Conan: The Road of Kings in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Feb 13, 2016 S.E. Lindberg rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-by-se

Wagner's pastiches are highly recommended. A groupread from the Sword & Sorcery group in Goodreads led me to this. In short, the milieu was true to Hyborbian Age. Also, it followed Conan's development from buccaneer to potential king well; this would serve as a great prequel to REH"s only novel length Conan story The Hour of the Dragon.

Karl Edward Wagner was a dark fantasy hero, taking editing and writing very seriously. His expertise in adventure horror led him to develop the Sword & Sorcery am ...more

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Jan 06, 2021 Jason Ray Carney rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, conan, sword-and-sorcery

This was a good non-REH Conan novel (John C. Hocking's, *Conan and the Emerald Lotus* is my favorite pastiche currently). This doesn't feel like REH. The pacing is very different. The Conan character is less intense and the principles that govern his behavior are different. And the technological level is a little anachronistic: there are rapiers, renaissance style garb, masque balls, and discussions of revolutionary movements that give the atmosphere of 20th-century politicking. Despite these fl ...more

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Sep 29, 2020 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Set during Conan's early days. As our tale opens, he's working as a mercenary in Zingara, and, after a duel with an actual Zingaran army officer (and noble), finds himself sentenced to hang. SPOILER ALERT: Conan does not hang by the neck until dead -- he's rescued, more-or-less by accident, and finds himself in company with some Zingaran rebels who want to overthrow the tyrannous king; and wouldn't you know it, there's this very nice Stygian mage who might be able to help ...

Definitely in the to ...more

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Jan 18, 2022 Oliver Brackenbury rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm going to make a double-bill of it, following Road with KEW's edit of THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON, and do a kind of compare & contrast before finalizing my thoughts. But for now?

I liked it! Great opening two chapters, an enjoyable story, the cast gets a bit crowded in the middle but that's soon resolved (ahem), and I dug the third act, which I've heard some say is where it falls apart.

Wagner does like to invoke classic Conan tales ("...as once before he had scaled the Elephant Tower in Zamora..." ...more

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