Jim’s
Comments
(group member since Apr 30, 2022)
Jim’s
comments
from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.
Showing 21-25 of 25
As far as I'm concerned, John Maddox Roberts had a good feel for the character, especially due to the length increase in novel format for Tor. He had the best dialogue, and Conan reacted pretty much as he should. Too many authors tried to formulate their own version of Conan, and it if usually failed. I also like DeCamp and Carter's the Swordsman. The short story format worked well for them. Case in point was DeCamp's novel length Conan and The Spider God, which was all over the place, and didn't work as well. Conan didn't seem like Conan, and the story was average. Poul Anderson's Conan the Rebel was also strange and average at best. I've read many of his works, but Conan certainly not his forte. I enjoyed Offutt's stuff even though there were some possible timeline issues. Also Offutt;s Zamboula writing was out of place, because Howard's Maneaters took place much later in life, and seemed to be Conan's first visit. Jordan was way too formulaic, and Conan wouldn't have put up with half of the stuff Karela said or her henchmen. . Wagner's book was average. Carpenter had some decent stuff, but changed the character way too much. Green had promise, as did Hocking. Moore's stuff was odd. Turtledove's young Conan piece was drivel I wish I could unsee. I enjoyed Roy Thomas for the 70's Marvel writing. I'm probably missing some, but that my brief two cents. John Maddux Roberts stands above.
