Conan 17/Rebel

A softer, more erudite Conan is to be found here. "My dearest wishes","My beloved". This book lags a little in the second half, not coincidentally I think with the lack of Belit. Conan goes in search of the Queen of the Black Coast's family for her, and ends up fighting yet another Stygian sorcerer. Dumbest monarch of the year award to Mentuphera. "Why, if the Sun Master can do no better than Conan, what is to fret about?" These Set worshippers never learn, it seems.

Anderson's story of Conan's time as captain of a pirate ship alongside his love, Belit, is an interesting one, but I can't help feeling that it was a missed opportunity. Very few Conan pastiches continue directly from one of Howard's original pulp stories from the 1930s. This one does, picking up from Howard's "Queen of the Black Coast". While the plot for this novel was entertaining, dealing with family ties, sacrifice, prophecy, and different stripes of power-hungry sorcerers, Anderson really missed the chance to deeply explore Belit, one of the most compelling female characters Robert E. Howard ever introduced into Conan's life. Anderson does a decent job in capturing Conan's personality, but suffers the same difficulty many authors after Howard have in authentically nailing it as well as the creator. The supporting characters and major villains are very well-formed and Anderson provides decent descriptions of the environment so the reader feels immersed in the setting. The story contains a lot of action, but it does feel a wee bit patchwork in places with ideas being introduced but not fully explored. That said, the ending of the novel is quite good - a splendid, buliding, non-stop gauntlet of evil menace leading to an appropriate twist and a satisfying climax. A very good Conan pastiche that left a bit on the table by not exploring Belit more deeply.

Due to the machinations of the evil sorcerer Tothapis, Set the reptile God cruelly rules Stygia. Set warns Tothapis that a threat to their well being comes from the alliance between Conan and Belit, who met in sword to sword combat, felt an attraction and joined sides. Belit leads pirates trying to free her people from the reptile?s rule while Conan lays back providing strategic advice to her. Everything changes when Conan finds the Axe of Veranghi. Instead of just advising, he begins to take charge. Along side Belit, Conan leads her force in combat as they close in on a final confrontation with the reptile God and his wicked minion including the powerful Tothapis. The great Poul Anderson takes readers on a journey into the Cimmerian world of Robert E. Howard. The story line of CONAN THE REBEL starts a bit slower than usual for our hero meaning body counts that would make Westmoreland and MacNamara envious. This enables the audience to understand better the support cast, but not why Conan seems more like California mellow than the wild barbarian that is expected of him. Once Conan returns to his normal tendencies, the head count geometrically grows and the action with it. Though a fine tale, purists will feel this is not Mr. Howard or even the Marvel comic.Harriet Klausner