Rating: 
Summary: Will this book find its audience?
Review: Will this book find its audience? Obviously it is meant for fantasy fans. Hopefully the new generation weaned on Tolkien and Tolkien-clones will want to examine this precursor of their favored form. It might be a tough sell though. Howard, at his best, is gritty depression era stuff. This is lumpen-proletariat as role model fiction. Conan has a dim view of police, judges, and people in authority. He questions religion, the use of violence by governments, expansionist politics and occupations. He is a true rebel, and as much as American society pretends to enjoy rebels, the truth is that, true rebels are pilloried, jailed, and made to be as isolated as possible. The best audience for Conan these days might not be fantasy fans but fans of authors like Donald Goines, Jim Thompson, and Chuck Palahniuk. This package is definitely speaking to the fantasy fans though and that is realistically the smart thing to do. Howard was writing fantasy and his was the fantasy to emulate during the 60's and 70's. Most of Howard's hardcore fans were 14-year-olds back then and are a surly bunch of 40-year-olds now. This book is trying to appeal to more than nostalgia though. It is seeking to establish as well as re-establish REH's reputation in literature. I'm a little uncomfortable with the choice to quote Stephen King on the cover. Obviously a compliment from Stephen King can help sell books. However if one investigates the source of that quote (Danse Macabre) they would read King prefacing that quote with a slam on Sword & Sorcery fiction in general and a summation that states that Howard's other work was either "unremarkable or abysmal." I doubt the editors will be quoting that last line on a collection of Howard's King Kull or Solomon Kane stories. The blurbs continue with two onetime Conan pastichers being represented: Poul Anderson and Harry Turtledove. Not surprisingly the book carefully avoids the mention of L. Sprague de Camp. Every Conan fan knows de Camp's role in popularizing Conan but Wandering Star treats de Camp pretty much the way hard line Stalinists treated Trotsky. His name cannot be mentioned in the new version of history they are creating. I am in agreement with the editorial line that Howard should stand alone these days in unedited texts, uncompleted fragments, and as close to original drafts as possible. This book is a Robert E. Howard scholar's delight. The chance to study Howard's original intent in this series is much needed. Still, I think the introduction could have mentioned the Lancer Book series and how incredibly successful and influential it was in its day and given de Camp a nod of thanks for his arguably flawed but seminal efforts. Fans of the de Camp pastiches can find quite a bit of his work being reprinted by the apparently Fourth Internationalists at Tor Books. All in all, this is a great collection of stories worthy of being read and re-read. Stories like "The Tower of the Elephant," "The God in the Bowl," and "Rogues in the House" will stand the test of time. Not all the stories are gems though and a few of them contain downright ugly racism. During these moments you'll have to remind yourself that these stories were written in the 1930's and was not the most enlightened of times. Not that 2003 is all that enlightened either though.
Rating:
Summary: original versions in the order that Howard wrote them
Review: Wow! This collection is a work of love. For Conan fans, getting this book is a no-brainer. For Howard purists, getting this book is a no-brainer. For sword and sorcery fans, getting this book is a no-brainer. Howard's Conan leaps out of the pages and runs wildly through your imagination. The new illustrations by Mark Schultz are well done and add to the reading. The additional material in the book (maps, history, etc.) all add further depth and insight into the world of Conan. I thoroughly enjoyed my initial reading and look eagerly forward to the next collection to finish the Conan saga as Howard meant it.
| 
