Book Description
In his hugely influential and tempestuous career, Robert E. Howard created the genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery–and brought to life one of fantasy’s boldest and most enduring figures: Conan the Cimmerian–reaver, slayer, barbarian, king.
This lavishly illustrated volume gathers together three of Howard’s longest and most famous Conan stories–two of them printed for the first time directly from Howard’s typescript–along with a collection of the author’s previously unpublished and rarely seen outlines, notes, and drafts. Longtime fans and new readers alike will agree that The Bloody Crown of Conan merits a place of honor on every fantasy lover’s bookshelf.
THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE
Amid the towering crags of Vendhya, in the shadowy citadel of the Black Circle, Yasmina of the golden throne seeks vengeance against the Black Seers. Her only ally is also her most formidable enemy–Conan, the outlaw chief.
THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON
Toppled from the throne of Aquilonia by the evil machinations of an undead wizard, Conan must find the fabled jewel known as the Heart of Ahriman to reclaim his crown . . . and save his life.
A WITCH SHALL BE BORN
A malevolent witch of evil beauty. An enslaved queen. A kingdom in the iron grip of ruthless mercenaries. And Conan, who plots deadly vengeance against the human wolf who left him in the desert to die.
Download Description
In his hugely influential and tempestuous career, Robert E. Howard created the genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery—and brought to life one of fantasy’s boldest and most enduring figures: Conan the Cimmerian–reaver, slayer, barbarian, king.
This lavishly illustrated volume gathers together three of Howard’s longest and most famous Conan stories—two of them printed for the first time directly from Howard’s typescript—along with a collection of the author’s previously unpublished and rarely seen outlines, notes, and drafts. Longtime fans and new readers alike will agree that The Bloody Crown of Conan merits a place of honor on every fantasy lover’s bookshelf.
THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE
Amid the towering crags of Vendhya, in the shadowy citadel of the Black Circle, Yasmina of the golden throne seeks vengeance against the Black Seers. Her only ally is also her most formidable enemy—Conan, the outlaw chief.
THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON
Toppled from the throne of Aquilonia by the evil machinations of an undead wizard, Conan must find the fabled jewel known as the Heart of Ahriman to reclaim his crown…and save his life.
A WITCH SHALL BE BORN
A malevolent witch of evil beauty. An enslaved queen. A kingdom in the iron grip of ruthless mercenaries. And Conan, who plots deadly vengeance against the human wolf who left him in the desert to die.
Customer Reviews:
The Bloody Crown of Conan.......2007-08-13
I've been a Conan fan for over 25 years. The insights alone were worth the purchase price. Excellent!
Super Reader.......2007-08-02
The second of a series of books from this particular publisher, this contains three longer stories, including the novel length Hour of the Dragon. Here you have The People of the Black Circle, The Hour of the Dragon, and A Witch Shall be Born:
Bloody Crown of Conan : The People of the Black Circle - Robert E. Howard
Bloody Crown of Conan : The Hour of the Dragon - Robert E. Howard
Bloody Crown of Conan : A Witch Shall be Born - Robert E. Howard
Conan is again in a leadership position, and seven of his lieutenants have been captured and are under sentence of death. He goes to see what he can do about it. In a flash, he makes off with their leader, the Devi. She is not all he has to worry about, as spies, plots and the wizardry of the Black Seers will all hinder him, not to mention the odd small army, along with the Devi herself.
4.5 out of 5
The novel length Conan work. An aging Conan is now in a position of responsibility, being King of Aquilonia.
His reign is threatened by a very powerful sorcerer, whom Conan is unable to stop by mundane means, and must take himself off hunting for a mystic artifact.
Having done this, there is some wizard smiting to be done.
Top notch work.
5 out of 5
A bad problem to have - how do you tell which of two women is the very evil twin. Luckily, our favorite barbarian is a very pragmatic man. Excellent and evocative, this story.
4.5 out of 5
A Must Have Robert E. Howard.......2007-04-13
When these stories were published Conan and his world had developed fully over many stories, and the Hyborean age and its political structures had become intricate and vast. From the plotting of Yasmina in "The People of the Black Circle" to the entertwining plot and subplots of "A Witch Shall Be Born," dark intrigue and the moves and countermoves of individuals and factions are central themes. "The Hour of the Dragon" is an especially impressive work, both in imagination and sharacter developement as well as the fact that it is the only full length Conan novel written by Conan's creator. The "Utitled Draft" on Page 315 is a particularly interesting read, in which Howard gets somewhat more graphic than usual. But the character developement in this particular "unfinished" piece is exemplar, and the story is unique among the three books in this series in that it's the only one that doesn't star or at least co-star. In fact Conan is only mentioned as the protagonists campanion in the past, and the famous barbarian does not appear in an actual "scene" until the last page of the story.
Howard was one of the earliest writers in the fantasy genre, and probably the inventor of its "sword and sorcery" sub-genre, and this is an important tomb for any fan of fantasy.
I have all three in this series, and after having to sift through so much Robert Jordon, L. Sprague D. Camp, and other fanfiction writers and being dissatisfied with previous compilation editions that tried to edit Howard into chronological order, I am glad to now have an original Robert E. Howard compilation in the order that the stories were written. The caliber of the work contained inside these books is jaw-dropping. Not only was howard incredibly imaginative and skilled impressively in submersing the reader's attention, but he also seems to have had an uncanny knowledge of certain things about man's prehistoric past that we are only discovering now to be true in the realm of archeology and science. The only problem with this series is that Del Rey skimped big-time on the glue.
J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore
The Real Deal...Accept No Substitutes.......2007-02-16
After years of Howard's Conan "canon" that was rewritten, bastardized and embellished by other hack writers, the real, original Howard texts have been restored and they are indeed a revelation. Howard's writing is rich and evocative. You imagine the barbaric past vividly. If your only exposure to Conan is the watered-down movie version, you owe it to yourself to go back to the source of it all, the real Conan, the real deal.
Genius.......2006-06-26
Nothing in the Conan saga that is written by anyone else compares to Howard's masterwork. While the pulp novels by a slew of Conan writers to come after Howard are enjoyable to read, the original stories are far and away the best. It's interesting to see how much of Conan's personality and other aspects of the character were left out by later writers, whether by lack of understanding or lack of skill. Conan as a beserk warrior appears more readily in the original works than in later stories by other authors. And Conan at his most berserk, with the mighty pen of Robert E. Howard guiding his sword, is simply riveting.
Book Description
“FOR HEADLONG, NONSTOP ADVENTURE AND FOR VIVID, EVEN FLORID, SCENERY, NO ONE EVEN COMES CLOSE TO HOWARD.”
–Harry Turtledove
In a meteoric career that covered only a dozen years, Robert E. Howard defined the sword-and-sorcery genre. In doing so, he brought to life the archetypal adventurer known to millions around the world as Conan the barbarian.
Witness, then, Howard at his finest, and Conan at his most savage, in the latest volume featuring the collected works of Robert E. Howard, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Greg Manchess. Prepared directly from the earliest known versions–often Howard’s own manuscripts–are such sword-and-sorcery classics as “The Servants of Bit-Yakin” (formerly published as “Jewels of Gwahlur”), “Beyond the Black River,” “The Black Stranger,” “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” (formerly published as “Shadows in Zamboula”), and, perhaps his most famous adventure of all, “Red Nails.”
The Conquering Sword of Conan includes never-before-published outlines, notes, and story drafts, plus a new introduction, personal correspondence, and the revealing essay “Hyborian Genesis”–which chronicles the history of the creation of the Conan series. Truly, this is heroic fantasy at its finest.
Download Description
“FOR HEADLONG, NONSTOP ADVENTURE AND FOR VIVID, EVEN FLORID, SCENERY, NO ONE EVEN COMES CLOSE TO HOWARD.”
–Harry Turtledove
In a meteoric career that covered only a dozen years, Robert E. Howard defined the sword-and-sorcery genre. In doing so, he brought to life the archetypal adventurer known to millions around the world as Conan the barbarian.
Witness, then, Howard at his finest, and Conan at his most savage, in the latest volume featuring the collected works of Robert E. Howard, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Greg Manchess. Prepared directly from the earliest known versions–often Howard’s own manuscripts–are such sword-and-sorcery classics as “The Servants of Bit-Yakin” (formerly published as “Jewels of Gwahlur”), “Beyond the Black River,” “The Black Stranger,” “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” (formerly published as “Shadows in Zamboula”), and, perhaps his most famous adventure of all, “Red Nails.”
The Conquering Sword of Conan includes never-before-published outlines, notes, and story drafts, plus a new introduction, personal correspondence, and the revealing essay “Hyborian Genesis”–which chronicles the history of the creation of the Conan series. Truly, this is heroic fantasy at its finest.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-02
Conquering Sword of Conan : Red Nails - Robert E. Howard
Conquering Sword of Conan : The Black Stranger - Robert E. Howard
Conquering Sword of Conan : Beyond the Black River - Robert E. Howard
Conquering Sword of Conan : Queen of the Black Coast - Robert E. Howard
Conquering Sword of Conan : Jewels of Gwahlur - Robert E. Howard
Download Conan - Red Nails
Conan is travelling, finds a dead woman, and then encounters Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. After trading some insults, they have the misfortune to stumble across a dragon.
Then they have fun in an abandoned city full of crazed warriors, two evil leering royals, and a third undeed type one. Capture, slayage, all the great stuff in this tale of a fantastic partnership.
