Conan - Conan the Valorous

Author John Maddox Roberts took his first swing at Tor's Conan pastiche novels in 1985 – Conan the Valorous. Many consider Roberts contributions to the Tor line as the most enjoyable, and thus far I would agree. I enjoyed his novel Conan the Bold and wanted to try his very first experience with the character. 

Conan the Valorous is stationed between the L. Sprague de Camp/REH story “The Blood-stained God” and “The Frost Giant's Daughter”. Conan is out of money and staying at an inn in northern Koth. A messenger comes to his room and asks that he meet a Stygian woman named Hathor-Ka. In that meeting Hathor-Ka, an aspiring Stygian sorcerer, offers Conan a great deal of money to carry a magical flask to Cimmeria. The goal is for Conan to pour this flask in the cave of Ben Morgh, the ancestral home of Conan's god Crom. Conan swears he will make the journey and perform the task in exchange for up-front money.

While Conan is on a road trip through Ophir, Nemedia, and the Border Kingdom, another aspiring sorcerer is doing the same, only a shortcut by river. Conan can't take this same route due to his Cimmerian heritage feuding with the Picts. This sorcerer, Jaganath, plans to ambush Conan in Cimmeria and steal this flask for himself. 

The book mostly works like one long road trip for the three-fourths of the narrative. The most entertaining portion of the novel is Conan's miniature adventure in a town called Cragsfell. Here, a chieftainess named Aelfrith is warring with a psychotic ruler living nearby. This part of the narrative explains the origins of the feud and how Conan can help. Initially, Conan declines his services to Aelfrith – despite her beautiful seduction – but once he learns that Aelfrith's daughter has been captured he changes his mind and leads a rescue by storming a castle and fighting off hordes of baddies. 

The book's last quarter features Conan aligning various Cimmerian clans to fight a sorcerer growing legions of followers, and a hideous creature, in the underground tunnels below Ben Morgh. 

The entertaining portions include the aforementioned rescue of Aelfrith's daughter (which could have been its own novel), Conan meeting various kinsmen from his boyhood, and the brief appearance of Conan villain-royalty in Thoth-Amon (from “The Phoenix on the Sword”). However, I feel that the last few scenes wrapped up the story too quickly with many promised fights evaporating like a silent fart. Jaganath has a killer in his ranks named Gopal and I was anticipating an epic fight with Conan. That never came to fruition. 

If you enjoy the very honorable, true good-guy boy-scout Conan character of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian comics or these pastiche novels, then this novel is certainly worth reading. I have a mindset when I read these types of Conan novels – this isn't the nihilistic gritty character created by Robert E. Howard, it's a re-imagining of Conan. If you can live with that then this book along with hundreds of other Conan works should be entertaining. Conan the Valorous is recommended. Buy it HERE.