Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God

De: Tim Waggoner

Narrado por: Bradford Hastings

A new chapter of the Titan comics & Heroic Signatures massive narrative event: Scourge of the Serpent Men. A thrilling story about Conan the Barbarian facing violent abominations written by Bram Stoker Award Winning Author Tim Waggoner

“What do the two of you know of the Cult of Set?”

In Zamora, the city of thieves, Conan meets Valja, a thrill-seeking thief. She entices him to join her on a heist, where they steal a golden statuette of Ishtar, said to contain the goddess herself. After killing a dozen guards and failing to escape, the pair are saved by priestesses of Mitra. But Conan knows that nothing is free.

The priestesses have need of their skills. They have waged war against Set, god of chaos and serpents, who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects and massacred thousands of his followers. Yet they are no match for Uzzeran, a powerful sorcerer, who has been performing unspeakable experiments on humans in the name of Set. To defeat Uzzeran, they will need a legendary warrior on their side. They need Conan the Barbarian.

©2025 Conan Properties International (“CPI”). CONAN, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, CONAN THE CIMMERIAN, HYBORIA, THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and related logos, names and character likenesses thereof are trademarks or registered trademarks of CPI. ROBERT E. HOWARD is a trademark or registered trademark of Robert E. Howard Properties LLC. Heroic Signatures is a trademark of Cabinet Licensing LLC. (P)2025 Blackstone Publishing

main character

The story subject along with the narrator were great the pacing was good. The problem was that the main character had so little to do with his own story that it felt as if he was relegated to a side character. this the only contention I have. it was to be about him more than the others.

It's titled Conan for a reason.

This is not Howard’s Conan

Save your money: when they make female soldiers and guards as common as the male ones, it’s woke and revisionist nonsense- not the Conan of Robert E. Howard that we love, and miss. I made the mistake of buying this- I hope by alerting others that this woke intrusion into a genre we love will receive fewer rewards going forward.

This is not a Conan novel. Conan is a supporting character.

This is not a Conan novel. Conan is a supporting character. This novel is garbage. Several chapters without Conan. Ridiculous.

Valia and the Spawn of the Serpent God

Pros

Used the word whence properly.

Included serpent men.


Cons

Book centers way more around Valia and other characters than Conan. Maybe a third of this Conan book actually has Conan in it.

The author makes a point of gods being genderless and I can't really argue with the logic of gods being genderless, but I can argue with the execution of the idea. He brings it up for Ishtar and Set but not for Mitra or Xath. He insists on calling Set female after Set has been described as male for almost 100 years in Conan stories. Not only is that a stupid thing to insist upon after saying that gods are genderless, but it's just a dumb as would be making a point of calling Derketo, a well established female identity, a male. If you're going to make the argument that gods are genderless, then you should be referring to them as "it", not in gendered terms.

Also why are characters who were never even introduced to the sorcerer's genderless god theory referring to Set as female (including 33 year old Conan who is well acquainted with Set's identity in world wide religion as having a male identity)? In the end, it's nothing more than a clumsy shoe horn to insert gender politics. Seriously, why can you modern authors not just leave it alone?

Valia's Hogwarts (Ravenhold) side story is downright stupid. Hyboria has never been a place of whimsy and compassion. The entire premise of the hyborian age is that it's brutal, gritty and unforgiving. Even the name Ravenhold itself is very ill fitting. Again, this is hyboria, not some high fantasy world like Azeroth.

Tim Waggoner must be a weeaboo with the way he praises katanas. Also, why does a Khitan even have a katana?

Without spoiling anything, there's a lot of lizard man commentary in this story. I don't know what the thoughts of a lizard man should be like, but I'm sure they wouldn't be the petulant nonsense that's in here.

There's way too much focus on the backstories of random characters. Long segways that serve no purpose other than to justify the actions of side characters. Ie: it's not her fault she's a traitor, circumstance forced her into it!

This is one of the more annoying cons. There's a lesbian priest and druid couple who are saved repeatedly by plot armor for no reason other than they're lesbians. An unfortunately tired and predictable plot point these days.

There's a section later in the book on a guy "discovering" messenger pigeons. Nevermind that messenger pigeons are already well established in the Hyborian Age and probably were in the Thurian Age as well.

At one point later in the book, the author uses a character to compliment his own character writing. This is the epitome of amateur writing.

the author creates a sorcerer and calls him the most powerful sorcerer in the history of the world. Again, nevermind the kings of Acheron. Nevermind Skelos. Nevermind every sorcerer that's lived over the last hundred thousand years or more. Noooo, your's must be the most powerful. And then he's promptly killed with ease.

The final battle has some really idiotic writing, which involves a come to Jesus Macguffin of "have faith" that saves the day and also involves Conan toroing a supposedly smart monster into a portal

Top all that off with a wholesome Hallmark channel ending and you've got the latest disgraceful entry into the Conan series.