Russell's adaptation is, as expected from him, beautiful, though perhaps a touch too wordy for me at times. The amount of text sometimes makes it feel like I'm just reading an illustrated prose story, rather than a comic. But this lessens as the story picks up and the groundwork has been placed. Still, as a big fan of Russell's comic adaptations, this one won't make it to any favourites list of mine.

As for the other two stories, they're original comics, and they're pretty decent. I rather liked Palmiotti's story of the kidnapped princess with a couple of twists. Robertson's story of Conan's early venture into kingship had more going for it thematically, but didn't grab me as much, possibly because the story felt a little passive. Things were happening, but as per the point of the story, the protagonist wasn't really actively doing anything about much of it.

All in all a good collection, but nothing truly special, and in my eyes weakened rather a lot by there not seeming to be any connecting theme, story thread or logic to why these three particular stories are bundled together. ( )