write a story, none better could be picked then the Pictish frontier. Howard himself wrote of his fascination with the Picts.
A forbidden friendship (hinting of future romance) between a young Pictish warrior, Kral, and an Aquilonian ambassador's daughter, Alanya, gives an ambitious uncle the excuse to break the fragile truce of the frontier. After his clan is massacred, Kral fights a one man war against the empire and starts his quest to return the sacred Teeth of the Ice Bear. Alanya becomes his ally as she must right the wrongs done against her and her family.
I do question a couple things that Mariotte has in this story. I'm not sure what the Aquilonion policy would be with the Pictish people, since Howard wrote of the racial hatred between King Conan's people, the Cimmierians, and the Picts. Then again, if anyone could understand and respect the savage Picts, it would be the ultimate barbarian himself. Also, Mariotte's take on the Picts isn't as brutal as the way Howard wrote of them (in Howard's stories, "brutal", would be a compliment). Of course, we must remember this story is told more from the Picts's side then any of Howard's.
At times the story seems a little simplistic, but that's only part of the fun. This story reminds me of the books like, ERB's Tarzan and REH's original Conan stories, that I loved so much as an adolescent. It's only a couple hundred pages long with short, to-the-point chapters, and all wrapped in a cover sporting the exiting illustrations that make you daydream of barbaric warriors and exotic beauties. I can't wait for the next book.