Conan (1967)

Yes, it's that Conan--the one that inspired the Schwarzenegger film, Conan the Barbarian. The best way to give you a flavor of the stories and the character is to quote you a bit that appears above the first story published and familiar from the film:

Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, 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, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."--The Nemedian Chronicles.

As it turns out, the character wasn't established in a novel, but in 17 stories by Robert E. Howard published in Weird Tales from 1932 to 1936, most of novelette length, and only one was a novel. There were four other Conan stories published posthumously and three fragments and a synopsis. This particular book is part of a series that puts the tales in chronological story order, with the unfinished stories completed by others and pastiches--basically fan fiction by pros--used to fill in the gaps. So this isn't a novel, but a collection of shorts, and not all by Conan's creator. This book features seven stories, and only "The Tower of the Elephant," "The God in the Bowl" and "Rogues in the House" were completed by Howard. "The Hall of the Dead" was written from Howard's synopsis by L. Sprague de Camp and "The Hand of Nergal" was completed from a Howard fragment by Lin Carter. Two pastiches by Carter and de Camp bookend the Howard stories. That primarily is why I wouldn't recommend this particular book, especially since the Howard ones are much more striking. I'd seek out instead a collection only of the Howard stories. I saw one titled Conan the Barbarian in Barnes and Noble recently that purportedly included those Howard stories that inspired the film.

This is pulp fiction, sure, but although Howard's style is colorful, unlike say a recent read in the genre, A Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar, it wasn't so purple to be off-putting--just seemed to very much set the right atmosphere, which reminded me of nothing so much as a video game at times--one of those role playing ones where you get to play a sword-wielding barbarian fighting monsters and mages. Howard himself according to the introduction said he liked characters like Conan because they're "simpler... They are too stupid to do anything but cut, shoot, or slug themselves into the clear." Not admittedly ordinarily my sort of hero. None too bright in these stories, beyond a facility in languages, and no more dimensional than onion paper, although Conan does have some compassion and a sense of honor. It's a fun world with hints of our own historical times, but Conan is too much the loner for my tastes--no continuing love interest or close friend or family or loyalties. That might change in the later books, particularly since I've read he does later take on a leadership role. I liked this book enough to at least go on and read the one other in this series on my bookshelf, the one Conan novel by Howard, Conan the Conqueror. ( )

The Howard stories are good. The Carter and de Camp ones are merely passable. ( )

This compilation contains :-

Howard's Letter to Miller

The Hyborian Age
Conan : The Thing In the Crypt
Conan : The Tower of the Elephant
Conan : The Hall of the Dead
Conan : The God In the Bowl
Conan : Rogues In the House
Conan : The Hand of Nergal
Conan : The City of Skulls

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603571.txt

This is not a story as such, but an account of the fictional history of Howard's world through the ages, to the time of Kull and Atlantis down to the entitled time when Conan ran amok. Quite nicely done.

4 out of 5

The Thing in the Crypt

A young Conan has been fighting wolves, and they are still after him. He finds a door in a rock wall, but it leads him to an encounter with a skeletal mummy thing. He learns why DnD clerics use maces against the undead, and manages to get out of there.

3 out of 5

The Tower of the Elephant
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600831.txt

Conan 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.

They tell him because it is guarded by some very nasty things.

He, of course, investigates, and meets a master thief attempting the same thing.

Humans, animals, a giant spider and a wizard are to be encountered, not to mention an alien.

3.5 out of 5

The Hall of the Dead

De Camp completed this from an outline of Howard's that was found. Conan has left Shadrizar to look for the treasure of Larsha, and a squad of soldiers, out to arrest him for other larceny are on his trail.

He deals with most of them, but the leader, Nestor is not dead and follows him into the city, meeting him in the treasure room after he deals with a giant slug.

They leave, quickly, when mummified warriors come to life and the building starts collapsing. Their loot is not too stable, and not enjoyed for long.

3 out of 5

The God in the Bowl

Conan 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.

Some digging reveals a local wastrel nobel is involved, up to ears in debt, but he ends up with a few problems with the God In the Bowl, of the mortal kind. When he orders Conan restrained, the constabulary lose a few body parts, and others more than that.

3 out of 5

Rogues in the House

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600781.txt

Conan is yet again in trouble because of drinking and wenching. A crime has gone wrong, and a woman he was with has betrayed him to the authorities.

He is offered a way out, if he will kill a man. This man is Nabonidus, The Red Priest.

The only problems involved breaking in, a huge hulking ape-man servant, and then The Red Priest himself and his powers.

3.5 out of 5

The Hand of Nergal

Another story fleshed out from an outline.

Conan is fighting as Turanian irregular cavalry when large mystical bat creatures attack the force he is fighting with. Their morale breaks, leaving them easy prey, all except the Cimmerian who happens to have found The Heart of Tammuz amulet.

A local scholar sends his girl slave to find Conan and hire him to help him get rid of the evil sorceror using The Hand of Nergal to summon the bat creatures, and worse.

Conan is not able to do much, and is a lot of trouble until the girl arrives, and is able to employ the amulet. As a reward, he takes her with him, out of servitude.

3.5 out of 5

The City of Skulls

A pretty ordinary story. Conan's Turanian warrior band is destroyed by Meruvian raiders. He is taken captive there, with a friend and a girl. A spider-idol monster causes some havoc.

2 out of 5

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2007/02/conan-conan.html ( )