Rating: 
Summary: OVERALL SCORE: (C)
Review: Somewhat of a disappointment, having read the series of Conan books re-worked by L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter in the 70's, I had hoped that the original stories as written by Howard himself would be even beter. Unfortunately, I did not like this book nearly as much; the action lacked the emotional impact and violence, the stories were very short and 'patchy', the flow was at times difficult and unnatural, the scenes were not as vibrantly depicted and lacked the color and feel that De Camp and Carter gave to them, and worse was the characters themselves, they lacked depth, intensity, likeability, and charm..
Instead of this book I would recommend, and much preferred either the De Camp/ Carter series, or "The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1" and "The Further Chronicles of Conan", by Robert Jordan.OVERALL SCORE: (C)
PLOT: (C), CHARATERS: (C-), DIALOGUE: (C-), SETTING: (C), ACTION/COMBAT: (C), ANTAGONISTS: (B-), ROMANCE: (B+), SEX: (Light), AGE LEVEL: (PG)
Rating: 
Summary: Nice anthology
Review: The original text of Howard's stories in the order they were written. Very nice. Sparse art complements the stories nicely.
Rating:
Summary: Great volume by Del Rey books
Review: This book covers the first thirteen Conan stories. Hopefully more will be published in another volume. Del Rey has also published the wonderful The Savage Tales Of Solomon Kane, which collects all the Solomon Kane stories. The Bloody Crown of Conan will contain the full length Conan novels, and Bran Mak Morn: The Last King will contain the Bran Mak Morn stories.
Hopefully someone looking for the actual text stories will find this useful, as I had to look to the Del Rey site to differentiate them from the comic books (oops Graphic Novels).
Great reading, with some good illustrations. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Rage of Conan
Review: This book is awesome! I have previously read a great deal of fantasy novels, including various Tolkien works, a massive amount of Forgotten Realms and what not. But Robert E. Howard's Conan, surpasses them all. I like Howard's dark writing and enjoy seeing a great deal of bloodshed towards the enemy. Other major fantasy authors should read Howard's work like a Baptist does the Bible.
Rating:
Summary: Conan The Definitive
Review: This has to be the book bargain of the year....13 of REH's classic Conan stories sans post-mortem editorial tinkering, profusely and gorgeously illustrated by Mark Schultz, beautifully printed on nice paper, free of the appalling typos that marred Millenium/Gollancz' 2-volume "Conan Chronicles" set a few years back, PLUS Howard's original draft of "The Phoenix On The Sword" and other assorted supplemental goodies....all for the meagre sum of fifteen bucks -- just TEN, if you buy it here at Amazon! Mitra, what a deal! So what are you waiting for? Hours of intense reading pleasure are just "one click" away.... Kudos to Wandering Star and Del Rey, for --at long last-- doing Howard right. Eagerly awaiting volumes 2 and 3....
Rating:
Summary: Pure Conan for the Masses
Review: This is just a wonderful wonderful book. Robert E. Howard can virtually grab you by the collar and drag you into his stories with his breath-taking prose. His style isn't purple, but is dynamic and powerful. You'll want to return to this book again and again. Patrice Louinet's "Introduction" and "Hyborian Genesis" are wonderful essays, the kind of thing that should have appeared years ago, but didn't. As editor/essayist he deserves praise for his work on this incredible volume. Conan was one of Howard's most commercial constructs, and by this time Howard was so developed as a prose stylist that "breath-taking" does quite literally describe his incredible style. This material is simply wonderful. Looking down the list of stories, I know the reader will find many fine tales here. Things Howard did later became sword & sorcery clichés, but Howard did them first, and when he did them they were new and fresh. He took the adventure story and combined it with the tale of supernatural horror-and he did it incredibly well. The reader will get a thrill from the stories in this volume. "The Pool of the Black One" is one of my personal favorites from this group. As it is Conan's intellect as well as his physical strength that elevates him to the position of captain of the pirate crew. "Queen of the Black Coast" is a powerful, emotional story. The passion between Conan and Bêlit is intense, and the tragedy of the story's ending is just incredibly moving. "The Tower of the Elephant" is a classic in the field. Its intricacies are amazing, considering the straight-forwardness (seemingly) of the plot. For a mostly off-stage character, Yara is incredibly menacing. "The Phoenix on the Sword" is, of course, the masterpiece that started it all. Plus, the reader gets to see the last two drafts of this story-surely a treat. "Iron Shadows in the Moon" is another personal favorite. The introduction is especially dramatic, even for Howard. We immediately begin to empathize with the female lead, and the menaces are varied and awe-inspiring: the carnivorous ape, the pirates and finally the living iron statues. This tale packs a triple treat. The public may not have been breathlessly waiting for this package of unadulterated Howard tales, but it should have been. Buy two copies, because you'll wear the first copy out with repeated readings in no time at all.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Govenor of CA
Review: This is not the movie! There is a certain frown or laugh I get from people when I mention Conan books. They relate everything to the movie, not having a clue of the magnitude of these stories. See for yourself and you won't be dissapointed. Gore, guts, and beautiful women. Oh yeah, and a heck of a great story teller. Pure fantasy! Enjoy it for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Book
Review: This is the first of three projected volumes collecting Robert E. Howard's Conan stories as they were originally written or presented in the pages of WEIRD TALES in the 1930's. For over 50 years, posthumous editors have meddled with the text of the Conan. Rewrites of stories, heavy handed editing, and insertion of counterfeit pastiche stories amidst the Howard Conan stories have diluted and presented a distortion of the original fiction. This gets it all back to the real unadulterated Conan and Robert E. Howard.
