Conan the Indomitable

Adventures of Conan

by Steve Perry

All Conan wants to do is make his way in peace, but the evil necromancer Katamy Rey has named him as his next victim

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Fiction

273 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.

Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one picks up and continues the story from Perry's previous book, Conan the Defiant, and is a pretty good heroic fantasy/swords and sorcery adventure. It's not a very good Conan pastiche, unfortunately, but is primarily set in an underground D & D analog that doesn't conflict too much with Howard's Hyborian creation. Conan meets beautiful women, faces fierce monsters, and encounters vile sorcery... makes for a fun afternoon, if you don't overthink it.

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our hero continues his journey to the South, having a female company with him. All seems to be going well until he is confronted by strange conflicting magical forces that pursue him to the depths of the earth. Fortunately, along the way he finds some friends who make him realize that sometimes brute force is not always the only solution. An exciting story with a fast pace and several doses of humor that add a lightness that makes things funnier without detracting from the adventure.

Ο ήρωας μας συνεχίζει την πορεία προς τον Νότο, έχοντας μαζί του θηλυκή παρέα. Όλα φαίνονται να πηγαίνουν καλά μέχρι που βρίσκεται αντιμέτωπος με περίεργες αντιμαχόμενες μαγικές δυνάμεις οι οποίες τον καταδιώκουν μέχρι τα έγκατα της γης. Ευτυχώς στην πορεία βρίσκει μερικούς φίλους που τον κάνουν να αντιληφθεί ότι πολλές φορές η ωμή βία δεν είναι πάντοτε η μοναδική λύση. Μία συναρπαστική ιστορία με γρήγορο ρυθμό και αρκετές δόσεις χιούμορ που προσθέτουν μία ελαφρότητα που κάνει τα πράγματα περισσότερα αστεία χωρίς να μας στερούν τίποτα από την περιπέτεια.

[Seth Estlow · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of goofy.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Steve Perry book I've read, also not the worst Conan tale I've read. This novel was at times equally entertaining and frustrating. The author's sense of time in the book was skewed, at times days became hours then minutes. Half of the book Conan and his group were flailing around and it seemed like the supporting characters were stealing the show.

It almost seemed to me like a Dungeons and Dragons game where the Dungeon Master had a definitive plan for the game, but the players just wanted to screw around.

Also, I would have liked more moments from Conan and Elashi. She was an interesting foil for the barbarian and seemed like she was written out quickly. Well, its not like there is no lack of women in Conan's life...

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

All right. Perry actually creates a coherent, if not totally believable, underground world for Conan to trek through filled with the usual silliness in the Perry Conan books. This is a far cry from the quasi historical Hyborian Age Robert Howard created but is much better than Conan the Free Lance, the next novel.

Unfortunately the Tor Conan books could be much worse. See Conan the Gladiator, Conan and the Mists of Doom, and Conan of Venarium.

[Alan Standsalone Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never in my life and after countless Conan books have I read any that have so, so many protagonist and ridiculous ones at that but was entertaining......if I was twelve.

[Lewis Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without a doubt the silliest of Tor's Conan pastiches so far... but y'know what? I enjoyed it. Was it a good book? Not really. Was it well written? Not particularly. But it WAS a lot of goofy fun, which is more than I can say for some of the other Conan pastiches I've read in recent months.

This book follows on from Perry's Conan the Defiant (one of my favourites in the Tor run) and sees Conan lost in an underground cave system. Here, he finds himself ensnared in a conflict with a horny witch, an arrogant wizard, giant worms, cyclopes, blood bats, web-shooting plants, eyeless white apes, massive underground sea monsters, and more. It's absolutely ridiculous really, but I found myself consistently enjoying the unhinged, wacky madness of it all.

That said, this book suffered from Perry's usual flaw of having WAY too many plot lines, and his need to constantly flit between ALL of them in every chapter - even when nothing is happening with most. This made it drag at times, as I would often read a page or two of Conan in a chapter that otherwise flitted between another FIVE often-uneventful plot lines in an almost filler-y kind of way.

Still, despite this, I did also like the storyline of the unlikely friendship of Deek and Wikkell, one of the giant worms and a hunchbacked cyclops. Their bonding, and the way they worked to bring their races together in revolt against their evil overlords, felt like a much sillier and smaller-scale version of Legolas and Gimli.

Anyway, despite the excessive character count and a somewhat anti-climatic finale that kept teasing a great Conan conflict without really delivering it, this was a hoot. I understand why many Conan fans would find this book far too ridiculous - rarely do you hear dialogue as ludicrous as "by Set's scaled scrotum!" in the Hyborian Age - but I still found it a blast. It's not Robert E. Howard by any stretch, but there are worse books to pass some time with after a long day at work.

3 stars from me!

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follows directly Conan the Defiant, with a similar plot. Conan and his current wench are walking South and some poor fool tries to rob them. Then, after a visit to town where they kill some random people they go out in the wilderness and fall in a hole. The hole leads to an underground kingdom where two wizards are fighting an eternal war over who gets the best patch of glowy lichen to eat and who gets to kill the latest unlucky traveler to fall in a hole. The male wizard has a prophesy that Conan will spell his doom so he wants to torture him to death, while the female wizard is a succubus and she wants to get Conan to sex him to death. They each send out minions to capture Conan and his companions.

So in an underground world we have Conan, a girl, and a guy they meet living in a bat cave, being chased separately by a cyclops, a giant worm, a mad wizard, a succubus, some blind cave apes, giant bats, and a hermaphrodite. Much of the time Conan doesn't even know he's being followed, he just wants to get out of the cave. The book is mostly one long chase scene where Conan keeps getting cornered but narrowly escapes. More of a YA novel than your regular Conan fair, especially the part where Conan enters into a battle of willpower with the female wizard. Plenty of action and some weak attempts at humor that would appeal to your average teenage boy.

