Customer Reviews

Conan 26 the Victorious a

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Robert Jordan has written some of the better of the Conans published by Tor, starting with one of my favorites, "Conan the Invincible," which had the feel of a new author bursting with enthusiasm over a favorite character. But "Conan the Victorious," Jordan's seventh Conan novel (counting the novelization of Conan the Destroyer) falls far below his standards. Jordan ceased writing Conan after this novel. Perhaps he had become bored with the series, and if so, the malaise definitely overwhelms him here.

Whatever the reason, Jordan's last date with Robert E. Howard's literary child subtly disappoints. It is overstuffed with political intrigue and double-crosses and not enough adventure, magic, or the exotic. This is especially disappointing since it takes place mostly in Vendhya, Howard's fantasy version of India seen in "The People of the Black Circle"; if any locale should feel exotic, it should be this one. It's true that political maneuvering has an important place in many of Robert E. Howard's Conan works as well as his historical adventure stories for Oriental Stories/Magic Carpet, but Jordan lets an avalanche of scheming slow down the pace of the story. (A good comparison would be with Howard's "Hawks over Egypt"¸which staggers under too much intrigue in too little space, but that was a work Howard didn't sell in his lifetime.) Any short synopsis can't begin to explain the extra characters and subplots that clog up "Conan the Victorious". With so many characters and plots and counterplots, the novel relies heavily on information exchange between characters instead of action and movement. Many of the subplots get a short shrift, and the details fade over the long stretches while the other storylines compete for space. When the pay-offs for some of the subplots come due, they have marginal effect and seem as if the author merely forgot about them until he suddenly needed them for the finale.

These problems would become symptomatic of many of the pastiches to come: too much plot, too little development, and a limp finale. In this case, the ending is particularly weak. The demon and the army of the dead are too rapidly disposed of in the quick rush to the last chapter, and the coda fails to patch up the numerous plot holes and story points that Jordan dashed over earlier. Jordan's Conan career started so promisingly in the fast and imaginative "Conan the Invincible," but by this last novel, his party with the Cimmerian had definitely come to a bleary end.

Fortunately, the next novel, "Conan the Valorous," introduced author John Maddox Roberts, who would pen some of the better pastiche novels.

Since I live outside United States, I had to wait some 6 weeks for this book to reach my hands after having ordered it by the internet. It's worth it! Usually, when people think about Conan the image that come to them is that of a big, musculous, and stupid warrior that kills 340 enemyes by minute. Maybe with less competent writters, but Robert Jordan's Conan is far from that; he is a furious fighter, but also an honored and strong willed person, and even smart. The story is elaborated (far beyond the old 'let's kill the sorcerer and get the girl' stereotype) the characthers are developted trought the book, from the evil sorcerer trought the demon creature, with lots of plot twists. Conan the Victorious is a good book for anyone who enjoys medieval fantasy, and great for any Conan fan, by Crom!

Jordan's incredible ability to fit a ton of vivid discriptive language into only a sentence or two really shines in this volume. You can see (and even smell!) the settings, be they dark and musty taverns or vast and exotic vistas. I never much cared for Conan before, but gave this one a chance, based on Jordan's reputation from his own series (which I haven't read). I found this book far more entertaining, and far better written, than the average of its type, and by far the most interesting Conan story I've ever read. A great yarn, written by someone with great command of action and descriptive language.

Never cared for Robert Jordan's version of Conan, but maybe I'm just jaded by the fact that at book 9 of Wheel of Time I felt sorely ripped off. There are far better Conan authors than Jordan, to be sure. But, that said, this is still a fun book with decent character development and the proper ingredients of swordsplay, thievery, monsters and magic. Not a waste of your $5.

Conan gets poisoned, and gets to trade sword blows with more than one demon, as well as deal with devious Vendhyans.

I have to say this is the best out of the 4 Conan books I've read so far! The beginning in the city was especially cool as well as the part on the beach at night, and the events in the caravan camp.I thought the part where they just hung out at that lady's mansion was kinda of dumb, except for the dancing girl (wink, wink).But overall, I would highly recommend this book to any Conan fan.It's true to the Conan character; it doesn't protray him like Kevin Sorbo's Hercules as some other books do. That, my friends, is a good thing.

Jordan writes Conan well. The slowly dying theme of the warrior is pretty good. The characters are as real as they can be in such a work, but Jordan lacks the unPC attitude of Howard. Who really has it?

I hate this book. Robert Jordan is horrible. I love the REAL Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, and the stories completed and fleshed out by Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp, who worked off of Howard's notes and outlines. Anyone else writting Conan is a hack and should not be read! Robert Jordan's sense of dialogue is cliched and plain ignorant. That wa a large part of Robert E. Howard's appeal. I am so sorry that Howard's originals are out of print and terrible tripe such as this is still out there polluting one of the greatest characters ever created.