Conan the Rebel by Poul Anderson


Not so hot

Originally published in 1980.

I was feeling the need to read something different, so as I walked past the new books section at the library I saw a Conan book. I've never read Conan, but one of my friends is a giant fan, so I picked it up.

The plot was pretty simple - hero gets even with sworn enemies who have wronged him in many ways, along the way he gets to use a magical weapon, and he fulfills some sort of prophecy as it he goes along. It was entertaining enough, especially in the middle but the ending was way too abrupt.  Conan completes all of the accomplishments I mentioned above in just 35 pages.

The language was too clunky. I realize it's a style thing, but it's like Mr. Anderson (1926-2001) sat in front of his typewriter with a thesaurus and looked for the more macho version of each verb used to describe Conan's behavior. He never throws anything, he heaves it. He always cleaves skulls, rather than splits them. I got tired of this overly macho telling of the story rather quickly.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Conan the Rebel by Poul Anderson.

Reviewed on August 21, 2004.

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