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The Heroic Legends Series
Conan: Lethal Consignment
Capturing the electric short fiction energy that led Robert E. Howard to be one of the top fantasy writers of the century, with exclusive serialized eBook stories starring Conan, Solomon Kane, and more by many of today’s top writers in fantasy and sword-and-sorcery.In a port city in Zingara, Conan of Cimmeria drinks away the last of his meager purse. He’s considering robbing one of the city’s noble houses when he’s approached by a man named Flavio, first mate on a ship called Fortune’s Dawn. The Dawn is seeking mercenaries to transport valuable cargo to Aquilonia, the very heart of civilization. Conan is suspicious, but also deeply curious and in sore need of the coin, so he takes the job. His suspicions only deepen as he meets the reticent, sparse crew of the ship. However, Conan only realizes the severity of danger he’s walked into when a terrible scream reveals a crew member dead and mutilated on the deck. Armed with only his wits and his sword, Conan must figure out the mysteries of Fortune’s Dawn before the same fate befalls him.
37 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2024
14 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 11, 2024
This one didn’t feel right to me from the beginning. First, modern dialogue doesn’t fit with the Hyborian age. Second, Conan didn’t act like himself. Even as a young man, (this was prior to The Tower of the Elephant) Conan should dominate the scene. Sorely lacking in most of the story. Third, Conan seems to know little of Aquilonia yet he fought the soldiers of Venarium as the Aquilonians were encroaching in Cimmeria. This was pointed out many times throughout his life. The story had potential. It wasn’t realized due to these points. But the modern dialogue was the worst.
May 14, 2024
Odd though had promise
Short, surprised me with its abrupt end. Much more a scene in the opening act of a full story than this. Conan the character began promising. Setting this in his youth and giving us a teenage Conan pre-most of Howard's Conan stories is a good idea. Conan here, though, doesn't really get to be much. The other characters aren't allowed to be developed; they're set up like bowling pins to be knocked about in turn. Much of their decision-making was senseless. I didn't know this author before and I've no desire to read more of him now.
Short, surprised me with its abrupt end. Much more a scene in the opening act of a full story than this. Conan the character began promising. Setting this in his youth and giving us a teenage Conan pre-most of Howard's Conan stories is a good idea. Conan here, though, doesn't really get to be much. The other characters aren't allowed to be developed; they're set up like bowling pins to be knocked about in turn. Much of their decision-making was senseless. I didn't know this author before and I've no desire to read more of him now.
May 13, 2024
Conan meets Last Voyage of the Demeter...
...with a welcome twist. A fun story, more so than a number of these recent pastiche, with a better working knowledge of the setting, but a thin sketch of Conan himself and the story is too short to develop the villain. Basically, imagine your monthly "Savage Sword" story from the early 80s. Fine, nothing great.
...with a welcome twist. A fun story, more so than a number of these recent pastiche, with a better working knowledge of the setting, but a thin sketch of Conan himself and the story is too short to develop the villain. Basically, imagine your monthly "Savage Sword" story from the early 80s. Fine, nothing great.
July 24, 2024
This failed to grip me. I was excited to read a young Conan story with him getting his sea legs for the first time; however, it just failed to launch. Not terrible, but not great.
May 1, 2024
Not the strongest story in this series. By no means was this a bad story but it wasn't great. It felt rushed. As rushed as a short story can be I mean. It just didn't feel quite like a Conan story to me.
November 13, 2025
Not a bad short story but I felt the implications were never realized, as the tomb and horror could have made for a more sinister and atmospheric adventure. Even so, I can see sellsword adventures with Leonidos and/or maybe a young Conan.
