Conan of Venarium

Conan of Venarium
cover of Conan of Venarium
Author(s)	Harry Turtledove
Cover artist	Julie Bell
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Conan the Barbarian
Genre(s)	Sword and sorcery Fantasy
Publisher	Tor Books
Publication date	2003
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	256 pp
ISBN	0-765-30466-X

Conan of Venarium is a fantasy novel written by Harry Turtledove and edited by Teresa Nielsen Hayden featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in hardcover by Tor Books in July 2003; a regular paperback edition followed from the same publisher in July 2004.

The book includes a listing of "The Conan Novels in Chronological Order" at the end of the text.

Plot

The Aquilonian Empire, bent on expansion, invades southern Cimmeria, occupying a number of villages and building the armed encampment of Fort Venarium to keep them pacified. The Cimmerian villagers, including young Conan's family, bear the Aquilonian yoke resentfully but stoicly. Conan himself, a boy of twelve, is kept down as much by his overbearing blacksmith father as the invaders. Conflict builds as Count Stercus, the occupiers' lecherous commander, seizes the weaver's daughter Tarla, whom Conan also admires. Both she and his parents perish during the tensions. Eventually he joins the force of northern Cimmerians gathering to drive out the Aquilonians, participating in the sack of Venarium and the warriors' subsequent vengeful drive south into Aquilonia. Unusually for a Conan story, the supernatural is relatively absent, confined largely to appearances of a demonic bird and an enormous serpent, and a seer's foretelling of Conan's destiny, which in the manner common to such prophecies, the youth misinterprets.

Reception

Roland Green of Booklist, himself an author of earlier Conan novels, wrote "Among Conan's many limners, Turtledove distinguishes himself with an unmatched portrait of Cimmerian society and a fine, intelligent characterization of the young barbarian."^[1]

Jackie Cassada of the Library Journal called the book "[a] good addition to libraries' Conan novels."^[2]

Publishers Weekly wrote "Turtledove ... attempts to inject some life into the well-trod Conan sequel subgenre, but this coming-of-age story of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero is, alas, just as commonplace as all the other imitations by the late Lin Carter and company. ... The fantasy elements are disappointingly few ... Only Conan diehards and Turtledove completists will be likely to pick up this sword-with-little-sorcery novel."^[3]

Kirkus Reviews noted merely that "Turtledove opens on familiar gritty prehistoric territory" and that the book had a "[l]ocked-in audience."^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Booklist, v. 99, no. 22, August 2003, p. 1969.
2. ^ Library Journal, v. 128, August 2003, p. 142.
3. ^ Publishers Weekly, 2003, as reproduced on Amazon.com.
4. ^ Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2003.

Reference

• Conan of Venarium publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Fantastic Fiction entry for Conan of Venarium