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Post by boot on Aug 9, 2020 13:28:32 GMT -5
OK, all of you have convinced me to get it.
I bought The Return of Akivasha by Tim Allen, but I haven't read it yet. I've got Capella's The Leopard of Poitain, too. Haven't read that one either. Guess I'll add this one to the stack.
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Post by mindboggled on Aug 9, 2020 17:29:14 GMT -5
I bought it a couple of weeks ago, just haven't gotten around to reading it quite yet. Looking forward to it tho.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Aug 14, 2020 10:54:58 GMT -5
I finished reading The Song of Belit by Rodolfo Martinez last night and I thought I would share my take on the book. So, before we go on ***Spoiler Alert***
I really wanted to like this book a lot, but while I will give Martinez an A+ for effort, I can only give him a C for execution.
The start of the book was awesome! But, then again, it was Howard's words--the first half of the "Queen of the Black Coast." Martinez divides the story at the point where Howard explains Conan was with Belit for three years, then Martinez fills in those three years.
When the book transitions from Howard's prose to Martinez's prose, it is jarring. The writing style is very different, plus there is the issue of translation from the original Spanish, in which it was written, to English.
The translation, for the most part, is pretty good. I know how hard translation can be, especially for a book numbering 500+ pages. There are times, however, when translated word choice is not the best. For instance, one translation to "Hit Man" was jarring. It probably should have been assassin.
Still, there are times where I am not sure if the issue was due to translation or if that was how it was originally written. I don't like reading things that take me our of the historic feel to it, and jarring me into the present. When Belit says, "Fuck!" that just jarred me out of the tempo of the writing. Again, I don't know if that was the original word choice or not.
Where Martinez picks up from Howard, once I got used to the writing style, I thought it was pretty good. Some action and adventure going on and I liked the exchanges between Conan and Belit. I thought they were well done. That all came to a dragging halt after page 50. For the next 200 pages, it was a slog with not much happening. Conan training the elite fighting unit was fun, but that was about it. Finally, the story picks back up around page 250, but it is uneven and it starts to become a slog again, toward the end.
The books ends really well, but then again, we are back to Howard's prose.
Someone in another post said that 500+ sounded kind of long for a Conan novel -- it was. The novel could have been cut in half and would have been about right. The interstitial writing between the Conan/Belit chapters, were always way too long. Howard did the same thing, but his pieces discussing the bad guys were much more concise. All of these could have been edited down to a couple of pages.
One other observation - each chapter opens with an epigraph like Howard liked to do. I normally love these, but here they became tedious and at times far too long and often they did not have much to do with the chapter. The pitch of the font was also really small, and could have been left the same pitch, still left in italics, for easier reading. Writing more refrains for the Song of the Belit may have been a better idea, as they could have been tailored to each chapter, or, better yet, use Howard's own poetry. He wrote so many poems that it is likely something within all of his poetry could have been used as an epigraph.
I did appreciate the author's discussion of his writing the book at the end, and, in many ways, I appreciated his efforts in writing the book. I enjoyed it enough and do not regret buying it. It just reminds me of so many of the Tor pastiches - it was great to have more Conan tales, only they were NOT Howard's Conan tales. Still, as long as it has been since we have seen a Conan pastiche, I was hungry for it. Now, if Hocking could only get his published!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2020 14:08:21 GMT -5
Thanks for the review, Linefacedscrivener.
I read the first part of the book, around 120 pages a few days ago, unfortunately, I have found it difficult finding the time to get back into it again.
I dunno what it is, but, it seems more like an alternate version of QotBC run by Thomas/Buscema at times.
Thanks again for the review, hopefully I'll get in the right mood soon to read the rest of the novel.
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Post by thedarkman on Aug 14, 2020 22:08:58 GMT -5
linefacedscrivener: Thanks for the review! I thought about getting the book myself, but decided against it as it was not an official release, and I want to support authors like Hocking and Oden with their authorized novels. I had my suspicion that the length was going to be an issue; Good Conan tales, and S&S in general, benefit from shorter lengths. That is probably most apparent in the vast majority of the Tor pastiche novels, they are just too long, and padded to meet a page count for the publisher. I am hoping for better results in the new Perilous Worlds releases, hopefully in the near future. I still think that a collection of short stories set in Howard's various worlds with some of his less well known characters would be awesome; Cormac Mac Art, Bran Mak Morn, El Borak, Solomon Kane, Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, Steve Harrison, James Allison (lots of neat potential for a variety of tales here!) and many more. Time will tell...
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Post by bunty0barbarian on Oct 7, 2020 6:42:10 GMT -5
I'm surprised by the tepid reception, this book is getting on the forum here. I think it is quality Conan pastiche, as Martinez respects the characters and the Hyborian Age. The epigraphs, by Astrea of Nemedia (a magistrate I think?), and poems as lore snippets are interesting. I'm on chapter 6, and the story feels like same story told by the Thomas-Buscema team in Marvel's Conan, but I feel there is enough variety/alternative scenarios to keep the story interesting.
