‘Legions of the Dead’ – Lin Carter & L. Sprague de Camp’ (Taken from ‘Conan the Swordsman’)


Page Count: 23 Pages

Prior to my move, back in November, a flurried burst of packing led me to the realization that I had somehow managed to buy three copies of ‘Conan the Swordsman’. All different covers but yep… That’s what happens when you see a copy of ‘Conan the Swordsman’, in the wild, and have to make a quick decision ;o)

Anyway, seeing these books got me thinking that I really should read at least one of them and that’s why we’re here today. Reading time is at a premium so in terms of posts, I’m going to take this book either one story at a time or maybe two or three at once, we’ll see how I feel.

With that said then… Lets jump into a very early chapter in Conan’s life and see what he makes of zombies…

As a young man, Conan finds himself adventuring with Njal of the Aesir and his warband, raiding Vanir and Hyperborean outposts. Now they are on a mission that is far more urgent… Njal’s daughter has been taken by Hyperborean slavers and must be rescued. Even if she can be rescued though, can Conan survive what evil Queen Vammatar sends to retrieve her prize…?

Now… I’m no Conan scholar, I just like reading his adventures. With that in mind then. I know that Carter and Sprague de Camp rescued various fragments of Howard’s tales, repurposing some of them in order to fill in the gaps in Conan’s life. I’m assuming that this is what happened with ‘Legions of the Dead’ and that being the case, the end result is pretty much what you’d expect.

‘Legions of the Dead’ is… well, alright I guess. There’s enough of Howard in it to make the reader feel like they’re in Conan’s world and Conan is very much Conan. That should be all you need really but over the rest of the story, it feels like something is missing.

The horror of the zombie pursuit, and attack, is spot on, tapping into that sense of evil in the pre-history of Conan’s world that ‘present day’ inhabitants can’t comprehend. Conan is as brave as he will ever be but you really get his terror in facing walking dead men that he previously fought beside.

The rescue though (and that’s not a spoiler, this is a Conan tale after all) felt just a little bit flat and lifeless which was a real shame as you have to get through this bit before you reach the zombies. And considering that 'daring rescues' are a key feature in 'Sword and Sorcery', 'Legions of the Dead' really doesn't do itself any favours.

Maybe Carter and Sprague de Camp didn’t have a lot to work with, I don’t know. ‘Legions of the Dead’ isn’t a bad read but if it wasn’t for the zombies, I’m not sure I’d remember the plot if you asked me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘The Long and Hungry Road’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Black Library)

Image
After not finishing ‘Witchbringer’ (not the book’s fault, I still think it could be worth your time), I thought I’d change pace a little and go for a short, sharp burst of something instead. Something that would blow a few cobwebs away and wake me up a bit :o) Now in my experience, there’s nothing shorter and sharper than a Warhammer short story so that was the direction of my reading taken care of. And as far as the focus went… I’ve read a few Warhammer tales, in my time, but I’ve never read a tale that looks at the events of the 41st Millennium through the eyes of the rapacious Tyranids. So when I saw ‘The Long and Hungry Road’ on Amazon, it pretty much chose itself. To face a Tyranid invasion is a waking nightmare. The skies darken with spores, your mind echoes with alien screeches, and countless weapon-organisms descend upon you with razor teeth and claws. How much greater would your horror be, to realise that the hive ship above thinks nothing of your fate – that it crushes you
Read more

'Mad God' (2021)

Image
It's that time again where Youtube throws me a 'Shudder' advert and I think to myself, 'I'm paying five quid a month for this, I really should watch something, lets give it a go...'   This time round, 'It' was the film 'Mad God' and the trailer was this mad batshit crazy shot of stop-motion horror that was over before I'd had a chance to get my head round it; leaving me pretty unsettled but with no clear idea just why that was... That's all I need sometimes, I was in... It's almost an hour later and, damn, that was grim, bleak and... What the hell just happened? A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. That is about all I can tell you about 'Mad God' and that's only because I had a quick look on IMDB and that was all IMDB could tell me... 'Mad God' is any number of things but it's not
Read more

‘Worms of the Earth’ – Robert E. Howard.

Image
Page Count: 27 Pages I have a copy of this on my shelf and the plan was to pick it up for a read on the way into work this morning. Well, that was the plan but I was half asleep, leaving the house, and totally forgot… No matter though, that’s what the Kindle app is for (although if I’d been a little more awake, I’d have read it off Project Gutenberg instead, you can find ‘Worms of the Earth’ Here ). 99p later and my ‘commute reading’ was secured 😉 I always seem to fall into the trap of just reading ‘Conan’ stuff whenever I fancy reading a little Howard. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that there’s a lot of his other stories out there that are more than worth your time when you come across them. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is very much one of those tales but you knew that already, didn’t you? You didn’t? You should do something about that, take it from me… After witnessing one of his subjects die at the hands of Roman governor Titus Sulla, Bran Mak Morn vows vengeance on Sulla but at w
Read more