DWD's Reviews

Wow - I really disliked this book! Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) I had previously read Poul Anderson's take on Conan ( Conan the Rebel - posted just below this review) and found it irritating - Conan is overdone and overblown in the extreme. To my disappointment, I found that the original Conan has every feature to his character that I disliked magnified by a factor of 10 ! But, to be honest, what has turned me off with both books is both authors' use of language - it is as if they both sat with a thesaurus and looked for the macho words to substitute for the regular ones. That's okay for some scenes but for every single action Conan takes? The phrase that made me put the book down was when Conan "laughed gustily". I did too, and then I put this book down and picked up anything else. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: People of the Black Circle . Check out what the fans say. I rate this book 1 star out of 5.

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 tel...