Aug 28, Kevin Potter rated it liked it. This will be my review for the series as a whole. I read this one last, as I read them in the chronological order listing from Jordan himself according to the Wikipedia article. I listened to the old audiobooks narrated by John Polk. Going into it with the understanding of what you're getting into simple, easy to drop into and out This will be my review for the series as a whole. Going into it with the understanding of what you're getting into simple, easy to drop into and out of, bawdy, semi-misogynistic adventure stories , these books absolutely deliver what they promise and were enjoyable to read.
My two biggest complaints are that the final battles are all very short and left me feeling it was a bit anticlimactic. And nearly every woman is described as being slender with a round bottom and full beasts. Not that this is a bad thing to have, there are women who are well endowed in all walks of life. It only bugged me because it was almost every woman and many were defined by it with no other characterization.
Sep 19, Dantegideon rated it it was ok. The book seems to exist mostly so RJ can show off using callimastian and callipygian in one sentence. Conan spends all his time chasing them while the plot goes on around him. Dec 08, Capitalismissexy rated it it was amazing. Aug 24, Everett rated it really liked it. It is a Conan story written by Robert Jordan. If you are a fan of either then you get it. Jun 12, Josh rated it liked it. As a huge Robert Jordan fan, I find myself looking for some of his other works outside the Wheel of Time, and so started working through his Conan books.
This one, the second in the "Further Chronicles of Conan", was pretty okay. I do like how Jordan continues with some of the same characters throughout his books, lending them a sense of continuity and the progression of time. Each book is rather episodic, and always way too overreaching in scope, but Jordan's skill with the pen definitely was a As a huge Robert Jordan fan, I find myself looking for some of his other works outside the Wheel of Time, and so started working through his Conan books.
Each book is rather episodic, and always way too overreaching in scope, but Jordan's skill with the pen definitely was a plus for the world of Conan. This one all takes place within one city area, and has more intrigue as it centers around an evil noblewoman's plan to resurrect an ancient evil being.
Centering on several key characters and due to the nature of the evil creature, this book was pretty dark in theme. It also seemed to have more sex in it than some of the others. Overall it kept my interest to find out what was going to happen in the end, although the ending felt really rushed and the resolution pretty far-fetched.
As always it dumps Conan right back where he started so that he can start a new adventure with a clean slate. That is probably the biggest thing I wish they had changed, to actually give him a linear kind of progression so that the series as a whole feels more cohesive and complete. Jun 15, Robert Fenske rated it it was ok. This was not one of Robert Jordan's best but it was good enough. Action, excitement, and wenches the usual things to expect from a Conan story. The final battle against the mighty god, Al'kiir, was disappointing and left me wanting something more.
Aug 25, Chris Gorsend rated it really liked it. Jordan's Conan pastiches are the best of the extended Conan universe. McClelland and Stewart, A crazed Russian starts a nuclear exchange with the U. When the Gods Came. Mutants and humans battle savagely on an Earth largely destroyed forty years earlier in a short atomic holocaust.
Despite antiscientific bias on the part of the public, a remnant of the government has kept research going and is preparing a devastating nuclear attack on the last stronghold of the enemy. The hero, a telepathic astronomer, is suspected of being a mutant, but he proves to be a descendant of an alien race which landed on Earth five thousand years earlier. Under duress, he helps the government destroy the enemy, then flees Earth with others of his kind in a rocket fortuitously uncovered by the explosion of an enemy atomic bomb.
The Coming of the Horseclans, Horseclans 1. It is A. Most of southern California was tumbled into the Pacific, and various geologic upheavals have occurred since. Mutant telepaths who can communicate with jaguars and horses roam the plains and do battle with each other. There are lots of battle scenes, torture, and rape especially rape of children.
The mutant leader, Milo, aided by his wife the short but sexy and mighty-in-battle Mara , takes the long view of rebuilding civilization: Other volumes in the series continue relentlessly portraying slaughter, torture, rape, incest, cannibalism, bestiality, necrophilia, etc. Adams emphasizes viciousness and obscenity to an extreme degree, only seldom touching on the theme of nuclear war.
