Worst Pastiche Ideas

[The King]

This reminds me: what do you all think of Robert Jordan's Conan stories?

Like I said previously, I read Conan the Magnificent (I even still have the book), but I read it so long ago and when I was pretty young. I don't remember a thing about it. How does he measure up as far as pastiches go?

Reptile

Robert Jordan's Conan is quite good: the guy is an excellent writer and uses "low" magic: no flashy spell or fantastic events, but some court intrigues, battles between armies and rare monsters (or demons). His plots are very good.
From all pastiches he is (IMO) one of the best writer to approach Howard (I highly recommand Conan the Triumphant) and his only downside is that he develops more relationship between the main characters than Howard did.

 

[Anonymous]

Jordan is pretty good. He knows the Hyborian world very well, and puts Conan into some interesting situations.
Two things about his Conan novels bug me, though. First off, he always seems to leave part of the plot dangling unexplained. This is usually the kind of thing the reader can overlook in the heat of the action, but it still bugs me.
Second, you can tell he wrote the books in the late 70's/early 80's because they have a "He-Man Action Adventure Fiction" feel to them. Virtually every woman Conan meets literally throws herself at him, and this happens several times per book. Gets kinda embarassing.

 

[slaughterj]

This reminds me: what do you all think of Robert Jordan's Conan stories?

I think they are very good, maybe because I first read them when young, but read them again in my mid-20s and still seemed very good. Note, if you buy the two volume set (each volume contains 3 of the books), the books within are not in chronological order?! IIRC, they should be read as 3 sets of two books - see the timeline here and compare the book titles to figure it out, if you want to read them in order: http://www.dodgenet.com/~moonblossom/timeline.htm

 

[Mayhem]

It's been a while since I read them, but I have fond memories of Andrew Offut's pastiches. The swords of Skelos especially, since it portrays conan as being clever as well as strong.

 

[Jason Durall]

It's been a while since I read them, but I have fond memories of Andrew Offut's pastiches. The swords of Skelos especially, since it portrays conan as being clever as well as strong.

I'm also quite fond of the Offut works. Not necessarily the plots, which were pretty hackneyed, but his portrayal of Conan himself was quite in keeping with Howard.

 

[Anonymous]

for ALL the best INFO, REVIEWS + COMMENTS on all the Conan pastiche books + writers you MUST visit -

www.conan.com

look in the community forums - 'conan in literature'.
--
+ thanks for all your interesting comments here.
'may the Crom be with you!'
.

 

[Fernando]

Oh yeah, before I forget, I found this listing on Amazon.com of the worst Conan books. Don't know how accurrate they are as the compiler simply used online reviews.

Enjoy:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/BDNL460NB1K2/ref=cm_bg_guides/102-5795435-7964139

I took a look, but although I hadn't read them, Conan the Rebel, Conan of the Red Brotherhood and Conan Lord of the Black River seem to be good stories. However, nothing looks as bad as Conan of Venarium.

 

[Axerules]

However, nothing looks as bad as Conan of Venarium.

Have you read something written by S Perry? Except a few names, there is nothing that links his stories with the setting or Howard. They are very "D&Dish" and it seems that the adventures could take place in any "generic" fantasy setting. I don't know, but even if I don't like, and I REALLY don't like Turtledove's Conan book I've tried to read (I couldn't finish it), I vote for Perry as "the worst Conan pastiche writer of all times".

 

[The King]

Steve Perry wrote Conan novels having clearly in mind that teenagers would be his main custormers.

 

[Damien]

Does anyone have any opinion on Conan and the Spider God by deCamp? The little lady picked it up for me months ago, but I've been so busy with other stuff I was reading, reviewing, and otherwise dealing with that I haven't even cracked it open yet. Is it worth putting other stuff on hold to read through?

 

[Axerules]

Does anyone have any opinion on Conan and the Spider God by deCamp? The little lady picked it up for me months ago, but I've been so busy with other stuff I was reading, reviewing, and otherwise dealing with that I haven't even cracked it open yet. Is it worth putting other stuff on hold to read through?

Checkthis thread, Kintire explained very well what this book is worth.