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Read the original Chronicles of Conan that Robert Jordan wrote before this one and I really like it. This one was just as solid. And would recommend it to Conan fans or R.J. fans.
Take note that this book contains three Conan novels and this is just a review of the single story I have read to date: Conan the Victorious.
This is a story from Conan’s young adulthood which follows on after Howard’s Rogues in the House. Here he has graduated from thief to smuggler on the Vilayet Sea.
While set early in Conan’s life this is the last of the seven Conan novels that Robert Jordan’s wrote. As such I was expecting a better effort than the only other of his Conan novels I have read (Conan the Invincible) which as it happens was the first Conan novel he wrote.
Unfortunately “Victorious” was a bit of a let down for me. Jordan has many players, most of them with evil designs to either be on the Throne, or be the Power Behind the Throne of Vendhya. Jordan lays the groundwork for a fairly intricate web of intrigues and spying & counter spying, but at only 178 pages there simply isn’t enough room for all these subplots to bloom. Just when things were starting to take shape Jordan has all the players just meet up at the ruins of a lost Vendhian city where everything is hashed out in the last 21 pages -to include not one, not two, but three reveals of actual identities and motives.
Pros: *Jordan has a firm handle on the Hyborian Age and is good with the action scenes.
Cons: *Truncated feel to the overall story. Supporting characters that are interchangeable and not memorable (which was a strong point for Jordan in “Invincible”).
In the end this was a passable story coming in for me at 2 ½ stars – I’ve rounded up to 3 solely due to the goodwill Jordan generated with me in “Invincible”.
At first I was all about the original Robert E. Howard stories (and they are still the best stories) for a good number of years but after practically memorizing the original short stories, I wanted more even if it meant inferior quality. And yes, a lot of the stories don't hold a candle to the best of Howard's but some of them feel just fit right in with the whole lore of Conan and I was pleasantly surprised.