In volume 8 Adams kills off his favorite hero, but lets him linger on his deathbed reminiscing about past battles for four more volumes. Most of the sequels require no separate: In this volume it is denied that the various mutations present in the Horseclans world were caused by radiation, except, perhaps, for telepathy p. A Woman of the Horseclans. In chapters 9 and 10 Milo explores an ancient fallout shelter. This volume is unusual in being much less combat-oriented than the others. Horses of the North.
Contains more about the nuclear war background of the Horseclans world than previous volumes, as the immortal mutant Milo Morai tells his quarreling comrades of how he founded the clans in a lengthy flashback. The nuclear holocaust was followed by massive plagues which killed even more people, and by numerous smaller military conflicts.
An immortal Nazi doctor who views the war sees it as a purifying fire, exterminating the unfit. It is revealed that Hitler was a mutant. The big cats which play such an important role in the series come from a game park. A Man Called Milo Morai. Contains nothing relating to nuclear war.
Dedicated in part to Bernard Goetz, who shot two black teenagers on a New York subway. Friends of the Horseclans II. A Story of Planet Ionus. Farrar, Straus Cudahy, As Terror on Planet Ionus. Battle against an interstellar monster named Karkong which feeds on nuclear power plants. Although a macho admiral is frustrated in his desire to A-bomb the invader, the Russians do so, giving it vastly increased power. Finally Karkong is destroyed by penetrating its electric barrier with an advanced vehicle, allowing the Grid ship to strike it with lightning bolts.
Seven years after the war the protagonist is compiling a report on the casualties of the bombing of Hiroshima. A bitter, ironic attack on the American role in dropping the bomb and their later treatment of the Japanese. Some of those he interviews attack the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission for its failure to treat the injuries it studies and for what is seen as the callous and racist attitudes of some of its staff. The bombing of Nagasaki is criticized as unnecessary; ABCC findings that mutation rates were not above normal are questioned. Some members of the Willow Society, however, argue that the Japanese themselves were partially responsible for the catastrophe that ended the war, and that they probably would have used the bomb themselves had they had it.
According to one story, there was a rumor circulating in the hospitals that the Japanese did in fact have the bomb, had previously refrained from using it out of humanitarian considerations, but after the bombing of Hiroshima, had used it to destroy San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even deathly ill patients cheered at this news. The Japanese are not depicted as saintly victims: The author credits two published nonfiction sources: The Survivalist, 1, Total War.
Former medical student, ex-CIA agent, soldier of fortune, and survivalist John Thomas Rourke battles his way through war-wasted America. Russell Sting IA boot knife. Interwoven with tales of love between individuals of the East and West, a confrontation over the Pakistan invasion builds toward war.
The Russians destroy a U. Meanwhile Sarah and the kids, having survived the initial attack, flee their house where leaking gas threatens an explosion, take up residence in the barn, and are promptly attacked by a band of would-be rapist-looters. On the national scene, things are not going so well. The president, faced with incoming missiles, feels he has no choice but to order an attack. He then recites the Twenty-third Psalm and shoots himself to prevent the Russians from using him during the coming invasion.
With four-fifths of the U. France is relatively intact for some reason; perhaps Ahern wished to avoid the tedium of repeating its experience of the first two world wars. Most spectacularly of all, the bombs on the West Coast have caused half of California to fall into the ocean, just like those hippies used to say it would. The midsection of the country will be an uninhabitable radioactive wasteland for a century or more, and the Earth may have been tilted off its axis, but only slightly.
Meanwhile, Rourke treats as many of the wounded plane passengers as he can, and goes for help in a nearby city with four other men, three of whom desert. The exception is a young fellow named Rubenstein who will shed his citified naivete and learn to enjoy slaughtering his fellow citizens like his mentor. Rourke and Rubenstein find a Geiger counter, strip off their radioactive clothes, and Rourke shoots a pack of attacking dogs. You would have made one hell of a great cowboy in the old west, John Rourke. Nine parts killer and one part lover, our hero unselfishly labors over the wounded in a makeshift hospital, returning to the plane to find the other passengers slaughtered by a gang of bikers.
He kills all twelve of them, including a woman. Ahern likes to include a token woman in his vicious gangs.
Rourke and Rubenstein recite the Twenty-third Psalm, torch the bodies, and slaughter forty more bikers from another gang. The Survivalist, 2, The Nightmare Begins. Zebra,While the KGB is shooting teenage resistance fighters in Chicago, Rourke and Rubenstein are battling a paramilitary group and grimly eating their iron rations: The two encounter a group of teenagers, all dying of radiation disease, who are bent on defending the town until their parents return.
Naturally she falls for Rourke, and when they are captured, helps them escape with the new president. She buries the victim, then falls ill from drinking contaminated water. Finally arriving back home, Rourke finds her message tacked to the barn door telling him she has left with another family, kills four marauding youths, and takes off. The Survivalist, 3, The Quest. Rourke gives Rubenstein a tour of his Retreat, an impregnable fortress hidden in a mountain cave, with special emphasis on weapons enumerated by make and books unnamed.
His shelter contains the stocks of food, clothing, and tools one would expect; it also includes a machine shop, a distillery for making alcohol fuel for his vehicles, and an artificially lit greenhouse. Rourke, having promised Natalia that he would spare Karamatzov, strikes a compromise by gunning the Russian down in a Western-style duel. Meanwhile Sarah and the kids have made it to safety. Rourke and Sarah glimpse each other in the distance, but fail to connect. For no apparent reason, she decides she needs to move on looking for him just hours before he succeeds in tracing her to her retreat.
Poor at getting together, the couple excels at faithfulness: The Survivalist, 4, The Doomsayer. Relations between Russians and Cubans are strained; but a greater danger threatens Florida than armed combat. A beautiful young seismologist Rourke rescues from a gang of Brigands tells him that a new geological fault formed during the war threatens to dump the entire state into the sea in the near future. Sarah has proven herself a true survivor by knifing a Russian soldier to death and hijacking the boat he has been guarding.
Meanwhile, Rubenstein, off to St. Petersburg to visit his parents, discovers and breaks into one of the concentration camps set up by the vicious Cubans to whom Florida has been ceded. At the last moment before Florida collapses, he finds his parents. Much activity by the hapless resistance occurs in this novel. Rourke briefly joins the official army, though bitterly critical of the government officials who caused the war. The Survivalist, 5, The Web. Rourke and his wife blast their way through the landscape, continually missing each other, although everyone else keeps stumbling into acquaintances in the most unlikely fashion.
Natalia turns renegade, and gives Rubenstein photographs of the captured plans of the Eden Project. Meanwhile Sarah exchanges favors with a Russian officer. It is clearer as these books go on that the professionals on both sides have far more respect for each other than for their less disciplined comrades. In a plot reminiscent of Jonestown, these folks give their kids one last whale of a Fourth of July and blow themselves up. An attractive librarian with spiderlike propensities keeps Rourke tied up and drugged in her basement so they can die together.
Through a combination of martial arts and vitamin B-complex shots, Rourke escapes. The Survivalist, 6, The Savage Horde. A reunited team of Natalia, Rubenstein, and Rourke is coerced into helping a fanatical military leader battle fanatical Wildmen in order to secure atomic missiles to be used against Russian headquarters in Chicago. Meanwhile Sarah continues to fight Brigands with the aid of her eight-year-old son, who is developing into quite a promising killer. The Survivalist, 7, The Prophet. Rourke defeats the Wildmen with Sidewinder missiles fired from an experimental fighter and thwarts the schemes of the renegade sub commander who compares himself to the hero of On the Beach to bomb Chicago.
Rourke is reunited with his family and learns new respect for Sarah as she and their son join in a shootout with some Brigands. The family that slays together, stays together. Meanwhile, the Russians have discovered the secret of the mysterious Eden Project. The aftermath of the war is about to annihilate all life on Earth save that protected by a special serum and frozen for five hundred years.
The Survivalist, 9, Earth Fire. Rourke and his companions foil the Russian plot to destroy the Eden Project by wrecking their particle beam weapons and plundering their secret base. They take enough supplies to preserve themselves in the Retreat for five hundred years, unfortunately leaving behind with the evil KGB commander one vial of serum. The commander is apparently killed in a final assault on the Retreat, just as the sky catches fire and exterminates all animal life on Earth.
The Survivalist, 10, The Awakening. Exactly years later, Rourke awakes, trains his kids for five years in the art of killing, then puts himself back in suspended animation for sixteen years so that he, they, his wife, Natalia, and Rubenstein will all be of roughly the same age. Just before the others are due to awaken, son Michael goes exploring, discovers cannibals and a group of vicious survivors from a huge supershelter it features a nine-hole golf course!
