Age of Conan Novels
- Thread starter sgstyrsky
- Start date
VincentDarlage
Mongoose
I read most of them.
The Kern series were horribly written in terms of grammar. The book was written in mostly incomplete sentences. Although the action was good, virtually all of the cast accompanying Kern were faceless names, completely interchangable. Just for fun, I opened the book just now to a random page. Here are three of his sentences: "And again." "Retreat, and reset their lines." "To tap into that power." Those were not dialogue, but how the author writes. Although he probably best captured the savagery of the era, they were an utter nightmare to read because of the omnipresent sentence fragments.
The Anok trilogy started out reasonably strong, but quickly descended into high-fantasy tripe. See my review on http://www.conan.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=2463 for a more complete overview.
I did not read the Mauraders series, so I have no comment.
The Soldier's Quest trilogy by Richard Knaak were enjoyable reads, but the hero gets knocked unconscious constantly (about every time the author needs a change of scenery or a plot twist), and the author choreographs the books too much (if a person meeting the hero is initially antagonistic, then that person will be a friend; but if the person meeting the hero is nice during the initial encounter, that person is a dire enemy and will betray the hero. That formula never falters in the books). Still, he offers some of the best descriptions of the Hyborian age outside of Howard (I loved his description of Cimmeria, for example).
The Kern series were horribly written in terms of grammar. The book was written in mostly incomplete sentences. Although the action was good, virtually all of the cast accompanying Kern were faceless names, completely interchangable. Just for fun, I opened the book just now to a random page. Here are three of his sentences: "And again." "Retreat, and reset their lines." "To tap into that power." Those were not dialogue, but how the author writes. Although he probably best captured the savagery of the era, they were an utter nightmare to read because of the omnipresent sentence fragments.
The Anok trilogy started out reasonably strong, but quickly descended into high-fantasy tripe. See my review on http://www.conan.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=2463 for a more complete overview.
I did not read the Mauraders series, so I have no comment.
The Soldier's Quest trilogy by Richard Knaak were enjoyable reads, but the hero gets knocked unconscious constantly (about every time the author needs a change of scenery or a plot twist), and the author choreographs the books too much (if a person meeting the hero is initially antagonistic, then that person will be a friend; but if the person meeting the hero is nice during the initial encounter, that person is a dire enemy and will betray the hero. That formula never falters in the books). Still, he offers some of the best descriptions of the Hyborian age outside of Howard (I loved his description of Cimmeria, for example).
Excellent, thanks.
The Soldier's trilogy appealed to me the most. Based on your descriptions I'll start with that one. I'll try to overlook the "knock the hero out when we need a plot change" problem.
The Kern series seemed boring. Strangely, I'm not interested in reading Conan novels set in Cimmeria!
The Soldier's trilogy appealed to me the most. Based on your descriptions I'll start with that one. I'll try to overlook the "knock the hero out when we need a plot change" problem.
The Kern series seemed boring. Strangely, I'm not interested in reading Conan novels set in Cimmeria!
Timestheus
Mongoose
VincentDarlage said:
That is too bad. He wrote the Dragonlance "Legend of Huma" novel which was one of the best books of that series I wrote. Looks like his skill has gone downhill since then.
VincentDarlage
Mongoose
sgstyrsky said:
I agree. Cimmeria should remain as mysterious as possible. Knaack really captured that in his brief scene there in the Soldier's Quest trilogy.
VincentDarlage
Mongoose
Timestheus said:
That you wrote? Which books of the Dragonlance series did you write?
I didn't care much for Huma. It didn't live up to my expectations way back then for what I though Huma was (as described in the first Dragonlance books). He seemed too much of a worry-wort, and always concerned that he wouldn't succeed or some-such. When I was a teen and reading those books, I was looking for a hero that believed in himself, and Huma disappointed on that score. I might have a better appreciation of the book as an adult, but I recall really being disappointed as a teen. Did Huma get knocked out a lot? I don't remember.
The hero of the Soldier's Quest trilogy is the same as Huma on some levels, though. Always doubting himself, no matter how much success he achieves. He usually attributes his successes to luck instead of to himself or any skill he might possess. Certainly the opposite of Conan, who always presumed success or death!
The King
Cosmic Mongoose
The DragonLance setting is a heavy never-ending drama, where the main characters are heavily tortured; e.g.: Tanis the half-elven to whom all look like a leader is constantly shared between his elven heritage and a human father he never knew and then this also shows in his love for his children (elvish) sweatheart and a dark and fearsome woman who is as opportunistic as was Conan.VincentDarlage said:
VincentDarlage said:
Howard had his annoying conventions too. Every time Conan stabs a foe, his sword sticks out between the guys shoulders a foot and a half. The description gets a bit worn after a while. The same could be said for describing blood as crimson, over and over... and over.
Of course, these stories weren't meant to be read all at once in book format. Such recurrences might not have been so noticeable if I was reading issues of Weird Tales in the '30s.
I just sometimes wish REH had tried just a little bit harder to vary his descriptions
VincentDarlage
Mongoose
sgstyrsky said:
True. Howard was writing to make some money, and he never considered those stories would someday be collected, remembered, and revered. Consider the similarity of plot between The Scarlet Citadel and The Hour of the Dragon. The former he felt would be forgotten, the latter was intended as a novel, to be retained. But he did have his faults as a writer, true enough.
I only mentioned the pattern of Mr. Knaack because, in a trilogy, it got EXTREMELY repetitious, and severely marred what could have been a great trilogy. Honestly, even with his plotting bad habit, of all the AOC books, his trilogy is one I would like to see in hardcover (perhaps through Sci-Fi book club).