Jason Waltz > Recent Status Updates

I really enjoy the character Conan in "The Black Stranger" as story opens and builds. He quite honestly lives up to his impressive dominating descriptions even simply on the black and cream pages.

FIERCE was a terrific read! Grand bloody intrigue! Massive sorcery and mighty hews! Great adventure and diabolic foes! Terrible deeds and glorious action! Mystery, mayhem, and melancholy galore!

By 'Special' it must mean 'Wyrd' - some, ah, interesting selections here.

"Beyond the Black River" is an unusual Conan story in that he is not truly the hero, or at least not the protagonist, and yet we learn a ton about the character of Conan throughout it. A fantastic tale of S&S where Conan actually yet pursues the tenants of S&S (wine, women, wages, war/beer, babes, bread, battle) while still performing admirably as a hero worthy emulation as witnessed and then copied by Balthus.

Book 2 done, and a bruising battler it was! Lots of action and very much a hero in the vein of Conan the Northman, er, Cimmerian.

"Servants of Bit-Yakin" is actually a fun plot with some great action and intrigue, but it's a hodgepodge mess of coincidence, luck, ridiculous happenstance, and lots o'explaining. Best recourse: read it as fast and furiously as it was written and don't look back!

Nothing objectionable thus far; well-reasoned expounding on hows and whys of running a successful (and unsuccessful) enterprise.

Current event chapters are way more exciting than the past retelling chapters but we learn a lot about Gathelaus in this way, so in that sense this style of storytelling is working. This day 5 before a kingship is gained is rather thrilling and quite bloody fun.

Quite interesting.

Werner delivers another strong tale of our demon-slaying hero Oba, who this time faces non-demon does no less despicable. 2 odd choices follow this heroic tale.

Dakagna is a good addition to the s&s stable of heroes. "Pipes of Clan Maclaird" is personal and touching, not something often said of battle-worthy storytelling! "Lovers of Essail Pass" was a great idea and also rather melancholy; I'd read more of them. Gaunt and Bone always deliver, this poetic yet dark tale, while one of their earliest, still a grand adventure.

Um, our hero just miraculously changed out cylinders in a Dragoon none of us - including him - knew he had beforehand...and then continued to not use them in his climactic battle with the snake titan.

Odd sort of rhythm to this book with chapters alternating counting down between 20 years and 20 nights ago. Nights are cool, years are a mixed bag and the latest was so long and convoluted with tons of relaying that I've lost track of things now.

Book 1 complete. Non-stop action pumps the lifeblood in, through, and out of every scene! Engaging protagonist with a powerful sword arm, sharp mind, and soft heart, evident homage to a certain Cimmerian. Distinct difference in the first and last halves of the book: part the 1 tighter storytelling, less padding, and less grammatical/editorial issues. On to book 2, wherein the homage feels more like mirroring.

Fun, violent yet strategically written with lots of twists and secrets...until chapter 18, where it seems to suddenly be written by a new author or picked up again after an absence. Now to chapter 21 and while our titular character remains mostly consistent, the story flounders and is obviously padded. I hope the better writing returns soon.

This is perhaps one of the most unusual things I've ever read in my life. I'm satisfying my curiosity with this dungeon leveling progression RPG LIT BS, but most assuredly I will never read this again.

"I am respectable!"
Conan: "Meaning you're rich as hell."

Weirdly interesting. Not addicted, just interested in where this is going and how it gets there.No plans to ever read a stats/leveling/dungeon crawl book again though.

Re-read contents out of order to finally now read - for the first time ever in novel form - THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON!! The pure anguish Conan experiences whilst immobilized and hearing the destruction of his warriors relayed to him simply drips off the page...making the triumph of will demonstrated by his sheer dominance all the more powerful. Conan's brute passion almost lets us forget he's been overcome 2x by sorcery

Terach's tale is truly mightily awesome! I love the storytelling and him right up till he cries about what he did. Boo-hoo. And then the denouement - whoa! Great story, read it.

Cal & Chenoa wage a pretty good war for survival in this Mad Max/Tower of the Elephant/Swan Song mashup. Cal is a pretty prepared & capable fella.

And then it wasn't sword n planet. "The Gift of the Eons" is a grand hack n slash survivalist adventure reminiscent of many a Conan tale.

Matt Randall is most definitely a survivor. Fierce, loner warrior, much more to him than at first seems. I didn't realize this was a space barbarian sword and planet collection. Lots of violence and danger accompanied by vast eldritch horrors of the CAS and HPL types. Good thing our hero is a REH type.

J. Thomas Howard's "Siege of Eire" is bloody Celtic sorcery and blade fun. Reads a bit disjointed but excitement carries the day.

Cool to see so many authors, characters, art, artists, and titles I am familiar with - especially several inclusions of Clint Werner.

Last pool read of the year! Another German Nazi World War II espionage art thriller!

Shit's getting real: all the powers are coalescing, read for the big face-off. Conan best be on edge, eager to slay and rend and ride free. Who am I kidding?! Of course he is!

The mystery abounds!

"the god of Arbitrary Decisions and Unjustifiable Demands" - hilarious 😂 the mystery here is once again intense and addictive. Still seems a little overboard but calming down on the MC's self-deprecating snark.

And thus ends "The People of the Black Circle" with a resounding slash and splat of the sorcerous scoundrel, the fresh smell of wanton slaughter upon the wind, and yet another outrageous dismissal of paltry reward riches in lieu of the truly rewarding life of challenge Conan so much admires. A rousing tale of grandness not matched by many another.