What do you think?
Rate this book
Adventures of Conan
Conan the Relentless
At first all Conan wanted was the width of a path through the Border Kingdom, that northern land full of bandits and brawling and sorcery. But that was before he encountered Raihna, a swordswoman as beautiful as she was dangerous. She alone is reason enough to pause a while in his journey. But the rebellion against King Eloikas, whom Raihna now serves, tears the land apart, and in the Vale of Pougoi, the dreaded Star Brothers have renewed their ancient, forbidden thaumaturgies--and summoned an insatiable creature from the depths of time.
The Star Brothers cannot believe that one man can stand against their power, but they have reckoned without Conan of Cimmeria....
The Star Brothers cannot believe that one man can stand against their power, but they have reckoned without Conan of Cimmeria....
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 15, 1992
1 person is currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Roland J. Green
88 books27 followersRoland James Green is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and editor. He has written as Roland Green and Roland J. Green; and had 28 books in the Richard Blade series published under the pen name 'Jeffrey Lord'.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 18, 2022
This is another one of the Conan pastiches that would work all right as a random heroic fantasy escapade, but just doesn't seem much like Conan at all, much less like Robert E. Howard had any influence. Conan travels from here to there, takes a shortcut, bumps into an old girlfriend, decides to stick around for you know, gets involved with palace intrigue and rebellion and evil sorcerers who are conjuring a beast more from Lovecraft than Howard, makes a few more new girlfriends, and there you go. He makes plans and preparations that Howard would have ignored, and his speech is much too refined... I enjoyed it as a swords & sorcery romp (wow...thirty years ago, now), but not as Conan.
November 2, 2020
Den här var inte mycket att hänga i julgran. Platt intrig, platta karaktärer, inget slags patos eller karaktärisering över huvud taget, så sexistiska beskrivningar att det inte går att låta bli att lägga boken ifrån sig i avsmak (och detta från en läsare som älskar Dune); miljöbeskrivningar som är utbytbara, trolldom som är upphaussad och sedan avrundas ur scen. Skräp är tyvärr sammanfattningen.
July 10, 2023
Another disappointing pastiche by Green, and one that's especially a let down considering how much better it could have been. The first half of this book showed a lot of promise, revolving around the Border Kingdom in peril at the hands of royal traitors and evil sorcerers with their Lovecraftian tentacled demon pet. Sounds like a recipe for a solid Conan story, right?
Unfortunately, this book fell apart as it progressed, falling victim to all of Green's usual flaws. His prose is, to put it bluntly, messy and amateur as hell. The way he writes is so sporadic, unfocused, and lacking in basic necessary detail that it makes even his simple plotting difficult to follow. Often, he struggles to even string a coherent paragraph together without writing a head-scratching sentence that doesn't even slightly fit where he's written it.
On top of this, the way the story ends is very anti-climatic, as Green would rather waste most of the final 60 pages forcing Conan to have sex with every female in the book instead of actually focusing on the story. Seriously, there's even a point where Conan's main love interest devises ways for Conan to sleep with all the other women in the book on some kind of schedule, and it's as laughable as it is pointless and inconsequential. Roland always writes Conan to be comically horny at every turn, and it makes it impossible to take his pastiches seriously. Green also once again repeatedly found ways to force characters to be naked (or close enough) in half of the conflicts that take place. You know an author has failed to write Conan properly when he can't stop staring at women's legs and fantasising about them even when demonic tentacles are literally closing in on him.
As I say, this is a shame. The basic plot is solid Conan, and if it were written by a more capable and less sex-obsessed author, it may have even been a favourite. Instead, it's a dud that gets two stars from me and lands Green back in my bad books after the somewhat promising Conan the Guardian. Ah well.
Unfortunately, this book fell apart as it progressed, falling victim to all of Green's usual flaws. His prose is, to put it bluntly, messy and amateur as hell. The way he writes is so sporadic, unfocused, and lacking in basic necessary detail that it makes even his simple plotting difficult to follow. Often, he struggles to even string a coherent paragraph together without writing a head-scratching sentence that doesn't even slightly fit where he's written it.
On top of this, the way the story ends is very anti-climatic, as Green would rather waste most of the final 60 pages forcing Conan to have sex with every female in the book instead of actually focusing on the story. Seriously, there's even a point where Conan's main love interest devises ways for Conan to sleep with all the other women in the book on some kind of schedule, and it's as laughable as it is pointless and inconsequential. Roland always writes Conan to be comically horny at every turn, and it makes it impossible to take his pastiches seriously. Green also once again repeatedly found ways to force characters to be naked (or close enough) in half of the conflicts that take place. You know an author has failed to write Conan properly when he can't stop staring at women's legs and fantasising about them even when demonic tentacles are literally closing in on him.
As I say, this is a shame. The basic plot is solid Conan, and if it were written by a more capable and less sex-obsessed author, it may have even been a favourite. Instead, it's a dud that gets two stars from me and lands Green back in my bad books after the somewhat promising Conan the Guardian. Ah well.
December 3, 2018
Conan is trying to leave Cimmeria to get back to civilization where a man can make some money, and he takes the shortcut through the Border Kingdoms to get there. He comes across a caravan being attacked by thieves and finds it is led by his old bedmate Raihna. He swears to stay with her until she gets to her destination, and when the caravan is delivered Conan is offered a job as Guard Captain. The kingdom is under attack by a usurper, the princess and the heir apparent have been kidnapped, and their is a sorcerous brotherhood at work. Conan is less than thrilled to be Guard Captain to a bunch of untrained farmers, guarding a crumbling castle, in a kingdom rife with traitors, facing sorcery, with no gold anywhere to be seen. Only his allegiance to Raihna keeps him from heading to Nemedia as quick as possible.
A passable Conan novel, but not a good one. Conan is so courtly that even the king and queen remark about his fine manners, not at all like Conan usually acts. Everyone questions everyone else's loyalties, but are ready to accept people switching sides in moments. The evil creature the sorcerers summon is very evil indeed, but it doesn't do much. Conan spends much of the novel preparing for battle, setting traps, trying to talk the King and his Captain out of doing foolish things, and taking turns having sex with every woman in the book. The women literally work together to set a schedule. The writing is somewhat convoluted. Battle scenes are always hard to write but these are very confusing, and even the normal activities can be muddled. I found myself wanting this book to hurry up and be over with.
A passable Conan novel, but not a good one. Conan is so courtly that even the king and queen remark about his fine manners, not at all like Conan usually acts. Everyone questions everyone else's loyalties, but are ready to accept people switching sides in moments. The evil creature the sorcerers summon is very evil indeed, but it doesn't do much. Conan spends much of the novel preparing for battle, setting traps, trying to talk the King and his Captain out of doing foolish things, and taking turns having sex with every woman in the book. The women literally work together to set a schedule. The writing is somewhat convoluted. Battle scenes are always hard to write but these are very confusing, and even the normal activities can be muddled. I found myself wanting this book to hurry up and be over with.
March 30, 2023
Sorry, DNF. All the characters' names sounded the same, and their personalities weren't unique, and they didn't do much, and truthfully I found myself halfway through and didn't know what was going on. It seemed like the author was presenting a bunch of mysteries in the first half of the book that he is planning to get to in the latter half, but there isn't enough space left to adequately explain everything. So far Maddox Roberts is my fave Conan TOR author.
Read
November 6, 2008absolutely horrendous. No mention of Robert E Howard in the credits at all. Green lacks the prose to follow in REH's style of what our favorite Cimmerian was like. Conan bowing to kings, speaking in Shakespearan vernacular? being polite? Roland Green must never have read a Conan story in his life.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews