Conan: Blood of the Serpent

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

By: S. M. Stirling

Narrated by: Bradford Hastings

Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Different from the Conan I used to read.

Descent story. Leaves you hanging for the climax... next book better come our soon.

A fun escape

I am a fan of the character Conan, and this book fits well in the great legacy of Robert E. Howard.

not great

narrator was bored. and you can tell. story often comes off as satire of REH. definitely doesn't make u want to read Stirling

Conan!

Really enjoyed it. Good old fashioned Conan story. Adventure, fighting, SWORDS, and half naked men and women 😆. Classic Conan

Good story, great performance

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It stretched a bit long during the "chase" and it seemed like the author just had so many ideas that it was difficult to fit it all in without it seeming like a jumble of events.

That being said the experience was enjoyable and I appreciated getting to experience a Conan story through his eyes.

I am also glad the author didn't attempt to ape Robert E. Howard's style. The author has a good voice that was easy to fall into.

The audio performance was top tier. I hope to see a pairing of this author and narrator for future Conan adventures.

By the Bowels of Ahriman!

It's great to finally see a new entry in the Nemedian Chronicles!


I've read almost every Conan novel that's been written from the original Howard stories through Carter and de Camp to Roberts and Jordan with everything in between.


Blood of the Serpent isn't the best of Conan's blood soaked adventures or the worst, but somewhere better than middle of the road I would say. The writing style is in my opinion, most akin to the John Maddox Roberts' style and plot choices. However, it is very different from Howard's writing style, employing notably more modern language and other things like feminist elements (that contradict how Conan is portrayed in Red Nails, which immediately follows BotS). At times, the story seems to be more about Valeria than Conan, which I think was a poor choice; the series is called Conan after all, not Valeria.


I agree with others who have said that Conan is a bit too preoccupied with Valeria. The story probably would have been better if Conan had had some other motivation for going on a death defying quest other than being smitten. Another complaint that people have mentioned is repetitiveness, which is also definitely true, but with a reason that is supported by the plot, it's not too disruptive. It does manage to maintain the gritty low fantasy feel that you would expect from Conan though.


The narrator I would rank as bad, but for his Conan voice, which was decent, so I will settle on a rating of subpar. His non-Conan character voices are pretty meh and his Valeria voice is actually kind of repulsive. His general narration voice is bland and sounds really blase no matter what's happening. Furthermore, the narrator consistently mispronounced common words that any middle schooler would know AND even worse, managed to mispronounce nearly every Hyborian Kingdom and geographical landmark that was mentioned (keep in mind that Howard took many of his names from existing names, either real or mythological, that have set correct pronunciations and that are not up for interpretation or debate)! How you can be a professional narrator and not have a solid grasp of basic English, I don't know.


Overall though, I am happy to see new life being breathed into the franchise. If you like other Conan stories then this is probably worth a credit for you. I just hope they get a different narrator for the next book, Crom curse him!

By Crom!

Now, most folks who know me, know that I love me some Conan. I always have, and have devoured everything Robert E. Howard, Lin Carter, and L.Sprague De Camp put out. I even read through more than a few stories in the universe that Poul Anderson, Roland Gree, and Robert Jordan had written, but to my knowledge, I had not read any Conan novels written by S.M. Stirling.

I was in no way disappointed.

Blood of the Serpent is a great tale set in the lands of Stygia, following Conan as part of the Red Brotherhood, where he leaves in search of Valeria, finding her on the edge of a great desert, threatened by a Dragon God that feeds right into the classic Robert E. Howard story, Red Nails and is included at the end of Blood of the Serpent.

Stirling does an amazing job, bringing the world of Conan to life while giving the storytelling an updated feel.

Audio quality, narration, and story, all were great, but being a fan of all things Conan, I may be a bit biased.

Rating wise, 5 of 5, hands down. If you love sword and sorcery, you’ll want this story by Stirling added to your list.

Good, but by no means epic…

Like many of you out there I was incredibly excited to hear that we were getting a new Conan story. I counted the days for the titles release and had high hopes for it since the mantle of authorship was being passed to a New York Times best selling author.
Now before I say why I gave this 3 stars for the story I will say it was preformed very well and made for a good audible.
Now to the 3 stars. The story is so repetitive. It opens with not one but two bar fights back to back with our hero doing the same reserved actions. There is a murder of not one but two stygians who are related and when Conan faces dangers along the road it is always from 1 of 4 different animals each 2-3 times. It’s maddening. It felt like the author simply didn’t have enough encounter ideas and so kept going back to the same predators to fill pages. Yes, i understand the idea of the curse but by Crom it became a bit much to read again and again. Also, the plot was thin. A long journey to help a comrade while helping yourself. (Sighs)
Overall, this was by far not a poorly written book just not well conceived one. A decent effort but I doubt I will ever re read this like I have so many of the previous tales told about our favorite Cimmerian.

Conan is back!

A well written tale in the style of the old Conan sagas that I fell in love with as a kid.
It has made me want to go back and re-read all the books again! I certainly hope S.M Stirling feels compelled to write another tale of the sword weilding Cimmarian. I will buy it immediately upon release. Thanks

An Unnecessary Cash Grab

I’m a huge Conan fan, but this book is nothing more than senseless cash grab. The only reason I finished it was because of Hasting’s stellar narration.