Bèlit
Bone Whispers by Michael Stackpole 3/5
Shipwrecked by V. Castro 3/5
Bèlit & Conan
Terror from the Abyss by Henry Herz 3/5
Bran Mak Morn
Red Waves of Slaughter by Steven L. Shrewsbury 3/5
Conan
Black Starlight by John C. Hocking 5/5
The Child by Brian D. Anderson 4/5
Halls of Immortal Darkness by Laird Barron 3/5
Lethal Consignment by Shaun Hamill 3/5
Lord of the Mount by Stephen Graham Jones 4/5
Shadow of Vengeance by Scott Oden 4/5
El Borak
The Siege of Lamakan by James Lovegrove 4/5
Kull & Brule if you know what's good for you
The Talons of Deep Time by Francesco Dimitri 5/5
Solomon Kane
Banquet of Souls by Steven Savile 4/5
The Hound of God by Jonathan Maberry 5/5
Bèlit
Bone Whispers by Michael Stackpole 3/5
Shipwrecked by V. Castro 3/5
Bèlit & Conan
Terror from the Abyss by Henry Herz 3/5
Bran Mak Morn
Red Waves of Slaughter by Steven L. Shrewsbury 3/5
Conan
Black Starlight by John C. Hocking 5/5
The Child by Brian D. Anderson 4/5
Halls of Immortal Darkness by Laird Barron 3/5
Lethal Consignment by Shaun Hamill 3/5
Lord of the Mount by Stephen Graham Jones 4/5
Shadow of Vengeance by Scott Oden 4/5
El Borak
The Siege of Lamakan by James Lovegrove 4/5
Kull & Brule if you know what's good for you
The Talons of Deep Time by Francesco Dimitri 5/5
Solomon Kane
Banquet of Souls by Steven Savile 4/5
The Hound of God by Jonathan Maberry 5/5
January 26, 2025
Barely scrapes by
You really don't get that many "Teenage Conan, still learning his way around" stories, so this got off to an intriguing start with that promise. Initially, I appreciated the emphasis on building a sense of mystery and dread. The first evident problem was when I noticed how there's very little distinctive sense of, well, Conan about this Conan. Like our hero might have been pretty much any eager, reasonably capable young adventurer clad in light plot-armor, and not much would change. Then when the action finally hits in the final third, it often feels conspicuously un-kinetic, as though various participants are waiting around for their turns to move in a board game, with time for chunks of internal reflection and strangely leisurely dialogue, right as you'd think everyone would busy scrambling like mad for their lives.
You really don't get that many "Teenage Conan, still learning his way around" stories, so this got off to an intriguing start with that promise. Initially, I appreciated the emphasis on building a sense of mystery and dread. The first evident problem was when I noticed how there's very little distinctive sense of, well, Conan about this Conan. Like our hero might have been pretty much any eager, reasonably capable young adventurer clad in light plot-armor, and not much would change. Then when the action finally hits in the final third, it often feels conspicuously un-kinetic, as though various participants are waiting around for their turns to move in a board game, with time for chunks of internal reflection and strangely leisurely dialogue, right as you'd think everyone would busy scrambling like mad for their lives.
September 26, 2024
I do enjoy reading these short story pastiches that have been released monthly by Titan Books as ebooks for £1.99. The stories are based on characters created by Robert E.Howard. This particular short story was a fun read deserving of 3 stars in my opinion.
October 23, 2025
Earlier this week, I wrapped up reading ‘Prisoner of the Horned Helmet’ by James Silke, one of the first sword and sorcery novels I’ve read in probably a decade – excluding anything Gwynne/Rothfuss/Martin related. I did read one from S.H. Cooper that falls into the fantasy realm, but I wouldn’t classify it as S&S.
While reading it, David Sodergren had messaged me about a Conan novel he was reading and once I was done, I knew I needed to check out something Conan related, after David was raving about his read. Looking, I saw that I’d previously purchased a huge Conan compendium eBook, but then I also saw that Titan has been releasing a bunch of Conan related short stories, written by some wonderful current authors, so I decided to take a chance on one of those. The first one that caught my eye was this one from Shaun Hamill. I loved his novel ‘A Cosmology of Monsters,’ so I was really excited to dive into this one.
What I liked: The story follows a young Conan, having arrived at a port town in search of work or adventure, but finding neither. While drinking in a tavern, a man approaches him and suggests Conan’s just the guy he’s looking for – someone to sail on the ship he’s on, acting as security while they head up river.
With the promise of a good payday and the prospect of adventure, Conan agrees and soon they’ve left on the ship called Fortune’s Dawn.
Hamill sets the stage nicely, showing Conan to be gruff but also introspective. A layered barbarian if you will.
Not long onboard the ship, Conan realizes things are off. There’s not as many crew members as he’d think for a ship this size and the captain never makes an appearance – day or night. After one crew member is found dead, his throat ripped out, Conan knows there’s more going on than even he can imagine.
Then one night, another sellsword decides to come clean to Conan and answer the questions Conan’s been asking, which leads to the discover of what’s onboard and a fight to the death takes place.
It’s this final quarter that Hamill really shines, giving us a huge cinematic moment, with swords swinging, blood flying and Conan and the other sellsword battling this thing until the bitter end.
I was grinning like a maniac throughout this quick read, loving every minute of what Hamill created.
What I didn’t like: The most obvious thing here is the length – but come on, even I’ll give my head a shake, knowing full well there are parameters in place for this short stories. But what did become evident with the length aspect, was the lack of character depth of the secondary characters. I wished we learned a bit more about the ship, the part where they pick up what wrecks havoc was longer and more detailed and with that, this thing would’ve been even more terrifying than it already was.
