Conan the Gladiator

Adventures of Conan

by Leonard Carpenter

Lured by a beautiful acrobat, Conan becomes the strongman of a traveling troupe, only to end up as a gladiator when his company is forced to fight in the Circus Imperium, a wonder of Conan's world. Reissue.

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1995

About the author

Leonard Paul Carpenter (born 1948) is an American technical writer and author of fantasy, historical and futurist fiction. He began by selling horror/fantasy tales and Conan the Barbarian sequels, eleven novels totaling a million words. This is more of the Conan saga than any other author living or dead, including Conan's inspired creator Robert E. Howard in the 1930's. Now Carpenter breaks out of sci-fantasy with his mainstream historical opus Lusitania Lost, a wartime epic of the sinking of the luxury liner in 1915 by a German U-boat, which ultimately caused the US to enter WWI. This is the first novelization of an event more dramatic and significant than the Titanic tragedy 3 years earlier. Carpenter has also written the screenplay adaptation of this book. Another novel of his, the future-history thriller Biohacker, is available on Amazon Kindle. Carpenter is the widowed survivor of a 50-year courtship and marriage, proud father of 3, and owner of a superstar Frisbee dog, Lizzie. He spends his time traveling and writing about a Cuban fantasy quest and real-life engagement in his just-published novel, Tropic of Cuba, now serialized on Kindle Vella at Amazon (first chapters free!)

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another Carpenter Conan novel that would work better as a non-Howard novel than as a Conan story. Conan gets tired and depressed, so he runs away and joins the circus... You wait for the punchline, but that's essentially what happens. It's almost as weird as the Conan-builds-a-nuclear-bomb novel. Not a bad Roman-influenced historical, but Conan just wasn't himself.

[Malum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably the worst Conan story ever written. Either Leonard P. Carpenter knew absolutely nothing about Conan, or he was purposefully trying change (sabotage?) the character in the worst ways. It has been many years since I have read this, but I particularly remember that Conan sees some doctors cut someone open and, since he can see how the human body works, he starts to feel bad about killing people. Yeah, it's that bad. At the end of the novel, Conan goes off to rethink his life. Anyone who is an actual fan of Conan might actually get cancer from reading this.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again, only a half hearted Conan book. Between this and the other one I’ve read by him (Conan Lord Of The Black River), I’m beginning to think Carpenter had a couple historical novels plotted out (this one set in Roman occupied Egypt and LotBR set during the quest for the source of the Nile) and just changed the names and called them Conan novels. I mean in this one Conan even tired of fighting and wants to live a life of peace. Even going as far as commiserating with a priest of Set and asking himself what he would do. It’s just not like Conan at all.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jag skulle inte läsa om den, men den är helt ok som badkarslitteratur. Intrigen är i princip: 1) Conan skadar en cirkus-brottare, och tar hans plats. 2) de kontrakteras till motsvarigheten av Circus Maximus, som gladiatorer. Därefter följer lite gladiatorintrig. 3) Conans popularitet som gladiator för honom in i politiken, som verktyg/livvakt åt stadens korrupte ledare (kallad Commod-or-us, i vad som inte ens kan kallas en blinkning åt Christopher Plummers tolkning av kejsaren). 4) Den i slutet döde ledaren ersätts av Conans sluga reskamrat från historiens första 1/3-del.

Inga direkta sidohistorier, inga djupare syften, ingenting annat än trevlig, dum, action.

[Richard Berrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a weak Conan book. I picked it up at a used bookstore like "ooh! Old Conan!" Yoink

So Conan joins a traveling circus as their resident strong man no less. This iteration of Conan is very tame. He's a very passive protagonist. He hooks up with the acrobatess Sathilda, and they sleep together in a perfunctory capacity. Seriously, they never so much as *flirt*. And they barely speak to each other. They just bed down together like an old married couple, and that's the whole reason Conan stays. Her presence in the story is obligatory. His relationship with his girlfriend is not developed or explored at all. By the end of the book, he's almost relieved to be separated from her. If you ask me, he was bored with her from the start.

