Songs of the Slain

Conan was a character that had a rich and long life. You may be a fan of the films and only imagine the man as a loincloth wearing barbarian, cleaving the heads of various cult leaders. That is a large part of his appeal, but he was also a bandit leader, pirate and eventually a King. In fact, he was a king for a long time overseeing a period of relative peace with his iron will. The issue is that for a man like Conan, peace is boring, so when an old promise is called in, Conan sets out on a new adventure in Tim Lebbon’s Conan: Songs of the Slain. 

Conan is a little softer around the middle and a little slower on his feet, this is inevitable when he spends more time sitting on the throne as king, than fighting on the battlefield. He can still take on any three elite guards at once and win, but how rusty is he against a real adversary? When a friend from his past comes calling and asks to fulfil a decades old promise, Conan will discover firsthand if he is still mighty as he takes on three powerful enemies. 

In Songs, Lebbon has rightly stuck to what has made Conan books great for decades; gritty characters and awesome fights. It is just that this book is set in the King of Aquilonia era, that is a little less known but gives Lebbon the chance to play with Conan’s vulnerabilities. Does this older, slower, Conan have what it takes? 

The book opens on the younger warrior in a form of flashback, giving us a taste of the incessant character the man was. He would kill for money and glory but also recognised honour and loyalty. This man still exists on the throne decades later, so when an old favour is called in, he insists on saving an old friends family from the evil leader of a gang of cutthroats. 

Having a good enemy is key to a great Conan novel and Lebbon gives you three. A magic drug taking warrior who considers him mightier than Conan, a sorceress willing to kill herself with magic for revenge, and a powerful necromancer who is a few bones short of a graveyard. The story is mainly taken up by the journey that Conan takes to get to the final epic face off that does not disappoint. 

This is a dark fantasy novel, and not for the squeamish. The sorceress gains her powers by eating the boiled brains of innocent victims. Life is cheap and it is a shame to see so many people die, but this is Conan. Along the way he meets allies, but they too are disposable. It is sad to read some of their fates, but it feeds the dark nature of the book and builds the gritty world that Conan has thrived in. 

This is Conan’s story, but it is also the songs of the slain, in that Lebbon gives the side characters and enemies their own time to develop. We move away from Conan quite a lot to learn more about an ally or an enemy. I always like returning back to Conan best, but it did give the final chapters of the book more meaning when you know the motives and the madnesses of the people he faces. In many ways, Songs feels like a classic and quintessential Conan adventure, and I am all for that. This book will appeal to fans of the core stories as it acts as a companion piece. It may not go in new directions like the Cthulhu infused Cult of the Obsidian Moon, but what it does provide is as close to another outing in the classic series as you can get, in a modern voice. I would gladly read more Lebbon written Conan.