Rating: 
Summary: BACK IN PRINT -- Robert E. Howard's great creation!
Review: If you're a fan of fantasy author Robert E. Howard, who wrote for the pulps in the 1920s and 30s, rejoice! His stories of the great barbarian adventurer Conan are coming back in print, without unnecessary editing. These are the original texts.If you enjoy fantasy, but have never read either Howard or Conan -- BUY THIS NOW. It is a must for lovers of fantasy. Banish any notions you have of Conan in other media: movies, comics, books by other authors. Howard's Conan is a stunning, unique creation. At turns bloody thrilling, filled with passionate rushes of action, at other times brooding and beautiful, sweeping you off to strange vistas. Howard was a one of a kind author, an American great, and with Conan he was at his best. This first volume covers the first third of Howard's Conan stories, presented in the order they were written. The included stories are (in order): 1. The Phoenix on the Sword
2. The Frost-Giant's Daughter
3. The God in the Bowl
4. The Tower of the Elephant
5. The Scarlet Citadel
6. Queen of the Black Coast
7. Black Colossus
8. Iron Shadows in the Moon (aka Shadows in the Moonlight)
9. Xuthal of the Dusk (aka The Slithering Shadow)
10. The Pool of the Black One
11. The Vale of Lost Women
12. The Devil in Iron
13. The Phoenix on the Sword (first submitted draft) Plus a number of fragments and outlines, and Howard's guide to Conan's world: "The Hyborian Age." All the stories are enjoyable, although a few are minor entries in the Conan canon. The superior works are "The Tower of the Elephant," "The Scarlet Citadel," "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," and "Queen of the Black Coast." The last story is the gem of the collection: a grand romantic tragedy that you will never forget. This is one of Howard's ultimate great works. The volume comes with a treasure trove of supporting material: illustrations by Mark Schultz that have a unique take on the character; an informative introduction and very detailed appendicies that go into the history of how Howard wrote the stories and some of his sources, and textual notes for the truly obsessed. This is simply a superb collection: long-time fans and first time readers will all find something to treasure in this salute to one of the major authors and founders of modern fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Elemental Myth Burns on the Page
Review: In a society in which self-conscious irony has become standard in virtually every form of entertainment, these stories shine with the blinding light of 100% sincerity. This is pulp fiction elevated to the level of myth. Howard's hero moves through, and dominates, the Hyborian Age in much the same way that Beowulf and Odysseus do in their own, older, more respected, myths.
Conan is a character hewn from the fabric of saga and legend; dark, dangerous, unpredictable, as much an embodiment of the forces of nature as a human being. His world comes alive as a wildly imaginative patchwork of ancient and medieval history, filled with haunting references to our own past yet existing as a independent world as lushly alive as any in fantasy.
These stories have been more influential and imitated than practically any others in genre literature. But they have never been duplicated. Howard's prose is shocking in both its power and diversity, frustrating attempts at either imitation or parody. Sharp, hardboiled sentences drive home the fierce brutality of combat. Vivid, often lyrical, passages describe the sprawling majesty of the Hyborian world. Darkly ominous writing depicts the creeping horror of otherworldly sorcery.
If you know Conan only from film, comics or pastiche novels, you don't know Conan at all. Read Robert E. Howard's fiery words and discover some of the most potent, most primal, fantasy ever written.
Rating:
Summary: Hither came Conan
Review: It is amazing to finally have this volume released in an affordable format. "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" was originally published as a limited edition hardcover by Wandering Star press, a publishing house exclusively devoted to the works of Robert E. Howard, producing premium editions much like "special edition" DVDs. For the first time ever, the original Howard Conan stories complete and uncut with a host of original illustrations and special features. The only problem being that one hardback book sold for over a hundred dollars. And now, to have all of the same material, including the original illustrations, in an inexpensive paperback format! A dream come true!
Robert E. Howard was a decent pulp writer, Brusque and manly, he waxed yarns of hot-blooded heroes quick to the gun or sword, depending on their era. When writing Conan, however, he was inspired. These tales of high adventure are as primal as their hero, tapping into some deep, recessed part of the soul where a creature runs about in animal skins and takes what he wants, but not without honor. Woman and treasure and danger and violence, but presented without exploitation and with a quality of writing that renders such things viable. Writing cut from that Hemmingway fiber, if he had written about sword-swinging barbarians instead of gun-toting revolutionaries.
