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Title: Conan the Relentless
Series:
Conan the Barbarian #31
Author: Roland
Green
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages: 194
Words:
76K
Publish: 1992
Roland Green is the next author I am trying out who wrote Conan pastiches. I believe he wrote seven books and I was able to get a hold of five of them. I wasn’t paying attention and just added them willy-nilly to my calibre library and thus when I began this book, by the references Green makes, it was obvious this came after at least one other book of his. It didn’t really matter though, so I just rolled with it. I did end up re-ordering these Conan books by Green after reading this one, so hopefully the future books won’t have any more of that “huh, I’ve missed a story” feeling.
Overall, these was a slightly less than average Conan story. Green knows how to include all the elements of a good Conan story but like many of the writers of these pastiches, just doesn’t have the same fire that Howard had with his words. If I were to compare this to a food item, I’d say it’s kind of like store brand rice krispies.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
After the events of "The Lair of the Ice Worm", Conan enters the Border Kingdom. Encountering a group of bandits, he learns that the guards of a caravan they plan to raid are led by Raihna, a female adventurer he had previously encountered in Conan the Valiant. This news leads him to abandon his inclination in joining the bandits and come to the aid of Raihna, instead. Afterwards, the duo enter the service of Eloikis, theoretical king over the restive and semi-independent lords of the country, who needs their aid against a powerful count and two demon-controlling wizards. The story follows their adventures as Eloikis' troubleshooters, which ultimately concludes with their rescue of both his daughter and grandson. But their partnership dissolves when Rhiana decides to marry one of the king's guards, and Conan resumes his wanderings, heading south.
