Customer Reviews

Conan the Rebel

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

 

 

As with several other authors (De Camp, Carter, Jordan, Carpenter), Poul Anderson takes a retrospective stab at recreating Robert E Howard's Hyborian world and chief hero - Conan the Barbarian. Anderson spins an entertaining yarn with all the elements you would expect in a Fantasy novel. However, Anderson, as with most 'modern' author, softens the barbarians character to be more suitable to contemporary audiences. While this is certainly laudable to remove sexist overtones (remember, Howard was writing in the 20s & 30s), it fails to capture the flavor of the original.

Anderson's story of Conan's time as captain of a pirate ship alongside his love, Belit, is an interesting one, but I can't help feeling that it was a missed opportunity. Very few Conan pastiches continue directly from one of Howard's original pulp stories from the 1930s. This one does, picking up from Howard's "Queen of the Black Coast".

While the plot for this novel was entertaining, dealing with family ties, sacrifice, prophecy, and different stripes of power-hungry sorcerers, Anderson really missed the chance to deeply explore Belit, one of the most compelling female characters Robert E. Howard ever introduced into Conan's life.

Anderson does a decent job in capturing Conan's personality, but suffers the same difficulty many authors after Howard have in authentically nailing it as well as the creator.

The supporting characters and major villains are very well-formed and Anderson provides decent descriptions of the environment so the reader feels immersed in the setting.

The story contains a lot of action, but it does feel a wee bit patchwork in places with ideas being introduced but not fully explored. That said, the ending of the novel is quite good - a splendid, buliding, non-stop gauntlet of evil menace leading to an appropriate twist and a satisfying climax.

A very good Conan pastiche that left a bit on the table by not exploring Belit more deeply.

Due to the machinations of the evil sorcerer Tothapis, Set the reptile God cruelly rules Stygia. Set warns Tothapis that a threat to their well being comes from the alliance between Conan and Belit, who met in sword to sword combat, felt an attraction and joined sides. Belit leads pirates trying to free her people from the reptiles rule while Conan lays back providing strategic advice to her.

Everything changes when Conan finds the Axe of Veranghi. Instead of just advising, he begins to take charge. Along side Belit, Conan leads her force in combat as they close in on a final confrontation with the reptile God and his wicked minion including the powerful Tothapis.

The great Poul Anderson takes readers on a journey into the Cimmerian world of Robert E. Howard. The story line of CONAN THE REBEL starts a bit slower than usual for our hero meaning body counts that would make Westmoreland and MacNamara envious. This enables the audience to understand better the support cast, but not why Conan seems more like California mellow than the wild barbarian that is expected of him. Once Conan returns to his normal tendencies, the head count geometrically grows and the action with it. Though a fine tale, purists will feel this is not Mr. Howard or even the Marvel comic.

Harriet Klausner

A softer, more erudite Conan is to be found here. "My dearest wishes","My beloved".

This book lags a little in the second half, not coincidentally I think with the lack of Belit.

Conan goes in search of the Queen of the Black Coast's family for her, and ends up fighting yet another Stygian sorcerer.

Dumbest monarch of the year award to Mentuphera.

"Why, if the Sun Master can do no better than Conan, what is to fret about?"

These Set worshippers never learn, it seems.

After having just finished the debacle called Witness of Gor, I decided to re-read the novel that introduced me to the Conan universe. Yes, I'm referring to Conan the Rebel! This was the first Conan novel I ever read and it still has an effect on me to this day. As I hadn't read it since July 2006, I decided to re-read it five years later. Can you believe that I enjoyed it even more the second time around?

I won't go into the storyline that much but I will say that the people, places and events that Poul Anderson created fit seamlessly within the world of Robert Howard. The rebellious province of Taia led by Ausar and his daughter the noble Princess Daris were perfect fits in the Conan pantheon of helpful characters. Falco and Jehenan round out Conan's companions in this fantastic tale of adventure and triumph over evil oppression. In the very end all of Conan's antagonists are dealt with-- fairly I might add.

There was so much material here that I really wish that Anderson had written more Conan pastiche novels like Robert Jordan and L. Spraugue de Camp. I have since wondered what happened to the Taian province and those who fought against their Stygian overlords. Whatever happened to Daris and her Father, Ausar? Did she name her children Conan and Belit (Like She Said To Conan In The End Of The Novel)? Did they ever meet again? I'm curious to know. This novel is ripe for a sequel--perhaps set several years later. Even loyal wet-behind-the ears Falco is a character I would like to see reprised in a later novel. The Ophirian would make a great character for Conan to meet up with in his future travels through Ophir.

This is the book that opened me to Conan and as such I will give it a Five-Star rate. My one quibble was that Anderson seemed to linger in old stero-types when describing black characters. The word "Negro" had fallen out of use by the late 1970s, yet he seemed to use it with aplomb when introducing and describing black characters. This (Thankfully) has not been repeated in any of the later books of the 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, this is still a great book to buy and read and enjoy.

A. Nathaniel Wallace, Jr.

I have read just about all the Conan books, starting with the Howard stuff in the 70's, and then the assorted authors paying homage thereafter. I have not read any of Poul Andersons other works, he might have written some good stuff elsewhere. Having slogged through Rebel, this is by far the weakest effort of the Conan lineage so far, in my opinion. Howards Conan would NEVER have said "Nice doggie, Come here I have something for you doggie" for any reason. Complete drivel! Ol Robert E must be roiling in his grave.

I was feeling the need to read something different, so as I walked past the new books section at the library I saw a Conan book. I've never read Conan, but one of my friends is a giant fan, so I picked it up.

The plot was pretty simple (hero gets even with sworn enemies who have wronged him in many ways, along the way he gets to use a magical weapon and fulfill some prophecy), but it was entertaining enough, especially in the middle. The ending was way too abrupt (he completes all of the above parenthetical accomplishments in 35 pages) and the language was too clunky. I realize its a style thing, but it's like Mr. Anderson sat in front of his typewriter with a thesarous and looked for the more macho version of each verb used to describe Conan's behavior. He never throws anything, he heaves it. He always cleaves skulls, rather than splits them. I got tired of it rather quickly.