Conan Of Aquilonia

Jul 17, 2009 | No Comments | @andrewmarcec

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Conan, the king of Aquilonia will embark upon his greatest adventure yet as he travels to many strange foreign lands in an attempt to vanquish his mortal enemy Thoth-Amon from the pages of the Hyborean Age forever.

This novella is actually a compilation of several short stories that all flow seamlessly from one to the next.  The first story, The Witch of the Mists follows Conan and his loyal servants as they go on a hunt.  Conan’s young son, Conn, gets lost deep in the mystic woods as he chases after the rare white stag.  Upon hearing of his son’s whereabouts Conan remembers ancient stories that involve a shape shifting queen and the evil deeds that she does.  Conn falls prey to the evil queens trick and is taken captive.  Conan must find his son and disrupt the evil group of wizards that are attempting to sacrifice his son before time runs out.

The second story, Black Sphinx of Nebthu.  After Conan has rescued his Conn, and successfully broken up the group of mages known as The Black Ring, Conan and Conn are met by a very powerful white wizard, who tells them of Thoth-Amon’s whereabouts, in an abandoned city in the desert.  Conan, Conn, the wizard and his army discover a giant black statue on the outskirts of town, and upon close inspection, find the ancient city that is hidden by the sphinx.  In one of the underground chambers Thoth-Amon and his loyal wizard followers summon the god of Chaos, only to have their plans foiled by the white wizard.

The third story, Red Moon of Zembabwei follows Conan, Conn and their armies as they venture far south of their home, hot on the tail of Thoth-Amon.  Conan and Conn are captured by giant Wyverns, giant lizards with wings, and taken into the heart of the ancient jungle city of Zembabwei.  Thoth-Amon is accompanied by his last remaining accomplice from The Black Ring, the emperor of Zembabwei.  Conan and Conn are thrown in a dungeon where they are to wait until the night of the red moon, when they will be offered as a sacrifice to the great god Set.  In the dungeons Conan meets the emperor’s twin brother, and together they devise a plan to end the evil reign forever.

The forth story, Shadows in the Skull, is the final fight between Conan and Thoth-Amon.  Set at the edge of the world, in a cave that is shaped like a skull, and the beautiful servant woman are really serpents in disguise.  With the help of Conn, Conan will have to fight magic with steel to prevail.

This was a short novella, about 170 pages, but it felt like it took much longer than a normal story to read.  The book was broken into several stories because of the fact that there were several authors who worked on this, and each took a story.  However this book would have been much better had it just been one constant story, and not the back and forth that it ended up being.  The stories, though well written and interesting, all had different styles that made it very difficult to adjust to, making it take longer to pick up on the story.

This is definitely a must read for any and all Conan fans since it involves Conan defeating his worst enemy, but it is incredibly hard to find.  This was published back in 1977, and hasn’t been popular enough to keep in the publication circuit.   It would be easiest to find at a Half Priced Books, or on Amazon or eBay.

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