Best Sean A. Moore Conan novel?

[Iron_Chef]

I had heard some good things about at least one of Sean A. Moore's Conan pastiches, but now I can't remember which one (he's the only TOR pastiche author from the 90s I haven't tried yet). Can someone recommend me his best novel or tell me if he stinks?

Conan novels by Sean A. Moore
CONAN AND THE GRIM GREY GOD
CONAN THE HUNTER
CONAN AND THE SHAMAN'S CURSE

The only unreadable TOR pastiche author for me was Roland Green... everybody else seemed to turn in at least a couple good ones (even Leonard Carpenter and Steve Perry, by Crom!).

IMO, The best of the TOR Books pastiche authors from the 90s was John C. Hocking (CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS), followed by John Maddox Roberts (CONAN THE ROGUE and seven others that ranged from excellent to decent, with CONAN THE CHAMPION being the weakest due to a lame alternate dimension middle -- complete with S&M dark elves --- ruining an otherwise good start and finish).

 

[Iron_Chef]

Hasn't anybody got any advice for me on this? :?:

 

[GregLynch]

As I recall, Grim Grey God was pretty good, but it's been a long time since I read it. It was but one volume in the large collection of Conan pastiches (and sundry other books - about 25 to 30 boxes worth) that I dumped at the used book store when I moved two years ago.

Me (at moving time two years ago): 'Eh, don't want to pack 'em, won't ever need 'em.'

Me (at being hired by Mongoose a little more than a year later and realizing I no longer had a huge Conan book collection): 'Dammit.'

Needless to say, they were all long gone from the half-price store when I went back. Nothing left but a single Roland Green pastiche lingering eternally on the shelves.

 

[Trodax]

Nothing left but a single Roland Green pastiche lingering eternally on the shelves.

For some reason, that makes me sad.

 

[The King]

I hadn't read that post!
Conan and the Grim Grey God is quite good (a sunken forgotten city in the desert which was the base of the worship of Ibis):
an excellent plot with good description of the locations (a conflict between two Shemite city-states) and a most excellent war of soul between two sorcerer (among them Thoth-Amon).

But there are some flaws too:
- There is the story of Acheron where Xaltotun was the most powerful mage and his brother the commander in chief of the army. However his name, Dunkan Brightblade (are something like this) is very usual for villains and hasn't the flavor of exostism.
- though magic stays at the usual level of sword & sorcery the specialization of one sorcerer as a necromancer (his escort is composed of squelettons) is a bit D&Dish.
- The end fighting is a bit like an evil priest in D&D trying to control his undead. Unfortunately he fumble and loses control of the most powerful one.

A good read though.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Thanks! I'll pick up Grim Grey God. What about his other two books Conan And The Shaman's Curse and Conan The Hunter? Lame?

Speaking of used bookstores, I picked up most of my non-Howard, non-Jordan Conan books from used bookstores (also got the complete Kull and Karl Edward Wagner's uncut edition of several Howard Conan tales, including People of the Black Circle with a fold out cover). The problem with the used bookstores was they had too many lame looking Conans by Leonard "Watch My Writing Skills Magically Decline Over Several Books" Carpenter, Roland "The Ever-Unreadable" Green and Steve "I Used To Sing For Journey" Perry, LOL. Still, Carpenter and Perry turned in several fun reads before exhausting their imaginations in their later books.

Fortunately, the store had six out of eight Conans by John Roberts Maddox, limiting my Amazon.com ordering to but two: Conan The Bold (hasn't arrived yet, Set take the knave who processed my order) and Conan And The Manhunters (excellent, although the serpent-men priests of Ahriman seemed a bit superfluous and over-the-top... the rest of the Turanian and Iranistani villains were more than up to the task of carrying the reader's interest).

 

[J-Star]

It's been a VERY long time since I've read Conan the Hunter but I do remember liking it a lot. It was very readable, especially after several tedious pastiches by Green and Carpenter. That being said, it is very D&D-ish. One of the 2 or 3 characters who goes on the adventure with Conan is a priest of Mitra who essentially casts Light and Cure Light Wounds almost at will, just like a D&D cleric. Of course I got into Conan in a time when REH's original work was almost impossible to find and pastiches were the only books on the shelves, so the presence of a cleric didn't bother me at the time. If I went back and read it again now that I've read many of Howard's originals, I might not like it as much. Nevertheless, anything by Sean A. Moore is entertaining and readable at the very least.

 

[The King]

I didn't read the other books by Sean A. Moore but heart good critics though the last one (Grim grey God) was considered the best.
As J-Star says, the major flaw of Sean Moore is his D&D adaptation. However his descriptions and plots are interesting enough and could easily be adapted to an RPG campaign.