The book at least tries to honor the tropes that made the original material good. Civilization crumbles in a wrath-of-god style flood, and the story ends with Conan escaping the calamity alive. But Conan is no barbarian who dislikes civilization. In fact he agrees with the city's ruler that social progress is a good thing. Again, he passively agrees with almost everything that comes his way.

At one point, he meets a priest who's more like a battlefield surgeon than an embalmer, with a very Hippocratic attitude. Conan watches this guy save a gladiator's life, and then decides he doesn't want to kill people any more. I shit you not. Conan the Cimmerian actually says he dislikes being an assassin. Remember in "Black Colossus" when Conan's commanding officers referred to him as "Conan the throat-slitter?" Leonard Carpenter doesn't.

There is no Lovecraftian monster to battle, but a mute wrestler whose fighting style emulates a boa constrictor. That rivalry isn't played up too much, and Conan mentions a couple of times that he's afraid of this guy. He stands his ground against the wrestler, but loses and nearly dies but for a lucky break (literally, the ground collapses beneath their feet as Xothar squeezes Conan to death, and it's Xothar who unfortunately gets pinned under falling debris)

This book should have been called "Conan the Indifferent" or maybe "Conan the Shrugger" because he shrugs at everything, from circussing to gladiating to his girlfriend. This protagonist has no fire in his belly, and there are no buildups between him and any worthy adversaries to keep the reader engaged.

Carpenter is a competent wordsmith, but he demonstrates the difference between a novelist and a storyteller. Howard was a storyteller with lots of poetic flourishes that make the text enjoyable in and of itself. Carpenter is clear, but that's all.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

What if Conan visited Ancient Rome and became a gladiator? This is the idea that Carpenter used here, unless he just wrote a gladiator book and changed the name of the main character to Conan. Complete with the Circus Maximus and an Emperor who liked to play at gladiator named Commodorus. It's decent as a gladiator story, terrible as a Conan story. Conan does not act at all like himself. He is tricked more than once but overlooks the slight, fights to entertain others rather than as necessity or through honorable motives, and is astounded by basic medicine. Not things Conan would normally do.

Several parts of the book are dedicated to exploring the arena, including details of its construction. Time is spent reliving some historical uses of the arena, including the killing of religious minorities and the difference between fighting styles of various gladiator types. A mildly redeeming characteristic is the reveal that the obvious enemies may not be so bad after all. As a straight gladiator story it would get three stars for being readable and useful in passing the time. As a Conan story it gets 1 star. Better to keep Conan in his own world than to try and shoehorn him into some alien period.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a few of Leonard Carpenter's Conan books and for the most part they're ok. Not this one! This would have been an ok general sword and sorcery story, but it's not Conan.

Conan doesn't talk or act like Howards sullen barbarian warrior from his books and I could be wrong but I don't remember any of his world that sounded so close to the Romans, plus Conan in a circus? Sorry just don't buy it.

This was an ok read but just not a great Conan novel.

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fine story, but a terrible CONAN story. Do not let this be your introduction to Conan.

[Gary Romeo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t dislike this one even though it has LOTS of weaknesses. First off, the main plot bothers me. Conan joins a circus (not so bad) and they are invited to Luxor to perform. Instead of doing their normal circus act they are tricked into fighting for their lives against wild beasts and bandits (again, not so bad.) Conan, instead of swearing vengeance against this treacherous set up, decides it was all good clean fun and him and the circus performers all become gladiators (sooooo bad!)

Carpenter’s easy to read prose kept me reading it and it did get better. I liked the explanation that Stygia allowed this cosmopolitan type city to exist to facilitate trade and some needed contact with the rest of the Hyborian World. It made sense, sort of like the way middle America tolerates Hollywood. It’s mostly antithetical to middle American values but nevertheless it entertains and is a valuable export and a glamorous face that hides some of our ugliness.