Contents include thirteen stories, an essay (The Hyborian Age), "Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age," four synopses, one fragment, one draft, "Hyborian Names and Countries," and reproductions of two maps drawn by Robert E. Howard. In addition are an excellent introduction and the essay "Hyborian Genesis" by Robert E. Howard scholar, Patrice Louinet. Cover and interior art is provided by Mark Schultz of XENOZOIC TALES fame. The art is appropriately "retro" to the era these stories were written and harkens back to Hal Foster and PRINCE VALIANT not to mention Virgil Finlay, Harold McCauley, and other illustrators for pulp magazines of the 1930's. A break has been made with Frank Frazetta style illustration which though great is too closely associated with the corrupt texts and pastiches of the Lancer and Ace paperbacks of 35 years ago. This is an incredible value for the money. Go out and buy this book before having some time off because you won't want to put it down in order to go to sleep, school, or work.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Illustrations of the Original Works
Review: This new Conan collection was well worth the wait. Editor Patrice Louinet has published the Barbarian's stories in their original order and with their original wording. No longer do readers have to wade through poor pastiches by later writers in order to enjoy Robert Howard's work. This book has the first 13 stories, as well as several early unpublished manuscripts. A fun read of a fascinating hero. Unfortunately, my two favorite Conan stories, "Red Nails" and "Beyond the Black River" are not in this text. Hopefully they will be published in a new volume shortly. But this book does have some true gems in it. Everyone should read "Queen of the Black Coast." I also like "Rogues in the House," even though it is not widely considered one of Howard's best efforts. But the real reason every Sword and Sorcery fan should buy this book are the excellent illustrations by Mark Schultz. The cover plate is wonderful, and the illustrations really capture some of the best scenes in the book. They alone are worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: It's about time!!
Review: When I first heard about a book collecting the tales of Robert E. Howard's swordsman Conan I was very encouraged. That a noted artist like Mark Schultz (a friend of mine) had been approached to provide the illustrations I knew this was was going to be a beautiful book. When the limited edition hardcover finally saw print I ponied up the hard cash and didn't hesitate for a minute. The book is magnificent. The pure Conan tales without the stain of what passed for editting all those years ago are gone, and this is Mark's best artwork yet. Later, when he told me about the deal to get this gorgeous book released in a trade paperback, I waited, patiently. Again, I was amazed at the care that went into this new mass market edition.First up, it took too long for this to happen. Having read the old Lancer editions with the stunning Frazetta cover art I've always wanted to see the heavy handed editting by Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp exorcised from Howard's original stories. I've never cared for the idea that someone can "fix" another writer's "mistakes". It's the height of arrogance to assume such an idea and to follow through with it should be a punishable crime, especially if the author is dead and gone and consequently has no say in the matter.The other wonderful element that sets these tales apart from previous editions is the dropping of the artificial fabrication of the character's chronlogically shoehorned adventures. This was created to give Conan a linear path, so to speak, but it was not how the original readers read his tales. In this edition and the following two volumes the reader today gets pure Robert E. Howard and now has the opportunity to read the tales in the order in which they were published. This is done with profound respect to the author. This is the Conan that the imitators can't write about. In defense of Mr. Howard, why would anyone want to read the imitators over the original? Was there a better writer of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes than Arthur Conan Doyle?For the dissenters who prefer the fiddled with versions over the originals, well, there's still eBay. For those of us who've read the powerful work of Robert E. Howard without the tinkering (which it never needed to begin with) we now have Del Rey books and Wandering Star publisher to thank for bringing this version to the bookstands across the country. It's about time!!
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