Conan: Blood of the Serpent

The All-New Chronicles of the World's Greatest Barbarian Hero

De: S. M. Stirling

Narrado por: Bradford Hastings

The pulse-pounding return of Conan, the most iconic fantasy hero in popular culture

Conan the Barbarian, the world’s most famous fantasy hero, returns in an all-new novel tied directly to the famous works by his legendary creator, Robert E. Howard.

In this story, set early in his life, Conan has left his northern homeland to cut a bloody swath across the legendary Hyborian Age. A mercenary, a soldier, a thief, and a pirate, he faces conquering armies, malicious sorcerers, and monstrous creatures—against which he wields only the sword held in his powerful grasp.

The first new Conan novel in more than a decade, Blood of the Serpent leads directly into one of Robert E. Howard’s most famous sword-and-sorcery adventures, “Red Nails,” which as a bonus feature is included in this volume.

©2022 Conan Properties International LLC (“CPI”) (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

I liked it

Maybe a little short for my taste but that’s only cause I skipped red nails having already read that story a few times but other than that this was a total treat

New adventures on ancient Earth

Before Tolkien created his ancient earth, Howard created his. I love the direct link from Howard's original story to the bland new adventure. I want more!

Different from the Conan I used to read.

Descent story. Leaves you hanging for the climax... next book better come our soon.

the story was read well and the writing was super descipive and had good pace, bravo.

only that it ended, keep good works like that coming. Are there any new or relatively new Conan stories if so bring them to my attention. Very good listening, thank you.

Unnecessary

Conan fights more random wild animals than men in this bland prequel to Red Nails. This doesn't feel like a well thought out story that has a real arc, this feels more like a beginner DM having a too straight-forward campaign that he's trying to spice up with some random side quests. The ending (and transition to Red Nails) is also pretty jarring. Speaking of which, while Red Nails isn't spectacular, it's much more interesting than this prequel that wasn't really even needed. City Of The Dead was much better.

The narrator does an okay job, I liked his Conan growl especially. The voice he uses for the female characters (and almost all the males who are smaller than Conan) gets irritating pretty fast though.

Entertaining read

Good, well-told story. Stirling gets the character better than most pastiche authors. It made me want to re-read “Red Nails” next, and continue the adventure.

When Conan met Valeria

The story directly precedes the original Conan story “Red Nails” by Robert E Howard. So any reviews saying it ended with the story unresolved haven’t read the original Conan stories or they would have immediately recognized the ending of this book is the literal beginning of Red Nails.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a recent Conan fan, having read most if not all original Conan pulps by REH. It provided some thorough background information to events only briefly alluded to in Red Nails. The original Conan pulps have a vague chronology at best and much of what happens in between if left to our imagination, so a story like Blood of the Serpent fills some gaps nicely and provides more depth to the Conan universe. I would totally read more Conan material that does just that, since REH’s life was tragically cut short.

The narrator was alright. Not great like any of the Ender’s Game narrators or the Elric of Melniboné narrator or Wil Wheaton from Ready Player One, but he kept me entertained and focused. I’d listen to more Conan audiobooks from him if more are made.

My only major criticism of this audiobook is that despite what the Title Details in the Audible store suggest, this audiobook does NOT include a reading of “Red Nails”. The printed copy of the book probably includes the printed prose but unfortunately this audiobook does not include an audio equivalent. Not the biggest deal for me because I already own a printed copy of “Red Nails” and the Titan comic adaptation, but was still disappointed. So you’ll need to look elsewhere to continue Conan and Valeria’s adventure.

Conan returns!

It’s so wonderful to have a new and worthy Conan adventure. Crom shall look on in satisfaction.

Ok to good story

I didn’t like the narrator as Conan does not sound like a barbarian. The story itself was ok to good.

Good story, great performance

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It stretched a bit long during the "chase" and it seemed like the author just had so many ideas that it was difficult to fit it all in without it seeming like a jumble of events.

That being said the experience was enjoyable and I appreciated getting to experience a Conan story through his eyes.

I am also glad the author didn't attempt to ape Robert E. Howard's style. The author has a good voice that was easy to fall into.

The audio performance was top tier. I hope to see a pairing of this author and narrator for future Conan adventures.