Why you should buy this: At only roughly 40 pages, this was a really quick, snappy read that made me so, so happy. Conan is a fantastic character that encounters every level of danger and Hamill used that to his advantage, giving us a story with an isolated, confined setting and a thing that had an insatiable lust for blood.
Overall, a wonderful modern update to a character that’s been bringing readers (and movie goers) so much joy for almost one hundred years!
While reading it, David Sodergren had messaged me about a Conan novel he was reading and once I was done, I knew I needed to check out something Conan related, after David was raving about his read. Looking, I saw that I’d previously purchased a huge Conan compendium eBook, but then I also saw that Titan has been releasing a bunch of Conan related short stories, written by some wonderful current authors, so I decided to take a chance on one of those. The first one that caught my eye was this one from Shaun Hamill. I loved his novel ‘A Cosmology of Monsters,’ so I was really excited to dive into this one.
What I liked: The story follows a young Conan, having arrived at a port town in search of work or adventure, but finding neither. While drinking in a tavern, a man approaches him and suggests Conan’s just the guy he’s looking for – someone to sail on the ship he’s on, acting as security while they head up river.
With the promise of a good payday and the prospect of adventure, Conan agrees and soon they’ve left on the ship called Fortune’s Dawn.
Hamill sets the stage nicely, showing Conan to be gruff but also introspective. A layered barbarian if you will.
Not long onboard the ship, Conan realizes things are off. There’s not as many crew members as he’d think for a ship this size and the captain never makes an appearance – day or night. After one crew member is found dead, his throat ripped out, Conan knows there’s more going on than even he can imagine.
Then one night, another sellsword decides to come clean to Conan and answer the questions Conan’s been asking, which leads to the discover of what’s onboard and a fight to the death takes place.
It’s this final quarter that Hamill really shines, giving us a huge cinematic moment, with swords swinging, blood flying and Conan and the other sellsword battling this thing until the bitter end.
I was grinning like a maniac throughout this quick read, loving every minute of what Hamill created.
What I didn’t like: The most obvious thing here is the length – but come on, even I’ll give my head a shake, knowing full well there are parameters in place for this short stories. But what did become evident with the length aspect, was the lack of character depth of the secondary characters. I wished we learned a bit more about the ship, the part where they pick up what wrecks havoc was longer and more detailed and with that, this thing would’ve been even more terrifying than it already was.
Why you should buy this: At only roughly 40 pages, this was a really quick, snappy read that made me so, so happy. Conan is a fantastic character that encounters every level of danger and Hamill used that to his advantage, giving us a story with an isolated, confined setting and a thing that had an insatiable lust for blood.
Overall, a wonderful modern update to a character that’s been bringing readers (and movie goers) so much joy for almost one hundred years!
May 6, 2024
A straightforward but seriously flawed Conan tale
This is a short and straightforward Conan story that has a couple of major flaws. The basic premise is good, but done before. Alien but on a sailing vessel (like the recent movie, The Last Voyage of the Demeter). But there are some serious flaws. First, the story doesn’t follow what we know about Conan’s travels from Robert E. Howard. Likewise, the ship that Conan is hired on is heading to Aquilonia from Zingara by river. But there is no mention of Venarium, and Conan seems to be only vaguely familiar with Aquilonia, which doesn’t seem like Conan at all. Second, Conan seems too unsure of himself. The character is Conan in name only. He doesn’t act like Conan. Third, the premise has substantial plot holes. The first mate and crew’s actions seem unbelievable and we’re left too much in the dark as to the creature’s motivation. The writing is in general simple and straightforward, which I like. The first half of the story is a little dull. Once the action gets started, the story gets better but there is still something unsatisfying to the battle. I think Hamill could have turned this into a better S&S story if it was a different protagonist (avoiding the pitfalls of not writing a believable Conan) and if the plot was tightened up.
This is a short and straightforward Conan story that has a couple of major flaws. The basic premise is good, but done before. Alien but on a sailing vessel (like the recent movie, The Last Voyage of the Demeter). But there are some serious flaws. First, the story doesn’t follow what we know about Conan’s travels from Robert E. Howard. Likewise, the ship that Conan is hired on is heading to Aquilonia from Zingara by river. But there is no mention of Venarium, and Conan seems to be only vaguely familiar with Aquilonia, which doesn’t seem like Conan at all. Second, Conan seems too unsure of himself. The character is Conan in name only. He doesn’t act like Conan. Third, the premise has substantial plot holes. The first mate and crew’s actions seem unbelievable and we’re left too much in the dark as to the creature’s motivation. The writing is in general simple and straightforward, which I like. The first half of the story is a little dull. Once the action gets started, the story gets better but there is still something unsatisfying to the battle. I think Hamill could have turned this into a better S&S story if it was a different protagonist (avoiding the pitfalls of not writing a believable Conan) and if the plot was tightened up.
