Conan: Blood of the Serpent

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

By: S. M. Stirling

Narrated by: 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.