When using a character created by another author it’s important to be as faithful to that original character’s personality and traits as possible. Other post-Howard writers, like Sprague de Camp, have done a pretty good job of making Conan authentic. Nobody’s ever hit the mark like Howard, of course, but Leonard Carpenter is off target here.

At times Conan sounds like a confused high school boy, or like he’s suffering with teenage angst, which is hardly fitting for a barbarian. In this novel Conan’s aged 19 yet we’ve met him younger than this and he’s never had the emotional issues that he suffers with in “Conan the Hero”.

As for the story, I found it good in parts, but on the whole it didn’t hold my interest.

Style-wise, the author has a habit of overusing adjectives, often using two to describe a noun, resulting in clunky sentences. He also relies on “then” too much, which is a lame way to tell the reader what happens next. ( )