5 out of 5
A tale of three brigands, that starts slow, and then rip-roars along. With multiple pirates, you know there has to be a treasure map. This time, to the Treasure of Tranicos.
Add in a mystical demon warrior, a bunch of raiding Picts, a couple of sieges, three pirates that can't trust each other, a beautiful woman, and Conan, and all hell will break loose.
4 out of 5
Conan is working around a fort on the border of Aquilonia, when many tribes of Picts, united by the wizard Zogar Sag, combine to attack.
Conan takes out a scouting party to see what goes on, but they are ambushed, and most captured and killed, except one man, that he rescues. The wizard summons beasts by virtue of the powers of an old god, whom Conan is familiar with. With the help of an old dog, Slasher, Conan and his companion try and get the settlers to safety, while the fort is overrun.
Zogar Sag makes a mistake when he sends a fleshly avatar to try and destroy Conan. The barbarian kills the avatar, which destroys the wizard, and the Pictish invasion is over.
4.5 out of 5
One of the classic Conan stories. The barbarian goes a-reavin', and finds another of the rare women that can match him. Belit has fire, and presence, and command, but again, it does not end well. Highly recommended.
4.5 out of 5
To quote Mr. Howard - "Conan was basically a direct-actionist. Such subtlety as he possessed had been acquired through contact with the more devious races."
For military reasons, Conan has to get the Teeth of Gwahlur from their hiding place in a mystic castle before his political and military opposition.
He decides he can get the girl Muriela to run the same scam she tried on him, on some others. The only problem is that the real goddess Yelaya shows up! Then it is time to scarper, sharpish.
4.5 out of 5
In other words, a top notch selection of Conan adventuring.
Robert's Final Realization of Conan!.......2007-05-11
The Servants of Bit-Yakin- In exemplary Wierd Tales Robert E. style, this one starts with Conan almost inexplicably scaling the side wall of an ancient city in a place we've never heard of. The barbarian has come to this place through information gleaned on adventures that Robert never told us about, as though the author had some Hyborean Silmarillion stashed somewhere that the recyclers have never found.
It's an excellent story that may have equal claim to several genres; horror, fantasy, sword and sorcery, and maybe even prehistoric fiction. Howard had an uncanny knowledge of those days when ice age species still survived in remote places, and had incredible insight into theorizing what it must have been like in the days when civilization vied with barbarism. What's interesting to me is that we're finding out these days that civilization is alot older than we think, but in Howard's day anything older than 3000 BC was considered prehistoric. Conan's era was around 9000 BC, with embellishments from many other eras in different places where civilization was replacing barbarism. Certainly, we now know, there would have been ancient deserted structures at this time, maybe even with remnants of antedeluvian archaic homo sapien living therein. Certainly Jericho had walls before Conan's time, and both cro-magnon and the southeast asian hominid dubbed "the hobbit" lived at least up until 10,000 BC. But how did Howard know it? How did his imagination describe so vividly and personally how life must have been in those brutal and barbaric times?
Beyond The Black River- WOW! This is probably Howard's most memorable Conan tale, told from the perspective of a hardy and valiant but lesser man who's lot in life is to travel and fight with Conan for a spell. Through this frontiersman's eyes, we understand Conan as a character perhaps better than we ever have before. The illustration of the Balthas's last charge, dog at side, flashes in my mind when I think of this tale.
"He was a man," said Conan "I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the dog, who knew no fear."
The Black Stranger is a pirate tale and frontier yarn that is among Howard's most developed plot structures, characterization, and writing skill.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula melds fantasy and horror like only Robert E. can, a wicked tale of treachery and ancient necromancy.
Red Nails is definitely one of the greatest of the Conan stories. Again Howard shows uncanny preternatural knowledge, with an ancient city very much like some of the stranger ones excavated in the middle east, and a realistic dragon more like Megalania Prisca than Saphira and her influences.
In the appendix, Wolves Beyond the Border is a special rare treat.
Enjoy and enjoy again the genious of Robert E!
J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore
Greatness doesn't fade with time.......2007-05-07
I have been reading the works of Robert E. Howard for half a century and in all that time never has his prose failed to amaze me in it's richness, its intensity, and it's unfailing ability to take me from the world around me to the worlds that Howard created with such unfailing verve and passion.
In this series of books we at last can read Howard unpolluted by the editorial persversion of those who wished to make a better time frame for the stories, or who thought the readers of heroic fantasy were not capable of ignoring such inanities as a misspelled word, or a small glitch in the temporal continuity of a characters life, or a kingdoms identity.
