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Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God
A new chapter of the Titan comics & Heroic Signatures massive narrative
Scourge of the Serpent Men
. A thrilling story about Conan the Barbarian facing violent abominations written by Bram Stoker Award Winning Author Tim Waggoner
“What do the two of you know of the Cult of Set?”
In Zamora, the city of thieves, Conan meets Valja, a thrill-seeking thief. She entices him to join her on a heist, where they steal a golden statuette of Ishtar, said to contain the goddess herself. After killing a dozen guards and failing to escape, the pair are saved by priestesses of Mitra. But Conan knows that nothing is free.
The priestesses have need of their skills. They have waged war against Set, god of chaos and serpents, who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects and massacred thousands of his followers. Yet they are no match for Uzzeran, a powerful sorcerer, who has been performing unspeakable experiments on humans in the name of Set. To defeat Uzzeran, they will need a legendary warrior on their side. They need Conan the Barbarian.
“What do the two of you know of the Cult of Set?”
In Zamora, the city of thieves, Conan meets Valja, a thrill-seeking thief. She entices him to join her on a heist, where they steal a golden statuette of Ishtar, said to contain the goddess herself. After killing a dozen guards and failing to escape, the pair are saved by priestesses of Mitra. But Conan knows that nothing is free.
The priestesses have need of their skills. They have waged war against Set, god of chaos and serpents, who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects and massacred thousands of his followers. Yet they are no match for Uzzeran, a powerful sorcerer, who has been performing unspeakable experiments on humans in the name of Set. To defeat Uzzeran, they will need a legendary warrior on their side. They need Conan the Barbarian.
- GenresFantasy
Audible Audio
First published October 28, 2025
23 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Tim Waggoner
282 books757 followersTim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then, he's published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, Conan the Barbarian, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Grimm, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Ti West’s X-Trilogy, Halloween Kills, Terrifier 2 and 3, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He’s also the author of the award-winning guide to horror Writing in the Dark. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe Award, and he’s been a two-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 9, 2025
Another hard one to rate. Titan is working their comic and book angles together for the last couple of releases. This book goes along with the current serpent men/ Set angle in the comics.
The book starts out well with a young Conan and a young Zamoran woman named Valja. This takes place shortly after the Tower of The Elephant as they are still in the City of Thieves. Valja is a seasoned thief and Conan is still learning the trade. After some shenanigans, they eventually meet up with a priestess of Mitra and a Kushite Shaman to stop a powerful Stygian Sorcerer from creating Serpent lords from mixing humans and serpent men via vile sorcerous means. They end up stopping the sorcerer as Conan destroys the Eye of Set during the ritual. The cool part is this all takes place in the lower levels of the collapsed Tower of the Elephant.
The second part of the book takes place 15 years later as Set sets things in motion through various individuals. The same Sorcerer is involved with another attempt as the second Eye of Set has been unearthed. Conan is around 33 at this time and is at the height of his powers. Through various means, the crew reunited with a new Khitian warrior Conan met as Caravan guards. The main action takes place in a magical fortress in the mountains called Ravenhold. With the help of mountain apes (Yes a Thak reference) and The Spider God Zath’s Wolf sized spiders, and even the help of Ishtar and Mitra, they defeat the sorcerer, stop Set, and many other creatures.
The Good:
-Conan is a badass
-The book moves along with a good pace
-Plenty of other Conan story tidbits throughout
-Valja is a good character
-The Stygian Sorcerer has a lower caste Stygian servant who gets merged with the spirit of a serpent man after the first battle. Their back and forth in his mind is extremely fun.
-Bar fighting
The not so good:
-Too much time spent on character development for a Conan/Sword and Sorcery story.
-Conan is missing from large swaths of the book (He should always be the main focus)
-The weird Mother Set angle that Titan made Tim use because of the comic storyline.
-Ravenhold seemed more Dungeons and Dragons than Conan
You have to take a Conan novel length Pastiche for what it is. This book was fun. It will never be Howard. It’s not as good as John Maddox Roberts Tor Conan books or Hocking’s Titan Release. It falls somewhere in the line of Jordan’s Conan books or Offutt’s Conan. Better than Leonard Carpenter, Green, Poul Anderson, Wagner, DeCamp, Moore, Sterling, Lebbon, Lovegrove, etc.
