Conan Chronicles 1 [Kindle Edition]

I picked up this book as a fan of Jordan's Wheel of Time, and the Schwarzenegger Conan movies. I figure put the two together and we're in business. Well... The three stories in this book have pretty much nothing to do with one another other than being vaguely chronological, and sharing one or two supporting characters. They were entertaining, but involved no development for our hero at all. It was like Jordan merely borrowed Conan and then put him back the way he found him. Unchanged- for better or worse. Much like a Bond movie. Not exactly my taste, but if that is fine with you- give it a shot!

In CONAN the INVINCIBLE, the barbarian/thief is hired by a nasty ol' wizard to steal five precious gems from a King's throne room only to find that someone has beaten him to it. Conan is apparently never fazed by anything, and of course pursues the rival thieves. He will stop at nothing to get his reward. This brings him face to face with several perils including an army of the King's men, the mysterious Red Hawk and her band of caravan-raiding bandits, as well as another evil wizard and his army of Lizard men.

In CONAN the DEFENDER, our hero arrives in the city of Belverus to, again, find work to fill his gold purse. His plan is to raise his own company of warriors, but Civil war threatens the Kingdom- and he must choose sides between his friends and the King. But first he must find out who has been trying to kill him and why.

In CONAN the UNCONQUERED, the barbarian once again arrives in a new city looking for a way to fill his pockets with gold and manages to end up knee deep in trouble. As usual, he does some bar crawling, sleeps with some gorgeous women, and of course- stops the evil wizard. This story was not as good as the other two in my opinion, but it was ok.

Over all I gave this book a 3 because the three stories were almost exact replicas of one another. By the end, I was bored and had heard it all before. However, you could do worse than this book if looking for a quick read, but in general I'd only recommend it to a younger audience.

-If you are looking for more "Wheel of Time" you are likely to be disappointed -but it is fun watching Jordan hone his skills.

-As far as Conan goes, I hear R E Howard's works are the best -so you might want to look there instead. That's next for me as well.

Conan the Barbarian is one of THE iconic characters of fantasy. Almost eighty years ago, he walked onto the pages of Weird Tales magazine and undertook many adventures in the Hyborian Age, ten thousand or more years ago when the world looked very different. Dozens of tales followed before Robert E. Howard committed suicide at a tragically young age. In the following decades the Conan tales were re-edited, revamped and new stories were written by authors such as L. Sprague de Camp and Robert Jordan. After fading from view after the early-1980s Jordan stories and the Schwarzenegger movies, Conan came back into the public eye around the turn of the century with a series of new collected editions intent on restoring the text to Howard's original standards.

This first volume of Conan's adventures is arranged in chronological, not publishing, order and takes Conan from a teenager through a period of some years until he is an more experienced adventurer. Most of these tales take place in the south and east of the Thurian continent (prehistoric Eurasia), with Conan equally at home raiding exotic Arabic-esque temples for treasure as captaining a pirate warship or fighting as a mercenary alongside a mighty host. The stories have a somewhat familiar structure: Conan becomes embroiled in some nefarious activity, bulldozes his way through it with no regard for subtlety, and bursts out the other side, usually laden with gold and a willing young lady on his arm. You can certainly tell the ones that Howard wrote for money, whilst the highlights - 'Rogues in the House', 'The Tower of the Elephant' and the story that gives the first volume its subtitle, 'The People of the Black Circle' - are altogether more interesting, with a bit more depth or humour to them.

For stories written the better part of a century ago, these tales are fiendishly readable and feel much more readable and recent than, say, the work of Tolkien, although they lack JRRT's much greater resonance and depth. There's still a fresh vitality to these tales that makes them compelling. However, in other areas they are very much of their time: female characters are generally walking plot coupons for Conan to rescue or fall in love with. There are a couple of exceptions, but some readers may find it a problem. Another issue is that whilst there are some outstanding stories here, there are a few more that are formulaic, and a couple that are incomplete. That feeling of familiarity can be off-putting, and makes it hard to read the book in one go. I've been toing and froing between other books and these stories for the better part of two years. Like a rich chocolate cake, dipping into it occasionally may be healthier than trying to digest the whole thing at once.

The Conan Chronicles Volume I: The People of the Black Circle (****) introduces us to one of fantasy's most famous and notable characters. The range of defiantly non-PC stories on display here may not be huge, but they are certainly a lot of fun to read. The book is available in the UK from Gollancz as part of the Fantasy Masterworks range, in a new edition and also as part of the complete Conan Chronicles volume. In the USA Del Rey currently prints Howard's original stories in three volumes, The Coming of Conan, The Bloody Crown of Conan and The Conquering Sword of Conan.

I like Conan but normally when i read some of the books people write about him I find them boring, mainly because there's a lot of small time writers that use him for the odd book. But after reading this I'm glad to see that there are still really good writers out there writing amazing stories about good characters, this book is amazing there's no slow bits where u get bored it keeps you interested constanly through the book abd provides an AMAZING READ, BUY IT NOW!!!