I won't bore the reader here with a rehashing of Howard's brief but prodigiously creative life. Nor will I rave about the fact the he single handedly created a whole genre. I will simply say, as an author, as an artist, as an image maker, I have yet in my now long life and as an officianado of the so called sword and sorcery genre, ever seen his equal. Not Burroughs, nor Kline nor Leiber, not Bradbury, nor any other author that I have discovered in my unending search for great fantasy reading materials has ever created prose that with such pure and unimpeded energy throws the reader into a fictional environ so alive with the sights, sounds, smells and the beingness of worlds that existed in one mind. Howard's unique ability to put you into his worlds always raises the unanswerable question; if he had lived to a more mature age, would he have grown and expanded his incredible gift to write works of greater depth and meaning? Well, that question will only be answered when all of us who live on this plane, and those worthy of it, meet Howard on the Eylisian fields, amongst the other mighty warriors who did walk this world. I have no doubt that if the gods are just, that somewhere in that realm across the river styx there lives a warrior who once wote those tales, and who now, with all those other warriors who conquered and created empires, fights battles each day, and with the coming dawn, all those who were slain on that field the day before awake to grog and a linsome lass to prepare them to fight that glorious and unending contest once again. There I think you will find him, forever what he was, a warrior, filled with a lust for life and adventure. Look to the front of the lines and there you will find him with sword and buckler hewing and roaring his joy of life.
a brilliant finale for Howard's greatest character.......2007-04-22
After years of execrable garbage foisted on us by L Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, and others (though some of the pastiches by other authors than these are decent), we finally get Conan as R. E. Howard envisioned him. Lacking the softer, milder imitation work of the aforementioned writers, this final volume in Wandering Star/Del Rey's reverent reissue of Howard's original work is a brilliant tour de force. All of the stories here range from passable (Servants of Bit-Yakin, Man-eaters of Zamboula) to great (Beyond the Black River, The Black Stranger) to outstanding (Red Nails, of course). Red Nails--the last story Howard wrote about Conan--is my favorite of them all. In the story, Conan is lustful of the voluptuous Valeria but adherent enough to a code of honor not to force himself on her. (Yes, she does finally give in to his advances.) More than the brilliant interpersonal relationship between the two leads though is the theme of death and decay surrounding the city of Xuchotl (an obvious stand-in for Howard's own home in the year before his untimely death). Both Conan and Valeria come to vivid life on page and drag the reader into Howard's fictional universe by sheer force of will. Howard's writing is full-throttle all the way to the bloody (and surprising) climax. What a way for the Dark Barbarian to exit the stage! As for the other stories, they all have their merits as much as Red Nails, some more so than others. What shines through each though is Howard's clear writing and dark, visceral vision of his savage world. Coupled with all this are drafts of some of the stories, an outline of the history of the writing of the Hyborian Age tales, and the letter Howard wrote to fans Miller and Clark detailing some previously unknown things about Conan. While Howard probably would never have written about Conan again even had he lived, what we have from him is brilliant and worth reading over and over. Thanks to Howard and his publishers for bringing the iconic Barbarian to life for us.
Powerful.......2006-12-25
I always loved the arnold movie and though it was great. But, the Books put the movie to shame. Arnold and the movie producers should be ashamed of the travesty that they created and the treatment of howards work.
Howard was AMAZING! he brings worlds to life, You are right there with Conan, you want to put a sword in your hand and go pillaging
Book Description
“Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities . . . there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. . . . Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand . . . to tread
the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.”
Conan is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created–a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, facing powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and ruthless armies of thieves and reavers.
In a meteoric career that spanned a mere twelve years before his tragic suicide, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. Collected in this volume, profusely illustrated by artist Mark Schultz, are Howard’s first thirteen Conan stories, appearing in their original versions–in some cases for the first time in more than seventy years–and in the order Howard wrote them. Along with classics of dark fantasy like “The Tower of the Elephant” and swashbuckling adventure like “Queen of the Black Coast,” The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian contains a wealth of material never before published in the United States, including the first submitted draft of Conan’s debut, “Phoenix on the Sword,” Howard’s synopses for “The Scarlet Citadel” and “Black Colossus,” and a map of Conan’s world drawn by the author himself.
Here are timeless tales featuring Conan the raw and dangerous youth, Conan the daring thief, Conan the swashbuckling pirate, and Conan the commander of armies. Here, too, is an unparalleled glimpse into the mind of a genius whose bold storytelling style has been imitated by many, yet equaled by none.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
comprehensive writings of howard?.......2007-08-26
After comparing some of my old conan novel titles with the titles found int he 3 books of this series - there are some titles that I couldn't find in this 3 series of books. It is true that Sprague de. camp might have written some of these titles (one of the books doesn't make the author of the writing quite clear int he case of "drums of tumbalku", and possibly others). But I'm not sure since one reviewer stated that there were unfinished short stories. So they could be here. anyway, here is a listing of stories that I couldn't find in these books under the same or different titles (my conan collection is not complete btw, although I do own a lot of conan books):
drums of tumbalku
the hall of the dead
rogues in the house
the hand of nergal
the bloodstained god
the snout in the dark
hawks over shem
the road of eagles
wolves beyond the border
black tears
the flame knife
As I said, my collection is not comprehensive, so there may be other books that have stories written by Robert Howard (the master), that may not be listed in these books. But then again, since I don't have these 3 books and can only go by what people write in these reviews, then I can't say for sure. Nor am I sure abou the "short stories" and what title, if any, were given to them.
