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Conan the Cimmerian #3
The Conquering Sword of Conan
In a meteoric career that covered only a dozen years, Robert E. Howard defined the sword-and-sorcery genre. In doing so, he brought to life the archetypal adventurer known to millions around the world as Conan the barbarian.
Witness, then, Howard at his finest, and Conan at his most savage, in the latest volume featuring the collected works of Robert E. Howard, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Greg Manchess. Prepared directly from the earliest known versions—often Howard’s own manuscripts—are such sword-and-sorcery classics as “The Servants of Bit-Yakin” (formerly published as “Jewels of Gwahlur”), “Beyond the Black River,” “The Black Stranger,” “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” (formerly published as “Shadows in Zamboula”), and, perhaps his most famous adventure of all, “Red Nails.”
The Conquering Sword of Conan includes never-before-published outlines, notes, and story drafts, plus a new introduction, personal correspondence, and the revealing essay “Hyborian Genesis”—which chronicles the history of the creation of the Conan series. Truly, this is heroic fantasy at its finest.
Witness, then, Howard at his finest, and Conan at his most savage, in the latest volume featuring the collected works of Robert E. Howard, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Greg Manchess. Prepared directly from the earliest known versions—often Howard’s own manuscripts—are such sword-and-sorcery classics as “The Servants of Bit-Yakin” (formerly published as “Jewels of Gwahlur”), “Beyond the Black River,” “The Black Stranger,” “Man-Eaters of Zamboula” (formerly published as “Shadows in Zamboula”), and, perhaps his most famous adventure of all, “Red Nails.”
The Conquering Sword of Conan includes never-before-published outlines, notes, and story drafts, plus a new introduction, personal correspondence, and the revealing essay “Hyborian Genesis”—which chronicles the history of the creation of the Conan series. Truly, this is heroic fantasy at its finest.
393 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 2005
About the author
Robert E. Howard
3,243 books2,738 followersRobert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion" and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."
He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.
—Wikipedia
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.
—Wikipedia
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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September 14, 2011
It's disappointing the way modern critics often fail to address issues of race as they are presented in books from earlier time periods. Sure, when writing of Howard and Lovecraft (or even Twain and Poe) critics will not fail to repeat some notion that their racism is 'an unfortunate artifact of that time and culture'--but that is not the same as actually meeting the issue of race head on and dealing with what it means in a text.
The way an author approaches race is an integral part of their worldview, of the philosophies they explore and the ideas they present. But, it is also an issue that continues to be contentious, and critics rightly fear the harsh response that often comes when we open up that Pandoran box. So instead, we excuse it, or condemn it (it amounts to the same thing), as if by merely pointing it out we can diffuse it, absolve ourselves of actually doing the dirty work of unpacking it: 'I acknowledge that the author was Racist, and that it was Bad--so having got that out of the way, let's move on to my real analysis ...'
But critics cannot be allowed to let themselves off so easily--we much be brave, and push on. In talking about Howard's racism, it's not with the notion that I should defend him , or repair him--or least meaningfully, condemn him--but that, in order to understand Howard, it is necessary to understand how he conceptualized race, how he used it, and what it means to his stories.
As ever, with Howard (not only with his presentation of race, but also sexuality and politics) the surface tends to be grim, resembling familiar forms of prejudice: dark-skinned, menacing foreigners, scanty-clad maidens to be rescued, all problems solvable by a combination of fascist force and Nietzschean will--but beneath that, there is always more subtlety, more awareness, and more irony than Howard tends to get credit for.
In this collection, the racist hypocrisy is actually laid bare in a single narrative moment:
This is not race as some inescapable, god-given aspect of identity, an inherent piece of the human soul, but as self-identity, self-creation, an act undertaken by men to separate themselves from one another. Conan himself makes the same separation, both in his own words:
and in the view of others:
Yet again and again, Conan’s own cultural background is equated with that of the Picts: he is a barbarian, like them, a wild creature born in the wilderness. The events of Beyond the Black River show Pictish lands being colonized, the natives driven out and replaced by Aquilonian farms and forts--until finally, civilization pushes too far, and the Picts unite and fight back. The Picts are then compared to Conan’s people, the Cimmerians, who also eventually rose up and attacked the Aquilonian fort built in their own lands, destroying all the settlers--a battle where a young Conan fought against the White invaders.
So Conan shares a great deal with the Picts: he is wild like them, not tame like the Aquilonians, and yet he goes to great lengths to differentiate himself from them--using the tool of race to ally himself not with his fellow barbarians, but with ‘civilized men’--while at the same time scorning the softness and ineptitude of the city-born.
Though built in the same mold of ‘Mighty Whitey’ characters like Natty Bummpo or Tarzan--the White man who is both better at woodcraft than the natives and able to outsmart the civilized men--Conan is actually born to it, actually a tribesman who has ‘lifted himself up’. It is unfortunate that Howard does not do more to explore what is clearly a deep internal conflict for Conan, trapped between these worlds, competent in both, and yet unsure of his own racial and cultural loyalties.
The conclusion of the story does provide a kind of resolution, and one which should surprise no fan of Howard's--in his work, it is always barbarism that wins, because barbarism is the more pure, the more natural state of man. For Conan, as much as the trappings of civilization might tempt him, as much as he lives off of it as a scavenger, as a predator, the civilizing influence is always tainted, always stagnating, rotting away at the core, unable to sustain itself against animal man.
It might seem an odd tack to take, for a modern White writer in post-Colonial America--in many ways, civilization had already won, and won big--but that's precisely the point, and Howard's portrayal of this romantic, somewhat tragic figure of the noble primitive adds another wrinkle altogether to his portrayal of race.
By the time of these later tales, Howard was having trouble keeping himself interested in Conan stories. This tended to happen with all his characters as he went on: he would gradually find himself more drawn to the supporting characters, or the politics of the world, or just telling a different kind of story altogether. Hence, these final Conan stories mark a deliberate change on Howard’s part. In his own words, he’d ‘abandoned the exotic settings of lost cities, decaying civilizations, golden domes, marble palaces, silk-clad dancing girls, etc., and thrown my story against a background of rivers, log cabins, frontier outposts, buckskin-clad settlers, and painted tribesmen’.
In short, he was trying to write tales of the American frontier, with the Picts and Cimmerians as the native tribes, and the Aquilonians and Zingarans as then English and Spanish, respectively. Of course, choosing the painted Picts is natural, since they were the rebellious natives whom the Romans pushed out, clearing the forests for lumber and building farms and forts in their place. There is certainly a place for such stories in the ancient world, but unfortunately, Howard’s attempts don’t draw on those earlier portrayals--they are too modern, too American, and the character and world of Conan seem to be a bit lost in this fresh setting.
The ancient empires, strange magics, cosmic horrors, crumbling temples, immortal priests, sensuous ports, and Atlantean curses of Ashton Smith are left behind, as are the stoic Norse sagas which mark Conan's origins--and along with them, the majority of the tone and depth of Hyboria also dissipates, until we’re left with Howardian versions of Hawthorn’s Leatherstocking tales or Sabatini's Captain Blood, inexplicably featuring Conan at their center--well, perhaps not inexplicably: after all, Howard knew that Conan stories would sell.
Indeed, The Black Stranger is actually written along the lines of a Gothic novel--a disgraced count in exile on a desolate island with his beautiful niece, a roguish courtier-turned-pirate after a lost treasure, a deadly and unseasonable storm, and that shadowy threat, looming over all, of the stranger, himself. Conan himself barely shows up through the first half of the story--and when he does, he's dressed in full 17th Century pirate regalia. Perhaps sensing the ill fit, Howard later changed out Conan for a different lead character and updated the setting.
These stories are considered some of Howard's best by a number of critics, as the essays included in the Del Rey edition demonstrate, and they certainly do have some things going for them. As he enters his thirties, Howard's prose becomes tighter, his vocabulary both more varied and more specific--no longer do we see the same crutch words and repetitions that marked the earlier tales. But also gone are the tone and vibrance which set the Conan stories apart.
The actual structure of the stories also leaves something to be desired--they are somewhat piecemeal and meandering, the conflicts often solved by convenient interruptions, and with a general lack of interesting set pieces and stand-out scenes. In quite a few instances, characters act in ways that make little sense in context--in the last story, for example, Conan and others keep switching sides in the middle of combat.
That isn't to say that this new, crisp style of prose couldn't have worked for Howard, were he just writing pirate tales and frontier stories, but adding the additional layers of ancient Hyborea and Conan stretch them too thin, setting them tonally at odds with themselves. Certainly, there is much more of Howard the American in them--the stories are more personal to his experiences, but mixing them with the Conan mythos does them no favors.
Beyond that, the wild Picts, a 'White race who are not called White' become just another example of over-romanticized natives, that White-guilt urge to go 'back to nature', while at the same time painting the natives as both less and more than human, both pitied and put on a pedestal, but never actually considered as more than an image, a grand symbol for the spiritual enrichment of Whiteness.
The sexual politics are likewise troubled: though Valeria is in some ways a refreshing figure--she is actually competent, seeks her own equality, is skilled with a sword--in other ways she’s more constrained than many of the other female figures in Conan stories. Simply being strong of arm and having masculine traits does not make a female figure a strong character--and beyond that, it takes for granted that the only way to add strength to a female character is by making her more like a man.
What is missing in the romances of these stories is the woman’s point-of-view which made earlier Conan stories intriguing: that we got to see those women from the inside. They may have been constrained socially, they may not have been physically powerful, but they still chose to act out despite this--what made them strong was the fact that they were willing to question their society and to oppose it. What attracts such a woman to Conan is that he is outside civilization, he is not simply another man who leers over her, seeking to control or purchase her. He is interested in women in a more mutual way.
Unfortunately, with Valeria and dancing-girl Zabibi, we instead get only Conan’s point of view, and he leers and gropes after them unpleasantly as they try to avoid his advances--he even agrees to help Zabibi in exchange for sexual favors, thereby fulfilling the cliche which Howard earlier subverted in ‘The Vale of the Lost Women’ (though given the conclusion, it’s hinted that he never intended to collect on the bargain, and that it was likely just a ploy on his part to put her off guard). These later stories are less subversive and more cliche--the sort of thing you’d expect from a piece of unremarkable sword & sorcery.
It seems that, much like Leiber, the later, personal experiments Howard made with his best-known series were much less effective than his early outings. Perhaps it has something to do with the freshness, the wildness of an early writer being a better match for the rollicking adventures of Sword & Sorcery. With time comes polish and ponderousness, which do not match well with the genre, and even in the few examples where Howard does return to the earlier themes, the presentation is lacking--it just feels like old ground retread.
I guess that, for me, the earliest Conan stories are the best--perhaps because, like Conan himself, Howard was still finding his way, still discovering new places, still capable of surprising himself, of being delighted merely to be on the road, weapon in hand, unsure of what might be found over the next hill.
My Suggested Readings in Fantasy
The way an author approaches race is an integral part of their worldview, of the philosophies they explore and the ideas they present. But, it is also an issue that continues to be contentious, and critics rightly fear the harsh response that often comes when we open up that Pandoran box. So instead, we excuse it, or condemn it (it amounts to the same thing), as if by merely pointing it out we can diffuse it, absolve ourselves of actually doing the dirty work of unpacking it: 'I acknowledge that the author was Racist, and that it was Bad--so having got that out of the way, let's move on to my real analysis ...'
But critics cannot be allowed to let themselves off so easily--we much be brave, and push on. In talking about Howard's racism, it's not with the notion that I should defend him , or repair him--or least meaningfully, condemn him--but that, in order to understand Howard, it is necessary to understand how he conceptualized race, how he used it, and what it means to his stories.
As ever, with Howard (not only with his presentation of race, but also sexuality and politics) the surface tends to be grim, resembling familiar forms of prejudice: dark-skinned, menacing foreigners, scanty-clad maidens to be rescued, all problems solvable by a combination of fascist force and Nietzschean will--but beneath that, there is always more subtlety, more awareness, and more irony than Howard tends to get credit for.