As for prose and tone of the book, Martinez's prose doesn't suit Sword and Sorcery. It is readable, only because of his understanding of the characters, and story, and the tone of the book is modern fantasy, like Assassin's Apprentice, lots of talking, and hence the length of the book. It is a different approach to Conan pastiche, maybe Martinez, could've done a better job, but I'm really liking what I'm reading.
I think more fans, should give this book a try. It is quite cheap on kindle, for with respect to its page length.
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Post by bunty0barbarian on Oct 29, 2020 6:35:15 GMT -5
I've just finished the book, a couple of days ago. Honestly, it was freaking awesome, my first Conan pastiche, and great way to start IMO.
The story, is essentially an invasion of Stygia, by a mysterious island nation to the South, with Queen of the Black Coast's chapters, and Prince Yezdigerd's intrigues for the Turanian throne in between. This is why the first 250 pages, or so are quite slow, and there are lot of chapters with no of presence of Conan or Belit, instead focusing on supporting characters. Still, the chapters involving the Cimmerian and the Shemite, are excellent , and for the most part, faithful to Howard's characterization.
From page 300, as the war campaign starts, until the final chapter of QTBC, it is a wild ride, with good pacing. I could not put it down, until I finished it, and Martinez's afterword on why and how he wrote the novel, is appreciable. Martinez also used the Hyborian Age in a good way, doesn't simply replicate the exotic fantasy elements. For example, the author's interpretation of Kheshatta, the city of magicians, was very different from what I envisioned. Instead, of an exotic city, it is a dilapidated wasteland, filled with crumbling buildings, and mastabas, where sorcerers of the Black Circle reside. Or is it all an illusion? It is not clear. Stygia, of course, was never fully explored in Howard's stories, or even by Marvel Comics, and the author does justice to it, especially with regards, to Set cult and the fantastic.
Overall, yeah, The Song of Belit, is a fairly grim adventure of Conan's time with Belit, during those 3 years, and I really liked it.
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Post by mindboggled on Nov 28, 2020 17:33:17 GMT -5
Alright, I can't do it. This is just to damn drawn out. Conan and Belit's side of the story moves along at unbearably slow pace. On the other hand, the parts that focuses on other characters are interesting and quite good. But that's not enough for me to read this. It is too much of a slog to read. Five hundred pages is ridicules, I don't know what was going on in the author's mind when he was writing this. How could he not notice how plodding the pace is?
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Post by Von K on May 28, 2021 16:57:33 GMT -5
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Post by Von K on Nov 22, 2021 16:38:23 GMT -5
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Post by karasuthecrow on Nov 24, 2021 20:21:48 GMT -5
Still on my pending-to-buy books but I he is a great Howard fan and his traanslations and intruductions are great.
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Post by boboldman on Apr 3, 2023 22:03:15 GMT -5
I think this book was just nuked from orbit. About a week ago, I added it to my list to buy (finally) and now it's unavailable everywhere in the US. I assume CPI is finally cracking down on all the unlicensed Conan knock-offs. I wonder if this will affect the Dixon books or Cimmerian reprints.
Now that I can't get one, I would very much like to buy one. C'est la vie.
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Post by Von K on Apr 7, 2023 19:09:01 GMT -5
I think this book was just nuked from orbit. About a week ago, I added it to my list to buy (finally) and now it's unavailable everywhere in the US. I assume CPI is finally cracking down on all the unlicensed Conan knock-offs. I wonder if this will affect the Dixon books or Cimmerian reprints. Now that I can't get one, I would very much like to buy one. C'est la vie. If it was CPI they might have done it on behalf of Titan. Perhaps Michael Stackpole's own unpublished Song of Belit is lined up for Titan's pastiche publication schedule and it might have been too much competition to have another yarn set in the exact same period with the exact same title being published at the same time. That's just my 2c anyway.
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Post by bunty0barbarian on Apr 9, 2023 6:37:34 GMT -5
I think this book was just nuked from orbit. About a week ago, I added it to my list to buy (finally) and now it's unavailable everywhere in the US. I assume CPI is finally cracking down on all the unlicensed Conan knock-offs. I wonder if this will affect the Dixon books or Cimmerian reprints. Now that I can't get one, I would very much like to buy one. C'est la vie. If it was CPI they might have done it on behalf of Titan. Perhaps Michael Stackpole's own unpublished Song of Belit is lined up for Titan's pastiche publication schedule and it might have been too much competition to have another yarn set in the exact same period with the exact same title being published at the same time. That's just my 2c anyway. I just checked on Amazon India the kindle version of The Song of Belit is still available on site. That's how I read it.
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Post by bunty0barbarian on Apr 9, 2023 6:39:13 GMT -5
Amazon UK also has the Kindle version.
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