I haven't read conan in years. But from my memory, I think I liked most authors. No author was able to capture the magic of Robert Howard's writings. The closest that came close was maybe Robert Jordan (he even made the same type of spelling mistakes that robert howard made). But no author was able to capture the subconscious imagery which people could identify with, which may have made these writings so famous and endearing int he first place. For example, the giant collossus banging at the door (reminiscent of the angry dad trying to knock down the door), or the demonic woman - sucking the life force out of men and turning them into stone (possibly an analogy of the emotional vampirism of some women).
The only author who I think that did not write anything that resembled Conan was "Steve Perry". The style of writing is so different from that of other Conan books, that I simply did not recognize it as Conan (women were respected, people were too friendly, Conan was a talkative person, you had tons of weird creatures all over the place like it was a smurf village, etc etc).
And yes, people may complain about Sprague de Camp, and even Lin Carter. But it has to be remembered that these were devoted fans and researchers. Without them, the Conan revival might have never happened.
Super Reader.......2007-08-02
A very nice packaging of quite a lot of the Conan stories, and the Hyborian Age guide, as well as a few other bits and pieces. This includes : 01 The Phoenix on the Sword02 The Frost-Giant's Daughter03 The God in the Bowl04 The Tower of the Elephant05 The Scarlet Citadel06 Queen of the Black Coast07 Black Colossus08 Shadows in the Moonlight09 The Slithering Shadow10 The Pool of the Black One 11 The Vale of Lost Women12 The Devil in Iron13 The Phoenix on the SwordKing Conan is bored. Politics and statecraft and maps, and all that stuff.In a dream, a man magically enhances his sword, and that certainly comes in handy later when the odd traitor and demon relieves the tedium of the ruling class.3.5 out of 5 Conan meets a very pale woman after fighting a battle in the frozen north. She is haughty, and arrogant, and summons a couple of her brothers to fight Conan. Giant men they might be, but the Cimmerian grabs them, and then grabs the girl.4 out of 5Conan is indulging in a bit of thievery and is busted by the local constabulary, right near a dead body. Conan proclaims his innocence, which they find hard to believe, but are not going to fight him over it.3 out of 5Conan is in thieving mode here. In a tavern, he is asking the assembled crowd of nogoodniks why no-one has stolen a famous jewel from this tower.3.5 out of 5King Conan's army of Aquilonians has been smashed by a far superior force, led by a wizard. Conan refuses to sign over his kingdom, and the wizard throws him in a dungeon.4.5 out of 5One of the classic Conan stories. The barbarian goes a-reavin', and finds another of the rare women that can match him.4.5 out of 5Princess Yasmeela is visited by the sorceror Natokh, in an unearthly appartion. Terrified, she consults the oracle of Mitra, who tells her to make the first man she sees head of her armies.4 out of 5Conan comes across an Hyrkanian battle leader who has slaughtered the mercenaries he was with. He slays him and allows a girl the dead man had captured to come with him.4 out of 5Conan and the woman with him find a strange city in the desert, after attacks and problems, they finally come across two weird inhabitants, a man and a woman :"..I am Thalis the Stygian," she replied. "Are you mad, to come here?"4 out of 5 Conan has escaped an island where he was in trouble, and swum out to a nearby ship, boosting himself over the side and inviting himself onto the crew.4 out of 5Conan is war chief of the Bamulas, and the story is told from the point of view of an Ophirean woman that is a captive of the group he is leading.3.5 out of 5Conan, working as a hetman of the Free Peoples is on the trail of a girl he had met in camp. He comes across an odd, dreamlike area, but soon encounters yet another giant defender, but this one even he cannot kill.4 out of 5King Conan is bored. Politics and statecraft and maps, and all that stuff.3.5 out of 5
Great stories; terrible artwork.......2007-07-19
Wonderful compilation marred by absolutely horrid artwork. This guy draws Conan like a Ken Doll! How I long for the old Frank Frazetta covers that used to bless the cover of Conan books.
Swords, magic and confusion........2007-06-02
Conan the Cimmerian turned out to be a much better book than I foresaw. A series of short stories, placed in the order of their creation, they really do show us a cross-slice of Conan's life. Young thief, assassin, pirate, noble and King, he was everything you could think of.
The setting is loose and wild. Robert E. Howard refused to pin anything down with too many details or solid facts which gives him a lot of room to play with. Also, while there is magic it is treated was respect and no little fear. Seems only the bad guys use it, so it can't be used by Conan to get out of problems and traps. He has to use his brains and his brawn. Fully illustrated and with tons of extras in the forms of maps and material never before published, this is a great find.