In this collection, the racist hypocrisy is actually laid bare in a single narrative moment:
“The Picts were a white race, though swarthy, but the border men never spoke of them as such.”
This is not race as some inescapable, god-given aspect of identity, an inherent piece of the human soul, but as self-identity, self-creation, an act undertaken by men to separate themselves from one another. Conan himself makes the same separation, both in his own words:
“... we can’t have the cursed devils making so free with white men’s heads”
and in the view of others:
“These barbarians live by their own particular code of honor, and Conan would never desert men of his own complection to be slaughtered by people of another race. He’ll help us against the Picts, even though he plans to murder us himself ...”
Yet again and again, Conan’s own cultural background is equated with that of the Picts: he is a barbarian, like them, a wild creature born in the wilderness. The events of Beyond the Black River show Pictish lands being colonized, the natives driven out and replaced by Aquilonian farms and forts--until finally, civilization pushes too far, and the Picts unite and fight back. The Picts are then compared to Conan’s people, the Cimmerians, who also eventually rose up and attacked the Aquilonian fort built in their own lands, destroying all the settlers--a battle where a young Conan fought against the White invaders.
So Conan shares a great deal with the Picts: he is wild like them, not tame like the Aquilonians, and yet he goes to great lengths to differentiate himself from them--using the tool of race to ally himself not with his fellow barbarians, but with ‘civilized men’--while at the same time scorning the softness and ineptitude of the city-born.
Though built in the same mold of ‘Mighty Whitey’ characters like Natty Bummpo or Tarzan--the White man who is both better at woodcraft than the natives and able to outsmart the civilized men--Conan is actually born to it, actually a tribesman who has ‘lifted himself up’. It is unfortunate that Howard does not do more to explore what is clearly a deep internal conflict for Conan, trapped between these worlds, competent in both, and yet unsure of his own racial and cultural loyalties.
The conclusion of the story does provide a kind of resolution, and one which should surprise no fan of Howard's--in his work, it is always barbarism that wins, because barbarism is the more pure, the more natural state of man. For Conan, as much as the trappings of civilization might tempt him, as much as he lives off of it as a scavenger, as a predator, the civilizing influence is always tainted, always stagnating, rotting away at the core, unable to sustain itself against animal man.
It might seem an odd tack to take, for a modern White writer in post-Colonial America--in many ways, civilization had already won, and won big--but that's precisely the point, and Howard's portrayal of this romantic, somewhat tragic figure of the noble primitive adds another wrinkle altogether to his portrayal of race.
By the time of these later tales, Howard was having trouble keeping himself interested in Conan stories. This tended to happen with all his characters as he went on: he would gradually find himself more drawn to the supporting characters, or the politics of the world, or just telling a different kind of story altogether. Hence, these final Conan stories mark a deliberate change on Howard’s part. In his own words, he’d ‘abandoned the exotic settings of lost cities, decaying civilizations, golden domes, marble palaces, silk-clad dancing girls, etc., and thrown my story against a background of rivers, log cabins, frontier outposts, buckskin-clad settlers, and painted tribesmen’.
In short, he was trying to write tales of the American frontier, with the Picts and Cimmerians as the native tribes, and the Aquilonians and Zingarans as then English and Spanish, respectively. Of course, choosing the painted Picts is natural, since they were the rebellious natives whom the Romans pushed out, clearing the forests for lumber and building farms and forts in their place. There is certainly a place for such stories in the ancient world, but unfortunately, Howard’s attempts don’t draw on those earlier portrayals--they are too modern, too American, and the character and world of Conan seem to be a bit lost in this fresh setting.
The ancient empires, strange magics, cosmic horrors, crumbling temples, immortal priests, sensuous ports, and Atlantean curses of Ashton Smith are left behind, as are the stoic Norse sagas which mark Conan's origins--and along with them, the majority of the tone and depth of Hyboria also dissipates, until we’re left with Howardian versions of Hawthorn’s Leatherstocking tales or Sabatini's Captain Blood, inexplicably featuring Conan at their center--well, perhaps not inexplicably: after all, Howard knew that Conan stories would sell.
Indeed, The Black Stranger is actually written along the lines of a Gothic novel--a disgraced count in exile on a desolate island with his beautiful niece, a roguish courtier-turned-pirate after a lost treasure, a deadly and unseasonable storm, and that shadowy threat, looming over all, of the stranger, himself. Conan himself barely shows up through the first half of the story--and when he does, he's dressed in full 17th Century pirate regalia. Perhaps sensing the ill fit, Howard later changed out Conan for a different lead character and updated the setting.
These stories are considered some of Howard's best by a number of critics, as the essays included in the Del Rey edition demonstrate, and they certainly do have some things going for them. As he enters his thirties, Howard's prose becomes tighter, his vocabulary both more varied and more specific--no longer do we see the same crutch words and repetitions that marked the earlier tales. But also gone are the tone and vibrance which set the Conan stories apart.
The actual structure of the stories also leaves something to be desired--they are somewhat piecemeal and meandering, the conflicts often solved by convenient interruptions, and with a general lack of interesting set pieces and stand-out scenes. In quite a few instances, characters act in ways that make little sense in context--in the last story, for example, Conan and others keep switching sides in the middle of combat.
That isn't to say that this new, crisp style of prose couldn't have worked for Howard, were he just writing pirate tales and frontier stories, but adding the additional layers of ancient Hyborea and Conan stretch them too thin, setting them tonally at odds with themselves. Certainly, there is much more of Howard the American in them--the stories are more personal to his experiences, but mixing them with the Conan mythos does them no favors.
Beyond that, the wild Picts, a 'White race who are not called White' become just another example of over-romanticized natives, that White-guilt urge to go 'back to nature', while at the same time painting the natives as both less and more than human, both pitied and put on a pedestal, but never actually considered as more than an image, a grand symbol for the spiritual enrichment of Whiteness.
The sexual politics are likewise troubled: though Valeria is in some ways a refreshing figure--she is actually competent, seeks her own equality, is skilled with a sword--in other ways she’s more constrained than many of the other female figures in Conan stories. Simply being strong of arm and having masculine traits does not make a female figure a strong character--and beyond that, it takes for granted that the only way to add strength to a female character is by making her more like a man.
What is missing in the romances of these stories is the woman’s point-of-view which made earlier Conan stories intriguing: that we got to see those women from the inside. They may have been constrained socially, they may not have been physically powerful, but they still chose to act out despite this--what made them strong was the fact that they were willing to question their society and to oppose it. What attracts such a woman to Conan is that he is outside civilization, he is not simply another man who leers over her, seeking to control or purchase her. He is interested in women in a more mutual way.
Unfortunately, with Valeria and dancing-girl Zabibi, we instead get only Conan’s point of view, and he leers and gropes after them unpleasantly as they try to avoid his advances--he even agrees to help Zabibi in exchange for sexual favors, thereby fulfilling the cliche which Howard earlier subverted in ‘The Vale of the Lost Women’ (though given the conclusion, it’s hinted that he never intended to collect on the bargain, and that it was likely just a ploy on his part to put her off guard). These later stories are less subversive and more cliche--the sort of thing you’d expect from a piece of unremarkable sword & sorcery.
It seems that, much like Leiber, the later, personal experiments Howard made with his best-known series were much less effective than his early outings. Perhaps it has something to do with the freshness, the wildness of an early writer being a better match for the rollicking adventures of Sword & Sorcery. With time comes polish and ponderousness, which do not match well with the genre, and even in the few examples where Howard does return to the earlier themes, the presentation is lacking--it just feels like old ground retread.
I guess that, for me, the earliest Conan stories are the best--perhaps because, like Conan himself, Howard was still finding his way, still discovering new places, still capable of surprising himself, of being delighted merely to be on the road, weapon in hand, unsure of what might be found over the next hill.
My Suggested Readings in Fantasy
January 7, 2021
I knew I had to finish my way through Howard's original Conan stories, (not to be mistaken with any of the future knock-offs in his name, nor mistaken for the comic book OR the ****ing movies, cartoons, or remakes.)
The fact is, Howard, who committed suicide when he was only 30 years old, way back in the mid-30s, has become a legend. His writing is superb despite the number of encroaching racist elements that were so obvious and universal of the time. The descriptions are something quite awesome, on par and with the same kind of energy as any of our modern fantasies, the ones we label epic fantasy, the ones that come in huge tomes with grimdark tones.
Indeed, it is the imaginative feast that comes out of Robert E. Howard's tales, overflowing with real history stirred together into an immense, barbaric soup, that STILL continues to spark our imaginations even today.
Of course, it's not the uber-manly Arnold that is displayed in these pages. I see something more of an Ayn Rand hero or a Heinlein can-do man that spurns all conventions to follow the deepest spirit of Freedom. Freedom from expectation, freedom from custom, freedom from accountability.
This CAN be a noble ideal. It can also be turned utterly dark and nasty. And when Conan comes up against wizards and witches who are the epitome of the other side of this coin, we're never really given a choice in whom we ought to root for. Serial murderers for self-aggrandizement ARE fundamentally different from raids, conquests, and plunders.
Right?
But at least Conan was never a rapist. So it's all okay, right? Nevermind.
I do have one other thing to say, however. I re-watched the original Conan with Arnold and it really set my stomach on edge. It was NOT the real Conan. The real Conan might not have been educated, but he was smart and cunning and lived by values of strength and freedom, and wherever whim and entertainment took him. He never tried to hold on to anything. He was never the idiot oaf of the movie.
Sigh.
If America was supposed to be following a grand idealized freedom, enraptured by the glorious idea of Conan, the American hero, then what we got, almost a hundred years later, was an idiotic ignorant oaf with a beer gut, spouting racial slurs and demanding his entitlements while encouraging the rest of the uneducated hoard to loot their own homes, burn it down, and then congratulate themselves on being the freest society in the world.
*slow clap*
Maybe they ought to read the original Conan and see how he'd treat THEM.
The fact is, Howard, who committed suicide when he was only 30 years old, way back in the mid-30s, has become a legend. His writing is superb despite the number of encroaching racist elements that were so obvious and universal of the time. The descriptions are something quite awesome, on par and with the same kind of energy as any of our modern fantasies, the ones we label epic fantasy, the ones that come in huge tomes with grimdark tones.
Indeed, it is the imaginative feast that comes out of Robert E. Howard's tales, overflowing with real history stirred together into an immense, barbaric soup, that STILL continues to spark our imaginations even today.
Of course, it's not the uber-manly Arnold that is displayed in these pages. I see something more of an Ayn Rand hero or a Heinlein can-do man that spurns all conventions to follow the deepest spirit of Freedom. Freedom from expectation, freedom from custom, freedom from accountability.
This CAN be a noble ideal. It can also be turned utterly dark and nasty. And when Conan comes up against wizards and witches who are the epitome of the other side of this coin, we're never really given a choice in whom we ought to root for. Serial murderers for self-aggrandizement ARE fundamentally different from raids, conquests, and plunders.
Right?
But at least Conan was never a rapist. So it's all okay, right? Nevermind.
I do have one other thing to say, however. I re-watched the original Conan with Arnold and it really set my stomach on edge. It was NOT the real Conan. The real Conan might not have been educated, but he was smart and cunning and lived by values of strength and freedom, and wherever whim and entertainment took him. He never tried to hold on to anything. He was never the idiot oaf of the movie.
Sigh.
If America was supposed to be following a grand idealized freedom, enraptured by the glorious idea of Conan, the American hero, then what we got, almost a hundred years later, was an idiotic ignorant oaf with a beer gut, spouting racial slurs and demanding his entitlements while encouraging the rest of the uneducated hoard to loot their own homes, burn it down, and then congratulate themselves on being the freest society in the world.
*slow clap*
Maybe they ought to read the original Conan and see how he'd treat THEM.
