Customer Reviews

Conan The Defender

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Robert Jordan's second Conan novel takes place entirely in the city of Belverus, and it is a welcome change from the many novels that have Conan trekking through wilderness wastes to find lost cities. Jordan digs into the single location and lets the reader savor the personalities and conspiracies of Nemedia, second greatest of the Hyborian Kingdoms. The story follows one of the most ubiquitous of Conan plot archetypes: the "usurp-the-throne" conspiray. Conan's creator, Robert E. Howard utilized this often, and usually the target was King Conan himself, but here a younger Conan becomes ensnared in the coup conspiracy of Lord Albanus to overthrow King Garian using a superhuman "simulacrum" of the King. Conan has friends like the one-eyed smuggler Hordo and the beautiful poetess Arian, but has too many enemies to count. Can he and his Free-Company survive the magical politics of Nemedia?

There is much to enjoy in "Conan the Defender," but the novel has major flaw common to many of non-Robert E. Howard novels. For more than half of this book, Conan has scant reason to be involved in the storyline of Albanus and the scheme against the Nemedian crown. He runs into conflicts and action scenes, but not until late in the book does the novel's hero really find a place in the story. Jordan provides no major "turning point" or "moment of realization" that seals Conan into the plot and gives him a strong direction. Conan is an unusual hero, and getting him worked into a plot often takes ingenuity. Jordan only half-solves this problem here, and it hurts the book. Every other chapter, Hordo begs Conan to forget the mess in Belverus and take off with the Free-Company. Jordan gives Conan weak excuses for deciding to stay, and only in the last third does his choice start to make sense.

Despite this large problem, "Conan the Defender" makes for a good read. Jordan has the writing chops to pull off the story, and he reads easily. The pages fly past, even away from the furious action. Jordan's action set-pieces are clearly described and he comes up with some clever fight ideas. The final battle in the palace really makes for a great climax. The only problem I have with Jordan's writing style is his occasional reliance on archaic English words that feel out of place. For example, he uses `an' as a substitute for `if' too often (and when coming out of Conan's mouth, this sounds silly).

The story bogs down in places where too many characters become involved in the conspiracies, and a few of them never amount to much, such as Sularia and an underused female character named Lady Jelanna. Some parts of the plot are never explained. However, the story moves quickly enough that it is easy to overlook the bumps in the plot. The principal heroine, Ariane, is a refreshing change from the "helpless wench" or "tough warrior woman" cliché and has a realism to her found infrequently in this kind of tale. In the final third, the action really kicks in and rushes toward the exciting finale with the rebellion and the storming of the King's Palace. Jordan even manages to toss in a snappy plot twist that genuinely surprises. Plot twists like this usually do not show up in Conan novels.

Although a lesser novel than Jordan's excellent first venture into the Hyborian age, "Conan the Invincible", I can recommend Conan the Defender as a satisfying if flawed exploit of our favorite barbarian.

There are many, oh so many Conan books out there, written by so many different authors, that it is difficult to keep them separate at times. So many of the books have Conan, one of my favorite fantasy characters, running here and there sort of willy-nilly, that it becomes quite difficult to tell one from the other at times. This one is a bit different though, as we have our "force of nature" pretty well planted on one place and rather involved with local politics; involved in the true Conan fashion.

Now don't take me wrong, I really do not feel that anyone but the original master. Howard himself can ever capture the true nature of our overly muscled hero, but many of the later authors have made a pretty good stab at it. This is the second book written involving Conan by Robert Jordan. As others have pointed out, it shows a younger Jordan; one not as polished as the creator of the Wheel of Time series, but I am not at all sure that is a bad thing. While I enjoyed the Wheel series greatly (at least the first five books), Jordan did seem to get off track and rather bogged down at times with Wheel, almost to the point of being static toward the last. Not so with this adventure; no, no, no...far from it! This is an extremely fast paced work, well written and just brimming over with action. There is plenty of mindless fighting, the obligatory magic factor, and Howard has brought several loveable, and some not so loveable, characters into this tall tale that we were introduced to in his first work. If find this comforting on a certain level. I also loved the fighting sequences, as exampled by:

"Snarling, Conan struck, his blade clanging against the hilt of the other's partially drawn sword, Taras shrieked, severed fingers dropping to the floor. And yet, he was no man to go down easily. Even while blood flowed from his mutilated right hand, his left snatched his dagger from its sheath. With a cry of rage, he lunged."

Hey folks, this was a great fight sequence and the book is full of them! We also get to see Conan actually use his brain a bit more in this work, as the author has given us a mystery of sorts with all sorts of twists and turns which forces Conan to figure out some complicated situations and of course to watch his back for the inevitable dagger, constantly. There of course is an ever present underlying, difficult to find at times, humor in the work which is an absolute delight.

Overall, an excellent and fast read. I use Conan and this genre to clear the webs from my mind from time to time and was certainly not disappointed with this offering. Again, Jordan is not Howard, but if you cannot have the later, then this will do quite nicely. And yes, we do have a goodly dose of the typical "warrior woman" in this one also...good grief, why read Conan if you cannot have just a bit of that blended into the story. Jordan has handled it wonderfully.