The book starts out well with a young Conan and a young Zamoran woman named Valja. This takes place shortly after the Tower of The Elephant as they are still in the City of Thieves. Valja is a seasoned thief and Conan is still learning the trade. After some shenanigans, they eventually meet up with a priestess of Mitra and a Kushite Shaman to stop a powerful Stygian Sorcerer from creating Serpent lords from mixing humans and serpent men via vile sorcerous means. They end up stopping the sorcerer as Conan destroys the Eye of Set during the ritual. The cool part is this all takes place in the lower levels of the collapsed Tower of the Elephant.
The second part of the book takes place 15 years later as Set sets things in motion through various individuals. The same Sorcerer is involved with another attempt as the second Eye of Set has been unearthed. Conan is around 33 at this time and is at the height of his powers. Through various means, the crew reunited with a new Khitian warrior Conan met as Caravan guards. The main action takes place in a magical fortress in the mountains called Ravenhold. With the help of mountain apes (Yes a Thak reference) and The Spider God Zath’s Wolf sized spiders, and even the help of Ishtar and Mitra, they defeat the sorcerer, stop Set, and many other creatures.
The Good:
-Conan is a badass
-The book moves along with a good pace
-Plenty of other Conan story tidbits throughout
-Valja is a good character
-The Stygian Sorcerer has a lower caste Stygian servant who gets merged with the spirit of a serpent man after the first battle. Their back and forth in his mind is extremely fun.
-Bar fighting
The not so good:
-Too much time spent on character development for a Conan/Sword and Sorcery story.
-Conan is missing from large swaths of the book (He should always be the main focus)
-The weird Mother Set angle that Titan made Tim use because of the comic storyline.
-Ravenhold seemed more Dungeons and Dragons than Conan
You have to take a Conan novel length Pastiche for what it is. This book was fun. It will never be Howard. It’s not as good as John Maddox Roberts Tor Conan books or Hocking’s Titan Release. It falls somewhere in the line of Jordan’s Conan books or Offutt’s Conan. Better than Leonard Carpenter, Green, Poul Anderson, Wagner, DeCamp, Moore, Sterling, Lebbon, Lovegrove, etc.
November 17, 2025
Of Titan’s Conan books I like this most beside John C. Hocking’s Conan and the Emerald Lotus. It doesn’t have quite as high ambitions as the others, and is pretty meat and potatoes, but it’s cooked just right.
Blood of the Serpent was a cool idea as a prequel to Red Nails but it just never got the vibe right. Cult of the Obsidian Moon had an amazing idea of combing Howard’s James Allison character with Conan but fell so short of the promise of that idea. Song of the Slain was a good old Conan story but again just never got the vibe quite right.
This one gets the vibe just right. The first half takes place right after Tower of the Elephant. It feels like Conan much moreso than the others. It also perfectly encapsulates the “days of high adventure” feel of the genre and hits those escapists notes just right.
The second half feels a little less right in terms of the vibe. It feels a bit less horror and a bit more comic book or video game-y but the action and characters are so well done it doesn’t disappoint. It’s not as pure as the meddling of gods seems a bit too overt and Conan, if reluctant, is still too comfortable with magical allies. It ties in all the elements of the first half well and provides an enjoyable conclusion.
I think the the idea of telling a Conan story connected across two sections of his life, with many tie-ins to his other adventures, is a good idea even if it’s not as lofty as some of the other setups in the Titan signature series.
It just ekes out a five stars from me. I do feel like the first half is much stronger and truer to Conan but the whole is still a solid action packed romp.
Also given the subject matter of this book I really hope Titan decides to do Kull books and Tim Waggoner is selected to write them.
It’s good, greater than the sum of its parts, and a great read if you’re in the mood for some good ole fashioned sword and sorcery.
Blood of the Serpent was a cool idea as a prequel to Red Nails but it just never got the vibe right. Cult of the Obsidian Moon had an amazing idea of combing Howard’s James Allison character with Conan but fell so short of the promise of that idea. Song of the Slain was a good old Conan story but again just never got the vibe quite right.
This one gets the vibe just right. The first half takes place right after Tower of the Elephant. It feels like Conan much moreso than the others. It also perfectly encapsulates the “days of high adventure” feel of the genre and hits those escapists notes just right.
