Conan the Liberator in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Dec 22, 2021 Jason Ray Carney rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, conan

If this was a dessert, it maybe wouldn't be worth the calories, but it would still be a dessert, and I enjoy dessert. On the sentence level, de Camp and Lin Carter are skilled writers. On the plot level, however, their story is often slow, excessively complex in political intrigue (for S&S), and occasionally a dry slog. The actual REH Conan tales, to generalize, are narrow and personal in scope, so perhaps that expectation set me up for frustration. Why? This novel is political and military in s ...more

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Dec 31, 2008 Charles rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

definitely better than Conan and the Spider God. I enjoyed it fairly well. Interesting cover painting too.

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Feb 25, 2025 Derek rated it it was ok

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, did-not-finish, pastiche

Howard skipped the parts that connect "Conan the freebooting troublemaker" and the Conan of _Hour of the Dragon_, and reading de Camp / Carter's attempt at filling that piece, I am pretty sure I understand why. You can concoct a grand tale of a rebel army on the march, intent on liberating an oppressed land, and the political machinations behind it, but it doesn't feel like a Conan story.

Perhaps the latter half is different but the first would be better titled _Conan the Strategist_ and that do ...more

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Aug 16, 2024 Riju Ganguly rated it it was ok

This was a surprisingly dull novel where Conan acted like a pawn in a purely political chess. He was ineffective (even in his horniness). The sorcery part was worse than B-movies. And the ending violated the canonical narrative by taking too many liberties.
If the rest of de Camp's works are also of this standard, then people should straightaway hail John C. Hocking and Chuck Dixon as true successors of Howard. At least I have no doubt in this regard.
You’ve been warned. ...more

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Sep 18, 2024 Jon rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This follows Conan the Swordsman and I liked that one pretty well as my first foray into non-Howard Conan and this one is... not so good. This doesn't feel like Howard's Conan at all. I'll be changing things up in my Cimmerian September by reading Hocking's Conan and the Emerald Lotus next. ...more

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