Age of Conan: Songs of Victory: Legends of Kern, Volume III

Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures: Legends of Kern #3

by Loren L. Coleman

The army of Kern "Wolf-Eye" has been scattered, and as the dead are buried, the tribes gather to choose new leaders.

To prove his worth, Kern must seek out the House of Crom, where rests a weapon of legend that can kill any man, beast, or god. For in his heart he knows that not all glory lies on the battlefield, and that there is no sacrifice too great to sing one last song of victory.

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Loren L. Coleman (born 1968) is a science-fiction writer, born and grew up in Longview, Washington.

He is known for having written many books for series such as Star Trek, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Age of Conan, Crimson Skies, Magic: The Gathering and others. Former member of the United States Navy, he has also written game fiction and source material for such companies as FASA Corporation, TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast.

In early 2010s, he began writing The ICAS Files series, science fiction short-stories. [wikipedia]

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This finishes the Kern trilogy and holds up as well as the others. The threat is still there in the frozen north and the battles and endgame is brutal and violent, as it should be. There is much to be said about the direction the author took the character and the in depth look at the Cimmerian that has been written on only a little, even by the creator. Read these and if you are a fantasy or especially a Conan fan, you will not go wrong.

Danny

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This third book in the trilogy was better than the second. The second was the weakest. Overall, this is the story of getting the autonomous and stridently independent tribes of Cimmeria together to put on a unified front against a Vanir horde. So, the drama of quasi-political. As a fantasy novel, I would say there was not enough supernatural elements. There were sorcerers, wyverns, zombies, Yeti, and döppleganger, but they were rendered in such a “low fantasy” way, this may well have been a historical novel set in pre-Christian England featuring a fight between Celtic tribes. Still, I reccommend the trilogy to Conan fans.

[Vincent Darlage · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book difficult to read because of all the sentence fragments. At least one out of three sentences are fragmented throughout this novel (and the series). While I understand that the use of a sentence fragment can be effective when used sparingly, this author has written an entire trilogy comprised almost entirely of fragments!

Honestly, it makes the author look as though he has no command of the English language at all.

His Cimmerians wear ponchos, which seem wildly out of place for the culture, and the author misidentifies the Shemites as a black race. Twice in the trilogy he mentions the ebony skin of Belit - a woman Robert E. Howard described as having ivory skin.

The fragments really ruined the novel.

[Keith B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could be one of my favourite series of all time after Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.