The four tales in "Conan the Conqueror" cover most of the main aspects of the career of Robert E. Howard's character: raider, thief, pirate, and mercenary. (1) "Black Tears" by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter is one of several pastiches written by the duo based upon hints in Howard's note and letters to fill up gaps in the saga. It takes place after the classic story "A Witch Shall Be Born" (in "Conan the Freebooter") as Conan leads his band of Zuagirs eastward to raid the cities and caravans of the Turanians. King Yezdigerd reacts by sending out a strong force to entrap Conan. (2) Shadows in Zamboula" by Robert E. Howard has Conan destitute after a week of guzzling, gorging, roistering, ... and gambling. This is an above average Conan the Thief story. (3) "The Devil in Iron" by Howard has Conan returning the seas as a pirate, putting together a crew from among his old friends the kozaki and the Red Fellowship of Vilayet Sea. Conan and his crew stumbled upon an inhuman creature and mayhem ensues. (4) The longest story in this collection, "The Flame Knife" was one of four uncompleted manuscripts by Howard completed by de Camp. This novella was originally an adventure in modern Afghanistan entitled "Three-Bladed Doom" staring Francis X. Gordon, Howard's brawny, brawling Irish adventurer. De Camp transformed the story into a Conan tale. After King Yezdigerd crushes the Kozak host, Conan retreats southward with a sizeable band and joins the army of Kobad Shah, king of Iranistan and one of Yezdigred's strongest rivals. These stories are rather standard fare, evidencing in part the problems de Camp and Carter had in filling all the gaps in the Conan saga. Certainly these are stories you would read out of a sense of completeness rather than because there are any real gems to be found within.

For fans of Lovecraft? From what I've seen this has nothing to do with the Cthulhu Mythos. No Cthulhu, R'Lyeh, Nyarlathotep. I don't think you should have "psychic gumshoe" in horror stories. It sounds like something from the kid's section. If you want Mythos buy Lovecraft.

This is a great collection of stories. Recommended for not only fans of Carter and Lovecraft, But for people who want some good old fun action packed horror/adventure stories. I highly recommend this!!

Robert Price is a genius editor. Rather than having his eight writers created new stories of the late Lin Carter's hero in the exact same mold as the originator, he let them run loose with the character. The results are 8 marvelous adventures, each giving us
new and different approaches to Anton Zarnak' from action, to horro and even some comedy mixed-in. More anthologies should be this
fun.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We've all heard that statement before, right? In most cases, it may even be true. Something tells me it isn't so with this book. The two authors of this book point out in the introduction (which, along with the map of Howard's fantasy world, is the only interesting thing about this book) that great care has been taken to carefully reconstruct Howard's prose style while maintaining character continuity with his original stories. Even though I've never read a Howard book before--and I will seek some of them out after this--I don't doubt that the prose and descriptions match the original stories. Unfortunately, in their careful attempts at mimicry, these two authors forgot to craft an engaging story.

"Conan the Liberator" tells the story about a revolution mounted against the evil Numedides, King of Aquilonia, by Conan the Cimmerian, a former general of Numedides. People are fed up with the debaucheries of Numedides, and the high taxes that go along with them. But Numedides is under the spell of the evil Lemurian sorcerer Thulandra Thuu, a man who wishes to further his own interests through the king. Conan has other ideas, and assembles an army with the help of Count Trocero, a nobleman of Poitain; Dexitheus, a priest of Mitra; Publius, a rebel tax accessor; and Prospero, another exiled general. The army assembles in nearby Argos, where spies keep watch on their activities, and a beauty by the name of Alcina, in the employ of Thuu, watches Conan. The entire book is a painfully detailed account of the grinding excursion north to a showdown with Numedides and Thuu.

"Conan the Liberator" is the worst fantasy book I've ever read. Page after page is loaded with meaningless dialogue and politics. I always felt the name Conan was synonymous with action. This book showed me the error of that type of thinking. NOTHING happens in this book. Sure, there are a couple of short battles during the course of the story, and Thuu manages to cast a couple of spells against Conan and his army. But overall, these few scenes are not enough to justify writing this book, let alone reprinting it. Almost every scene manages to land with an earth-shattering thud

Character development is criminally, excruciatingly flat. I've seen better character development in industrial training films. Not one character ever rises above simple human traits such as breathing and moving. It will be a miracle if I remember anything about any of them in a few days.

What is good about this book pertains directly to the creator of Conan, Robert Howard. The introduction is good, and the map of Howard's fantasy world is fascinating. According to the introduction, Howard created a world with a mix of ancient, medieval, viking, and biblical place names. Howard placed his world between the sinking of Atlantis and "the emergence of the cities." Our gods and mythologies, according to Howard, are fragmentary memories of this forgotten age.

Avoid this clunker at all costs. Go out and find the original stories, or rent the Conan movies. Learning Esperanto or cleaning the lint out of your navel would be more fun than diving into this cesspool. I suspect Howard would be quite testy if he was still alive today to witness what others have done with his ideas.

This book was a great chance to tell a super part of Conan's life. It misses the mark by being too boring and not enough action.

A fortyish Conan leads an army trying to overthrow the maniacal tyranny of king Numedides of Aquilonia. Conan believes his rebel force has a great chance of defeating the king's forces led by General Procas and consequently expects to topple a monarch who abuses children and kills concubines on some of mad whim.

Conan and his advisors anticipate and plan a war they expect fought in which blade goes against blade. Instead, the evil sorcerer Thulandra Thuu and his servant Alcina intercede. Soon a mysterious illness threaten to do what the king's forces have failed to do, destroy the rebel army unless Conan can find some way of saving himself, his soldiers and ultimately the people of Aquilonia.

This is a reprint of an exciting sword and sorcery tale released over two decades ago. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with non-magical and esoteric action as expected from the novels starring the pre-history hero. Conan remains dauntless while trying to do what he believes is right while his deadly foe Thuu will return for another day (or is that novel - if this reviewer's memory holds see CONAN THE SWORDSMAN).

Harriet Klausner