He rescues a young woman with whom he plans to mate, but is captured. They are rescued by Rourke, Natalia, and Rubenstein in a bloody battle. At the end of the novel the Eden Project is sighted returning, and we learn that the KGB commander has survived after all and is still seeking vengeance on Rourke. The Survivalist 13, Pursuit. Rourke finds his daughter safe in a utopian colony in Iceland. The rest of his family is seized as hostages by the Russians, but he frees them, although his arch-nemesis Karamatzov escapes once more.
The Survivalist 15, Overlord. Rourke and Natalia struggle with the Russians for possession of a cache of unused nuclear weapons hidden in Chinese underground cities. New English Library, This volume is unnumbered, but was published between numbers 15 and The Russians and Americans turnout each to have built undersea domed retreats in which they have survived for centuries, arming with nuclear weapons against each other.
Natalia and Rourke are captured by the Russians, but Rourke escapes and rescues her, only to be shot and apparently killed just after she has decapitated her evil husband, Karamatzov. This volume is unnumbered but was published after no. In Airs of Earth. Faber, omitted from the edition. Also in John Carnell, ed. Lambda I and Other Stories. The Chinese claim they have hit Hong Kong with a nuclear bomb by accident.
The American president calls upon the Russians to give in, noting that peace is possible only because the British have remained neutral. Most of the story is a preachy critique of the disarmament movement, and the ending portrays a prime minister determined to cling to power. However, the ironic outcome of the story considerably obscures its point.
The Science Fiction of Brian W. Aldiss San Bernardino, Calif.: In this wild fantasy, the lavish use of nuclear weapons has caused distortions in the space-time continuum which bounce the characters from era to era. The Danube, blocked by a bomb, creates a European inland sea. The subtitle is a pun referring both to the nature of the plot and to the fact that the characters burst into song at intervals. In this dreamlike fantasy of disintegrating reality, it is mentioned in passing that nuclear weapons have been used in the Crimea. The same device used in the preceding novel reappears: In Seasons in Flight.
After a war between the Warsaw Pact and NATO blankets the Northern Hemisphere in radioactive dust clouds, high-ranking military officials flee and crash-land on the Pacific island of Sipora where they are greeted by a wrathful god, which is perhaps a volcanic eruption. Retitled An Island Called Moreau. During a nuclear war between the United States and China on one side, and the USSR on the other, an undersecretary of state crash-lands in a space shuttle near a South Pacific island where a thalidomide victim named Dart continues the experiments of H. Moreau in the creation of half-human monsters.
After various adventures and a frolic with supersensual Japanese seal-people, the undersecretary discovers that the island is a secret project of his own department intended to design a radiation-resistant race of humanoids for life after nuclear war. Moreau , the beasts revolt, and their creator is killed. Beginning of another postholocaust adventure series. He joins an isolated settlement in an abandoned department store and duels with its ruler for possession of his woman. His ideal proves illusory, however, and he plunges back into the wilderness with an earthier female companion, seeking the fabled northern settlement of peace and progress called Genesis.
For some reason, the nuclear bombs have prevented any rain from falling for years, but at the end of the novel hope is signaled by the onset of a shower. Basically a simple action yarn with very stereotyped manipulative, predatory women although you can buy any of them for a piece of a tube of lipstick. The hero, however, is considerably more thoughtful and complex than the average pulp hero. See under del Rey, Lester. Anthony Messenger, September, This story, in the form of a journal, describes the suffering and death of a suburban family when the world is destroyed by nuclear war.
At first people try to deny that the ill effects they experience are caused by fallout, even when babies begin to die. There is hoarding, but no rioting, looting, or rape. Source of the script for the film Testament. The story begins deceptively as a sentimental tale of a frolicsome puppy befriending a young girl; but it soon becomes apparent that humans fear and distrust dogs since a nuclear war has made the dogs human-eaters and rendered the humans defenseless.
Mu tated humans are in fact ceremonially fed to a dog-beast. Women are now stronger than men. Time is a debilitating disease which haunts a crowded and polluted world where the sky is discolored by the aftermath of limited nuclear wars. Sex is rare because of fear of disease and widespread depression. People live vicariously through television actors who write their own lines.