The city’s tyrant boss built aqueducts and other modern things as a byproduct of the prosperous games. In one section he gives a little speech that has a lot of truth to it. He explains how the heavy action oriented games excite the people and how the riches and rewards have a secularizing effect making the population less religious and more willing to leave small towns and seek reward in the city. There is a minor character that does exactly that. He arrived with Conan’s circus but his criminal entrepreneur skills make him a contender in this city.

There is a scene where Conan sees the caretakers of the dead gladiators mummify the bodies and Conan is appalled. The man explains how this process helps him learn useful information about how the human body works. When a dying gladiator is brought in the man has Conan perform CPR type moves and the man stitches up wounds and saves his life. Conan had hit his head earlier and passes out. Some have cited this as Conan fainting at the sight of blood. Maybe… I prefer to see it as a result of his earlier head blow and this new knowledge making him dizzy.

If Carpenter had developed these ideas about civilization’s secularizing and brutality contrasted with the increase in knowledge and better living standards then we might have had a very interesting Conan novel. But, alas, Carpenter fails to develop it further and ends the novel by wrecking the circus maximus in a colossal ship battle gone haywire and Conan survives for the next adventure.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often wonder what Robert E Howard would think (if, at this time, he thinks at all.) As far as I know Howard rarely or never set foot outside of Texas. He committed suicide at age thirty, in 1936. He supported himself by selling the stories he wrote to various pulp magazines, which in Howard's day were considered low class and of no consequence. Yet somehow the tales and characters Howard created-Conan, King Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane-spawned a series of books, films, comics and television programs that continue to be made to this day. Howard died never knowing he was a success. To me that is almost unutterably sad. As for the book that prompted these vaguely philosophical musings: Conan the Gladiator by Leonard Carpenter is one of a series of Conan pastiches Ace published. This novel is pretty uneven, but the ending redeems the rest of it-what an incredible spectacle! Not sure the payoff is worth what you have to go thru to get there-in the end I think I will have to leave that to each individual reader, as I personally am on the fence about it. This Conan is a little more laid back than the Conan I love. Sure he has a mercenary heart-he's been a mercenary-but when he and some friends are set up for slaughter the Conan I know would have broken the neck of the man who did it, rather than saying "oh there is money to be made." (These events do take place after the death of Belit so Conan is a little older here. Mayhap that is a reflection of him being older and presumably wiser.) The cover by Ken Kelly is nice enough but our hero looks like a more 'roided up version of The Ultimate Warrior. Conan got his muscles from running fighting and thieving not pumping iron two hours a day.

[Isen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conan joins a circus. Why not, I guess. But fate takes this menagerie of travelling charlatans to Luxor to perform in the Circus Imperium, run by a guy named Commodorus. And if that is not a hint enough, then the title of the book should clue you in as to what ensues.

Beyond his debut, however, Conan's gladiatorial career proves pretty dull. He does not show a particular desire to kill for the crowd's amusement, and by the end of the book indeed seems to realise that killing is bad and becomes a pacifist. This is certainly a strange character development, and would be a challenge to reconcile with the swathe of destruction Conan leaves in every single story set both before and after the current novel, but whatever. Carpenter has long ago made it clear that he is not particularly interested in Conan per se; he is interested in Hyborian geopolitics, and in generally seeing how far he can twist the setting before it breaks. Conan's role is a fly on the wall. In this particular novel he observes how a Corinthian adventurer is appointed governor of Luxor in an attempt to improve Stygia's relations with the outer world, but instead tries to use gladiatorial combats to bolster his own popularity and eventually seize the city for himself.

How this conflict would develop and resolve we never find out, because everything suddenly ends, as far as the reader can tell, entirely by chance. So the plot doesn't go anywhere, there are far too many needless characters and unresolved arcs, and it's really not about Conan. But the writing is smooth enough for the book not to irritate the reader. It just never interests him either.