December 9, 2020
The third volume of the collection of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories includes the five final Conan stories (listed below along with a rating for each):
The Servants of Bit-Yakin (also published as "Jewels of Gwahlur") - 3/5 - one of the shorter stories in the collection but a fairly good effort overall, featuring Howard's more mature prose and pacing and developing the Conan character in a manner not dissimilar to that of a spaghetti western protagonist
Beyond the Black River - 3/5 - a solid adventure story, well written, but it's hard to shake the feeling that this started as a wild west story and somewhere along the lines got moved to the jungles of the Hyborian Age
The Black Stranger - 4/5 - Conan in the jungle versus the savage Picts, also pirates, lost treasure, and oh yeah a demon too.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula - 3/5 - this one may not have aged too well: Conan loses money gambling, kills some cannibalistic black guys, and makes a deal with a naked woman to assassinate a priest in exchange for sex
Red Nails - 4/5 -Like "A Fistful of Dollars" - Xotalanc's over there, Tecuhltli's there, me right smack in the middle...
Included also are a Forward and many illustrations by Gregory Manchess, an Introduction by Editor Patrice Louinet, several of Howard's unpublished notes, drafts and synopses, the third installment in the "Hyborean Genesis" biography of Howard and Conan, and plenty of other goodies.
The Servants of Bit-Yakin (also published as "Jewels of Gwahlur") - 3/5 - one of the shorter stories in the collection but a fairly good effort overall, featuring Howard's more mature prose and pacing and developing the Conan character in a manner not dissimilar to that of a spaghetti western protagonist
Beyond the Black River - 3/5 - a solid adventure story, well written, but it's hard to shake the feeling that this started as a wild west story and somewhere along the lines got moved to the jungles of the Hyborian Age
The Black Stranger - 4/5 - Conan in the jungle versus the savage Picts, also pirates, lost treasure, and oh yeah a demon too.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula - 3/5 - this one may not have aged too well: Conan loses money gambling, kills some cannibalistic black guys, and makes a deal with a naked woman to assassinate a priest in exchange for sex
Red Nails - 4/5 -Like "A Fistful of Dollars" - Xotalanc's over there, Tecuhltli's there, me right smack in the middle...
Included also are a Forward and many illustrations by Gregory Manchess, an Introduction by Editor Patrice Louinet, several of Howard's unpublished notes, drafts and synopses, the third installment in the "Hyborean Genesis" biography of Howard and Conan, and plenty of other goodies.
October 6, 2009
The Conquering Sword of Conan is the third and final volume in Wandering Star's Robert E. Howard collection of Conan stories. I'll be reviewing them as I read them. That's the plan, anyway.
The Servants of Bit-Yatkin: The Servants of Bit-Yatkin is a story about Conan scouring a ruined temple in the jungle for the Teeth of Gwahlur, a cache of priceless jewels. Complicating matters are the priests who have come to the temple to consult the oracle, as well as the deceased Bit-Yatkin's servants.
I always forget how flowery Howard's descriptions are compared to other pulp writers. The man can paint a picture with words. Servants is a pretty good story with a good amount of action and a twist or two. On a side note, are their any Conan stories that don't involve a giant snake and/or an ape man of some sort?
Beyond the Black River: Conan leads a foray into Pictish territory in order to defend a fort. Unfortunately, his raiding party runs afoul of a Pictish shaman who's unifying the local tribes in order to overrun the fort.
BBR reads like a story of white settlers against the Indians. I liked some of the ideas regarding the Pictish shaman and his speaking with the animals. The suspense around Balthus trying to warn the people at the fort was well done.
The Black Stranger: Two pirate factions come to a secluded island for lost treasure and a self-exiled noble is caught in the middle. Unfortunately for the pirates, a certain Cimmerian has already found the treasure...
The Black Stranger was well written but didn't grab me like the previous two stories. For a Conan story, there was a noticeable lack of Conan for a long stretch of it.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula: Conan stays at an inn where the guests regularly disappear, only to find cannibals kidnap the occupants. Conan's on the trail of said cannibals when he rescues a woman from a gang of them. It seems she has a job for the Cimmerian to undertake for her...
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula is an action-packed tale of wizards, cannibals, and a damsel in distress. While I enjoyed it, never has it been more apparent that Conan is very much a product of the time it was written. There is an undercurrent of racism and sexism that might be hard for modern readers to get past.
Red Nails: Conan and Valeria fight a dinosaur-like monster, then take refuge from it inside a nearly deserted city where the inhabitants have been butchering one another for a century in a pointless war. Little do they know that the queen of one of the factions isn't what she seems...
Red Nails was easily the best story in the book with intrigue, violence, and plot twists a plenty.
Thus concludes my reading of the Wandering Star series of Robert E. Howard Conan stories. I recommend them to all fans of pulp fantasy with two caveats. First, Howard's prose isn't as breezy as people might speculate due to it's pulp origins. Secondly, they are very much a product of the time in which they were written, sexism and racism being what they were in the 30's. Still, Howard writes stories of adventure like no other.
The Servants of Bit-Yatkin: The Servants of Bit-Yatkin is a story about Conan scouring a ruined temple in the jungle for the Teeth of Gwahlur, a cache of priceless jewels. Complicating matters are the priests who have come to the temple to consult the oracle, as well as the deceased Bit-Yatkin's servants.
I always forget how flowery Howard's descriptions are compared to other pulp writers. The man can paint a picture with words. Servants is a pretty good story with a good amount of action and a twist or two. On a side note, are their any Conan stories that don't involve a giant snake and/or an ape man of some sort?
Beyond the Black River: Conan leads a foray into Pictish territory in order to defend a fort. Unfortunately, his raiding party runs afoul of a Pictish shaman who's unifying the local tribes in order to overrun the fort.
BBR reads like a story of white settlers against the Indians. I liked some of the ideas regarding the Pictish shaman and his speaking with the animals. The suspense around Balthus trying to warn the people at the fort was well done.
The Black Stranger: Two pirate factions come to a secluded island for lost treasure and a self-exiled noble is caught in the middle. Unfortunately for the pirates, a certain Cimmerian has already found the treasure...
The Black Stranger was well written but didn't grab me like the previous two stories. For a Conan story, there was a noticeable lack of Conan for a long stretch of it.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula: Conan stays at an inn where the guests regularly disappear, only to find cannibals kidnap the occupants. Conan's on the trail of said cannibals when he rescues a woman from a gang of them. It seems she has a job for the Cimmerian to undertake for her...
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula is an action-packed tale of wizards, cannibals, and a damsel in distress. While I enjoyed it, never has it been more apparent that Conan is very much a product of the time it was written. There is an undercurrent of racism and sexism that might be hard for modern readers to get past.
Red Nails: Conan and Valeria fight a dinosaur-like monster, then take refuge from it inside a nearly deserted city where the inhabitants have been butchering one another for a century in a pointless war. Little do they know that the queen of one of the factions isn't what she seems...
Red Nails was easily the best story in the book with intrigue, violence, and plot twists a plenty.
Thus concludes my reading of the Wandering Star series of Robert E. Howard Conan stories. I recommend them to all fans of pulp fantasy with two caveats. First, Howard's prose isn't as breezy as people might speculate due to it's pulp origins. Secondly, they are very much a product of the time in which they were written, sexism and racism being what they were in the 30's. Still, Howard writes stories of adventure like no other.
June 30, 2018
"I have lived in the Southwest all my life, yet most of my dreams are laid in cold, giant lands of icy wastes and gloomy skies, and of wild, wind-swept fens and wilderness over which sweep great sea-winds, and which are inhabited by shock-headed savages with light fierce eyes. With the exception of one dream, I am never, in these dreams of ancient times, a civilized man. Always am I the barbarian, the skin-clad, tousle-haired, light-eyed wild man, armed with a rude ax or sword, fighting the elements and wild beasts, or grappling with armored hosts marching with the tread of civilized discipline, from fallow fruitful lands and walled cities. This is reflected in my writings."
-Robert E. Howard
"All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over and the lamps expire."
-Suicide note of Robert E. Howard
Enough said. Go read some Conan!
-Robert E. Howard
"All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over and the lamps expire."
-Suicide note of Robert E. Howard
Enough said. Go read some Conan!
February 18, 2022
Farewell Conan, it's been a ride of soul and sorcery and I've loved every story within these collections. I'll inevitable re-read them one day when I am again in the mood for a beefed up, raven-haired maniac with a giant sword. These stories are so much fun, Conan may take himself a little seriously but the writing is superb and each story is individual and unique.
April 3, 2020
· Introduction to the world: The Hyborian Age ★★★★
· Book 1: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian ★★★★
· Book 2: The Bloody Crown of Conan ★★★★
· Book 1: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian ★★★★
· Book 2: The Bloody Crown of Conan ★★★★
December 18, 2025
Civilizacija je neprirodno stanje sveta, varvastvo nije.
June 25, 2021
The back handful of REH Conan stories are presented in this book and among the best of the Conan stories highlighted by "Red Nails" which features the female swashbuckler Valeria to tag-team with Conan. The story essentially involves warring factions amidst a decayed civilization waging constant battle amidst a city out in the wilderness cutoff from the world for the most part.
"Beyond The Black River" takes place in Conajohara opening with Balthus, a young frontiersman, who soon meets Conan amidst attacking Picts and a supernatural threat from a swamp demon collecting heads. Conan, by this point, is a ranger and takes Batlhus back to Fort Tuscelan near the Black River. A group led by Conan is assigned to remove Pict shaman Zogar Sag before all the Pict tribes can be united in an attack on the fort. Howard creates an cloying and dangerous atmosphere in this story easily among the best.
Quite a good collection including a reprint of REH's map of Hyboria made for two young fans along with an essay.
"Beyond The Black River" takes place in Conajohara opening with Balthus, a young frontiersman, who soon meets Conan amidst attacking Picts and a supernatural threat from a swamp demon collecting heads. Conan, by this point, is a ranger and takes Batlhus back to Fort Tuscelan near the Black River. A group led by Conan is assigned to remove Pict shaman Zogar Sag before all the Pict tribes can be united in an attack on the fort. Howard creates an cloying and dangerous atmosphere in this story easily among the best.
Quite a good collection including a reprint of REH's map of Hyboria made for two young fans along with an essay.
May 24, 2024
I can’t add much to the conversation surrounding the magnificence of Robert E Howard’s original Conan stories. If you think you enjoyed Conan stories from novels written by somebody else, the hundreds of comics, or the movies, you owe it to yourself to go back to the source.
Howard is an underrated storyteller, a master craftsman. There is an unexpected depth to the world he creates, as if he instinctually knew how to hint at a complex world (what we would call world-building today), but he keeps most of that in his back-pocket and gives the reader only enough information to serve the stories. It is refreshing in a time when modern books set in similar worlds spend thousands of pages over-explaining the setting.
Howard died after a twelve year writing career. We were robbed.
Howard is an underrated storyteller, a master craftsman. There is an unexpected depth to the world he creates, as if he instinctually knew how to hint at a complex world (what we would call world-building today), but he keeps most of that in his back-pocket and gives the reader only enough information to serve the stories. It is refreshing in a time when modern books set in similar worlds spend thousands of pages over-explaining the setting.
Howard died after a twelve year writing career. We were robbed.
May 20, 2012
here we go then, the last of the three Conan anthologies. Everything in these has been presented in the order they were written (not necessarily published) rather than in any attempt to create a chronology for Conan's stories. I like this for two reasons: Firstly it allows us to see how Howard developed and exactly when he fell into a formula, and when he again tried different things to still make that formula interesting; and because it feels more naturalistic this way, like we're listening to an old bard tell us stories from various points in Conan's life, in a non-linear fashion depending on his mood and disposition.
I noticed something when reading the stories in this order, too. They start out really surprising and fresh. You really don't expect "The Tower of the Elephant" to turn into borderline science fiction by the end, but when it does it just fits perfectly and you just nod and accept it. "The Frost Giant's Daughter" is a moody, atmospheric piece of writing involving a very young Conan on the battlefield. It has no plot to speak of and basically reads like the delirious dream of a mortally wounded warrior. "Queen of the Black Coast" has the qualities one of those sad, heroic songs of old that unites men of different nations and creeds while they quaff ale and prepare to march into the fray. As the first book goes on though you sort of feel Howard settling into his groove and the stories become just a little bit more predictable. They're still loads of fun, mind you, but sometimes I can't remember which snake or which ape goes in which story, and which is the Roman one and which the Arabic one, if you know what I mean. The second anthology largely avoids this problem by being devoted mostly to the novel The Hour of the Dragon. What of this one, then?