A middle-aged scientist becomes involved in the Manhattan Project and works at Oak Ridge, witnesses the Trinity test, and investigates the after-effects of radiation in Hiroshima this phase of his career is skipped over quickly. Little detail is provided about the bomb; the novel is mainly concerned with the security problems of its protagonist, which mirror those of Robert Oppenheimer.
Deeply troubled by the moral implications of his involvement with the project, the scientist becomes active in advocating international control of atomic energy along the lines proposed by the Baruch Plan. Finally cleared by an investigation, he is asked to join a research project, headed by an ex-Nazi, to build a new radiation superweapon. He is ambivalent, but about to begin work, when the novel ends. See under Anderson, William C. Three hundred men aboard an interstellar ship return to Earth to find it has been destroyed by an unknown enemy and that they themselves are under attack from a barrage of nuclear missiles.
They go in search of the culprits and of a European ship crewed by women. The men rage, the women take tranquillizers to combat hysteria; the men fight, the women engage in trade. Meanwhile, men and women are reunited, but since there are more women than men, they will practice polyandry, except for the leaders, who prefer monogamy. The Day the Earth Stood Still: Three Original Novellas of Science Fiction. The garage owner who had originally thought of the idea of praying for such a miracle cannot think of any appropriate response to its occurrence; disillusioned mobs destroy his property and kill him.
There is only muted hope for something better to emerge out of what seems to be the collapse of civilization. An Adventure in Science Fiction. Also in Cold Victory. Also in Reginald Bretnor, ed. Future at War, Vol. The Spear of Mars. The foreword to Cold Victory establishes that the entire series has as its background a nuclear holocaust which destroyed civilization. In Strangers from Earth. Interstellar adventure with terrestrial nuclear war in the distant background. Loosely linked to the Maurai stories. In a revolt against a post-World War III dictatorship, which uses a small atomic bomb against the rebels, the rebel leader is no better than the tyrant he overthrows.
An interstellar war story containing an incidental mention of radioactivity associated with the firing of spaceship guns. Also in Judith Merril, ed. Also in Frederik Pohl, ed. The Science Fiction Roll of Honor: In The Horn of Time. Also in The Psychotechnic League. The Future at War, Vol. Pournelle and John F. There Will Be War. Three stories from the Maurai series together with two stories related to each other but without any bearing on nuclear war: Also in The Best of Poul Anderson. Also in Robert R Mills, ed.
A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction. With a near- monopoly on technology, they ceaselessly strive to enforce an ecologically sound way of life, banning the use of nonrenewable resources and nuclear technology. In this story they use flame-throwers to battle pirates flying in blimps, asserting their control over international trade. As is true of many of these stories, the superiority of high technology over traditional Maurai culture is argued.
Also in The Horn of Time. Two hundred years later, a Maurai spy mission to India uncovers the secret construction of a fusion reactor and tries to destroy it. The story argues for cultural pluralism and against the uniformity produced by twentieth-century-style industrialism. Also in Roger Elwood and Virginia Kidd, eds. Also published as The Wounded Planet. In Time and Stars. Also in Isaac Asimov, ed.
The Hugo Winners, Vol. In a post-atomic war age, feudal wars rage across a fragmented America. A superior political thriller with some fairly good characterization and at least one strong female character, although most of the women function primarily as lovers. Berkley, expanded from version in Fantastic, June, July, Various groups struggle for control of a force-field shield developed with the aid of the Martians by a bright young man especially chosen and fostered to be of service from among the survivors of the second thermonuclear war.
Also in Alden H. Award Science Fiction Reader. Also in Kurt Singer, ed. Also in Donald L. Approaches to Science Fiction. Warlike colonists return to Earth and conquer it using atomic weapons. The hero defeats them by using a matter converter to create a critical mass of plutonium. In The Long Night. Also in Brian Aldiss, ed.
The leader of a successful rebellion against barbaric alien rulers plans to establish a new human empire with himself as dictator. Both sides use nuclear weapons. There Will Be Time. Bound with The Dancer from Atlantis. A time-traveling mutant works to prevent the nuclear war he knows is pending. This is a loosely connected member of that series. The mutant comes in conflict with a ruthless group of time travelers bent on battling the Maurai, and he defeats them. The novel ends with the victors planning flight to the stars. The early pages of the novel contain a good deal of satirical commentary on the radical movements of the sixties.