I do recommend this as an extremely fun read and feel that most Conan fans will be, if not delighted, then somewhat satisfied with their Conan fix with this one.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

I picked up this book as a fan of Jordan's Wheel of Time, and the Schwarzenegger Conan movies. I figure put the two together and we're in business. I gotta tell ya... That wasn't far from the truth.

In "Conan the Defender", our hero arrives in the city of Belverus to, again, find work to fill his gold purse. His plan is to raise his own company of warriors, but Civil war threatens in the Kingdom- and he must choose sides between his friends and the King. But first he must find out who has been trying to kill him and why.

-I can't compare this to R. E. Howard's works, (I haven't read any yet) but this has sure made me open to checking those out in the future. An enjoyable read.

-And sure it's not Wheel of Time, but I can definitely see the seeds of a great author taking root.

This is the second Conan novel by Jordan that I've read after picking up Destroyer a while ago. I must say that it was satisfyingly different from Destroyer, and Jordan really paints a beautiful picture of another corner of Hyboria with likable characters, evil villains and the required gore and sex to appease most Conan fans.
The story line is very enjoyable, with plenty of intrigue from the nobles of Belverus, expected hack and slash fighting, a revolt, magic and a great supporting cast of characters although I would have liked to have seen more from a few of them(namely Garian and Jelanna).
But, as in Destroyer, Conan the Defender suffers from a quick ending, summarizing several key plot lines quite rapidly and leaving me unsatisfied with the conclusion.

Although I do like the sound of Conan riding off at the head of his own free company.

Four out of five, but like Destroyer it suffers from an abrupt ending.

Wow! That's all I've got to say about this book. It is the second book I've read from the Robert Jordan omnibus titled The Conan Chronicles. This second installment has a thicker plot than the first book, Conan the Invincible. That is what gives this novel a higher rating (Five stars Instead Of Four Stars).

Conan meets up with his good buddy Hordo from the previous book and they recount old times whilst finding themselves embroiled in a coups against the king of Belverus. They save the king from destruction by joining his guard and preventing a doppleganger from assuming the throne and at the same time saving the Lady Ariane from a horrible fate.

But the title of this review is what I want to go into next. On pages 302-303 of the omnibus one will see the ruthless wiles of the scorned woman! Wow! Absolute cruelty. No woman should do that to a helpless man! Yet this woman in question did. I will not mention her name save to say that her loathing of Conan was nothing but irrationaly-based anger. See my review of Tribesman of Gor for more details on how I feel about this subject. More vindictive behavior was shown on pages 308-310 by the Lady Sularia towards her own nemesis and rival, the Lady Jelanna. All I can say is: Don't get women angry!

This is a book I highly reccomend and if you can get it in the trade paperback omnibus edition you will have three great books in one big volume that can be a keepsake for generations to come. Buy it and you won't regret it!

A. Nathaniel Wallace, Jr.

I found this book to be well writen and "typically Conan". It does not disapoint.

Conan is in a new city, and inflation is a bit of a problem. He runs into Hordo again, who is there working as a smuggler, and finds out the lay of the land.

He decides that the thing to do is start his own Free Company, rather than get tied up in a mult-year contract working for someone else.

He has a horse-archery angle that no-one else uses.

A poetess he takes up with is a revolutionary, and he gets involved in a struggle with the throne.

Eventually, he again runs into Karela the Red Hawk, who is in disguise.

This is the second book found in Jordan's The Conan Chronicles (Conan). His work with the character of Conan the Barbarian in the early 1980's is shallow, fast, and fun. Plot lines are relatively simple and the action is extremely fast-paced. Practically opposite of Jordan's later work with the Wheel of Time.

In Conan the Defender, our hero finds himself embroiled in a plot to overthrow the king of Nemedia. Lots of double dealing and behind the scene scheming make this one read almost like a mystery, with Conan playing the part of the detective. Once again, the antagonist is a dark and evil sorcerer with aims on the throne, and once again Conan cleaves through his enemies like a hot knife through butter. Hordo and Karela, characters from the first of Jordan's Conan books, Conan the Invincible, reappear here to aid (or hinder?) Conan in his goals. Compared to that first book, this one was more enjoyable to me, with a slightly more complex plot and with the characters becoming better developed.

The simplicity and fast pace of this book make it highly enjoyable as long as your expectations are correct. This is no epic work, but a small guilty pleasure that will occupy you for a couple of nights.

This book, and Robert Jordan's other Conan novels, are from the early 80's. I assure you that he was not "tapped" to write them for his WoT work, and sent back in time to do the job. Jordan's Conan novels are his early forays into writing fantasy. They are not the work of a polished writer at the top of his game, do not have the maturity of his current work, and should not be read with the expectation of material similarity to the WoT novels.

That said, "Conan the Defender" and the lot were fun reads that the average human being should be able to get through in a single evening. Readers should approach them like a Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance novel, and enjoy the simplicity of it all.

This book, and Robert Jordan's other Conan novels, are from the early 80's. I assure you that he was not "tapped" to write them for his WoT work, and sent back in time to do the job. Jordan's Conan novels are his early forays into writing fantasy. They are not the work of a polished writer at the top of his game, do not have the maturity of his current work, and should not be read with the expectation of material similarity to the WoT novels.

That said, "Conan the Defender" and the lot were fun reads that the average human being should be able to get through in a single evening. Readers should approach them like a Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance novel, and enjoy the simplicity of it all.