The Song of Bêlit was originally published in 2017 by Sportula, but only in Spanish. It wasn't until the summer of 2020 that it was translated by Rodolfo Martínez and Christopher Kastensmidt into English. From what I gather Sportula is a small press run by Martínez publishing Spanish speculative fiction. This appears to be the first English release from Sportula. The cover art is by Breogán Álvarez.

What a massive book! It clocks in just over 600 pages of story!

This title came as a surprise. It was brought to my attention by a friend. I'm not sure if this is an authorized release, probably not. Although that didn't hinder my enjoyment of it.

What Martínez has done here is incorporate Howard's original work and expand on it. Martínez felt that much of the time Conan and Bêlit spent together hadn't been fully explored by Howard. Martínez goes one step further incorporating story threads and characters from other Conan works by Howard to broaden the scope and add a depth typically unseen in Sword and Sorcery.

How well does he pull it off? I thought Rodolfo did a fine job. I enjoyed the new depth. I also enjoyed the inclusion of past and future characters from Howard's stories. It helps to paint a broader and more connected picture of the Hyborian world. But be forewarned the story reads more like heroic fantasy than sword and sorcery. It lacks the unrelenting action and horror of the shorter works, but it was still an engaging story, told plainly without imitation.

In the afterword, Martínez explains how he arrived at penning this novel and his process for writing. He also explains what characters and story threads he incorporated from Howard's other works. This is immensely helpful to someone like me who enjoys these stories but has a poor memory for details in stories read years ago. Because of this he has prompted me to re-read the original story by Howard and to read Poul Anderson's Conan the Rebel.

Does his continuity hold up? I'll leave that judgment to others who have a firmer grasp on Howard's works.

Song of Bêlit is available from Amazon. Check out Sportula's catalog at their website: sportula.es.