This popular non-fictional account of the subject based largely on Kahn and Kissinger is neither extremely pessimistic nor overly sanguine. Bound with The Winter of the World. Also in Robert P. Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: There Will Be War, Vol. Ruthless invaders from a decadent overpopulated world assault a peaceful pastoral planet using nuclear missiles and atomic artillery. Taking advantage of the long periods of time required for the invaders to transport successive expeditions, the victims rapidly develop a high technology and defeat their enemies with superweapons.
Series of linked stories: Europe has been devastated, but parts of the Soviet Union now dissolved into smaller states and the United States are slowly recovering. A census is to be conducted to find out how many people have survived. Meanwhile it is becoming apparent that radioactive fallout has created a far greater number of mutations than might have been expected.
There they encounter and battle their Siberian i. The Siberians are defeated. As in his other works, Anderson relies on high technology to solve problems. These stories fit in with the general theme of sympathy with homo superior. Vault of the Ages. Two boys use technology from a time vault to defeat invaders and cause the lifting of the taboo on the old knowledge.
Philosophical wisdom also stored in the vault will prevent its misuse this time. Also in Robert Silverberg, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. The Science Fictional Dinosaur. Anderson, Poul and F. In Roger Elwood, ed. The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson. Also in Poul Anderson. The Book of Poul Anderson. Also in Groff Conklin, ed.
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A Treasury of Science Fiction. Crown, omitted from the Berkley paperback edition. Also in Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Caught in the Organ Draft. Also in Damon Knight, Martin H. The Great Science Fiction Stories: After a two-year war involving atomic and bacteriological weapons, few people survive, and the majority of births are abnormal.
A mild form of nuclear winter is described: Dust, colloidal dust of the bombs, suspended in the atmosphere and cutting down the solar constant by a deadly percent or two. The story implicitly criticizes simplistic stories of survival, but is not entirely pessimistic. We should never have created science. It brought the twilight of the race. The race brought its own destruction, through misuse of science. Our culture was scientific anyway, in all except its psychological basis. If we do, the race may yet survive. Pandemonium on the Potomac. In this comic novel, a man with strange powers and his beautiful daughter, claiming to be sent from Venus, force the world into disarming.
The Russians cheat and secrete four H-bombs in American cities, blowing one up as a demonstration and threatening to explode the others unless the United States withdraws all its conventional forces from around the world. The Valley of the Gods. Books for Libraries, A colonel callously talks about the inadequacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as tests of nuclear bomb effects, and explains how pigs will be dressed in protective clothing for the upcoming Bikini tests.
In John Bell and Lesley Choyce, eds. Visions from the Edge: Porters Lake, Nova Scotia: In the ruins of abandoned New York City, two men struggle with the problem of how to extract an aching tooth. The only clue that the destruction was caused by atomic bombing is the fact that all windows have been blown out. Originally published as three separate volumes: Heavy emphasis on combat, sex. According to Michael R. Starmont House, ], p.
In John Campbell, ed. Also in Stanley Schmidt, ed. Till the End of Time. A history professor travels back in time and strives to prevent the nuclear bomb from being dropped on Japan, but what he experiences in World War II teaches him instead the necessity of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima. The Japanese, it seems, besides carrying out inhuman experiments on captive subjects and developing a jet engine with the help of Amelia Earhart were developing the atomic bomb themselves.
Modern Japanese are also depicted as corrupt and malevolent. A powerful anti-Japanese tirade presented as an adventure story. Even the larger mammals are extinct. The Indians have banned all explosive weapons and the use of their simpler ones against each other, outlawed technology of all sorts, and alcohol. Atomic research is particularly taboo. Yet these are no simple primitives: When they emerge, all of them die of poison ivy except for the young man and his sister. He insists on following his orders to explore the world for surviving enemies in order to exterminate them with stored nuclear weapons, but finally learns there is no one left to fight.
Then he plays a tape which reveals that the holocaust was mistakenly set off by the misinterpretation of a gigantic meteor impact. The two whites marry Indians and adopt their ways. Although some technology may be reintroduced into their culture, precautions will be taken to prevent a recurrence of the ancient tragedy.