Also, Conan goes fishing and outwits a plant.

[Robert D · Rating 2 out of 5]

This tale starts with Conan and a female companion, Elashi, traveling in the mountains. There are several references to a previous adventure just ended. A wizard and witch, enemies of each other, have dreams/scryings that indicate the figure of Conan will cause turmoil in their underground realm. To stop Conan from causing them trouble each plots to capture him. Of course doing that means they have to arrange to get him into their underground world and capture him. The wizard, Rey, is aided by not the brightest cyclopian minions, and the witch, Chuntha, has giant white worms do her bidding.

The story is ripe with coincidence. The cave walls are lined with luminescent lichen to provide light. Conan and Elashi encounter a human survivor (the witch periodically must capture a human to restore her powers) that acts a guide and explains the 'politics' and dangers of the caves. The ineptitude of the Rey's and Chuntha's underlings continually aids Conan in avoiding capture. Conan is not the epic character as depicted in Howard's original writings. More often it seems he is led by happenstance in his efforts to escape the caves and return to the surface.

[Will Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a story about the unlikely friendship of a cyclops and a giant albino worm .The cyclops and the giant albino worm are from warring rival factions,one led by an evil witch and one by an evil wizard. When the two unlikely pair are put to the task of defeating a intimidating barbarian that has entered their underground home they find out that if they work together maybe they can succeed and through this collaboration together they create a powerful friendship and with that friendship they unify the worms and the cyclops to defeat the evil witch and wizard .......oh and Conan is in this story occasionally.

[Dan Benedict · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful story. I cannot recommend this novel to anyone.
Conan fans will be sadly disappointed and for general fantasy it's not very good.
It feels like a child's Dungeons & Dragons campaign with Conan shoehorned in.
Talking blood sucking bats, giant worms who conveniently 'talk' by rubbing on the ground, a race of underground cyclopes and way too much ridiculous magic. It doesn't feel like Conan at all.
I had started reading the Conan chronology a while back, Steve Perry's first Conan, Conan the Defiant, was ok (2 stars) but this story is bad enough I will not be reading anymore of Perry's Conan novels, a waste of my time.
Thumbs Down!

[Kylearejay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but it has sections and attitudes that have not aged gracefully. There is some writing about what basically amounts to a trans character that has aged particularly badly. It is also barely a Conan story, in many ways it’s more of a generic fantasy story. Its briskly paced and isn’t boring. It’s also short enough to read in a few sittings. There are definitely better books out there, but if you happen to come across it and want a fantasy story, it will provide you with one.

[Capitalismissexy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suprisingly awesome when you swallow the idea yes you fell inot an underworld and have to fight your way out and use your wits.

All the characters deserve thier own novels.

Could be made into movie and offshoots into 6 or more movies.

amazing array of creatures.

Magic users coulda bene flesh out more.

could bene twice as long felt a bit hurried, like written in one weekend.

[Arty A · Rating 2 out of 5]

ANother book finished. I'm a big CONAN fan and this book was decent. Really, it could have been Kull, Thongor, Claw the Unconquered, Warlord, or any swashbuckling barbarian you can think of. Lots of monsters and magic, wizard and a witch. Pretty much nonstop adventure once it starts but just ok as a CONAN novel. Not bad, but not great.

[Rysm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Conan, but the story felt very repetitive towards the middle. Very cool concepts. I just wish the story had better flow.

[Skimpythong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckle up for an underground adventure like a B movie on crack! Read and enjoy with lighthearted fun. Monsters just keep coming. There might be a hot girl..... more than 1! ENJOY

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a Conan I read many years ago, when I was going through an all things Conan phase. The story here is lacking. Also, the timeline gets confusing.

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the third of the five novels that Steve Perry wrote in the fifty-book Tor series. In William Galen Gray's chronology it is the fifth Conan tale, following Sean Moore's Conan the Hunter and taking place before Perry's Conan the Free Lance. Since events in Indomitable directly follow those in Defiant, and include his trollop of the moment, Elashi, it's odd that Gray inserted Conan the Hunter in between those two Perry books.

So, a hermaphrodite, a nymphomaniac sorceress, a slutty desert babe, a sarcastic fool, a cylopes, a giant worm and Conan go into a cave...Sounds like a bad joke, eh? Well, it is. Conan The Indomitable is a direct sequel to Perry's Conan the Defiant: I gave that book a good review here on Amazon. This effort, however, is TERRIBLE. I haven't read every Conan pastiche yet, but this is the worst of those I have read.

One of the protagonists has all the depth of a teenage geek's imagination (and I was such a geek). The others don't offer much more. And you could see the demise of one character so far ahead that there was no suspense building for when it finally happened. I forced myself to finish this book so I would be qualified to review it. It was that bad. The alliance between two of the villains' lieutenants was the only interesting part of this story.

This is the last Conan book I would re-read. Stay away.

[Dvdlynch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst Conan book ever. Perry displays a blatant disrespect for both the character and his readers.
Pro Tip: If you find yourself reading a fantasy novel where a Cyclops says 'Show me. I would see this with my own eye.' close the book immediately and throw it in the garbage. Don't worry about recycling it. Paperbacks are biodegradable and the poor tree that gave up its life for this nonsense deserves a chance to become something useful (aka compost).

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conan pastiche

[J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

never never never be tempted to read this.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

a bit thick on the misogyny, even for pulp fantasy