Conan of Cimmeria (Conan No. 2)

Rating:
Summary: Another winner in the Ace CONAN series.
Review: CONAN OF CIMMERIA is the second of over a dozen numbered volumes of chronologically-ordered Conan stories released by Ace. Featuring eight tales of the iron-thewed barbarian hero, CONAN OF CIMMERIA has about the same ratio of edited Robert E. Howard, posthumous collaborations with "co-authors" L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, and outright pastiche as did CONAN, the original book in the series. Like CONAN, CONAN OF CIMMERIA is still a wonderful read, despite what many purists believe to be an affront to the literary memory of Howard.

This volume contains some of Howard's very best writing, and anyone who denies an acquaintance with such stories as "Queen of the Black Coast" is doing himself or herself a disservice. This story, a HEART OF DARKNESS-style tale that finds Conan as a member of a pirate crew led by the beautiful and tempestuous Bêlit - herself a model for the filmic Conan's love, Valeria - skillfully marries pulp adventure, Lovecraftian horror, intensively-detailed fantastic history, and even a touch of romance. After reading "Queen of the Black Coast," readers will never question why that story is considered one of Howard's finest.

CONAN OF CIMMERIA does provide a showcase for some of the darker aspects of Howard's fiction, however. Even "Queen of the Black Coast" suffers from Howard's virulent bigotry, an attitude that is not surprising given the author's environment and the attitudes of white America in general during the 1930s. Conan and his author display a patronizing and sometimes hostile attitude toward the "black kingdoms" wherein many of this volume's stories take place, and some readers might take offense, or at the very least feel discomfited. Still others might be shocked at the attempted rape depicted in "The Frost Giant's Daughter," another high-water mark for Howard. When reading CONAN OF CIMMERIA, it pays to remember that the literary Conan has always been a much more difficult character than his counterparts in other media.

Conan is still worth seeking out, warts and all. In a fantasy market crowded with the likes of Robert Jordan - who wrote a few (excellent) Conan pastiches in his time, to his credit - and other disciples of J.R.R. Tolkien, there no longer seems to be room for a violent, lusty hero like Howard's. The quality of the stories in CONAN OF CIMMERIA is entirely different from anything else being written, from the texture of Howard's robust prose to the unflinching brutality of bloody combat. These early Conan stories, even when they involve nobility and the machinations of power, are resolutely ground-level in their approach. They are grimier than the high fantasy works that dominate the genre, and are made far more remarkable for that reason alone. Also, CONAN OF CIMMERIA, while the second in a lengthy series, is also open to new readership. The stories of Conan are fairly self-contained and require little in the way of introduction. This is certainly not true of the majority of contemporary fantasy fiction.

In short, CONAN OF CIMMERIA is great stuff and whether one is a Conan neophyte or a devotee of Howard's most famous hero, it's a deserved must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Another winner in the Ace CONAN series.
Review: CONAN OF CIMMERIA is the second of over a dozen numbered volumes of chronologically-ordered Conan stories released by Ace. Featuring eight tales of the iron-thewed barbarian hero, CONAN OF CIMMERIA has about the same ratio of edited Robert E. Howard, posthumous collaborations with "co-authors" L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, and outright pastiche as did CONAN, the original book in the series. Like CONAN, CONAN OF CIMMERIA is still a wonderful read, despite what many purists believe to be an affront to the literary memory of Howard.

This volume contains some of Howard's very best writing, and anyone who denies an acquaintance with such stories as "Queen of the Black Coast" is doing himself or herself a disservice. This story, a HEART OF DARKNESS-style tale that finds Conan as a member of a pirate crew led by the beautiful and tempestuous Bêlit - herself a model for the filmic Conan's love, Valeria - skillfully marries pulp adventure, Lovecraftian horror, intensively-detailed fantastic history, and even a touch of romance. After reading "Queen of the Black Coast," readers will never question why that story is considered one of Howard's finest.

CONAN OF CIMMERIA does provide a showcase for some of the darker aspects of Howard's fiction, however. Even "Queen of the Black Coast" suffers from Howard's virulent bigotry, an attitude that is not surprising given the author's environment and the attitudes of white America in general during the 1930s. Conan and his author display a patronizing and sometimes hostile attitude toward the "black kingdoms" wherein many of this volume's stories take place, and some readers might take offense, or at the very least feel discomfited. Still others might be shocked at the attempted rape depicted in "The Frost Giant's Daughter," another high-water mark for Howard. When reading CONAN OF CIMMERIA, it pays to remember that the literary Conan has always been a much more difficult character than his counterparts in other media.

Conan is still worth seeking out, warts and all. In a fantasy market crowded with the likes of Robert Jordan - who wrote a few (excellent) Conan pastiches in his time, to his credit - and other disciples of J.R.R. Tolkien, there no longer seems to be room for a violent, lusty hero like Howard's. The quality of the stories in CONAN OF CIMMERIA is entirely different from anything else being written, from the texture of Howard's robust prose to the unflinching brutality of bloody combat. These early Conan stories, even when they involve nobility and the machinations of power, are resolutely ground-level in their approach. They are grimier than the high fantasy works that dominate the genre, and are made far more remarkable for that reason alone. Also, CONAN OF CIMMERIA, while the second in a lengthy series, is also open to new readership. The stories of Conan are fairly self-contained and require little in the way of introduction. This is certainly not true of the majority of contemporary fantasy fiction.

In short, CONAN OF CIMMERIA is great stuff and whether one is a Conan neophyte or a devotee of Howard's most famous hero, it's a deserved must-read.