A bizarre adventure story inspired by the common antiwar argument that if the button to launch a nuclear attack were implanted in the heart of a human being, a leader would be deterred from doing so. Although the bombs turn out to be fakes, the point of the exercise remains unclear. The Zap was a violent burst of EMP which scrambled the brains of the surviving people in various weird ways, including loss of memory.
In the end, the protagonist realizes that he was the creator of the Zap Bomb whose effects he detests so much. Expanded from Going After Arviq. In Janet Morris, ed. A female anthropology graduate student strives to teach Eskimos their own traditional ways so that they can survive during the nuclear winter. Much of the latter part of the book is devoted to details of whaling. It is revealed that the U. Untitled sketch in Earl W. Foell and Richard A. How Peace Came to the World.
A brief account of an East-West conflict leading to disarmament.
A truce and peace treaty ensue in a shocked world, and growth toward world unity spreads. Unusual in that it is told from the point of view of a Russian. In Indian Literature Modern literature of the Non-Western World: Where the Waters are Born. A haunting surrealistic sketch in which the narrator can see refugees and the pollution from a seeming nuclear war involving a nearby city creeping horrifyingly into an Indian village.
Since no one but the narrator is willing to acknowledge the ominous changes taking place, the story can be read as an allegory of our willful blindness to the danger of nuclear war. A very rare example of a nuclear war story by a third-world woman author from Pakistan. A young boy in a primitive tribe has a vision in which he seems his world as it might have been: The nuclear death of Earth dealt with in Pebble in the Sky is briefly alluded to in this novel. It was a time of uncertainty. It was a time of evil. It was a time of adventure. Based on a recommendation from my dad, I first read this series when I was eleven.
I was pretty much sold as soon as I saw the cover paintings by Frank Frazetta. So, I decided I would re-read all 12 books to see if my general impressions had changed at all since then. The Thing in the Crypt As a kid, I only had a vague notion about why three different authors were credited on the cover. Over the years, I think I tried to block out Based on a recommendation from my dad, I first read this series when I was eleven. Over the years, I think I tried to block out the fact that L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter had partially written some of the stories based on unfinished manuscripts, and in some cases, crafted entire stories on their own.
So, it was definitely a surprise to me to realize that what I always thought was the definitive Conan story was not even written by Howard! A young Conan is being pursued by wolves; he seeks refuge in a cavernous tomb, and awakens an undead warrior after stealing his sword. It hooked me right away when I first read it, and it holds up very well today. The Tower of the Elephant Entirely written by Howard, it begins as a heist story and wraps up with an unexpected cosmic origin story.
Being the barbarian that he is, he only shows interest in drinking wine, eating meat, and hacking his enemies to death. The Hall of the Dead This one features a giant slug. Written by Howard and De Camp. The God in the Bowl Howard is credited as the sole author. In one standout sequence, Conan disables a group of attackers by removing a head, ear, eye, and a mouthful of teeth. Rogues in the House This is another Howard story, and is interesting because Conan starts out as a supporting character. It features Thak , the man-ape from the cover, and also the 2nd appearance of the deadly gas made from black lotus blossoms first used in The Tower of the Elephant.
His voice was like the deep growl of thunder. The story climaxes with a battle between good and evil in the form of an awe-inspiring light show. You can picture the freeze frame of Conan and his warrior buddy laughing it up, or even high fiving each other. Nov 30, David rated it it was amazing. Some relatively pure Howard Conan stories mixed with pastiches. But still, reading the book as a man, would such a series of stories involving mere barbaric might and swashbuckling heroism appeal to me despite my having long since cloaked myself in the high thoughts of the very different form of philosophic heroism?
Indeed, it rather did, and somewhat to my surprise. And in fact, it led me to read several of Howard's Conan books and, time permitting that is, should I find myself in a position to want to avoid more important work enough again in the future , I will very probably read more of them in time.
You see, the thing about Conan that I came to admire so much, something that I have no recollection of its being depicted in the film or two that I had seen, is that his manly ranging has a kind of simplicity that earns extra marks because Howard so often sets it against forces of sinister, magical cunning. To be sure, Conan is still a cunning warrior, but his cunning seems to me to be sourced in cleaner headwaters. Jan 22, Udolpho rated it liked it. First time reading any of the Conan books. Maybe because they're short stories, or because they were written so long ago, I kept getting the feeling like I was sitting around a campfire listening to someone tell a story -- instead of being inserted into the story as if I were there.
