Barbarians

I've finished reading the final volume of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, The Conquering Sword of Conan. This is what an action story should be like. I thought it was a far better book than Haggard's King Solomon's Mine.

Like Haggard's book, Howard's works do have one problem that annoys me: racism. It is particularly noticeable in the short story "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" in which blacks are depicted as horrific cannibals. The Picts are a bit of a problem too. They are referred to as a "white race," but they are, confusingly, also referred to as not being white. In general, they seem to be based on a stereotype of Native Americans as savages.

Unlike in King Solomon's Mines, I am willing to forgive this fault in Howard's work. Why? Because the white peoples aren't portrayed as being inherently superior. In Howard's universe it is the barbarian who is superior not the civilized man. The barbarian, Conan in this book, is a mighty warrior and follows a code of a sort, but the civilized people, like Aram Baksh in "Man-Eaters", will do anything for money (Aram Baksh attempts to sell Conan to the cannibals).

This book contains "Beyond the Black River" and "Red Nails," which are regarded as the best of the Conan stories. "Beyond" is based largely on the history of the U.S.A. and could easily be a tale of frontier life if the Picts became Native Americans and Conan a cowboy (or whatever). "Red Nails" is pretty damn creepy.

If you've never read Howard's Conan stories, you should. This book and the other two volumes in the series are well worth getting. Unlike most other volumes of Conan tales they do not contain any pastiches or "posthumous collaborations" or any of that nonsense. Nor do they attempt to put the Conan stories into some sort of chronological order; they are presented in the order Howard wrote them. Buy this book! It gets a very well deserved five yo-yos.

The Bloody Crown of Conan

Today’s Review is for Robert E. Howard’s The Bloody Crown of Conan. This is the second book in a series of reprints of REH’s complete Conan stories. Thank God!

Before these books were published, you’d have a hell of a time finding any Conan stories that were actually written by Howard. Sure, you could find the innumerable pastiches and “posthumous collaborations,” but none of them can possibly compare with Howard’s own breathless style. And please, don’t even mention those crappy movies starring the gubernator. Ughh!

This book and its predeccesor give the reader a real sense of Conan as he was truly meant to be: a crafty, strong, and cunning barbarian with a strong moral code despite his lapses into piratery, banditry, and thievery. Most other versions of Conan are two-dimensional: a brainless barbarian who hacks and slashes his way through anything in his path regardless of the consequences.

And Howard’s style is superb. He can maintain the level of action, and reader interest, throughout an entire story, whether it’s short or novel length. “The Hour of the Dragon” is credited as the only Conan novel, and it keeps up a roller coaster pace as Conan jumps from one adventure to another while trying to regain his lost crown. In “The People of the Black Circle,” Conan demonstrates his peculiar morality as he helps an enemy avenge her brother’s death. In “A Witch Shall Be Born,” which is probably the least satisfying of the stories, Conan helps a young queen reclaim her throne from her evil twin sister who is a witch.

The only thing I don’t really like about these books are the appendices. These contain early drafts and synopses of the stories in the volume along with a few drafts of unpublished stories. They may be useful to the scholar, but to the casual reader, they’re just a waste of space that would be better filled with the Conan stories from the upcoming volume 3.

I give it 4 yo-yos.