By now, it was probably clear to Howard that the Conan stories were very popular items. He was interested in a number of different genres but Conan was a guaranteed sale for Weird Tales. I'm sure some of those lurid covers helped! By this time though, near the end of his sadly curtailed career, Howard is really confident and is able to tell a yarn with style and zeal to spare. Thus, something like "Man-Eaters of Zamboula", while being in many respects a standard Conan romp, comes off really rousing and strong. "Servants of bin-Yakin" might have fit in well with the first book, but the cynical observations about religious institutions and Conan's almost amused attitude about the oracle lifts it above its conventions.
We also have something I alluded to in my review of the previous volume going on here, and that is Howard's detachment from Conan as the main point of view figure in the narratives. This is a really good thing because it well supports the notion of Conan as a sort of primal force of nature. Oh, he isn't, of course; he's a living being with hot blood in his veins who is passionate and at times surprisingly thoughtful, but this brutishness is often what others see in him, sometimes to their detriment as they tend to underestimate him. In "Beyond the Black River" this is taken to its extreme and the result is absolutely one of the best Conan stories, and certainly the grimmest. Conan will get out alive because he's Conan, but you're not sure who else will, and now Conan is a protector, of all things, taking inexperienced men under his wing on the frontier. You wouldn't want to be on that frontier without some kind of protection, if you are a civilized person. This story is basically one of those old-style westerns: it's settlers versus "Indians", with natives replaced by Picts, and a helping of dark magic. The end of this story is really something special.
"Red Nails" is the last written Conan piece, and it's quite ambitious. The decadent, crumbling ancient civilization and lonely city full of strangeness motif has been done by Howard before, but probably never to this extent. The level of decadence on display even reminds me of Howard's contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith, and yes, that's certainly a compliment to Howard as CAS was probably the best writer of the three infamous regular Weird Tales scribes. here we have another Evil Witch Queen, two warring factions culling each other within the deserted promenades and crumbling edifices, and Conan and a female companion caught in the middle. there's even a ray gun at the end! So we're getting into sword and science territory now, a mantle that would later be picked up by Michael Moorcock and Jack Vance with very interesting results.
The same caveats apply here as to the other two volumes and I'm not really going to address them again, except to remind readers that though the Picts are shown to be savages by Conan's time, they were proud and noble warrior peoples at earlier points in Howard's Hyborean Age. This is really the crux of his philosophy of cultures: Each one has its day in the sun, its moment of glory, its rise of empire -- and each must, ultimately, fall into decay and corruption and savagery. It may take hundreds of years, howard seems to be saying, but this will happen to the European peoples, too. I know, it doesn't exactly make it more palletable, but it's worth trying to understand, I think, where the man was coming from.
If you're going to go this route and read all the Conan stories, definitely start with the first book. However, "Red Nails", "Beyond the black River" and "The black Stranger" are all mandatory, and while it's arguably a lesser piece I'm quite enamoured of "Man-Eaters", too.
I noticed something when reading the stories in this order, too. They start out really surprising and fresh. You really don't expect "The Tower of the Elephant" to turn into borderline science fiction by the end, but when it does it just fits perfectly and you just nod and accept it. "The Frost Giant's Daughter" is a moody, atmospheric piece of writing involving a very young Conan on the battlefield. It has no plot to speak of and basically reads like the delirious dream of a mortally wounded warrior. "Queen of the Black Coast" has the qualities one of those sad, heroic songs of old that unites men of different nations and creeds while they quaff ale and prepare to march into the fray. As the first book goes on though you sort of feel Howard settling into his groove and the stories become just a little bit more predictable. They're still loads of fun, mind you, but sometimes I can't remember which snake or which ape goes in which story, and which is the Roman one and which the Arabic one, if you know what I mean. The second anthology largely avoids this problem by being devoted mostly to the novel The Hour of the Dragon. What of this one, then?
By now, it was probably clear to Howard that the Conan stories were very popular items. He was interested in a number of different genres but Conan was a guaranteed sale for Weird Tales. I'm sure some of those lurid covers helped! By this time though, near the end of his sadly curtailed career, Howard is really confident and is able to tell a yarn with style and zeal to spare. Thus, something like "Man-Eaters of Zamboula", while being in many respects a standard Conan romp, comes off really rousing and strong. "Servants of bin-Yakin" might have fit in well with the first book, but the cynical observations about religious institutions and Conan's almost amused attitude about the oracle lifts it above its conventions.
We also have something I alluded to in my review of the previous volume going on here, and that is Howard's detachment from Conan as the main point of view figure in the narratives. This is a really good thing because it well supports the notion of Conan as a sort of primal force of nature. Oh, he isn't, of course; he's a living being with hot blood in his veins who is passionate and at times surprisingly thoughtful, but this brutishness is often what others see in him, sometimes to their detriment as they tend to underestimate him. In "Beyond the Black River" this is taken to its extreme and the result is absolutely one of the best Conan stories, and certainly the grimmest. Conan will get out alive because he's Conan, but you're not sure who else will, and now Conan is a protector, of all things, taking inexperienced men under his wing on the frontier. You wouldn't want to be on that frontier without some kind of protection, if you are a civilized person. This story is basically one of those old-style westerns: it's settlers versus "Indians", with natives replaced by Picts, and a helping of dark magic. The end of this story is really something special.
"Red Nails" is the last written Conan piece, and it's quite ambitious. The decadent, crumbling ancient civilization and lonely city full of strangeness motif has been done by Howard before, but probably never to this extent. The level of decadence on display even reminds me of Howard's contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith, and yes, that's certainly a compliment to Howard as CAS was probably the best writer of the three infamous regular Weird Tales scribes. here we have another Evil Witch Queen, two warring factions culling each other within the deserted promenades and crumbling edifices, and Conan and a female companion caught in the middle. there's even a ray gun at the end! So we're getting into sword and science territory now, a mantle that would later be picked up by Michael Moorcock and Jack Vance with very interesting results.
The same caveats apply here as to the other two volumes and I'm not really going to address them again, except to remind readers that though the Picts are shown to be savages by Conan's time, they were proud and noble warrior peoples at earlier points in Howard's Hyborean Age. This is really the crux of his philosophy of cultures: Each one has its day in the sun, its moment of glory, its rise of empire -- and each must, ultimately, fall into decay and corruption and savagery. It may take hundreds of years, howard seems to be saying, but this will happen to the European peoples, too. I know, it doesn't exactly make it more palletable, but it's worth trying to understand, I think, where the man was coming from.
If you're going to go this route and read all the Conan stories, definitely start with the first book. However, "Red Nails", "Beyond the black River" and "The black Stranger" are all mandatory, and while it's arguably a lesser piece I'm quite enamoured of "Man-Eaters", too.
April 28, 2024
At risk of repeating myself, please take as read the standard disclaimer regarding 1930s adventure fiction and its portrayal of women and people of color.
And with that unpleasantness out of the way ...
This is the third & final of the Del Rey volumes collecting pretty much everything Robert E. Howard ever wrote about Conan, in order of composition as best it can be determined. In this case, we get five completed stories, four of which did appear in Weird Tales during (or very shortly after) Howard's lifetime, and one which Howard had completed but which didn't appear in its original form until its publication in Karl Edward Wagner's anthology Echoes of Valor. (Sidebar: If you ever see any of the three Echoes of Valor books on the shelf, do yourself a favor and grab them.)
Two of them -- Servants of Bit-Yakin and Man-Eaters of Zamboula -- are pretty middling-to-minor stories in which Conan rides into town, has an Adventure, and rides off into the sunset with some combination of pretty girl and pouch of jewels. For good measure, Man-Eaters takes place in or near the Hyborian equivalent of Africa and, well, see opening disclaimer.
The other three stories, however are absolute gold.
Beyond the Black River, although atypical in any number of ways, might be my favorite Conan story. This time, instead of opulent, decadent palaces and cities, the setting is essentially an analogue of the American frontier, with settlers building farms and cabins and encroaching on the forests of the indigenous Picts, who are Not Happy with such incursions. And one of their shamans, Zogar Sag, has been gathering the tribes so they can do something about it.
Also, much of the story is told not from Conan's point of view, but from the POV of one Balthus, one of those settlers.
The Black Stranger is as much as anything a pirate story that again takes place far from decadent palaces and cities -- it's set on the largely unpopulated western coast of the Hyborian continent, where Valenso, a Zingaran count, has settled in self-exile. (Well, "unpopulated" except for all of those Pictish tribes who are, again, Not Happy about the incursion.) Into the mix come sailing two different bands of brigands, both of whom are convinced Valenso came seeking a legendary pirate's treasure (he has no idea what they're talking about); and out of the Pictish wilderness comes striding a certain Cimmerian, newly-clad in archaic piratical finery, and if you think this won't end in blood and fire, you're probably reading the wrong book.
This is the story, as mentioned, that had never appeared in its complete form until 1987. A version of it appeared in the Lancer/Ace Conan paperbacks edited by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, but heavily edited; and Howard himself had rewritten it as a non-Conan historical adventure under the title Black Vulmea's Vengeance, but even that version didn't see print until the 1970s.
Red Nails, the final Conan story Howard wrote, has all of the decadence and opulence missing from the previous two stories -- Conan and Valeria, having recently deserted from an army guard post, find a seemingly-abandoned city in the wilderness; which city, once they enter it, is of course less abandoned than it first appeared. And naturally they get pulled into the generations-long feud between the few surviving members of two factions of inhabitants, and things get messy from there.
Rounding out the book, as expected, is an assortment of Howard's drafts and synopses and some other miscellanea, and again it's fascinating to see how the sausage was being made (or, in the case of the abandoned drafts, not made).
All around, it's great stuff, and yes I'm giving the book five stars mostly on the strengths of the three very good stories; although if you're entirely unfamiliar with Howard's Conan, I might suggest starting with either of the two preceding volumes (The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian or The Bloody Crown of Conan) as being more accessible jumping-on points.
And with that unpleasantness out of the way ...
This is the third & final of the Del Rey volumes collecting pretty much everything Robert E. Howard ever wrote about Conan, in order of composition as best it can be determined. In this case, we get five completed stories, four of which did appear in Weird Tales during (or very shortly after) Howard's lifetime, and one which Howard had completed but which didn't appear in its original form until its publication in Karl Edward Wagner's anthology Echoes of Valor. (Sidebar: If you ever see any of the three Echoes of Valor books on the shelf, do yourself a favor and grab them.)
Two of them -- Servants of Bit-Yakin and Man-Eaters of Zamboula -- are pretty middling-to-minor stories in which Conan rides into town, has an Adventure, and rides off into the sunset with some combination of pretty girl and pouch of jewels. For good measure, Man-Eaters takes place in or near the Hyborian equivalent of Africa and, well, see opening disclaimer.
The other three stories, however are absolute gold.
Beyond the Black River, although atypical in any number of ways, might be my favorite Conan story. This time, instead of opulent, decadent palaces and cities, the setting is essentially an analogue of the American frontier, with settlers building farms and cabins and encroaching on the forests of the indigenous Picts, who are Not Happy with such incursions. And one of their shamans, Zogar Sag, has been gathering the tribes so they can do something about it.
Also, much of the story is told not from Conan's point of view, but from the POV of one Balthus, one of those settlers.
The Black Stranger is as much as anything a pirate story that again takes place far from decadent palaces and cities -- it's set on the largely unpopulated western coast of the Hyborian continent, where Valenso, a Zingaran count, has settled in self-exile. (Well, "unpopulated" except for all of those Pictish tribes who are, again, Not Happy about the incursion.) Into the mix come sailing two different bands of brigands, both of whom are convinced Valenso came seeking a legendary pirate's treasure (he has no idea what they're talking about); and out of the Pictish wilderness comes striding a certain Cimmerian, newly-clad in archaic piratical finery, and if you think this won't end in blood and fire, you're probably reading the wrong book.
