Scan barcode
papablues050164's review
2.0
Like the film before it, this is a pastiche of old Conan stories thrown together, not necessarily messily. The book is slightly better than the movie.
konkie44's review against another edition
3.0
I was always a huge fan of the Conan movies and normally "the book is better than the movie". Of course, Conan was more true to form in the book - coarser, more vulgar, but that didn't bother me. The very ending was completely different from the movie.
***SPOILER***
In the movie, Conan is invited by Jehnna to rule Shadizar with her, which he declines and leaves to rule his own kingdom (which is not named but would be Aquilonia). "So it was that Conan mourned his lost Valeria". In the book he drinks a potion that causes him to completely forget Valeria. Maybe I'm just a romantic at heart, but even though I'm a Robert Jordan fan, I just couldn't abide by that ending at all. In other books, Conan has lost loves (Belit, for example) and although he is by no means a one-woman man, those he truly cared for did have a lasting effect on him. For him to just drink away Valeria's memory to me ruined the ending.
Otherwise, I found the book juicier than the movie (to be expected, the movie was PG, although that must have been an 80's PG, because that's debatable) and satisfying.
***SPOILER***
In the movie, Conan is invited by Jehnna to rule Shadizar with her, which he declines and leaves to rule his own kingdom (which is not named but would be Aquilonia). "So it was that Conan mourned his lost Valeria". In the book he drinks a potion that causes him to completely forget Valeria. Maybe I'm just a romantic at heart, but even though I'm a Robert Jordan fan, I just couldn't abide by that ending at all. In other books, Conan has lost loves (Belit, for example) and although he is by no means a one-woman man, those he truly cared for did have a lasting effect on him. For him to just drink away Valeria's memory to me ruined the ending.
Otherwise, I found the book juicier than the movie (to be expected, the movie was PG, although that must have been an 80's PG, because that's debatable) and satisfying.
More...