Review: An enjoyable Conan fan fiction novella
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2012
Published in 2011, The Dragon of Skar is a Conan the Barbarian themed novella (approximately 50 pages) written by Chris Turner.  The story picks up shortly after Thulsa Doom's death at the hands of Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian and Subotai the Hyrkanian thief/archer.  As the duo travels north through mountainous regions back to Conan's homeland of Cimmeria they're assaulted with violent storms and must seek refuge from a storm in dreary cave.  During the night they're awoken by the sounds of primitive and tribal drumbeats emanating from within one of the caves crevasses.  Brave and possibly foolhardy, Conan and Subotai decide to seek the source of the drumming and find out what adventure awaits them.  Here are my thoughts on The Dragon of Skar;Pros+ Plenty of action.+ Well written overall.  Author is very descriptive, which I like.+ It's a story about Conan.Cons <Contains SPOILERS>- A few odd stretches of dialogue.  At one point during the story the author states that Conan is a Cimmerian and would not "cop-out" and accept defeat.  In another section when Conan springs a surprise attack on his enemies he yells, "Happy holiday's fiends!"  Both things seemed really out of place and caused me to stop reading momentarily after realizing what I just read.- No maps.  I'm guessing due to copyrights a true map of Hyboria could be used.  However, I would have liked to have seen the Stone Gnome's caves Conan and Subotai were exploring.- A few minor grammatical errors.  Rather commonplace with independently published works.- The word "gaunt" was used a bit too often in the author's descriptions.- Did the Stone Gnomes have one eye or two?  It's described they one eye yet when Conan attacks one it states he gouged the creature's eyes out with his thumbs.The Dragon of Skar was a quick and entertaining fantasy read.  The author does a relatively good job at capturing Howard's characters of Conan and Subotai.  He also does a great job at describing the situations the characters are in, the creatures they're fighting and their struggle to escape.  Turner has very clear talent at writing.  While I didn't find every idea in this short story terribly unique, it was well worth the read if you're looking for a quick dungeon crawl with Conan.