I need some advice about this books.

[Vincent791]

Age of Conan: Blood of Wolves : Legends of Kern, Volume 1-3 (Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures: Legends of Kern)

Scion of the Serpent : Anok, Heretic of Stygia Volume 1-3 (Age of the Conan Hyborian Adventures)

I'm looking for more Conan stuff, but I'd like some recommendations (obviously other than REH). I saw this titles, all 6 in my local comic store, so I'd like some advice about it. Thanks in advance!

 

[RabidAntiShemite]

Vincent gave some good commentary on these novels somewhere in this forum. I stopped reading the Kern books at book two. They just weren't that great.

RAS

 

[VincentDarlage]

My review for the Anok series can be found here: http://www.conan.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=2463

The Kern series was flawed in that it was written almost entirely in sentence fragments, had too many named characters who were indistinct, and showed a marked lack of research into the Howard world - Black Shemites (even references to Belit being a black woman), ponchos as Cimmerian clothing, and a few other weird bits.

If you can get past the sentence fragments (which I couldn't) I understand the Kern books were pretty good.

 

[Yogah of Yag]

Loved the Review, Sir. Makes me glad to be a REH purist!
I hate to sound like a snob, but (HA! who am I kidding...I love being a snob!) I loathe books which include so many blatant pop-culture (esp. movie) references, or indicate that the author had no literate training or upbringing.

I think everyone here and on the Conan boards should lobby to eliminate the censorship that forbids K.u.s.h.i.t.e.


Holy Ku****e, Batman!

 

[quigs]

I'm almost done the first Kern book and I do agree with what Vincent says. The sentence fragments are really annoying and make the book a long read as I have to go back a few times and re-read the same sentence to figure out its context.

Kern is an interesting character and at first I thought he'd end up being another Drizzt clone (whom I loathe) but he is quite the contrary.

The other characters come and go and you don't really get any good image of them at all. If one dies, I will probably not even notice.

Aside from those couple of bad points, the story seems interesting and if you ignore the inconsistencies with canon material, it is an entertaining read.

No comment on the Anok books.

 

[Vincent791]

Damn! I guess I pass. Too bad, for a moment I thought that I could keep reading quality stuff related to the Hyborian age.

I don't know how to explain it, I guess I'm a purist too, is there any good read out there other than the writes of Howard?

Also if you could recommend me a good read with a similar treatment (you know, sword and sorcery, magic, women and ale), it doesn't matter if it's not about the Hyborian age.

 

[quigs]

If you like the Conan character, the Robert Jordan stories about him were pretty good. Although for some reason, big C does exceptionally well with the women in those tales.

In one of them I read he got 3 different women all within one story (about 150 pages). And only one of those was a hooker, the other 2 were actual meaningful characters.

I have only read one REH story thus far, being the Tower of the Elephant, but I am ordering his other stories off Amazon.ca right now. So please don't kill me

 

[Crisippo]

Well, Conan never had any qualms about two-timing women. The most amazing thing is that he never (in what i've read) had to tell a lie either. Perhaps it's not really cheating then

I haven't read any of the Hyborian Age stuff, but when i first noticed them comming out i suspected i wouldn't like them. REH has a particular style and a vision of the Hyborian world. There is a philosophy to his stories, though i'm not sure REH himself would admit it. Anyway, that philosophy is now politically incorrect and his vison was very personal. Copying his vision is nigh impossible (except, of course, in my own hyborian writings) and copying his philosophy would probably raise a lot of eyebrows thus marginalizing the market for the books.

Personally i don't like the word purist, but i take my hat off for REH because his vision of Conan and the Hyborian Age is what makes it worth while.

 

[Vincent791]

Well, when I told you about being purist I was thinking about the concept I have of the Hyborian age (and not just REH), that concept has a lot of influences. IMO there are a lot of people involved in the construction of the Hyborian age.

In my case it all started with Roy Thomas and John Buscema (cause the first approach for me was with the Marvel comics), later I get into the work of Howard, and now I'm very happy with the work of Busiek and Nord in the Dark Horse run.

When I talk about purist, I guess I'm talking about the concept of the Hyborian age. Not just in relation to the work of Howard, but about the concept he originated and including the people that has contributed to the whole thing.

I'll try to look for the Jordan stuff. Thanks for the advice! Any other comments and recomendations are welcomed.

 

[Conqueror]

Anok and Kern suck! Except if you're a Walt Disney fan. If you want good Conan stuff try all the books writen by R.E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson or the comic book from Dark Horse, or even the comic of Red Sonja are not bad at all.

 

[bradius]

I wanted some background on CImmeria, as I was preparing to run some adventures in Cimmeria. Kern gave me some ideas, but it was boring and I just let it drop after about 30 pages. I turned to Celtic myth and this was better.