Conan and the Manhunters

John Maddox Roberts is my favorite Conan writer other than originator Robert E. Howard. In Manhunters, Roberts is doing something on a grand scale. This tale involves a battle between first rank wizards (Thoth Amon makes an appearance here) and a god that determines the fate of the world. In the middle is Conan, the unwitting thief drawn into galactic melee. At first I thought this story was a little overreaching, but I started to get into it as Roberts started to rein in plot line to focus more on Conan's storyline. The conflict with the manhunters who are tracking Conan down is a bit of an anticlimax and really isn't that much the focus of the story. But it works, because the hired guns after Conan really aren't terribly interesting. I ended up enjoying this book. This may be one of Robert's lesser stories, but it's still better than most of the Conan tales written by other writers.

I particularly like the writing style: not only presenting a story, but with fine description of the details, the surroundings, the atmostphere, the characters, etc. That tends to drag you into the story rather than listening to a story on the outside. The story itself is attractive too, with wizards, evil gods, etc., much like the old Conan stories in the 80s. The drawback is that is there's a little difference in Conan's personality from the Conan I was familiar with in the 80s.