This is the story, as mentioned, that had never appeared in its complete form until 1987. A version of it appeared in the Lancer/Ace Conan paperbacks edited by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, but heavily edited; and Howard himself had rewritten it as a non-Conan historical adventure under the title Black Vulmea's Vengeance, but even that version didn't see print until the 1970s.
Red Nails, the final Conan story Howard wrote, has all of the decadence and opulence missing from the previous two stories -- Conan and Valeria, having recently deserted from an army guard post, find a seemingly-abandoned city in the wilderness; which city, once they enter it, is of course less abandoned than it first appeared. And naturally they get pulled into the generations-long feud between the few surviving members of two factions of inhabitants, and things get messy from there.
Rounding out the book, as expected, is an assortment of Howard's drafts and synopses and some other miscellanea, and again it's fascinating to see how the sausage was being made (or, in the case of the abandoned drafts, not made).
All around, it's great stuff, and yes I'm giving the book five stars mostly on the strengths of the three very good stories; although if you're entirely unfamiliar with Howard's Conan, I might suggest starting with either of the two preceding volumes (The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian or The Bloody Crown of Conan) as being more accessible jumping-on points.
May 12, 2025
I'm so happy to have read through all of the Conan stories, but also depressed, not having anymore to read. These stories are the purest form of escapism I've come across in literature, with Howard's vivid and lush prose pulling you into the story and placing you into Conan's shoes.
Robert E. Howard is one of my all time favorite authors as of recently, and I will continue to look forward to reading his other works in the future.
Below are my ratings and thoughts for each of the stories in this 3rd and final volume of Conan.
1. The Servants of Bit-Yakin - 3.5⭐
A super atmospheric story with excellent description of wilderness, a ruined temple, and caves and catacombs. I adored the setting to this story. It does fall just a bit flat in its rushed climax, which is why I only gave it a 3.5, but it's still very good.
2. Beyond the Black River - 4⭐
I often see people say this is the best, or their favorite, of the Conan stories. While I didn't quite love it that much, this one was great and I can understand it's popularity. It's certainly among my favorites.
This one has such a raw and grim vibe to it, with Conan running through the harsh wilderness, trying to aid frontiersmen in a fight for survival against the Picts, which are essentially like savage tribal people hellbent on death and destruction.
For me this story had a bit too much of running around the woods and felt a bit drawn out, but was still great. A solid 4.
3. The Black Stranger - 4.5⭐
Now we are talking! This story is like Conan the Barbarian meets Pirates of the Caribbean, and I absolutely loved it. My only complaint is that there is a villain in this story that is some sort of demonic creature known as The Black Stranger, and he isn't utilized very much in the story and is dispatched of rather easily and quickly by Conan. Other than that - this story was almost perfect.
4. The Man Eaters of Zamboula - 3⭐
This one is the only semi-weak story in this book. I would say it's still good, but to a much lesser extent than the other stories in here. This one just feels not as well written, it's short, and displays a rather more repulsive and less respectable side of our lead hero in Conan. It was fine, overall, but definitely not a favorite.
5. Red Nails - 4.75⭐
What an absolute banger of a story to end on, and one of my favorite Conan stories overall. This one is a bit unique, in that it features a massive, sprawling castle/kingdom that's ornately and intricately designed, with multiple floors/stories that emit weird radiance and light throughout its maze-like structure.
This setting provides a sharp, bright contrast to the typical dark forest and jungle settings in which we usually find Conan.
Conan and his unlikely partner, a battle hardened woman known as Valeria, explore the vast structure to discover fueding races of men still lurking in its endless corridors and throne rooms, and are caught up in the midst of their conflicts.
This story was fan-fucking-tastic, and an incredible note to end on for Conan, the Cimmerian. I also loved the character of Valeria, and the ending to this story was perfect, with implications of the two of them to set sail together to continue their adventures.
I'm tempted to give this story 5 stars but something about it just wasn't quite perfect or wholly satisfying. But it's very close.
Overall, if you've never read Conan, I highly recommend checking these stories out. Do yourself a favor and pick these books up!!!
Robert E. Howard is one of my all time favorite authors as of recently, and I will continue to look forward to reading his other works in the future.
Below are my ratings and thoughts for each of the stories in this 3rd and final volume of Conan.
1. The Servants of Bit-Yakin - 3.5⭐
A super atmospheric story with excellent description of wilderness, a ruined temple, and caves and catacombs. I adored the setting to this story. It does fall just a bit flat in its rushed climax, which is why I only gave it a 3.5, but it's still very good.
2. Beyond the Black River - 4⭐
I often see people say this is the best, or their favorite, of the Conan stories. While I didn't quite love it that much, this one was great and I can understand it's popularity. It's certainly among my favorites.
This one has such a raw and grim vibe to it, with Conan running through the harsh wilderness, trying to aid frontiersmen in a fight for survival against the Picts, which are essentially like savage tribal people hellbent on death and destruction.
For me this story had a bit too much of running around the woods and felt a bit drawn out, but was still great. A solid 4.
3. The Black Stranger - 4.5⭐
Now we are talking! This story is like Conan the Barbarian meets Pirates of the Caribbean, and I absolutely loved it. My only complaint is that there is a villain in this story that is some sort of demonic creature known as The Black Stranger, and he isn't utilized very much in the story and is dispatched of rather easily and quickly by Conan. Other than that - this story was almost perfect.
4. The Man Eaters of Zamboula - 3⭐
This one is the only semi-weak story in this book. I would say it's still good, but to a much lesser extent than the other stories in here. This one just feels not as well written, it's short, and displays a rather more repulsive and less respectable side of our lead hero in Conan. It was fine, overall, but definitely not a favorite.
5. Red Nails - 4.75⭐
What an absolute banger of a story to end on, and one of my favorite Conan stories overall. This one is a bit unique, in that it features a massive, sprawling castle/kingdom that's ornately and intricately designed, with multiple floors/stories that emit weird radiance and light throughout its maze-like structure.
This setting provides a sharp, bright contrast to the typical dark forest and jungle settings in which we usually find Conan.
Conan and his unlikely partner, a battle hardened woman known as Valeria, explore the vast structure to discover fueding races of men still lurking in its endless corridors and throne rooms, and are caught up in the midst of their conflicts.
This story was fan-fucking-tastic, and an incredible note to end on for Conan, the Cimmerian. I also loved the character of Valeria, and the ending to this story was perfect, with implications of the two of them to set sail together to continue their adventures.
I'm tempted to give this story 5 stars but something about it just wasn't quite perfect or wholly satisfying. But it's very close.
Overall, if you've never read Conan, I highly recommend checking these stories out. Do yourself a favor and pick these books up!!!
July 1, 2024
This third volume of Del Rey’s Conan the Cimmerian series collects Robert E. Howard’s final Conan stories. While two of the stories came across as routine Conan tales, Howard tried new things with the other three after becoming influenced by American frontier history. As with the previous volumes I liked some stories more than others but the combination of stories, extras, and illustrations by Gregory Manchess, all make for an outstanding collection.
The Servants of Bit-Yakin (3/5)
Conan enters an abandoned city in search of jewels and has to deal with others after the same treasure. Interesting location and some great scenes but the story is a little convoluted. I don’t think it’s as bad as author Fritz Leiber is on record as saying, but the plot and writing pale in comparison to most of the stories that come next.
Beyond the Black River (5/5)
Aquilonian settlers face reprisal from a Pictish wizard and the tribes he unites after settlers push into Pict lands. Conan gets involved after a commander of a frontier fort asks for Conan’s assistance. This was a real page turner and one of Howard’s strongest stories about the struggle between civilization and barbarism. My favorite in this collection.
The Black Stranger (4/5)
Howard packs a lot into this swashbuckler about a fort on the coast of the Pictish frontier with pirates, a mysterious figure, and a lost treasure. Mixed in are some gothic elements.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula (3/5)
Conan faces cannibals in a desert city. The second of the two routine stories. I enjoyed it but not as much as most of the others.
Red Nails (4/5)
Howard’s final Conan story has the barbarian teaming up with Valeria of the Red Brotherhood as they wind up involved in a war within a lost city. The middle feels stretched out but the first part and the last part are pure Robert E. Howard fast paced sword & sorcery.
Hyborian Genesis Part III: Notes on the Creation of the Conan Stories by Patrice Louinet (5/5)
More background information on how these tales came about which I always find fascinating.
Reading all of Howard’s Conan tales as they were originally written has been an enjoyable experience. I’m looking forward to re-reading my favorites in the future as well as reading Howard’s other work.
The Servants of Bit-Yakin (3/5)
Conan enters an abandoned city in search of jewels and has to deal with others after the same treasure. Interesting location and some great scenes but the story is a little convoluted. I don’t think it’s as bad as author Fritz Leiber is on record as saying, but the plot and writing pale in comparison to most of the stories that come next.
Beyond the Black River (5/5)
Aquilonian settlers face reprisal from a Pictish wizard and the tribes he unites after settlers push into Pict lands. Conan gets involved after a commander of a frontier fort asks for Conan’s assistance. This was a real page turner and one of Howard’s strongest stories about the struggle between civilization and barbarism. My favorite in this collection.
The Black Stranger (4/5)
Howard packs a lot into this swashbuckler about a fort on the coast of the Pictish frontier with pirates, a mysterious figure, and a lost treasure. Mixed in are some gothic elements.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula (3/5)
Conan faces cannibals in a desert city. The second of the two routine stories. I enjoyed it but not as much as most of the others.
Red Nails (4/5)
Howard’s final Conan story has the barbarian teaming up with Valeria of the Red Brotherhood as they wind up involved in a war within a lost city. The middle feels stretched out but the first part and the last part are pure Robert E. Howard fast paced sword & sorcery.
Hyborian Genesis Part III: Notes on the Creation of the Conan Stories by Patrice Louinet (5/5)
More background information on how these tales came about which I always find fascinating.
Reading all of Howard’s Conan tales as they were originally written has been an enjoyable experience. I’m looking forward to re-reading my favorites in the future as well as reading Howard’s other work.
November 13, 2024
The final collection of Conan stories, all of these are really good especially "Beyond the Black River" and "Red Nails".
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin" (also published as "Jewels of Gwahlur")
"Beyond the Black River"
"The Black Stranger"
"Man-Eaters of Zamboula" (also published as "Shadows in Zamboula")
"Red Nails"
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin" (also published as "Jewels of Gwahlur")
"Beyond the Black River"
"The Black Stranger"
"Man-Eaters of Zamboula" (also published as "Shadows in Zamboula")
"Red Nails"
March 26, 2021
Presenting the last of Howard's original Conan stories, from Hyborian lands long, long ago, before "clothing for women" was a thing, these tales are so good . . . and so racist.
The stories in the prior volumes of this complete, writing-order collection of Howard's Conan stories struck me as significantly more openly racist and sexist than the prior ones. Was I simply less sensitive to it previously, or did Howard increasingly let it all hang out over time? I suspect the latter.
The Servants of Bit-Yakin: A multi-layered backstory supports this story, in which a mid-career Conan (post-piracy, but pre-kingship) attempts to solve multiple mysteries affecting his scheme to retrieve a fabled treasure from a long-abandoned temple, isolated from the world in the middle of a huge crater surrounded by dense jungle. It is definitely the most sexist Howard Conan story to date. As usual, there is exactly one female character. Conan, in the process of rescuing her, calls her variously "slut," "trollop," "hussy," and worst of all, "actress". And we're supposed to be impressed when, without hesitation, he gives up the fortune of ten lifetimes to save her. I found the prose less poetic and more purple in places than in Howard's earlier stories.
Beyond the Black River: A very good story if you can ignore the racism, which is a big ask. The primary theme is the clash between barbarism and civilization. Of course Conan is a barbarian and everyone benefits from his nature in this situation, but he's the white kind of barbarian, not like those Picts in the jungle, who the text takes the time to state are not Black, but sufficiently dark-skinned that they are mere savages, not like the noble savage of Conan's ilk. Ugh. Telling the story through Balthus's eyes was effective; even though he was brawny and a woodsman, he of course could not compare to the panther-like Conan's stealth and instincts.
The Black Stranger: (p. 159) "But I'm not going to do that!" Conan roared. "Not because I have any love for you dogs, but because a white man doesn't leave white men, even his enemies, to be butchered by Picts." Also, a child is whipped and called "slut" during the abuse and again afterwards. Other than that, it's a good story with several conflicting factions.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula: a thrilling, basic Conan story. I loved his confrontation with Baal-pteor; an amazing Conan moment featuring nothing but his raw strength. But again, so racist! There are paragraphs where the every sentence feels the need to emphasize the color of Conan's opponents, as they are painted as savage beasts with "kinky hair".
Red Nails: the last Conan story written by his creator, and one of the best, certainly the most unique. Conan faces a dinosaur-like beast, discovers a lost indoor city, and sees a generations-old conflict through to its end, with Aztec flavor, madmen and monsters, a villain reminescent of H.R. Haggard's She, and one of the few women in Hyboria who holds her own in these stories.
And then Robert E. Howard died of self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, outside the hospital where his mother lay dying.
I deferred reading the supplementary material in this collection on this pass; it includes Howard's letters, drafts, synopses, hand-drawn maps, and a running essay providing detailed context for the entire span of Howard's career and the setting from which Conan's stories sprung. I will revisit those in some later year.
The stories in the prior volumes of this complete, writing-order collection of Howard's Conan stories struck me as significantly more openly racist and sexist than the prior ones. Was I simply less sensitive to it previously, or did Howard increasingly let it all hang out over time? I suspect the latter.
The Servants of Bit-Yakin: A multi-layered backstory supports this story, in which a mid-career Conan (post-piracy, but pre-kingship) attempts to solve multiple mysteries affecting his scheme to retrieve a fabled treasure from a long-abandoned temple, isolated from the world in the middle of a huge crater surrounded by dense jungle. It is definitely the most sexist Howard Conan story to date. As usual, there is exactly one female character. Conan, in the process of rescuing her, calls her variously "slut," "trollop," "hussy," and worst of all, "actress". And we're supposed to be impressed when, without hesitation, he gives up the fortune of ten lifetimes to save her. I found the prose less poetic and more purple in places than in Howard's earlier stories.
Beyond the Black River: A very good story if you can ignore the racism, which is a big ask. The primary theme is the clash between barbarism and civilization. Of course Conan is a barbarian and everyone benefits from his nature in this situation, but he's the white kind of barbarian, not like those Picts in the jungle, who the text takes the time to state are not Black, but sufficiently dark-skinned that they are mere savages, not like the noble savage of Conan's ilk. Ugh. Telling the story through Balthus's eyes was effective; even though he was brawny and a woodsman, he of course could not compare to the panther-like Conan's stealth and instincts.
The Black Stranger: (p. 159) "But I'm not going to do that!" Conan roared. "Not because I have any love for you dogs, but because a white man doesn't leave white men, even his enemies, to be butchered by Picts." Also, a child is whipped and called "slut" during the abuse and again afterwards. Other than that, it's a good story with several conflicting factions.
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula: a thrilling, basic Conan story. I loved his confrontation with Baal-pteor; an amazing Conan moment featuring nothing but his raw strength. But again, so racist! There are paragraphs where the every sentence feels the need to emphasize the color of Conan's opponents, as they are painted as savage beasts with "kinky hair".
Red Nails: the last Conan story written by his creator, and one of the best, certainly the most unique. Conan faces a dinosaur-like beast, discovers a lost indoor city, and sees a generations-old conflict through to its end, with Aztec flavor, madmen and monsters, a villain reminescent of H.R. Haggard's She, and one of the few women in Hyboria who holds her own in these stories.
And then Robert E. Howard died of self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, outside the hospital where his mother lay dying.
I deferred reading the supplementary material in this collection on this pass; it includes Howard's letters, drafts, synopses, hand-drawn maps, and a running essay providing detailed context for the entire span of Howard's career and the setting from which Conan's stories sprung. I will revisit those in some later year.
January 5, 2022
Robert E. Howard é de fato um escritor inovador. Sabe como te prender e criar um mundo imaginativo com guerreiros, monstros e mistérios imemoriais. Além disso, é também um mestre em descrever batalhas com uma brutalidade sincera digna de seu Conan.
Mas que todos saibam que o texto tem grandes problemas , principalmente com relação ao racismo. Em alguns de seus contos ele até mesmo consegue se esquivar, mas de fato, a forma como todos os personagens negros são descritos como ignorantes ou perversos em algum nível é algo que deve ser colocado como variável negativa em seus textos. Nos textos desse volume 3, por exemplo, é absurdamente explícito.
Acredito que notas explicativas deveriam ser adicionadas em edições futuras sobre esses temas com o intuito de contextualizar a obra para além de sua narrativa de fato bem escrita, mas que não pode servir de meio para se naturalizar temas tão problemáticos.
Mas que todos saibam que o texto tem grandes problemas , principalmente com relação ao racismo. Em alguns de seus contos ele até mesmo consegue se esquivar, mas de fato, a forma como todos os personagens negros são descritos como ignorantes ou perversos em algum nível é algo que deve ser colocado como variável negativa em seus textos. Nos textos desse volume 3, por exemplo, é absurdamente explícito.
Acredito que notas explicativas deveriam ser adicionadas em edições futuras sobre esses temas com o intuito de contextualizar a obra para além de sua narrativa de fato bem escrita, mas que não pode servir de meio para se naturalizar temas tão problemáticos.
July 10, 2014
YES!! the Conan stories restored to their original texts. Read Conan as Howard intended him to be. You will find that Conan is more than just a big semi-naked barbarian with a sword. He speaks and reads many languages and thinks his way through a lot of what he encounters. But then when that doesn't work he can swing a sword with the best of them. Highly recommended
July 6, 2008
Howard's "Conan" stories have a legendary aura around them, but some of their mystique comes from the horrible pastiches written like Conan - and later stuff like DeCamp's actual Conan stories themselves, most of which are sub-par. DAW's third book concludes the Conan cycle with the last bits of uncut, completely raw stories, all as Howard would want them.
Conan stories are best when they capture and magify the gloomy, headstrong personality of the creator, and two of the stories in here, "Beyond the Black River" and "Red Nails" do it perfectly. But the name of Howard's game is passion and lust for life, and since it's something none of his emulators even come close to achieving, the source is the only way to go.
Conan stories are best when they capture and magify the gloomy, headstrong personality of the creator, and two of the stories in here, "Beyond the Black River" and "Red Nails" do it perfectly. But the name of Howard's game is passion and lust for life, and since it's something none of his emulators even come close to achieving, the source is the only way to go.
May 8, 2018
This series was considerably better than I thought it would be. Definitely a staple for fantasy readers.
Read
October 27, 2022A leader, a barbarian with moral compass and principles of honor, guiding civilized but inferior men while saving women in peril. A symbol of the great past of the human race during primordial times in contrast with curent degradation of society straying away from the roots.
January 9, 2014
After reading this book, I have now read all 21 of the original Robert E. Howard-penned Conan stories. Some were good, some were bad, and some were excellent. I'll review the stories from this volume individually.
The Servants Of Bit-Yakin: A mediocre-at-best Conan story, and one which I've read a number of times over the years, usually under the title "Jewels Of Gwahlur". It contains the usual Howard racism and simperingly idiotic female companion without much of Howard's typically highly charged action. Some of the early scenes in the temple were the best of the story, as Howard by this point in his career had really developed a fairly lush prose style (well, as lush as the pulp medium would allow, anyway). At the end of the story, Conan is forced to choose between saving his new-found lady friend and saving the priceless Teeth Of Gwahlur and, rather surprisingly, he chooses to save the woman, somewhat redeeming an otherwise lacklustre story.
Beyond The Black River: This is a really great Conan tale. It was my second time reading it, and I think I enjoyed it more this time around. The scenery is well-described and yet not overdone, and the combat is some of Howard's best. One of the main characters in this story is an Aquilonian named Balthus who tags along with Conan, and I find that the Conan stories of this type tend to be my favourites - the ones where Conan and his deeds are seen through the eyes of others who stand in awe of his prowess. I also liked the undercurrent of Lovecraftian influence as seen in Jhebbal Sag, the forgotten god.
The Black Stranger: This one was a lot better than I thought it would be, as I had heard that it was originally written as a Conan story and later rewritten as a story about another character in order to find publication. I was therefore expecting a rather sub-par and forgettable Conan outing, but The Black Stranger was fairly strong, with a siege, some piratical backstabbing, demons, and even a female character who isn't a sex symbol (a rarity for Howard). It starts with Conan fleeing the Picts, having crossed a vast expanse of Pictish wilderness (a tie-in to Beyond The Black River) and ends with Conan most likely becoming a pirate again, this time with a little girl in tow. Too bad Howard never got to expand on that plotline.
The Man-Eaters Of Zamboula: This is one I had previously read under the title "Shadows In Zamboula," and it hasn't really gotten any better in the time between readings. This story simply doesn't do anything really unique or memorable, which unfortunately allows Howard's racism to come through loud and clear. Conan fights a professional strangler at the end, which lacks the gravitas of fighting giant snakes, iron golems, or swamp demons.
Red Nails: This is another classic Conan yarn, and possibly one of the darkest and most violent. It features not just the decay of a civilization, but the actual annihilation of the last members of an isolated society. Howard really goes full-out in this one, making it his definitive statement on societal decay, and whether you agree with Howard's conclusions or not, it makes for a very compelling story. It also has the benefit of being told for the most part from the point of view of a female warrior character named Valeria, which as I said before, I believe adds to the mystique and majesty of Conan.
There was also a lot of bonus material at the end of this volume, but I'll admit that I skipped the majority of it after reading through some of the miscellanea and finding that it wasn't really holding my interest. All told, some great stories in this one, making it definitely worth the time of any true Conan fan.
The Servants Of Bit-Yakin: A mediocre-at-best Conan story, and one which I've read a number of times over the years, usually under the title "Jewels Of Gwahlur". It contains the usual Howard racism and simperingly idiotic female companion without much of Howard's typically highly charged action. Some of the early scenes in the temple were the best of the story, as Howard by this point in his career had really developed a fairly lush prose style (well, as lush as the pulp medium would allow, anyway). At the end of the story, Conan is forced to choose between saving his new-found lady friend and saving the priceless Teeth Of Gwahlur and, rather surprisingly, he chooses to save the woman, somewhat redeeming an otherwise lacklustre story.
Beyond The Black River: This is a really great Conan tale. It was my second time reading it, and I think I enjoyed it more this time around. The scenery is well-described and yet not overdone, and the combat is some of Howard's best. One of the main characters in this story is an Aquilonian named Balthus who tags along with Conan, and I find that the Conan stories of this type tend to be my favourites - the ones where Conan and his deeds are seen through the eyes of others who stand in awe of his prowess. I also liked the undercurrent of Lovecraftian influence as seen in Jhebbal Sag, the forgotten god.
The Black Stranger: This one was a lot better than I thought it would be, as I had heard that it was originally written as a Conan story and later rewritten as a story about another character in order to find publication. I was therefore expecting a rather sub-par and forgettable Conan outing, but The Black Stranger was fairly strong, with a siege, some piratical backstabbing, demons, and even a female character who isn't a sex symbol (a rarity for Howard). It starts with Conan fleeing the Picts, having crossed a vast expanse of Pictish wilderness (a tie-in to Beyond The Black River) and ends with Conan most likely becoming a pirate again, this time with a little girl in tow. Too bad Howard never got to expand on that plotline.
The Man-Eaters Of Zamboula: This is one I had previously read under the title "Shadows In Zamboula," and it hasn't really gotten any better in the time between readings. This story simply doesn't do anything really unique or memorable, which unfortunately allows Howard's racism to come through loud and clear. Conan fights a professional strangler at the end, which lacks the gravitas of fighting giant snakes, iron golems, or swamp demons.
Red Nails: This is another classic Conan yarn, and possibly one of the darkest and most violent. It features not just the decay of a civilization, but the actual annihilation of the last members of an isolated society. Howard really goes full-out in this one, making it his definitive statement on societal decay, and whether you agree with Howard's conclusions or not, it makes for a very compelling story. It also has the benefit of being told for the most part from the point of view of a female warrior character named Valeria, which as I said before, I believe adds to the mystique and majesty of Conan.
There was also a lot of bonus material at the end of this volume, but I'll admit that I skipped the majority of it after reading through some of the miscellanea and finding that it wasn't really holding my interest. All told, some great stories in this one, making it definitely worth the time of any true Conan fan.
November 4, 2019
Red Nails - 4/5
Wandering across the scorching desert in search of adventure, Conan stumbles upon the beautiful and fearsome pirate Valeria. After narrowly escaping from a dragon by making clever use of a poison fruit, Conan and Valeria take refuge in an entirely walled and enclosed city named Xuchotl where generations of inhabitants have waged war against each other for hundreds of years. Conan and Valeria get swept up into some nasty affairs between the two warring clans, a storm of swords and demonic sorcerey rages throughout the city until the warriors put an end to the insane clans war once and for all. It's a haunting and visceral story with lots of bloody action on par with Hour of the Dragon.
***
Jewels of Gwahlur - 3/5
Conan battles his way through Gwahlur in search of ancient jewels and riches but ends up empty handed. Although his original mission ended in failure, he got to experience the thrill of bloodshed and brought a girl that resembled a real goddess back home with him, so perhaps his journey for treasure wasn't a total waste after all. Not the best of Conan, but still a fun and quick read.
***
Beyond the Black River - 3.5/5
Conan teams up with a warrior named Balthus in an attempt to thwart the conquests of the Pictish sorcerer Zogar Sag. Just like People of the Black Circle, it's a nonstop adrenaline fest with lots of blood and guts.
***
The Black Stranger - 3/5
The story begins with Conan fleeing for the hills after being pursued by a flock of angered tribesman. While fleeing, the tribesman give up their chase upon reaching a peculiar hill that stands out from all the others. The hill turns out to hold a treasure cave along with the preserved bodies of a pirate captain, Tranicos. Conan's attempt to remove the treasure proves futile, as a demon of mist appears and attempts to strangle him. He barely escapes with his life, leaving the treasure undisturbed.
After getting away, Conan forms a thieves pact with several groups of feuding pirates to steal the forbidden treasure. Little do they know however, each person involved in the pact are manipulating each other and have a plan to dispose of each of the opposing groups once they've gotten their hands on the treasure. Debauchery, betrayal and cunning pirate trickery ensue until the last man gets away with what they came for.
***
Shadows in Zamboula - 3/5
Conan helps a dancer named Zabibi save her insane lover from a flock of cannibals and evil priests that are terrorizing her desert town. Conan fights his way through the cannibal horde does what he does best. The action was good and the setting was interesting, but the story was often ruined by a lot of unnecessary racist undertones.
Wandering across the scorching desert in search of adventure, Conan stumbles upon the beautiful and fearsome pirate Valeria. After narrowly escaping from a dragon by making clever use of a poison fruit, Conan and Valeria take refuge in an entirely walled and enclosed city named Xuchotl where generations of inhabitants have waged war against each other for hundreds of years. Conan and Valeria get swept up into some nasty affairs between the two warring clans, a storm of swords and demonic sorcerey rages throughout the city until the warriors put an end to the insane clans war once and for all. It's a haunting and visceral story with lots of bloody action on par with Hour of the Dragon.
***
Jewels of Gwahlur - 3/5
Conan battles his way through Gwahlur in search of ancient jewels and riches but ends up empty handed. Although his original mission ended in failure, he got to experience the thrill of bloodshed and brought a girl that resembled a real goddess back home with him, so perhaps his journey for treasure wasn't a total waste after all. Not the best of Conan, but still a fun and quick read.
***
Beyond the Black River - 3.5/5
Conan teams up with a warrior named Balthus in an attempt to thwart the conquests of the Pictish sorcerer Zogar Sag. Just like People of the Black Circle, it's a nonstop adrenaline fest with lots of blood and guts.
***
The Black Stranger - 3/5
The story begins with Conan fleeing for the hills after being pursued by a flock of angered tribesman. While fleeing, the tribesman give up their chase upon reaching a peculiar hill that stands out from all the others. The hill turns out to hold a treasure cave along with the preserved bodies of a pirate captain, Tranicos. Conan's attempt to remove the treasure proves futile, as a demon of mist appears and attempts to strangle him. He barely escapes with his life, leaving the treasure undisturbed.
After getting away, Conan forms a thieves pact with several groups of feuding pirates to steal the forbidden treasure. Little do they know however, each person involved in the pact are manipulating each other and have a plan to dispose of each of the opposing groups once they've gotten their hands on the treasure. Debauchery, betrayal and cunning pirate trickery ensue until the last man gets away with what they came for.
***
Shadows in Zamboula - 3/5
Conan helps a dancer named Zabibi save her insane lover from a flock of cannibals and evil priests that are terrorizing her desert town. Conan fights his way through the cannibal horde does what he does best. The action was good and the setting was interesting, but the story was often ruined by a lot of unnecessary racist undertones.
July 20, 2017
The Conquering Sword of Conan is the final volume in Del Rey’s three-volume collection of every Robert E. Howard Conan story. Gregory Manchess provides the illustrations for this volume, and they may be my favorite of the three. There is again a foreword by the illustration, as well as an introduction (by Patrice Louinet), notes, synopses, and drafts, a letter, and the final part of Louinet’s Genesis of the Hyborian Age essay. The letter, in particular, is interesting. It tells us essentially everything we know about Conan’s early and later years.
The Conquering Sword of Conan is probably the strongest volume of the three. At least two stories—Beyond the Black River and Red Nails—are frequently cited among Conan’s best, a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree. But Howard was growing tired of writing Conan stories, or at least disassociated with the character. He wanted to write stories in new settings and it shows. Beyond the Black River could have been set on the Texas frontier, The Black Stranger the coast of North Carolina during the Golden Age of Piracy, Red Nails Aztec Mexico at the discovery of the New World.
George R.R. Martin has been called the American Tolkien. He isn’t, but if he were, Robert E. Howard would be the Texan Tolkien. I don’t say that because of how good he was, or because of his influence, though, if you were to name a “Big Three” of fantasy, the list has to include Burroughs, Tolkien, and Howard. I say that because Tolkien’s work was quintessentially English and created an English mythology of sorts. He isn’t acting nearly as intentionally as Tolkien was, but Howard does something much the same for Texas.
Take Conan’s love interests. If Conan fills the American archetype of the backwoodsman, his love interests tend toward the pioneer woman. In Beyond the Black River it isn’t just the love interest.
Warning settlers of the impending Pict invasion, the first cabin just holds one woman. She answers the door in nothing but a shift, holding a candle in one hand and an axe in the other. She is terrified but wants to hold the cabin and fight. At the next cabin, an old woman puts a young woman on a horse before her. She explains that the woman is pregnant, and that she “can walk—and fight, too, if it comes to that.”
Table of Stories
The Servants of Bit-Yakin, first published in Weird Tales, March 1935
Beyond the Black River, first published in Weird Tales, May and June 1935
The Black Stranger, original version first published in Echoes of Valor, Tor, 1987
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, first published Weird Tales, November 1935
Red Nails, first published Weird Tales, July, August-September, and October 1936
The Conquering Sword of Conan is probably the strongest volume of the three. At least two stories—Beyond the Black River and Red Nails—are frequently cited among Conan’s best, a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree. But Howard was growing tired of writing Conan stories, or at least disassociated with the character. He wanted to write stories in new settings and it shows. Beyond the Black River could have been set on the Texas frontier, The Black Stranger the coast of North Carolina during the Golden Age of Piracy, Red Nails Aztec Mexico at the discovery of the New World.
George R.R. Martin has been called the American Tolkien. He isn’t, but if he were, Robert E. Howard would be the Texan Tolkien. I don’t say that because of how good he was, or because of his influence, though, if you were to name a “Big Three” of fantasy, the list has to include Burroughs, Tolkien, and Howard. I say that because Tolkien’s work was quintessentially English and created an English mythology of sorts. He isn’t acting nearly as intentionally as Tolkien was, but Howard does something much the same for Texas.
Take Conan’s love interests. If Conan fills the American archetype of the backwoodsman, his love interests tend toward the pioneer woman. In Beyond the Black River it isn’t just the love interest.
Warning settlers of the impending Pict invasion, the first cabin just holds one woman. She answers the door in nothing but a shift, holding a candle in one hand and an axe in the other. She is terrified but wants to hold the cabin and fight. At the next cabin, an old woman puts a young woman on a horse before her. She explains that the woman is pregnant, and that she “can walk—and fight, too, if it comes to that.”
Table of Stories
The Servants of Bit-Yakin, first published in Weird Tales, March 1935
Beyond the Black River, first published in Weird Tales, May and June 1935
The Black Stranger, original version first published in Echoes of Valor, Tor, 1987
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, first published Weird Tales, November 1935
Red Nails, first published Weird Tales, July, August-September, and October 1936
March 29, 2014
By finishing this book, I have now read all of the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. It was not always the easiest journey as some tales are certainly better than others. But the publisher’s decision to present these stories over three volumes in the order they were written instead of chronological order was the right one, I believe, as it is wonderful to see Howard’s skills as a writer grow.
This volume, the final set of the Conan saga, includes only five stories, evidence of the lengthening and growing complexity of the plots and character. The final story, a short novella really, is Red Nails, considered by many to be the finest Conan tale ever penned by Robert E. Howard. I would agree, and not just because it is the longest (and bloodiest and sexiest) story of all, but it is also the most satisfactory. Howard’s suicide just prior to Red Nails being published in serial form in “Weird Tales” just adds to the mystique of the tale.
This volume, the final set of the Conan saga, includes only five stories, evidence of the lengthening and growing complexity of the plots and character. The final story, a short novella really, is Red Nails, considered by many to be the finest Conan tale ever penned by Robert E. Howard. I would agree, and not just because it is the longest (and bloodiest and sexiest) story of all, but it is also the most satisfactory. Howard’s suicide just prior to Red Nails being published in serial form in “Weird Tales” just adds to the mystique of the tale.