Great Role-Playing prep for the Conan MMOG.......2007-05-20
If you plan on playing the massively multiplayer Conan game and you don't know much about the setting which ranges from jungles to plains to mountains to seas, or the pantheon of gods and the cults that worship them, or the diverse political associations of the secondary characters, or what the original Conan was really like, then this is an outstanding introduction to the rich, compelling fantasy world and the complex hero who adventured in it.
For example I was surprised to learn of all the different 'careers' that Conan had including king, mercenary, thief, and even pirate.
Howard's storytelling style is great and, like the quests in the game, the stories themselves vary, from large scale strategic battles to tales of supernatural intrigue where Conan is on his own.
If you want to get a feel for the 'backstory' of the game world and have a richer deeper gameplay experience, I highly recommend this book.
Average customer rating:
- Super Reader
- Conan of Cimeria
- Another winner in the Ace CONAN series.
- People Are Way Too Harsh on De Camp & Carter
- 4 STARS FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD
|
Conan of Cimmeria (Conan No. 2)
Robert E. Howard ,
L. Sprague De Camp , and
Lin Carter
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 de Camp, L. Sprague | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Howard, Robert E. | ( H ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0441114539 |
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-02
This contains
The Curse of the Monolith
The Bloodstained God
The Frost Giant's Daughter
The Lair of the Ice Worm
The Queen of the Black Coast
The Castle of Terror
The Snout in the Dark
Conan, by dint of prowess is now a Turanian captain. He is sent on a mission to Khitai. The foppy type he takes along lures him into a night quest by promise of treasure.
Conan is none to pleased to learn he is to be a human sacrifice, instead.
Now, said magic using fop guy. Out of all the band, and people, he picks Conan?
What is Khitan for fracking stupid?
3 out of 5
Conan has deserted Turan, and is on the trail of treasure in the Kezankian mountains. Can't trust anyone in this bunch of treasure hunters.
The statue he is after is something he decides he definitely doesn't want, after all.
2.5 out of 5
Conan meets a very pale woman after fighting a battle in the frozen north. She is haughty, and arrogant, and summons a couple of her brothers to fight Conan. Giant men they might be, but the Cimmerian grabs them, and then grabs the girl.
She calls to her father Ymir, and disappears. Conan wakes up - was it all a dream?
4 out of 5
Conan, uneasy after his encounter with the Frost Giant's Daughter, heads south.
He saves a girl from a pack of white hairy beast men only to lose her in the tunnel of the ice worm. He barely makes it out himself.
3 out of 5
One of the classic Conan stories. The barbarian goes a-reavin', and finds another of the rare women that can match him. Belit has fire, and presence, and command, but again, it does not end well. Highly recommended.
4.5 out of 5
Conan is war chief of the Bamulas, and the story is told from the point of view of an Ophirean woman that is a captive of the group he is leading.
She talks him into letting her go by offering herself to him, for variety. He doesn't hold her to it, however, knowing that would be wrong, and lets her go.
She manages to get herself into trouble in the vale, where the women she finds definitely are not human. The Cimmerian, luckily for her, had been following her trail, and arrives just in time, another day at the office for him :
"A devil from the Outer Dark," he grunted. "Oh, they're nothing uncommon."
3.5 out of 5
It all piles on the barbarian here. He has to leave his Bamulas warrior chief post due to racism.
Travelling through the Kushian grasslands a pride of lions decide he would be quite tasty, being so young and meaty. He fights off lions for a while, but runs out of arrows and has to run.
Amazingly, he comes to a black onyx tower, and the lions won't enter. Everything is dead around it.
He enters due to having no choice, but his superstitious barbarian self is worried, and he sleeps uneasily.
He is right, because a whole bunch of slavers turn up, and a hundred headed monster promptly appears and starts slaughtering them with its bare hands, head ripping off and all that good stuff.
He takes one of their horses and leaves, to take his chance with the lions.
3.5 out of 5
A short draft. A popular military officer is imprisoned by a dangerous queen type. When she returns from hunting, the population is beginning to turn ugly, and tries to tear her from her horse.
A large, scarred Cimmerian is nearby, and manages to rescue her, not without injury to either.
She promptly orders her Captain of the Guard slain, and gives Conan the job. He is not displeased to be the captain for a good looking naked and bleeding ruler, at least for now.
3 out of 5
Conan of Cimeria.......2004-02-12
I started reading Conan novels at the age of fourteen. I was wakened to sword and sorcery for life. Even though a few - more than a few - have attempted to emulate Robert E Howard,s style, no one seems to have got it quite the way Howard did.
There is and only ever will be one Robert E howard. --And -I might add- only one artist true enough to fill the cover of howards books --Frank Frazetta. Their works are the embodiment of fantasy.