[Robert D · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story takes place probably when Conan is in his late twenties or early thirties. Conan injures one of the members of a traveling circus and takes his place as the strongman of the show. The troupe is lured to Luxur, the Stygian capital to give a performance. The capital is currently ruled by a Corinthian trying to bring a more cosmopolitan air to the country. Commodorus, the temporary ruler of Luxur, has built an elaborate colosseum and is constantly in need of new entertainment for the masses. When the circus is led to the games Conan and the others must start entertaining the bloodthirsty masses.

The author is obviously knowledgeable about ancient Rome and its gladiatorial games. The writing is good but there is a lot of suspension of belief with regard to the lore of the countries of Conan. The Stygian priesthood allowing a foreigner to take control of their capital for the purpose of extending trade is questionable. The very fact that the priesthood of starts to plot against the 'Tyrant' is only cause for a small sub-plot. Another un-Conan aspect of the book is near the end when Conan becomes disillusioned with the gladiatorial games and vows to not kill anymore, at least not for in the pay of others. Which really goes against the concept of being a mercenary.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book had some good ideas and some interesting scenes, it's ultimately pretty forgettable. It started strong enough, but Conan acts and thinks uncharacteristically about halfway through and it goes down hill from there. The final act had a fun chaotic action scene, but again - as it seems always the way with these pastiches - the ending is rushed and incredibly unsatisfying. Perhaps the funniest and out-of-character thing I've thus read Conan say/think is, "a man's innards are his own personal property. Peeking and probing at them like that violates his privacy." - who knew Conan of Cimmeria was such an articulate libertarian.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only thing that makes this book good is Conan.

[East Bay J · Rating 1 out of 5]

And... Conan joins the circus. Yeah, he does some gladiating but he gets into that fine mess by kicking some guy's ass and taking his place as the strong man in a circus. Geesh. Somehow, I don't see Conan joining a circus, even at his most cheerful.

While Carpenter's writing is perfectly fine, his poor grasp of the character and reliance on Roman gladiator (not to mention circus) elements are marks against him. This was almost as difficult to get through as some of DeCamp and/or Carter's dreck.

And "perfectly fine" doesn't mean "great." An example:

"Weeping relatives, Memtep with a small band of arena functionaries, a few bookmakers and some local widows who habitually wailed at every public funeral..."

Local widows. Women who "habitually" wail at funerals. Somehow the seems demeaning to women and widows as a general thing. Maybe it's me.

"After glancing at one another, the couple did not demur."

I don't think Conan has ever demured.

Or how about this one, where Conan helps to sew up a sword wound:

"He was aware that his own hands were beginning to weaken and tremble; then a cloud passed over his eyes and he fainted dead away."

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Conan sees stitches applied and passes out. Much is made, in fact, of how Conan's encounter with a Hyborian era pacifist surgeon leaves him with no taste for killing, which is a shaky premise at best, considering who we're dealing with, here. But to say that watching a wound be sewn up would cause him to pass out is to completely fail to grasp the character of Conan. He might not enjoy it, but it wouldn't make him faint. When he plays nurse and pats his wounded pal on the head on page 221, one might believe one is reading about someone else entirely.

Ken Kelly's cover art is nice looking but not exactly on point. The scene depicted featured no women but there's a mostly naked one kneeling in the corner with her mouth wide open. Conan's mouth is wide open, too, as is one of the priest's. What goes on in Kelly's mind? What, indeed?

Conan The Gladiator is not horrible, but it's not that good, either. I guess that means it's okay?

[Vämpiriüs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sice to není jak od Roberta Ervina Howarda ale postava Conana byla dobře zpracována.

[Robert Fenske · Rating 1 out of 5]

Conan in the Gladiator ring? You'd think that'd be something hard to mess up and yet this story was lacking. The set up was cartoonish and with an average plot, nothing really stood out to me. And by the time something interesting did happen, I was just ready to be done with the book.

[Devan Outzen]

This looks like an interesting adventure and I enjoy books with action and drama!