"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" presents, in chronological order, some raw slices of Howard's vision. "The Phoenix on the Sword," originally intended as a Kull of Atlantis story before recasting it with his new creation, remains one of the finest stories in the genre. The short story"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is mythic and wonderful, pitting human strength against the Gods. "The Tower of the Elephant" blends Howard's rawness with the cosmic insight of his friend HP Lovecraft. Really, they are all gems.
The "special features" are an interesting insight into Howard's mind, showing story development and process, as well as providing some background on the world of Conan. in "Hyborian Genesis" there is the story of the creation of Conan, and his influences. The only "special feature" I would have liked to have seen, but is missing, is a presentation of the original pulp covers featuring Conan stories. The modern illustrations and beautiful, but I would have liked to have seen the original interpretations as well.
I look forward to collecting the remaining two volumes in this Conan series.
Rating:
Summary: Howard's Barbarian Can Finally Be Seen
Review: It's not a question of artwork. I like Schultz just fine. He may not be to some people's tastes, but Vol 2 and 3 will have different artists. I personally think it's cool that Del Rey kept the artwork; it's a classy move, one you don't often see in TPBs anymore. Nor is it a question of packaging. They ended up running the original artwork of the artist who appears on the inside. A bait and switch would have been to run a Frazetta cover and have different illustrators inside. The book is nicely packaged and has a great retail price. 98% of the people who buy it won't notice the niggling little things that may or may not be wrong with the production. No, what an online review really should be all about is the fiction, the stories, that Howard wrote. They get under your skin and make you want to jump around. It is impossible to calculate the influence of Robert E. Howard on the world of fantasy. And these stories have been inaccessible for far too long--over ten years! Now, they are even better. Presented in the order that Howard wrote them, and with fully-restored text, to boot. Now that's a project that deserves some attention. This is Howard's most famous work, and it took a lot of people's blood, sweat, and tears to get them out for public consumption. This is an auspicious time, quite possibly the beginning of a Second Howard Boom! Howard was an original. He is often imitated (badly) and never duplicated. He was lightning in a bottle. Read these, the true Conan stories, and you can see for yourself why Howard is considered one of the greatest adventure writers of the 20th century.
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Summary: FINALLY PURE HOWARD CONAN STORIES
Review: Like many Conan fans, I first read the stories of Conan back in the 1970's through the old ACE paperback collections. It wasn't until many years later that i would find that these stories were edited, sometimes quite heavily, and also finished or collaborated on posthumously by people like Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp. While Carter certainly thrived in the genre of Swords and Sorcery, DeCamp could barely contain his disdain for the genre or Robert E. Howard for that matter and it certainly shows when stories are compared side-by-side. For all Howard's critics labelinig him as a pulp hack, DeCamp WISHES he would have had Howard's skill for prose and action.
This book presents 13 of Howard's Conan stories in the order they were written, although NOT chronologically, so don't get confused. The stories are the pure an unedited versions, many for the first time since they were published in the pages of Weird Tales over seventy years ago.
Among the stories in the Collection are:
The Queen of the Black Coast - One of the longer tales that Howard wrote as Conan meets with his first true love Belit in a jungle adventure.
The Frost Giants Daughter - where Conan encounters A Beautiful snow Queen and the Frost Giants in the frigid northern Lands.
The Tower of the Elephant - Classic howard with a young Conan as a thief with a nod to Lovecraft's dark Cthulhu gods.
The book is illustrated by Mark Schultz who does a fine job but certainly no Frazetta or even Boris for that matter. For any Conan fan this is a definitive book to get the stories as they were originally written and intended and unsoiled by the less skilled writers who would edit them in later decades.
highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: A Great Tribute and Collection
Review: Over the years, Robert E. Howard's (REH) Conan stories have been muddied by an uncountable number of pastiches as well as occasional over-aggressive editing (let's just say REH was sometimes not too politically correct). And it has always been difficult to find his works collected in one place, or, at least gathered into several volumes. Hopefully, this is the start of a collection of the complete works of REH on Conan. What we are given here is largely pure REH, untouched by modern hands and in all his bloody glory. The volume collects about one-third of Howard's Conan output and has the bonus of collecting synopses of several of the stories, drafts, fragments, Howard's notes on the Hyborian Age and its people, maps, and even a Howard poem ("Cimmeria"). Part of what is amazing about REH is the sheer volume of output he produced in a relatively short span of approximately 12 years. When you consider that in addition to his Conan work he was also cranking out westerns, boxing stories, horror stories, and nearly every type of adventure story imaginable, and doing it all on a typewriter where starting a second draft meant starting over at the beginning, it is phenomenal. Imagine what his output would be had he had access to a word processing program. A minor criticism: some of the illustrations. I generally love Mark Schultz's work, but his Conan is sometimes a little too modern in appearance or maybe even a little too "Prince Valiant" like. A prime example is the frontispiece. This image just doesn't evoke Conan for me. But the majority of the art in the book is great. A better depiction is found on page 297, now that's the Conan I know and love. Guess Mr. Schultz (who I do admire greatly) and I will have to disagree over some of his interpretations of Conan. Not all Conan stories are necessarily great. Producing at the pace he did meant that the occasional mediocre story found its way into print. I've always thought "The Vale of Lost Women" was one of his lesser efforts, and it appears Mr. Schultz, who also wrote the Forward for the book, agrees with me. But this volume also contains some of the best of Conan: "The Phoenix on the Sword," "The Scarlet Citadel," and "Queen of the Black Coast" among them. One thing that may be slightly confusing to new Conan readers, REH did not write his Conan tales in any semblance of chronological order and these stories are printed in the order of original publication. So in some stories, Conan is already a king while in others he is still pretty much a vagabond adventuring across the world. Previous efforts at collecting REH's works often insisted on placing them in chronological order. If you are new to Conan, just go with the flow. Understand that REH had no grand plan for Conan, in fact, he often claimed the stories literally seemed to just spring up, as if Conan were telling stories of his life directly to him. My only other minor criticism: I would have preferred that there be a hardback edition. I've always preferred hardcover to paperback. Still, this oversized paperback is definitely a quality effort. someone is attempting to do it up right. Hopefully, this volume will do well enough that they will be able to complete the reprinting of the remaining Conan tales. If you are a longtime REH or Conan fan, you have to have this book in your library. If you are new to REH and Conan, strap in, you are in for a wild ride. The world of Conan is a fascinating, thrilling one. Come see the master at work and you'll probably never again be able to read any of that drivel that passes for sword and sorcery these days.
Rating:
Summary: Discover the dawn of Heroic Fantasy!
Review: REH's CONAN stories were a hit, inspiring & opening the doors to a multitude of other fantasy adventurists. But unlike some other past fantasy works, these stories are still full of life. No imitators have succeeded in capturing even a spark of the essence of the passion, inventive imagination, and suspenseful atmosphere of Robert E Howard's CONAN stories. These stories are a thrill! Lush, rugged, decadent, and awe inspiring by turns, the detailed world-building is smoothly written in context, allowing the reader to be absorbed with the fast-paced action and dynamic characters. This may be a surprise for current leisurely fat fantasy book readers, but a pleasant one. Like a summer blockbuster movie, Howard gets to the point right of the bat, and his clear powerful prose keeps it moving enthrallingly. Courage and a length of sharp steel takes Conan -- and readers -- to many far exotic places and right into the fascinating thick of it. A particular favourite in this volume -- the 1st of 3 gorgeous collections -- is "The Devil In Iron". It's a great example of some of REH's popular themes: haunting wondrous lost places, strong women in a harsh world, the error of confusing how civilized someone is with how smart and capable they are. Also, "Black Colossus": an unnatural lust for power that resists even the ravages of death! All of them are great in there own way. And this edition offers treats for new and old readers alike, with original author versions of the stories never seen before and glorious new illustrations by the great artist Mark (Xenozoic Tales) Schultz! Plain and simply, a great read!
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Achievement - At Last Pure Howard!
Review: Robert E. Howard stands alone as the Father of Sword and Sorcery fantasy adventure. There have been many -- far too many -- pastiches over the years of his essential S&S character, Conan the Cimmerian, by inferior authors. This has done REH the disservice of blurring (if not obscuring) his real literary achievement in this genre. This book is the long-awaited reintroduction and revitalization of "pure Robert E. Howard." It represents the work of several Howardian scholars over years of effort. As an added value, the book's annotations and scholarly discussion by Patrice Louinet -- and the inclusion of some unfinished REH fragments and a variation of "The Phoenix on the Sword" make this a necessary book for any Howard collector or any serious student of his work. If you have never experienced the power, the poetry, the marvel, the vividness, or the vitality of Howard's work -- then I envy you the initial pleasure and awe of that remembered experience. For those who have read the sundry imitators as well as some true Howard -- this is the book to sharpen your awareness of the differences. Don't accept imitations -- this is the pure stuff! A must have, must read/reread for any REH enthusiast.
