Reading a Conan novel is my Christmas treat. The first novel I bought, and the first novel I read as an adult was a Conan novel, so the character holds a fond place in my heart.
Conan is in the wilds of the Kezankian mountains when his troop is attacked by his old friend, Khezal, a Captain in the Turanian army. The group is further expanded when part of a hill tribe and the beautiful Bethina, sister and usurper to his brother’s tribe, join, and further complicate an already tense truce.
The lady of the mists, a powerful and evil sorceress, falls in love with her guard and becomes a lover not a fighter. Swiftly the mist of doom that powered her evil gains sentience and begins to attack.
This is pretty standard fair, the most interesting part of it is actually the love story between the sorceress and her guard, but this plays a small part in proceeding and could have done with being expanded. There are too many tribes and factions and it becomes confusing at certain stages who is who and what and why they’re doing it.
Really not enough Conan in this one, there are too many other characters and other parts of the story that are more interesting. More a standard sword and sorcery fantasy novel with Conan shoe-horned in than a proper Conan book.
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