A BARBARIAN KING IN MIDDLE AGE CRISIS: TIM LEBBON'S CONAN: SONGS OF THE SLAIN

In Conan: Songs of the Slain, Tim Lebbon looks at the Hyborian Age hero closing in on the twilight of his life. Now the king of Aquilonia, nearing sixty, he reconnects with Bhat Tann, a man who saved him when they were imprisoned and escaped from a salt mine decades before. Grake, a formidable barbarian, has taken Bhat's wife and two children as slaves. He calls in the favor Conan promised him in the mines and asks the king to rescue them. Conan momentarily lays down his crown and picks up his sword, not only to keep his word, but to learn if a life of royalty has softened him.

Grake wants to prove himself as well by defeating Conan. He teams with Mylera, a sorceress and former lover of Conan, and necromancer Krow Danaz, who both have their own agenda with the warrior king. At the start of his journey, bandits high on Mylera's berserker drug, dispatch Conan's guards and horribly wound him. A musical troupe, made up of soldiers who have seen their better days, find and heal him. He travels with them for cover as Groke and his magic allies throw zombies and creatures their way.

Lebbon doesn't skimp on the sword play. Almost every chapter contains a battle sequence, both detailed and feeling in the moment, culminating in a showdown with Grake and Danaz's giant spider-like monster. Not only do they move the plot, but Conan's arc. Learning he no longer has the strength and swiftness of his youth, he must lean into his cunning.

The author demonstrates his knowledge of Conan lore. Operating as a loose sequel to The Scarlet Citadel, the book serves up many easter eggs for fans. It plays well into a man whose past adventures have caught up with him, even part of him yearns to return to those times.

Great pen and ink sketches by Juan Alberto Hernandez are scattered throughout the book, capturing the passage at its most dramatic moment. Lebbon delivers a lot of drama for him to draw from with a tale of a king who for a moment gets to be a barbarian again.