Another winner in the Ace CONAN series........2003-09-17
CONAN OF CIMMERIA is the second of over a dozen numbered volumes of chronologically-ordered Conan stories released by Ace. Featuring eight tales of the iron-thewed barbarian hero, CONAN OF CIMMERIA has about the same ratio of edited Robert E. Howard, posthumous collaborations with "co-authors" L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, and outright pastiche as did CONAN, the original book in the series. Like CONAN, CONAN OF CIMMERIA is still a wonderful read, despite what many purists believe to be an affront to the literary memory of Howard.
This volume contains some of Howard's very best writing, and anyone who denies an acquaintance with such stories as "Queen of the Black Coast" is doing himself or herself a disservice. This story, a HEART OF DARKNESS-style tale that finds Conan as a member of a pirate crew led by the beautiful and tempestuous Bêlit - herself a model for the filmic Conan's love, Valeria - skillfully marries pulp adventure, Lovecraftian horror, intensively-detailed fantastic history, and even a touch of romance. After reading "Queen of the Black Coast," readers will never question why that story is considered one of Howard's finest.
CONAN OF CIMMERIA does provide a showcase for some of the darker aspects of Howard's fiction, however. Even "Queen of the Black Coast" suffers from Howard's virulent bigotry, an attitude that is not surprising given the author's environment and the attitudes of white America in general during the 1930s. Conan and his author display a patronizing and sometimes hostile attitude toward the "black kingdoms" wherein many of this volume's stories take place, and some readers might take offense, or at the very least feel discomfited. Still others might be shocked at the attempted rape depicted in "The Frost Giant's Daughter," another high-water mark for Howard. When reading CONAN OF CIMMERIA, it pays to remember that the literary Conan has always been a much more difficult character than his counterparts in other media.
Conan is still worth seeking out, warts and all. In a fantasy market crowded with the likes of Robert Jordan - who wrote a few (excellent) Conan pastiches in his time, to his credit - and other disciples of J.R.R. Tolkien, there no longer seems to be room for a violent, lusty hero like Howard's. The quality of the stories in CONAN OF CIMMERIA is entirely different from anything else being written, from the texture of Howard's robust prose to the unflinching brutality of bloody combat. These early Conan stories, even when they involve nobility and the machinations of power, are resolutely ground-level in their approach. They are grimier than the high fantasy works that dominate the genre, and are made far more remarkable for that reason alone. Also, CONAN OF CIMMERIA, while the second in a lengthy series, is also open to new readership. The stories of Conan are fairly self-contained and require little in the way of introduction. This is certainly not true of the majority of contemporary fantasy fiction.
In short, CONAN OF CIMMERIA is great stuff and whether one is a Conan neophyte or a devotee of Howard's most famous hero, it's a deserved must-read.
People Are Way Too Harsh on De Camp & Carter.......2001-08-20
This is less of a review of this particular volume in the Conan opus as edited & added to by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter than it is a response to the thrashing that the abovementioned writers have been taking in this forum and in many others. It's true that no one can write Conan the way Robert E. Howard could. I'm not convinced anyone has ever really tried. Some of the work de Camp & Carter did with Howard's material is cheesy. Remember - most of their pastiches were written to fill gaps in the timeline. Many of them were written from Howard fragments. It's also true that Karl Edward Wagner did a much better job presenting Howard's writing when he was manning the Conan fort. Wagner's Conan books are now quite expensive and pretty hard to get a hold of. My own introduction to Conan came in the 1980's, through a combination of Marvel Comics and the Ace reprints of the de Camp & Carter editions of the old Lancer paperbacks. Had it not been for the work of de Camp and Carter I might NEVER have discovered any of the works of Robert E. Howard. For that, I am - and I suspect that a lot of readers my age should be - eternally grateful to them. As to CONAN OF CIMMERIA, this is one of the best of the de Camp & Carter editions. The pastiche pieces are readable and the pure Howard is mostly unadulterated. "Queen of the Black Coast" is one of Howard's finest stories. Highly recommended.
4 STARS FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD.......2001-02-27
To be honest, I didn't bother reading the de Camp and Lin Carter stories. Why? They're pastiche authors. And no one can write Conan like its creator, Robert E. Howard. Even Robert Jordan's Conan stories were dirt compared to Robert E. Howard's. To me, pastiche authors are the scum of the earth because they are so low that they have to continue someone elses creation just to make a living--can't they be original. Sure, de Camp has written other stuff, but most people would associate him with Conan. When the Conan movie came out in the 80's, I thought that de Camp was the creator of Conan. Boy was I wrong! As far as the book goes, the three Robert E. Howard stories inside are good, but not Howard's best. I thought that the Frost-Giant's Daughter was the best of the three. But I think that Howard's best short story was A Witch Shall Be Born. Looking at the book as a whole, it's only worth about 2 or 3 stars, but you can blame de Camp and Carter for dragging the rating down.
