Conan The Bold [Mass Market Paperback]

John Maddox Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1989

Young Conan takes the ancient blood oath of revenge without mercy against the ruthless slave trader Taharka of Keshan, who slaughters a small village--including the girl who was to have been Conan's bride. Reissue."

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; First Tor Edition edition (April 15, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812552105
• ISBN-13: 978-0812552102
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #809,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Conan The Bold Is Quite A Predictable Piece, January 13, 2000

By 

CaptHowdy (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conan The Bold (Mass Market Paperback)

My first ever Conan novel. I had wanted to start out reading the Conan novels by getting a collection of Robert E. Howard's, but unfortunately that was not to be as all the online, used and local bookstores had nada. Absolutely nothing by Robert E. Howard (at least in his Conan novels).

I decided on getting Conan The Bold mainly because it was one of the earliest in the list of Conan novels that is printed inside the TOR Conan books. I enjoyed it.

I was really looking forward to reading a novel in this setting as I just loved Brian Lumley's Terra Khash novels. I figured they must be similar. The setting and Conan character was quite similar. However, Lumley's Khash ran into a lot of Lovecraftian enemies and more formidable foes than Conan in this novel. Sure the final showdown between the hated foe in this novel, Taharka had it's gods in the background, but basically it was Conan and his lovely one-eyed warrior girl, Kalya chasing two bandits/slavers/murders/pirates across the world. I was totally enthralled until perhaps three quarters of the book. The best part of this book for me was the showdown in the slave pits where slaves were forced to battle each other after being drugged. Conan's entrance was thrilling. Unfortunately it continued on. Not that it was bad, but the next showdown was a big letdown. Things looked good when they caught up with them again, but somehow the bandits escaped. Then yet another time they caught up with them and they escaped (by this time I'd just about had it. It was getting redundant and boring.), then they run into them again.

Basically it's a novel where our hero chases the bad guy across the world just finding them and coming so close to killing him, yet the baddie always seems to be able to sneak away in the night.

Good halfway through the novel, but after that it got a little ridiculous and I don't want to give away the ending, but the Kalya final battle was quite predictable and a little silly.

I'll read some more Conan as the novels have been written by many different people (hopefully I can find Howard's novels quick!), but unless the cover states a really cool plot on the back, I'm going to try to steer away from another John Maddox Roberts Conan novel unless I have no other Conan options. On a technical note, there were quite a few typos in this novel, c'mon TOR get with it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars groovy, January 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Conan The Bold (Mass Market Paperback)

It was a powerfull book. Follows the wonderfull strength and mystery that always surounds conan of cimmeria. All the conan books make great stocking stuffers for your book worms...

5.0 out of 5 stars High adventure spanning Hyboria, April 13, 2006

By 

Chess Buddhist (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conan The Bold (Mass Market Paperback)

A very fun book, tons of action and great characters. Nevermind that it doesn't fit the proper Conan timeline. (This adventure also spans at least a year, possibly two, right in the prime of Conan's late teens/early 20s. How could he complete his other adventures of his younger days if two years is spent on this one adventure? Let's just suspend our disbelief.) The author takes you through many lands and introduces you to many characters, always a major plus in a fantasy novel. In fact, travelling is one of the major themes of the book. The plot is essentially a revenge tale, but the tale is very well crafted. John Maddox Roberts typically doesn't disappoint when he writes a Conan tale. His "Conan and the Amazon" is also a great read. You can read one or the other first, it doesn't matter.