October 3, 2024
I grabbed this to read on the drive home from my daughter's soccer game (kindle things are good for night time car rides. Like the previous Heroic Legends short I read, it was ok, but a bit generic. The author seemed like he was just using place names, not really someone who had a feel of the character.
The plot was ok, I think he did decently well with Conan as a young man (this story takes place early in his thief days, before Tower of the Elephant), but between the modernish sounding dialogue and not really seeming to know the Hyborian age, it was a bit meh.
The plot was ok, I think he did decently well with Conan as a young man (this story takes place early in his thief days, before Tower of the Elephant), but between the modernish sounding dialogue and not really seeming to know the Hyborian age, it was a bit meh.
May 16, 2024
This story is very, very short. There are spoilers here, so go read the story first. I'll give you twenty, maybe twenty five minutes. It's not terrible. It's not particularly good, either.
It feels very modern in tone, mostly due to word choice. Consignment, teenager, some of the other word choices knocked me out of the story, but not in a major way.
It is a very standard Conan meets monster sort of story. Like many of these new shorts it feels like a novel length idea that someone pared down. It's very plot driven. The story feels like it's getting Conan from point A to point B, Conan hired in a pub (bartender) gets on ship, meets secondary characters, realizes he's not being told everything, gets told everything in a very info dump way, fights monster, secondary characters give up their lives for reasons that are not at all clear from the narrative, and Conan escapes. Conan was a character who almost didn't have to be in the story.
It really called to be a mood piece rather than a plot driven piece, as many very short works are.
It seems to me that making these shorter REH stories longer short stories or novellas, even up to 50k, would be smarter than the short-short pieces, none of which have felt authentic.
On the plus side, Conan felt like Conan. His character felt right on, and that's a good thing.
There are two new Conan novels coming out this year, one, John Hocking, is a known quantity, but Lovegrove as a Conan author, doing a comic book tie in at that, is not. I hope that both are successful.
It feels very modern in tone, mostly due to word choice. Consignment, teenager, some of the other word choices knocked me out of the story, but not in a major way.
It is a very standard Conan meets monster sort of story. Like many of these new shorts it feels like a novel length idea that someone pared down. It's very plot driven. The story feels like it's getting Conan from point A to point B, Conan hired in a pub (bartender) gets on ship, meets secondary characters, realizes he's not being told everything, gets told everything in a very info dump way, fights monster, secondary characters give up their lives for reasons that are not at all clear from the narrative, and Conan escapes. Conan was a character who almost didn't have to be in the story.
It really called to be a mood piece rather than a plot driven piece, as many very short works are.
It seems to me that making these shorter REH stories longer short stories or novellas, even up to 50k, would be smarter than the short-short pieces, none of which have felt authentic.
On the plus side, Conan felt like Conan. His character felt right on, and that's a good thing.
There are two new Conan novels coming out this year, one, John Hocking, is a known quantity, but Lovegrove as a Conan author, doing a comic book tie in at that, is not. I hope that both are successful.
June 26, 2024
Adventure Aboard a Ship
A young Conan, with no money and no job is hired by Flavio, to provide security aboard a ship even though he knows nothing about sailing, so Conan tells Flavio, but than when he sees the ship it's related that this isn't the biggest ship Conan has seen.
This book is short and in some ways it seems things were left out plus the ending was a little rushed, in my opinion.
A young Conan, with no money and no job is hired by Flavio, to provide security aboard a ship even though he knows nothing about sailing, so Conan tells Flavio, but than when he sees the ship it's related that this isn't the biggest ship Conan has seen.
This book is short and in some ways it seems things were left out plus the ending was a little rushed, in my opinion.
April 30, 2024
Young Conan
Young and inexperienced does not make Conan any less deadly. In this short tale Conan learns more about the Dark nature of the Hyborian age, and learns what to do about it. Check it out.
Young and inexperienced does not make Conan any less deadly. In this short tale Conan learns more about the Dark nature of the Hyborian age, and learns what to do about it. Check it out.
September 30, 2024
A young Conan is hired on as a guard aboard a mysterious ship. Even early in his career I would have expected Conan to be more confident than he’s depicted and some of the modern vocabulary took me out of the story. Other than that, it was a quick fun read.
May 2, 2024
Not bad. A little on the short side, such that breaking it up into chapters was probably unnecessary, and I do wish the author had committed to making it a stealth Alien crossover.
December 23, 2025
More like a couple of chapters from a larger book. Not bad, but not much too it.
February 22, 2025
An entertaining Conan story that just felt a little too quick and short for its own good. I think it would be better with a little more meat on the bones.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews