Conan the Freebooter (Conan, No 3)

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Conan collection, but still bloody good.
Review: CONAN THE FREEBOOTER is the third volume in Ace's often-maligned series of books chronicling the career of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero, Conan of Cimmeria. As with previous installments, CONAN THE FREEBOOTER features a mix of Howard originals, and posthumous collaborations between Howard and editor, L. Sprague de Camp. Unlike the first two Conan collections, CONAN THE FREEBOOTER contains no outright pastiches, and de Camp's frequent partner in such works, Lin Carter, is missing entirely, though Carter would return in the very next volume.

This collection brings together fewer stories than in previous books, with each piece running considerably longer than the average Conan story seen thus far. CONAN THE FREEBOOTER contains only five tales of the fiery Cimmerian, two of which are rewritten stories that originally did not feature Conan or his mythic Hyborian Age. As de Camp explains in the introduction, altering Howard's non-Conan stories to fit the extant adventures of the mighty barbarian was not a difficult task, as most of Howard's heroes were "pretty much cut from the same cloth."

It's these revisions and alterations that many Howard purists decry, and they are likened to painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. However, when one reads CONAN THE FREEBOOTER as a piece, it's quite difficult to tell where the "genuine" Conan leaves off and the "imitation" Conan begins. This was true in the first and second volumes of the Ace series, where even the original stories inserted by de Camp and Carter among Howard's tales are hard to distinguish from the works of the master. That these posthumous collaborations and pastiches serve as the cement by which the disparate stories of Conan are held together into a coherent whole, they are a welcome addition, at least to this reader.

As with all of the exploits of the literary Conan, readers who have no familiarity with the character beyond comic books and movies might be genuinely surprised at what they read. During the course of CONAN THE FREEBOOTER there are incidences of rape, bloody murder and even implied incest. The Conan stories are all like this, and those who love Howard's muscular tales of a distant past that never was will not blink at what they find here. When Conan hacks his way through a forest of arms and heads on his way to the bedside of a naked young woman, readers feel as though they've gotten their money's worth. Neophytes may find this raw storytelling something to which they must become used.

On the whole, the stories in CONAN THE FREEBOOTER are not the strongest in the Conan series. Conan matures as a character in this volume, aging into his early thirties by the end of the book. It is here that the wandering thief and sword-for-hire begins to assume the positions of leadership among the "civilized" nations that will eventually raise him to the throne, and though the action can sometimes be a bit stale (woman in peril, bad guys must be hacked to pieces), the book is still well worth checking out for the place it has in the ongoing body of Conan legendry.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Conan collection, but still bloody good.
Review: CONAN THE FREEBOOTER is the third volume in Ace's often-maligned series of books chronicling the career of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero, Conan of Cimmeria. As with previous installments, CONAN THE FREEBOOTER features a mix of Howard originals, and posthumous collaborations between Howard and editor, L. Sprague de Camp. Unlike the first two Conan collections, CONAN THE FREEBOOTER contains no outright pastiches, and de Camp's frequent partner in such works, Lin Carter, is missing entirely, though Carter would return in the very next volume.

This collection brings together fewer stories than in previous books, with each piece running considerably longer than the average Conan story seen thus far. CONAN THE FREEBOOTER contains only five tales of the fiery Cimmerian, two of which are rewritten stories that originally did not feature Conan or his mythic Hyborian Age. As de Camp explains in the introduction, altering Howard's non-Conan stories to fit the extant adventures of the mighty barbarian was not a difficult task, as most of Howard's heroes were "pretty much cut from the same cloth."

It's these revisions and alterations that many Howard purists decry, and they are likened to painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. However, when one reads CONAN THE FREEBOOTER as a piece, it's quite difficult to tell where the "genuine" Conan leaves off and the "imitation" Conan begins. This was true in the first and second volumes of the Ace series, where even the original stories inserted by de Camp and Carter among Howard's tales are hard to distinguish from the works of the master. That these posthumous collaborations and pastiches serve as the cement by which the disparate stories of Conan are held together into a coherent whole, they are a welcome addition, at least to this reader.

As with all of the exploits of the literary Conan, readers who have no familiarity with the character beyond comic books and movies might be genuinely surprised at what they read. During the course of CONAN THE FREEBOOTER there are incidences of rape, bloody murder and even implied incest. The Conan stories are all like this, and those who love Howard's muscular tales of a distant past that never was will not blink at what they find here. When Conan hacks his way through a forest of arms and heads on his way to the bedside of a naked young woman, readers feel as though they've gotten their money's worth. Neophytes may find this raw storytelling something to which they must become used.

On the whole, the stories in CONAN THE FREEBOOTER are not the strongest in the Conan series. Conan matures as a character in this volume, aging into his early thirties by the end of the book. It is here that the wandering thief and sword-for-hire begins to assume the positions of leadership among the "civilized" nations that will eventually raise him to the throne, and though the action can sometimes be a bit stale (woman in peril, bad guys must be hacked to pieces), the book is still well worth checking out for the place it has in the ongoing body of Conan legendry.