Rating:
Summary: an absolutely unputdownable adventure
Review: having read most of conan's stories,i can safely say that never has a book encaptured my imagination so deeply.with so many entertaining tales of exciting adventures,i only wish i could complete reading the remaining editions that i've been unable to locate.please e/mail if you can help.meanwhile i'll keep reading. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: an absolutely unputdownable adventure
Review: having read most of conan's stories,i can safely say that never has a book encaptured my imagination so deeply.with so many entertaining tales of exciting adventures,i only wish i could complete reading the remaining editions that i've been unable to locate.please e/mail if you can help.meanwhile i'll keep reading. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Conan of Cimeria
Review: I started reading Conan novels at the age of fourteen. I was wakened to sword and scorcery for life. Even though a few - more than a few - have attempted to emulate Robert E Howard,s style, no one seems to have got it quite the way Howard did.
There is and only ever will be one Robert E howard. --And -I might add- only one artist true enough to fill the cover of howards books --Frank Frazetta. They are the embodiment of fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: A definite improvement over the first volume...
Review: The stories in Conan of Cimmeria surpass in content and in language the stories in the first Conan book.

The Curse of the Monolith, by de Camp & Carter, is an okay political story, but the action is kind of weak. A fun little read.

The Bloodstained God, by Howard & de Camp, is the most boring story in this volume. I found it overlong and almost unreadably bad. Not sure why, but I just couldn't stand it.

The Frost Giant's Daughter, I think, is generally considered to be one of the best Conan stories, and I agree. Short and to the point, this story isn't about Conan, the story is Conan.

The Lair of the Ice Worm, by de Camp and Carter, is another fairly good story that doesn't have any relevance in the grand scheme of things, but it's fun and entertaining.

Queen of the Black Coast, by Howard, is another excellent story, dripping with Howard's wonderfully readable style. The heroine here is in no small part the inspiration for Valeria in the first Conan movie.

The Vale of Lost Women, by Howard, is another really good story that really gets into who and what Conan is, not just about one of his feats.

The Castle of Terror, while more entertaining than Bloodstained God, is so stupidly pointless that I wonder why it was written, much less put in here. You're not missing anything if you skip this one.

The Snout in the Dark, while being an improvement of Castle of Terror and Bloodstained God, doesn't reveal anything new about Conan, isn't terribly exciting, but it's still an interesting read.

This book is, again, superior to the first in the series...highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: People Are Way Too Harsh on De Camp & Carter
Review: This is less of a review of this particular volume in the Conan opus as edited & added to by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter than it is a response to the thrashing that the abovementioned writers have been taking in this forum and in many others. It's true that no one can write Conan the way Robert E. Howard could. I'm not convinced anyone has ever really tried. Some of the work de Camp & Carter did with Howard's material is cheesy. Remember - most of their pastiches were written to fill gaps in the timeline. Many of them were written from Howard fragments. It's also true that Karl Edward Wagner did a much better job presenting Howard's writing when he was manning the Conan fort. Wagner's Conan books are now quite expensive and pretty hard to get a hold of. My own introduction to Conan came in the 1980's, through a combination of Marvel Comics and the Ace reprints of the de Camp & Carter editions of the old Lancer paperbacks. Had it not been for the work of de Camp and Carter I might NEVER have discovered any of the works of Robert E. Howard. For that, I am - and I suspect that a lot of readers my age should be - eternally grateful to them. As to CONAN OF CIMMERIA, this is one of the best of the de Camp & Carter editions. The pastiche pieces are readable and the pure Howard is mostly unadulterated. "Queen of the Black Coast" is one of Howard's finest stories. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: People Are Way Too Harsh on De Camp & Carter
Review: This is less of a review of this particular volume in the Conan opus as edited & added to by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter than it is a response to the thrashing that the abovementioned writers have been taking in this forum and in many others. It's true that no one can write Conan the way Robert E. Howard could. I'm not convinced anyone has ever really tried. Some of the work de Camp & Carter did with Howard's material is cheesy. Remember - most of their pastiches were written to fill gaps in the timeline. Many of them were written from Howard fragments. It's also true that Karl Edward Wagner did a much better job presenting Howard's writing when he was manning the Conan fort. Wagner's Conan books are now quite expensive and pretty hard to get a hold of. My own introduction to Conan came in the 1980's, through a combination of Marvel Comics and the Ace reprints of the de Camp & Carter editions of the old Lancer paperbacks. Had it not been for the work of de Camp and Carter I might NEVER have discovered any of the works of Robert E. Howard. For that, I am - and I suspect that a lot of readers my age should be - eternally grateful to them. As to CONAN OF CIMMERIA, this is one of the best of the de Camp & Carter editions. The pastiche pieces are readable and the pure Howard is mostly unadulterated. "Queen of the Black Coast" is one of Howard's finest stories. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: 4 STARS FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD
Review: To be honest, I didn't bother reading the de Camp and Lin Carter stories. Why? They're pastiche authors. And no one can write Conan like its creator, Robert E. Howard. Even Robert Jordan's Conan stories were dirt compared to Robert E. Howard's. To me, pastiche authors are the scum of the earth because they are so low that they have to continue someone elses creation just to make a living--can't they be original. Sure, de Camp has written other stuff, but most people would associate him with Conan. When the Conan movie came out in the 80's, I thought that de Camp was the creator of Conan. Boy was I wrong! As far as the book goes, the three Robert E. Howard stories inside are good, but not Howard's best. I thought that the Frost-Giant's Daughter was the best of the three. But I think that Howard's best short story was A Witch Shall Be Born. Looking at the book as a whole, it's only worth about 2 or 3 stars, but you can blame de Camp and Carter for dragging the rating down.