Novel by Tim Lebbon
Cover by Jeffrey Alan Love
Illustrations by Juan Alberto Hernández
From Titan Books and Conan Properties International
Also available unabridged on audiobook from Blackstone Publishing, read by Bradford Hastings
Spoilers! Spoilers!
Conan in now the bored, inactive, pampered, sexagenarian King of Aquilonia.
A barely alive and desperate Baht Tann arrives at the royal palace to call in a favour.
40 years ago, Baht Tann saved the life of a 20 year old Conan. They both escaped the Zamoran run salt mines of Tangara, together.
Today, Baht Tann is no longer a mercenary, he has a family, they are heartgem prospectors/hunters/sellers.
Grake, a barbarian 6 inches taller than King Conan, and his brigands kill half of Baht Tann's companions, they force the rest and Baht Tann's family to slave for them.
Conan picks up his dusty broadsword and Zelata's knife (from The Hour of the Dragon), leaves his wife (Queen Zenobia) and young son (Conn) and departs for the cliffs of Khoraja to save Baht Tann's wife (Larria) and twins (Davin and Korum) from Grake.
To even the odds, Grake (who wants to kill Conan to become the greatest warrior in the world) teams up with:
His ex-lover, Mylera (a student of Belindra Zarn, a sorceress of Set. Conan had not honoured her father's death for saving his skin from a deep sea creature) and
Krow Danaz (a crippled necromancer who desires immortality, a former pupil of Tsotha-lanti, the Kothian wizard from The Scarlet Citadel) who brings with him his monstrous decapod creation, Spidderel.
Conan purchases a horse, Ella.
Queen Zenobia sends Vaccharez (King Conan's personal guard) and two Knights of the Black Dragons (Elize & Quille) after Conan.
Mylera sends mindless chancers (a gang of road bandits) doped up on wolfspar (a dried root, a berserker drug) to kill Conan. They fail, but Conan gets seriously hurt. Vaccharez, Elize, Quille and Ella (and 3 more horses) die.
A moribund Conan the Barbarian is saved by The Last Song, a traveling musical troupe of former warriors.
1) Jemi, the old one-legged bereaved mother.
2) Kaz, the Pictish shamanka who can conjure cold blue fire to heal.
3) Allymaro, the masked, disfigured pirate woman.
4) Tathar, the old Stygian knight unit commander, the sole survivor of a deep sea monster attack.
5) Fennick, the Bossonian archer, born on the Thunder river. Fought in Conan's army.
6) Gannar, the Æsir sellsword who sports a nauseating ear necklace (a real Vietnam War atrocity seen in The Walking Dead (TV series) and Universal Soldier (1992)).
Mylera sends Snake people with metallic whips to kill Conan. They fail.
Krow Danaz sends Zombies to kidnap Conan. They fail... but Allymaro dies and is buried at sea.
Krow Danaz sends giant living-dead Drogs (not frogs) to kidnap Conan. They are successful.
Conan is brought to the slave camp. Danaz orders the drogs to jump off a cliff. The Last Song warriors arrive, join the melee and free the slaves.
Conan kills Mylera. Grake kills Fennick. Danaz paralyses the remaining Last Song warriors with a spell. Danaz orders Spidderel to dispatch both Grake and Conan. Grake and Conan eliminate the spider-beast. Conan kills Grake. Baht Tann's wife and his two boys bind Danaz with a rope. Conan beheads Danaz. Danaz's head and body fly away to fight another day.
What I did like:
The Hardcover is pale green. It's an inside joke because the creore (magical potion) in the story is coloured green... Krow Danaz's magic is also green... and there is plenty of vomiting occurring throughout the book.
The weapons that Jeffrey Alan Love created for the dust jacket, reappear enlarged in black on the cover. Nice touch!
The 10 illustrations by Juan Alberto Hernández are top-notch.
The Road of Kings by Karl Edward Wagner mentioned.
Asura-worshipers (The People of the Black Circle, The Hour of the Dragon) are mentioned.
Zath (spider god) mentioned.
Ishtar mentioned.
Macha (goddess) mentioned.
Ymir the Frost Giant and Valhalla mentioned.
Gullah (ape god) mentioned.
Numedides (former king of Aquilonia) mentioned.
Pelias (rival of Tsotha-lanti) mentioned.
Humorism mentioned.
3 foreshadowing meteors (shooting stars) appear.
Tim Lebbon likes the number 3, he wrote a short story titled "Three" and he's even a triathlete.
Olivia, daughter of the king of Ophir (Iron Shadows in the Moon) mentioned.
King Conan Aquilonian Luna coins (a real licensed product) are promoted.
Black River from Beyond the Black River mentioned.
The humour. Grake's quesh (a Khitain anabolic drug administered nasally) was given to him by a "blind", "three-armed" wizard and it is contained in a "stiff" leathery sack.
Performance-enhancing substances are vilified.
Women are ubiquitous in the age of King Conan. Bravo!
A Clarence Boddicker (RoboCop (1987)) death homage. Baht Tann also loses a hand.
Spidderel has acidic blood like the Xenomorph in Alien (1979).
A Conan the Barbarian (1982) homage. Baht Tann drinks the blood of a bird to stay alive.
Lebbon did his homework. Plenty of locations are brought up: Shadizar, Zamora, Zingara, Vendhya, Stygia, Vilayet Sea, Barachan Isles, Border Kingdom, Eastern Desert, Khemi, The river Styx, Khitai, The Shirki river, Tanasul, Poitain, Ophir, Kush, The Zaporoska river, Shem, Argos, Koth, Tarantia (capital of Aquilonia), Corinthia, The Khorotas river, Turan, Hyrkania, The Tybor river, Khorshemish (capital of Koth), Kuthchemes, The borderlands of Turan, Keshan, Sukhmet, Zembabwei, Vanaheim, Nemedia, The Pictish Wilderness, Castle of Kerrodan Xen, Wyve Woods, Kingdom of Kambuja, Kamalla.
New biological species are introduced: Scarhawks, Stark-ravens, River Sprite, Spirit-Sinks, Otter-People, Spark kites (birds of prey), Bear-man, Penperlleni Banshees, Redtail fish, Ophirian Marsh lizards, Sin-ravens and Marsh Drogs.
What I did not like:
No reversible dust jacket featuring alternative evocative Frank Frazetta-like art.
Map illustrator Francesca Baerald is not credited. Not cool!
It is BrythUnia not BrythInia.
It is Arcane planes not plains.
No one looks into a heartgem to see their future.
Zelata's knife does nothing special.
We never see Conan's son.
The observing Lovecraftian "presence" beneath the veil of reality is never named.
Anachronisms: Megaloremmius leo, Hessian fabric and plastic tubes appear.
I give it an 8.5/10. The inventive and meticulous Tim Lebbon offers us a nice action-packed horror infused sequel to The Scarlet Citadel. Readers mature enough to accept a venerable, vulnerable and more civilized Cimmerian will be rewarded with a stellar story.
Support Tim, Titan Books and Heroic Signatures! Go purchase this officially licensed book and ask your local public library to get it also... Oh, and TITAN BOOKS, don't forget, we still need a Heroic Legends Series version of CONAN: UNCONQUERED by Scott Oden!