Conan is described as having a thick alien accent. This made me wonder if the decision to not dub over Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice acting was a conscious decis First time reading any of the Conan books. This made me wonder if the decision to not dub over Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice acting was a conscious decision.
Books by Nicholas Turner
Conan seems to have two states of dress: Naked, but for a loincloth and sandals 2. Naked In the very first story, a naked Conan fights a naked ancient-dead-king-thing. Conan's physique, nakedness and "smoldering eyes" are constantly described. I very much enjoyed moment such as: He thought his heart would stop when a voice hissed in a barbaric accent: Jul 10, J. Kendrick Allen rated it really liked it Shelves: Unabashed pulp fiction that doesn't fail to entertain.
This UK Sphere edition only credits Howard as the author, and it's only on the table of contents page that they admit that half the tales are at least half written by de Camp, some with Lin Carter. It's very typically Lin Carter: The scene in the Conan: The Barbarian film was probably based on this, although it was more tastefully restrained there. This works a little better than the other pastiche efforts, although many of its awkward indulgences point it out for what it is.
That story also has re-animated corpses, and a gross monster. Oddly enough, the uneven arrangement here does a lot to point out the impressive balance at work in Robert E.
Are You an Author?
Howard's own Conan stories. He applied everything economically and correctly, rarely wallowing in self-serving action, never padding with filler dialogue, and letting the cool things be cool and carry the story through. Somehow, Howard's sweaty, ballsy exposition never feels like pandering and it's never useless. There's also a letter from Howard here, about a map. There's the Hyborian Age essay, and a dense introduction by de Camp. It made sense why these books happened the way they did, since there were only so many actual Conan stories and they needed to draw them out for as many books as possible.
It still makes for uneven reading, though. Inte hur han ser ut. I had several series of fantasy books that I read with friends and loved when I was a young teen. As I re-read some of these authors in my thirties I am sorely disappointed at their quality. I have been lugging the original 12 Conan books with me back and forth across the country for 20 years now and decided it was time to actually read them again--put them to the test, as it were. A I had several series of fantasy books that I read with friends and loved when I was a young teen.
And you know what? The pulp fiction writer from East Nowhere, Texas, is actually a halfway decent writer. Sure Conan is this massive stud, running around hacking up the baddies, but he has faults.
He evolves as a person and warrior throughout his adventures. He always comes out alive, but not always on top. And the whole concept of a pre-history Pangea of warring nations is perhaps one of the great innovations of fantasy writing. Why three stars you ask? In this particular collection, you get the sense that Mr. Howard was feeling out his character and the land he travels. There isn't a lot of variety in either the plot lines or the setting of these adventures.
Conan takes to thieving in lands that roughly correspond to modern Italy, Spain, or Greece, he bands up with a fellow thief, the other thief dies, Conan battles supernatural being, Conan wins or escapes by a whisker--sometimes richer, sometimes poorer. Still, there was enough here to keep me going into book 2 and certainly a well deserved 3 stars, probably more like 3. Aug 21, Jeremy rated it really liked it.
The first of the little white books series. Howard had a way with words that made everything sound so much more. The man was a poet. The Hyborian Age - Alternate history that shows the reader just how much imagination, fueled by history, Howard put into these stories. You see the historic inspiration for the various peoples, rooted in history and using some information that wasn't available at the time, but wasn't The first of the little white books series.
You see the historic inspiration for the various peoples, rooted in history and using some information that wasn't available at the time, but wasn't too far off such as the exact time of the Ice Age The Thing in the Crypt - Camp and Carter wrote this one. It's more flowing and less staccato, and less descriptive, than Howard would have.
That takes away from it, but it still is a great story that shows where the scene from the movie came from. I won't spoil anything else. This is the stuff tales of high adventure are made of!
Conan, the young, headstrong thief, making a living stealing in the City of Thieves, Arenjun, decides to steal the most priceless jewel of them all. Women, booze, bar fights, swords, cunning, the mystical, and an abrupt denouement. The God in the Bowl - Very short story that illustrates more of Conan's character than anything else.