Two books and two volumes of comics this month.
Old Gods and Other Tales by Scott Oden (Independently published, 2025)
I absolutely loved this collection of historical fiction, fantasy, and sword and sorcery tales, especially the historical fiction. I enjoyed some stories more than others but as a whole this was an excellent read. Look for a more in-depth review in the future.
Conan the Barbarian Vol. 4: Frozen Faith by Jim Zub and Doug Braithwaite (Titan Comics, 2025)
This volume collects issues in which Robert E. Howard’s story “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” is expanded upon. Between savage battles and flashbacks to Conan’s childhood, we learn how he comes to believe what he believes regarding the existence of Crom and other gods. An excellent combination of story and art.
This collects issues 4-6 of Titan’s black & white magazine-sized Savage Sword of Conan. Quite the mixed bag. Issue 4 includes one Conan story and five back up stories featuring other characters. Not much happens as each story is a prologue to Titan’s Black Stone crossover event. I enjoyed Solomon Kane by Patrick Zircher and El Borak by Ron Mars and Mike Perkins as they felt more like complete stories as well as prologues.
The high point for me was the story by Jason Aaron and Geoff Isherwood from issues 5 & 6 in which King Conan encounters a witch as well as a cult of witch-finders. I also enjoyed the prose fiction short story by Matthew John from issue 6.
Lots of great pin-ups, but the rest of the stories and art just didn’t connect with me. So far Conan the Barbarian has been knocking it out of the park, but I’ve found Savage Sword to be pretty uneven, but I guess that’s to be expected with an anthology series.
Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking (Titan Books, 2024)
This collects two books, Conan and the Emerald Lotus (1999) and its long-awaited sequel, Conan and the Living Plague (2024). I didn’t get to the sequel, but I finished the first one.
In Conan and the Emerald Lotus, Conan deals with sorcerers, the undead, and a monstrous plant. It takes a few chapters to get started as it introduces a number of characters, but once it gets going it’s a real page turner. I quite enjoyed Hocking's prose as it brought the Hyborian Age to life and Conan felt like Robert E. Howard's Conan. Looking forward to reading more of Hocking's work, which I'll definitely be reading some of next month.
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