Conan of Venarium

Conan of Venarium by Turtledove, Harry. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780765304667.

A new Conan adventure--from one of todays most popular writers of fantasy and SF! For decades, millions of readers have thrilled to the adventures of Conan, the barbarian adventurer invented by Robert E. Howard and further chronicled by other fantasy greats, including such notables as L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson, and Robert Jordan. Now Harry Turtledove, one of todays most popular writers of fantasy and SF, contributes a novel to the Conan saga--a tale of Conan in his youth, in the year or so before he becomes the wandering adventurer we know from the tales of Howard and others. On the verge of adulthood, he lives in a Cimmerian hamlet, caring for his ailing mother, working in his fathers smithy, and casting his eye on the weavers daughter next door. Then war comes: an invasion by the Aquilonian Empire. Conan burns to join the fight, but hes deemed too young. Then, from the border country, comes an unbelievable report: The Aquilonians have smashed the Cimmerian defending forces, and can rule as they please. Soon their heavily garrisoned forts dot the countryside. Their settlers follow after, carving homesteads out of other mens land. Every Cimmerian longs to drive the intruders out with fire and sword, but they must stay their hands, for the Aquilonians have promised savage reprisals. Then, intolerably, the Aquilonian commander takes a wholly dishonorable interest in the weavers daughter -- and hes not a man to wait, or even ask permission. Its not a recipe for a peaceable outcome.