Customer Reviews:
Conan meets up with both Atali and Bêlit in his twenties.......2005-05-26
Frank Frazetta's cover art for "Conan of Cimmeria" stands out from the works the artist did for the Lancer paperbacks that reprinted Robert E. Howard's Conan stories in the 1960s. This is because it was one of the rare times that Frazetta's art actually represented a story contained in the collection, in this case the best of the bunch, "The Frost Giant's Daughter." The stories in this volume 2 of the Conan paperbacks cover when the young barbarian was in his middle- and late-twenties. It consists of not only several Conan stories by Howard, but stories rewritten, revised, and created by L. Sprague de Camp and/or Lin Carter:
"The Curse of the Monolith" by de Camp and Lin Carter, has Conan serving as a captain in the Turanian army and being sent by the generals of King Yildiz on a dangerous mission to Khitai. This is a good example of a story that fills in a gap and is nothing special.
"The Bloodstained God" was originally written by Howard as a Kirby O'Donnell story, "The Trail of the Blood-Stained God," and set in modern Afghanistan, with de Camp rewriting it to make it a Conan tale. Conan has to desert from the Turanian army and he ends up looking for treasure in the Kezankian Mountains, along the eastern borders of Zamora. Another okay story filling a gap.
"The Frost Giant's Daughter" was originally published in 1934 as "Gods of the North," and then revised by both Howard and alter de Camp. The story takes place after Conan returns home to Cimmeria and then joining the Aesir for a raid into Vanaheim where in the aftermath of a battle he meets a beautiful naked woman, who leads him into a trap involving her brothers. Along with "The Phoenix on the Sword," this was one of the first two Conan stories submitted by Howard, but it was the one that was rejected. Now it is a favorite Conan story with the virtue of being short and sweet.
"The Lair of the Ice Worm" by de Camp and Carter has Conan returning to the civilized lands of the south trying to find someone who wants to hire his sword. This is probably my favorite of the pastiches in this collection mainly because I like the idea of ice worms.
"Queen of the Black Coast" by Howard is the biggie in this one as Conan becomes the partner of Bêlit the she-pirate and gets the name Amra, the Lion. Conan is on a ship near the coast of Kush when Bêlit attacks and kills the rest of the crew. Of course, she falls for the Cimmerian. Howard is trying for something big here, but since he ends with a short story instead of a novella or another novel like "The Hour of the Dragon," it is over much to quickly. No wonder Roy Thomas and John Buscema took several years in their "Conan the Barbarian" comic book to flesh out this one, because this one is not as good as it should be.
"The Vale of Lost Women" by Howard, like "The Frost Giant's Daughter," is a Conan story that was not published during the author's lifetime. Conan saves Livia, a civilized white woman, who has been taken prisoner by the Bamulas, a black tribe. This story represents one of the most overt examples of Howard's racism, which detracts from the tale, even when you make allowances for the times.
"The Castle of Terror" by de Camp and Carter takes place in the kingdom of Kush and gets us back to the okay category.
"The Snout in the Dark" was rewritten by de Camp and Carter from an outline and the first half of a rough draft by Howard, ends the collection on a minor note.
The biographical paragraphs provided between the stories are based upon "A Probable Outline of Conan's Career" worked out by P. Schuyler Miller and Dr. John D. Clark and originally published in "The Hyborian Age" in 1938 and then expanded by L. Sprague de Camp in 1959 and published in the "Amra" fanzine devoted to Howard's pulp fiction heroes. This is important because one of the things that this paperback series was trying to do was to flesh out the rest of the Conan chronology. Of course, this is only talking in terms of the original Howard canon, because there have been numerous Conan novels written since these books were originally published. "Conan of Cimmeria" is where de Camp and Carter work out the second level of Conan stories. There are enough good ones here to make it worth reading.
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Conan de Cimmeria - Vol 2
Robert Howard
Manufacturer: Timun Mas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literatura y ficción | Libros en español | Formats | Books | Autores, A-Z | Cartas y Correspondencia | Clásicos | Cuentos Cortos | Drama | Ensayos | Ficción de La Mujer | General | Género Ficción | Historia y Crítica | Libros y Lectura | Literatura Mundial | Poesía
General | Ciencia Ficción | Ciencia ficción y fantasía | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 8448034597 |
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Conan de Cimmeria - Vol. I
Howards Robert , and
Mark Schultz
Manufacturer: Timun Mas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literatura y ficción | Libros en español | Formats | Books | Autores, A-Z | Cartas y Correspondencia | Clásicos | Cuentos Cortos | Drama | Ensayos | Ficción de La Mujer | General | Género Ficción | Historia y Crítica | Libros y Lectura | Literatura Mundial | Poesía
General | Ciencia Ficción | Ciencia ficción y fantasía | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 8448033906 |
Books:
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