The second half feels a little less right in terms of the vibe. It feels a bit less horror and a bit more comic book or video game-y but the action and characters are so well done it doesn’t disappoint. It’s not as pure as the meddling of gods seems a bit too overt and Conan, if reluctant, is still too comfortable with magical allies. It ties in all the elements of the first half well and provides an enjoyable conclusion.
I think the the idea of telling a Conan story connected across two sections of his life, with many tie-ins to his other adventures, is a good idea even if it’s not as lofty as some of the other setups in the Titan signature series.
It just ekes out a five stars from me. I do feel like the first half is much stronger and truer to Conan but the whole is still a solid action packed romp.
Also given the subject matter of this book I really hope Titan decides to do Kull books and Tim Waggoner is selected to write them.
It’s good, greater than the sum of its parts, and a great read if you’re in the mood for some good ole fashioned sword and sorcery.
November 28, 2025
Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God takes the character of Conan and puts him in the trappings of an Epic fantasy instead of his regular genre, Sword-and-Sorcery.
I don't knock that effort and respect to what Waggoner attempt, but for me, it just didn't work.
It's not a bad story, and the writing is solid, I just expected something a little more from such a prolific author.
I don't knock that effort and respect to what Waggoner attempt, but for me, it just didn't work.
It's not a bad story, and the writing is solid, I just expected something a little more from such a prolific author.
November 11, 2025
This is the best Conan novel I've read in years.
Waggoner doesn't imitate REH, but plays vigorously and respectfully with the world Howard created. The story is engaging and exciting, it keeps the juices pumping from page one. Waggoner's prose struck me as less eldritch than Howard, but the tale certainly doesn't lack for sword-slinging melees and eldritch horror. The characters and situations feel true to the original; Waggoner's characters, even the spear-carriers, have backgrounds and specific reasons for being in that place, at that time, carrying that specific spear.
The conclusion is satisfying, and I was left curious about what that ancient future held for the surviving characters.
This was a fun and exciting read, and I hope to see more from Waggoner in this series.
Waggoner doesn't imitate REH, but plays vigorously and respectfully with the world Howard created. The story is engaging and exciting, it keeps the juices pumping from page one. Waggoner's prose struck me as less eldritch than Howard, but the tale certainly doesn't lack for sword-slinging melees and eldritch horror. The characters and situations feel true to the original; Waggoner's characters, even the spear-carriers, have backgrounds and specific reasons for being in that place, at that time, carrying that specific spear.
The conclusion is satisfying, and I was left curious about what that ancient future held for the surviving characters.
This was a fun and exciting read, and I hope to see more from Waggoner in this series.
December 23, 2025
Conan meets thrill-seeking thief Valja, who asks him to help her steal a gold statue of the goddess Ishtar. The theft goes badly, and they're saved by the priestesses of Mitra. As he suspects, the priestesses want something in return: help in their war against Set, the god of serpents and chaos.
Opening with the heist of the gold statuettes of Ishtar, we're introduced to Conan and his current lover, Valja, in their element. It's an interview of sorts for the priestess. At the same time, the Cult of Set is working on sorcery, the Cult of Zath, the spider god is working against the Serpent Men. Set is one of the Great Old Ones, with different names for different cultures, with a plan to fuse Serpent Men and humans through foul magic. The ceremony is one that requires specific conditions, and part 2 of the book takes place fifteen years later. In between the battles are back stories and the motivations of various characters.
The omniscient view gives more insight into the story than the average action movie would, and it splits some of the attention away from the titular Conan. It works here because he's still the main fighter in the battles, which are cinematic and thrilling to read. If you enjoy classic Conan tales, this will be a great read for you.
Opening with the heist of the gold statuettes of Ishtar, we're introduced to Conan and his current lover, Valja, in their element. It's an interview of sorts for the priestess. At the same time, the Cult of Set is working on sorcery, the Cult of Zath, the spider god is working against the Serpent Men. Set is one of the Great Old Ones, with different names for different cultures, with a plan to fuse Serpent Men and humans through foul magic. The ceremony is one that requires specific conditions, and part 2 of the book takes place fifteen years later. In between the battles are back stories and the motivations of various characters.
The omniscient view gives more insight into the story than the average action movie would, and it splits some of the attention away from the titular Conan. It works here because he's still the main fighter in the battles, which are cinematic and thrilling to read. If you enjoy classic Conan tales, this will be a great read for you.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews