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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron_Chef" data-source="post: 1336359" data-attributes="member: 4530">Just finished CONAN THE MERCENARY, so I'm posting my thoughts as promised. This book is a *huge* disappointment after reading Offut's excellent CONAN AND THE SORCERER and THE SWORD OF SKELOS. THE MERCENARY seems pointless (it does set up events for Howard's A WITCH SHALL BE BORN, however, but who cares?). Conan, in order to regain his soul stolen by Hissar Zul in CONAN AND THE SORCERER, could easily have regained it from the grateful Akter Khan, ruler of Zamboula, in THE SWORD OF SKELOS, without his ever having needed to travel to Khauran and Queen Ialamis. I wonder if the fault in this shockingly sloppy book lies with the author Offut, Conan Properties or the publisher, ACE. Perhaps all three. Not being privy to any of these parties, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe ACE demanded the book before it was "ready". Maybe ACE and/or Conan Properties demanded he split up his Conan stories into multiple smaller novels for financial reasons (more books = more profit). Maybe Offut wasn't able to devote himself to this book due to other commitments and the work suffered as a result. The failure of CONAN THE MERCENARY should in no way reflect on Offut's bookends to the trilogy, however, as these are easily among my favorite non-Howard stories, up there with Robert Jordan and Karl Edward Wagner. As THE SWORD OF SKELOS briefly relates the events of THE MERCENARY, there is no need to ever read CONAN THE MERCENARY. Just get CONAN AND THE SORCERER and THE SWORD OF SKELOS, and forget THE MERCENARY exists, but please don't use the excuse that THE MERCENARY sucks to never read Offut or another author's Conan stories.One last point worth mentioning: Esteban Maroto's art is not up to snuff in THE MERCENARY, and in fact, the book recycles many of the pictures from early in the story twice in an effort to pad out the dubiously thin page count!</blockquote>

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