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lgpiper's review
3.0
My friend, Michael, says I read too many girly books. You know lasting literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather, ..., hell even Dorothy Sayers. So in an attempt to ready more manly stuff, I tried out Zane Grey, Walter Mosley, and now Robert E. Howard.
Robert E. Howard, it seems, wrote fantasy adventure things that are wildly popular with a certain set. Other than Tolkein and J. K. Rowling, I've never read fantasy adventure. Well, now I have. I didn't figure I'd be much of a fan of fantasy adventure, and now I can say that I'll still not much of a fan. I read to understand other people, something I have trouble doing, because most of them don't make a lot of sense to me. Were I someone who read to escape reality, then I suppose this would be a fine book. For me, it was merely "OK", not awful, but not something I'd go out of my way to read. Since I have a couple more Howards lined up on my kindle, I'll likely read them, but I doubt I'll make this a habit.
Ok, now as to the story, Conan the Barbarian meets up with a woman pirate, Valeria. Then end up in an ancient city out in the middle of nowhere that has two feuding tribes of people bent on each other's destruction. They don't go outside the city because there be dragons in the nearby forest. So we have battles, monsters, oodles of sword play, nearly naked women (check out the cover!), amazingly buff men, blood and gore, magic, human sacrifice, and oodles of other things that people appear to like in their FA books.
Robert E. Howard, it seems, wrote fantasy adventure things that are wildly popular with a certain set. Other than Tolkein and J. K. Rowling, I've never read fantasy adventure. Well, now I have. I didn't figure I'd be much of a fan of fantasy adventure, and now I can say that I'll still not much of a fan. I read to understand other people, something I have trouble doing, because most of them don't make a lot of sense to me. Were I someone who read to escape reality, then I suppose this would be a fine book. For me, it was merely "OK", not awful, but not something I'd go out of my way to read. Since I have a couple more Howards lined up on my kindle, I'll likely read them, but I doubt I'll make this a habit.
Ok, now as to the story, Conan the Barbarian meets up with a woman pirate, Valeria. Then end up in an ancient city out in the middle of nowhere that has two feuding tribes of people bent on each other's destruction. They don't go outside the city because there be dragons in the nearby forest. So we have battles, monsters, oodles of sword play, nearly naked women (check out the cover!), amazingly buff men, blood and gore, magic, human sacrifice, and oodles of other things that people appear to like in their FA books.
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