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Achievement - At Last Pure Howard!
Review: Robert E. Howard stands alone as the Father of Sword and Sorcery fantasy adventure. There have been many -- far too many -- pastiches over the years of his essential S&S character, Conan the Cimmerian, by inferior authors. This has done REH the disservice of blurring (if not obscuring) his real literary achievement in this genre. This book is the long-awaited reintroduction and revitalization of "pure Robert E. Howard." It represents the work of several Howardian scholars over years of effort. As an added value, the book's annotations and scholarly discussion by Patrice Louinet -- and the inclusion of some unfinished REH fragments and a variation of "The Phoenix on the Sword" make this a necessary book for any Howard collector or any serious student of his work. If you have never experienced the power, the poetry, the marvel, the vividness, or the vitality of Howard's work -- then I envy you the initial pleasure and awe of that remembered experience. For those who have read the sundry imitators as well as some true Howard -- this is the book to sharpen your awareness of the differences. Don't accept imitations -- this is the pure stuff! A must have, must read/reread for any REH enthusiast.
Rating: 
Summary: FIVE STARS FOR HOWARD BUT...
Review: Robert E. Howard was one of the finest writers of the 20th Century. Howard beat Hemingway to that author's supposed "signature style" and transcended his pulp roots to inspire many of the great writers who came later, including Fritz Leiber, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King. It is wonderful that the Conan books have been freed from the legal limbo in which they languished, so that readers can finally experience the Conan stories unencumbered by politically correct editing and stories "finished by" or written by other authors. That said, this package is dreck, pure and simple. Del Rey basically reprinted the way-too-pricey limited edition hardcover, warts and all, and Del Rey even managed to add a few warts of their own. Let's look at the cover. Amazon first displayed this book with the iconic cover art by Frank Frazetta from the "Conan the Adventurer" Lancer edition from the 1960s. I am given to understand that Del Rey sold in this title to buyers using proofs that featured the Frazetta cover, as well. Then came the old bait and switch. There is no Frazetta cover here. Instead we get the tedious, lifeless art by "illustrator" Mark Schultz--a pallid imitation of the illos by ER Burroughs artist Allen St. John. Now if there were an iota of self-awareness in Schultz's work I would say that his art might be interesting in a retro, nostalgic way. But the guy is just a mimic, imitating his betters. The interior black and white illustrations are an improvement over the color cover--but only because Schultz imitates the old Ace Books' Frazetta and Roy Krenkel interior illustrations from the 1960s. The choice of cover art was strange, too. Here we see "Conan" battling a refugee from the Blue Man Group in a static, Prince Valiant-esque picture. Inside Del Rey reprints a few of the other color illustrations included in the hardcover, but in black and white (and I thought Mark Schultz's work couldn't look worse)--and let me tell you that the illustration on page 129 of the Del Rey edition would have made a better, more iconographic cover than the one chosen. I guess they were afraid of that nude woman! Next up are the author blurbs. There is a nice Stephen King quote on the front cover, but the two pages of author endorsements inside are weird indeed. Now correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn't author blurbs be arranged in order of prestige and importance? Shouldn't a quote from, say John Updike upstage a quote by Danielle Steel? Not here! You would think David Gemmel's and Eric Nylund's agents formatted this page because their inane quotes lead the pack. Now on what planet does Gemmel (eco-friendly fantasy author) and Nylund (X-Box author) trump H.P. Lovecraft, John Jakes, Michael Moorcock, and Poul Anderson? On the planet Del Rey where Gemmel and Nylund both publish, that where. The Conan stories are wonderful, amazing things--works of genius created by a driven author writing in a total vacuum. They should be savored and appreciated by a whole new generation of readers who have only been exposed to the lousy movies and the crappy Marvel Comics. But these phenomenal masterpieces of proletariat fantasy also deserve a much better package that this one. The editors over at Del Rey should hang their heads in shame.
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