The Bloody Crown of Conan

This is a compilation of a short novel, a novella and a short story. The novel - Hour of the Dragon - is what I bought it for. To be honest it's not a very good novel, or at least not structured like one, it's very episodic like a bunch of vignettes (that a short story would have used as a centerpiece) chained together. It's cool as a highlights reel of the various types of adventuring you could do in the Hyborian Age setting, though. The novella, People of the Black Circle, is probably the best part, it's got a lot of interesting magic going on and a complex plot with multiple factions where everything ties together instead of being a loose assortment of stuff that has nothing to do with each other like Hour of the Dragon.

The writing show more is classic Howard, vivid and brutal, with an almost breakneck pacing. There's a mass battle, brawl, sword fight, demon summoning, sudden yet inevitable betrayal, some kind of action, on like every other page. Readers accustomed to the glacial pace of George Martin's later books, might find themselves wanting seat belts. Conan is not exactly a deep character, but the original Howard vision of him is an interesting contrast to the popular perception... he's cynical, worldly, cunning, pragmatic and, most surprisingly of all... cautious almost to the point of paranoia. My favorite "original flavor Conan" moment is in the penultimate moment of A Witch Shall Be Born, when a giant demon has burst loose from the temple of the city that Conan has led an army to conquer. Conan doesn't fight it himself, he orders a company of his archers to shoot it down. (And this actually works.) show less

Even though I still prefer the short stories, this was still way ahead of most fantasy in terms of setting the atmosphere and the sheer scale of the world-building. I love Conan as a character anyway but there's also a grim and gritty feel to the whole world including the other characters. They all seem so real that at times you can almost see their shadowy presence looming up before you.

Fantastic grim fantasy. Can't wait to get stuck into the 3rd one now.

Somehow I liked this volume considerably less than the other two. These longest tales feel like the drawn out versions of short hack and slash ones of the first volume, the plots seem less intricate than the ones in the third.

For Sword and Sorcery, it doesn't get much better than this.

Three of the longer Conan tales are gathered here, from the typewriter of Robert E. Howard. There are, in fact, copious notes in the back that detail exactly where these manuscripts came from. This is important because of all the revisionism and editorial license taken with REH's tales since the 70's. You aren't going to find Conan the Governator or comic relief sidekicks in here, folks.

This also contains some excellent artwork by Garry Gianni. It's not illustrated to the point of being a comic, but there are illustrations probably one every 10-20 pages or so. They really capture the mood of what is going on in the stories.

The People of the Black Circle
One of my favorites. show more There is a nice cast of characters, treachery, vile sorcery, the pace of this story is fast and furious.

The Hour of the Dragon
Conan is king of Aquilonia in this tale. At least, in the beginning. This one covers a lot of hyborean lands, with strange religious cults, evil wizards from Khitai, evil priests from Stygia, political intrigue amongst those who would rather not have a barbarian on the throne of Aquilonia.

A Witch Shall Be Born
Another one of my favorites. In this one, an evil twin seizes the throne of a small kingdom from her sister. Of course, she uses treachery and a foreign mercenary to help. The torments and violence she inflicts on the people of this kingdom are as bad, if not worse, than what happened in The Hour of the Dragon. show less

Somehow I liked this volume considerably less than the other two. These longest tales feel like the drawn out versions of short hack and slash ones of the first volume, the plots seem less intricate than the ones in the third.

Oh, REH. You are, most definitely, the most satisfying escapist author I have ever read. This collection includes "The People of the Black Circle," "The Hour of the Dragon," and "A Witch Shall Be Born," along with a collection of miscellany which was too in-depth for me to read (although I'm pleased that someone has exerted so much scholarly attention on Howard's work).

By Crom! These adventures stand the test of time and provided a nice escape after UM Conference - side note - I had a hard time trying to to picture Conan's foes as certain speakers at the Conference microphone.