John Maddox Roberts
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5
Average rating: 3.0 of 5
A lesser Conan book from one of the better writers 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.
John Maddox Roberts is one of the better authors to take on Robert E. Howard's legendary creation Conan the Cimmerian; he writes well and seems to have a good grip on the personality of Conan. However, this last (so far) of his Conan novels ranks as one of his lesser efforts. Perhaps he had grown tired of the character after ten years and eight novels. The plot has Conan joining forces with the exiled queen of the Amazons, Achilea, on a mysterious quest to find a lost city deep in the deserts. It isn't a terribly original idea, although the city of Jangar has some surprises in it more in line with Michael Moorcock's Elric books than Robert E. Howard's Conan. Roberts writes with skill, but the story moves too slowly, with very little action in the first two-hundred pages, most of which is a weary trudge through uninhabited lands interrupted with long speeches about the history of Jangar from various characters. Considering the promise of the title, the sexual sparks that should fly between Conan and Achilea never develop to much, and they spend most of the novel at arm's length. The ending arrives far too abruptly as well, although the coda is actually quite touching and the closest that Roberts gets in the book to approaching the true feeling of Robert E. Howard's Conan.
There are a few exciting sequences, such as a fight with a giant crocodile in a flooded arena beneath the lost city. (I can be a real sucker for the simple pleasures of big monsters.) Conan trying to escape from inside of a giant idol while being chased is also a tense read. But otherwise, "Conan and the Amazon" is a lot of walk and talk. Read some of Roberts's earlier Conan work, like "Conan the Valorous." Or better yet, just stick with Robert E. Howard's original stories in the now available "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian."
Editorial Review:
Roaming the hills of Brythunia Conan comes face to face with a legend--Achilea, once Queen of a tribe of savage women, is a consummate warrior, as fierce as she is beautiful. Together they set out to uncover the riches of the long-lost Janagar, a mighty city that stood tall for five thousand years. It was abandoned by its people, who fled on one strange night, never to return. Treasure hunters beware! Deadly horrors are waiting for Conan and Achilea deep in the bowels of Janagar.
