7. Tor Conan #22 - Conan the Formidable by Steve Perry. Part 4

Ok, lets get this out of the way.. I'm sick of dealing with it..

Chapters 16-25

After the fight with the villager, Dake is counting his money in his and reflecting on various conundrums. A big one is headed his way in the form of Raseri... Bruised and battered, Conan is resting and thinking of how to escape. He has been frequently informed that such an attempt is futile due to Dake's Magic. But he persists, the last time they attempted to flee there were but three, now their are eight.

Unfortunately the other captives prove to be correct, as their attempt is halted after only a few feet. Patience was not Conan's strength, but a consensus among the others was that a second attempt not be made. Dake's small caravan buy's its way into the midst of a larger Ophiric caravan headed to Shadizar, owned by a Lord Capaya.

Raseri the Giant, and Fosull the Dwarf, meet upon the road. At first they come near to blows but then reason out that it would be best to forge a temporary alliance. They have come to this decision in the nick of time to prevent the depravities that Capeya and Dake have planned for the captives.

Dake, distracted by one of Capeya's slaves momentarily looses control of his magic and the whole collection manages to escape.. Capeya, Kreg and Dake and a large number of caravan guards set out to retrieve them. They are outwitted time and again by Conan and the others. Steadily losing numbers, they opt for a head on confrontation. This does not go well for them as Dake is slain by Conan and the rest are dispatched in other ways.

Conan says his goodbyes and continues on his way to Shadizar.

...ARGHHH....




Locations - Zamora
Towns/Cities -
Characters - Conan The Cimmerian, Jatte: Theyle, Oren, Morja, Raseri. Corinthian Wagoneers, Dake, Kreg, Penz the wolfman, Tro the Catgirl. Vargs: Vilken, Fossul, Brack
Languages Spoken - Cimmerian, Aesir, Hyperborean, Brythunian, Zamoran


Review -

ok, so finally.. after kicking my feet and screaming I've finally made it through the Steve Perry cycle... I don't really even know what to say about this one.. I've already said it all about the last three.. reading this much Steve perry in one lump is hazardous to your health.. You make wonder why I've got 10 chapters covered in the space I normally only cover five in.. well the simple answer is that nothing happened in most of those 10 chapters.. all of Steve Perry's books read as the first part of a trilogy.. which was fine back in Defiant or even Indomitable.. but the fact it continued in Free-lance and Formidable.. It's a standard formula... introduce Conan to some assorted odd creatures, bed at least one of the strange creature's females.. have him go on a long quest, and at the end be a few hundred miles closer to Shadizar.

This started out perfectly reasonable, a travel tale. But I knew already from the cover that wasn't to be. You see the cover's of the Tor books really don't leave much to the imgination, this one features Conan fighting a large four armed Giant.. and so of course he encounters a large four armed giant... in addition to a Cat Girl, a Wolfman, and dwarfish cannibales with mottled green skin known as Vargs. The Giant's and Vargs were created by a wizard (of course) in order that he might more quickly build his castle. This creating creatures to do your bidding thing is a halmark of most of Steve Perry's villians.

So now we are in Shadizar, but what sucks is.. according to Robert Jordan's Timeline (the editor of the Tor Pastiches).. These Steve Perry books would lead into Robert E. Howard's Tower of the Elephant.. But astute readers will remember that Tower of the Elephant .. DOESN'T TAKE PLACE IN SHADIZAR! So .. Steve has just spent about 1200 pages getting Conan to the wrong City.

So needless to say, the way the Chronology is laid out at the moment.. no one has really ever put much thought into it... least of all the Pastiche Writers.