November 10, 2015
Man-Eaters of Zamboula (formerly Shadows in Zamboula): Conan ignores a dire warning and gets a rude surprise during his stay at an inn in Zamboula - all the slaves there are cannibals. The use of irony here is that Conan knows the entire time the naked girl he sees chasing her crazed lover in the street is Nafertari, mistress to the crazed satrap. Conan has bigger fish to fry for almost feeding him to the natives: he ditches both of them to get his revenge on the tavern owner. Guess the use of irony on that one! 5/5
Beyond the Black River: Conan is 40, and bored. While slaying a forest demon, he encounters a settler named Balthus and the two of them are captured. They are to be sacrificed to Pictish wizard Zogar Sag, who long ago controlled all manner of beasts. Those that remember Zogar Sag's worship put the two of them in great peril! 5/5
The Black Stranger: Conan attempts cursed treasure again and is nearly killed. Meanwhile, a Count also desires the treasure and has fled his home to escape a demon he double-crossed. Both land on the Western shore of Pictish territory. The Count is followed by pirates who think he is after the treasure, and the four of them make a pact, secretly vowing to kill the others once the treasure is found. 4/5
The Servants of Bit-Yakin (formerly Jewels of Gwahlur): Conan again follows the legend of a mysterious treasure and an oracle. Many adventurers desire to get their hands on this treasure, further complicating the problem. Also, is the oracle a ruse...? 3/5
Red Nails: Conan meets Valeria, his would-be lover, in the jungles of the far south. Together they slay a dragon (dinosaur?) and enter a mysterious ancient city. But the natives of Xuchotil have no intention of letting them leave, and Tascela has other plans for Valeria, whom she plots to drain of vitality to restore her youth. 4/5
Beyond the Black River: Conan is 40, and bored. While slaying a forest demon, he encounters a settler named Balthus and the two of them are captured. They are to be sacrificed to Pictish wizard Zogar Sag, who long ago controlled all manner of beasts. Those that remember Zogar Sag's worship put the two of them in great peril! 5/5
The Black Stranger: Conan attempts cursed treasure again and is nearly killed. Meanwhile, a Count also desires the treasure and has fled his home to escape a demon he double-crossed. Both land on the Western shore of Pictish territory. The Count is followed by pirates who think he is after the treasure, and the four of them make a pact, secretly vowing to kill the others once the treasure is found. 4/5
The Servants of Bit-Yakin (formerly Jewels of Gwahlur): Conan again follows the legend of a mysterious treasure and an oracle. Many adventurers desire to get their hands on this treasure, further complicating the problem. Also, is the oracle a ruse...? 3/5
Red Nails: Conan meets Valeria, his would-be lover, in the jungles of the far south. Together they slay a dragon (dinosaur?) and enter a mysterious ancient city. But the natives of Xuchotil have no intention of letting them leave, and Tascela has other plans for Valeria, whom she plots to drain of vitality to restore her youth. 4/5
June 10, 2009
This is as good as it gets. Red Nails and Beyond the Black River are masterpieces of S & S. Man-eaters of Zamboula is Conan to the core. You can see the development of Howard as a true master at this point in his too short career. Red Nails has been, and probably always will be, my favorite story from my favorite author. It's the first story I tell people to read if they are only familiar with horrendous movie adaptations. I've probably read this book 4 times, and the stories within many times before. This is the 3rd book of 3 by Del Rey Books that encompass all of Howard's Conan stories drafts, untitled fragments, etc. Read all 3 and you will truly understand.
September 28, 2009
I don't know, I have the hard back but it wasn't listed...
This is the third volume of the three volume set of Howard's versions of the Conan stories. It contains:
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin"
Beyond the Black River
The Black Stranger
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula"
Red Nails
Untitled Notes: "The Westermark: ..."
"Wolves Beyond the Border", Draft A
"Wolves Beyond the Border", Draft B
The Black Stranger, Synopsis A
The Black Stranger, Synopsis B
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula", Synopsis
Red Nails, Draft
Plus other writings of interest. Conan was good when he was first published he's still good today.
This is the third volume of the three volume set of Howard's versions of the Conan stories. It contains:
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin"
Beyond the Black River
The Black Stranger
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula"
Red Nails
Untitled Notes: "The Westermark: ..."
"Wolves Beyond the Border", Draft A
"Wolves Beyond the Border", Draft B
The Black Stranger, Synopsis A
The Black Stranger, Synopsis B
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula", Synopsis
Red Nails, Draft
Plus other writings of interest. Conan was good when he was first published he's still good today.
September 26, 2013
For one reason or another, Robert Howard had some fascination with the Picts, who make a case for being Conan's best recurring villain, which is impressive considering how many antagonists who are thought to be constant foils for Conan only really appeared in one story (I'm looking at you, Thoth-Amon). Either the Picts either came to Howard in a dream and ticked him off, or they just caught his eye to stand in for a general lack of civilization. Whatever the case is, they massed and painted presences help make this final run of Conan stories among the most memorable.
Howard's Conan stories do seem to have emerged fully formed and he seems to have found a handle on the character more or less immediately, despite writing him at random parts of his life. Yet as we progress through the volumes to reach the final five stories that he wrote in his lifetime you can definitely see him getting a handle on his themes and being able to portray them in ways that didn't involve characters decrying civilization in between beheadings. While events tend to stay on the side of action/adventure with a dash of sorcery, there's a new realism creeping into the stories where the fantastical magical elements are gradually downplayed and the crazy people actually seem crazier in comparison. This makes Conan look like the only sane person in a world of lunatics (the world mostly divided into the crazy, the deluded, and Conan, with a separate sub-category for hot warrior women) and where before that led to stories that were rich in entertainment, now they start to feel actually menacing, like a mirror tilted just the wrong way, showing you stuff you didn't intend to see.
The last Conan story was written less than a year before Howard's suicide, but there's absolutely no sense of that here and on a lot of levels this is the most satisfying volume of the three, containing at least two masterpieces and one other that can be argued as ranking just below it.
As seems typical with Conan stories, the ones that hew closest to what everyone imagines a Conan story to be like wind up being the weakest ones in the collection. "The Servants of Bit-Yankin" gets points for setting it in his version of Africa and for containing a plot that turns on itself enough times to make you dizzy (the titular Bit-Yankin's contribution is a bit of a left field shift) but it generally focuses on yet another lost city and treasure and a scantily clad helpless woman for Conan to impress with his barbarian manliness. There's so much going on in the plot you can generally ignore the "Haven't we done this already?" vibe but it's most notable for reminding us that Conan isn't exactly a dumb barbarian after all (he at least has a working proficiency in several languages, useful when you refuse to stay in one place for less than a few days).
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" has a missed opportunity in not milking the roaming cannibal concept for all its worth and instead focusing on a somewhat helpless woman again, but it does get credit for giving us plenty of intrigue and a foe who's nearly a match for Conan in the brawn department. But especially here you start to get a sense that Conan is nearly invincible and way smarter than everyone else, which means that any outcome is rarely in doubt at any point. Howard's prose tends toward breathless hyperbole at times, describing Conan's every bulging sinew with a heated glee and while it's fun to watch him always come out ahead, I want him to sweat for it a little bit (here someone pretends to be someone else but after they're gone Conan reveals to us that he knew it all along . . . well, good for you).
"The Black Stranger" starts the leap upward in quality. On some level we've been here before as well, with pirates and two helpless women this time but with this story Howard goes full pirate and turns Conan into Blackbeard. What works here is that Conan straddles the space between bystander and agitator. The feud that exists between the pirates has been going on long before Conan enters the scene (and he is absent for a good chunk of the story) but Howard gives them plenty of room to develop their characters before Conan arrives and starts messing everything up by tilting the balance and not playing for any side but his own. His gambit to lure someone to their death borders on the diabolical and with the menace of the Picts always lurking about, it gives the story a sense of urgency and a deadline . . . either they all kill each other, or the Picts decide for them by overrunning the whole camp. What makes this work is the chamber opera feel of the setting, with everyone trapped in a limited space, and the fact that Howard has created several well defined characters who spend most of the story plotting to kill each other in various ways. If you wrap your mind around Conan going all "Yo ho ho", you won't even notice the almost complete lack of magical elements.
"Red Nails" is the first masterpiece and it takes a bit for the full impact of it to sink in. Having a feeling that this was the last Conan story he'd write for a while, he went all out in ensuring it made a statement and spared himself nothing in the depiction. Indeed, it feels like all the sword and sorcery tales taken to their logical extremes, as Conan and the warrior-pirate Valeria coming across a lost city that turns out to be steeped in violence and decadence, the result of a civilization crumbling and everyone else slowly devolving in the ruins. Two tribes still exist in the city at opposite ends and spend most of their time figuring out ways to kill each other, while a woman keeps her skin fresh with the best moisturizer of all. Howard felt this was among his most realistic of stories, though it helps that pretty much everyone but Conan and Valeria are completely out of their minds and as such there's a lot of wading through the crazy, often with swords, that feels like a natural byproduct of civilization being leached out of things, like if "Lord of the Flies" had involved adults instead of kids and all those adults were a little too into S&M. Rather disturbing set pieces abound (my favorite being the room of severed heads) and it all operates along its own twisted internal logic, where hammering red nails into a pillar once you've killed an enemy makes horrifyingly perfect sense. This is probably the Conan story that everyone remembers (the black and white Marvel adaptation is a thing of beauty) because of that blend of the fantastic and realistic and insane, all pushed into the red and steeped in an atmosphere that feels smothering. For me, I acknowledge its genius and if not for the existence of one other Conan story would probably feel this is the ultimate Conan story, despite my misgivings about the whole dragon thing and that climax (magic wands solve everything that swords can't!).
Still, I have to leave the best for last and "Beyond the Black River" to me is THE Conan story. It's the only one I read and felt a chill upon finishing it, where I had become immersed in a smothering and completely alien world that only relented when it was finally over. It takes everything that was ever in a Conan story and strips it away, putting our sword slinging hero in a frontier setting at the edge of civilization where a group of settlers are trying to maintain their existence. Except in the forest just beyond the river lurk the Picts and they aren't too keen on any of the civilization bunk coming by. For the first time Howard takes his theme of civilization versus barbarian and turns into a physical thing, bending the very landscape to the theme as the river becomes a border between the lands that are honest and the lands where people pretend to have logic, something only Conan can easily walk between. This is only time for me that a Conan story actually felt dangerous and full of menace, with the obscuring forest lurking on all sides hiding hordes of people who will fight to avoid the encroachment of civilization, where the old stories are still true. It becomes a race against time as the Pictish threat increases, infusing the story with a rare urgency as the settlers try to hold the line and failing that, have to get the heck out of Dodge before everything gets destroyed. It depicts a clash between two lifestyles that are utterly incompatible, one where no rules exist and one where the rules are only a veneer. It frighteningly displays Howard's belief that civilization is just a nice story we tell each other at night, framed as a losing struggle where losing is the best outcome, for no one can seriously hope to win here. For once, the magical elements feel as weird and alien as they should, steeped in a myth that is truer than stories and an entrance into a world that otherwise has been covered up. Placing Conan in such a realistic setting it only heightens the stakes at play here. It never puts a foot wrong and is so confident in itself that it tosses off the best line in the story to some nameless incidental character. At the end, no less.
The twin strokes of "Red Nails" and "Beyond the Black River" could have cemented any pulp writer's legacy, but when you add in the other nineteen tales it only makes Howard's achievement that much more extraordinary. It's hard to say where he would have gone from "Red Nails", if he even would have revisited the barbarian and not moved into other types of stories that paid better or were more attuned to his newer interests. Maybe if he had lived longer Conan would have faded out with a string of interchangeable sword and sorcery cliches, dulling the impact of what we did get. It still would have been nice to have Howard around for longer to find out anyway.
Howard's Conan stories do seem to have emerged fully formed and he seems to have found a handle on the character more or less immediately, despite writing him at random parts of his life. Yet as we progress through the volumes to reach the final five stories that he wrote in his lifetime you can definitely see him getting a handle on his themes and being able to portray them in ways that didn't involve characters decrying civilization in between beheadings. While events tend to stay on the side of action/adventure with a dash of sorcery, there's a new realism creeping into the stories where the fantastical magical elements are gradually downplayed and the crazy people actually seem crazier in comparison. This makes Conan look like the only sane person in a world of lunatics (the world mostly divided into the crazy, the deluded, and Conan, with a separate sub-category for hot warrior women) and where before that led to stories that were rich in entertainment, now they start to feel actually menacing, like a mirror tilted just the wrong way, showing you stuff you didn't intend to see.
The last Conan story was written less than a year before Howard's suicide, but there's absolutely no sense of that here and on a lot of levels this is the most satisfying volume of the three, containing at least two masterpieces and one other that can be argued as ranking just below it.
As seems typical with Conan stories, the ones that hew closest to what everyone imagines a Conan story to be like wind up being the weakest ones in the collection. "The Servants of Bit-Yankin" gets points for setting it in his version of Africa and for containing a plot that turns on itself enough times to make you dizzy (the titular Bit-Yankin's contribution is a bit of a left field shift) but it generally focuses on yet another lost city and treasure and a scantily clad helpless woman for Conan to impress with his barbarian manliness. There's so much going on in the plot you can generally ignore the "Haven't we done this already?" vibe but it's most notable for reminding us that Conan isn't exactly a dumb barbarian after all (he at least has a working proficiency in several languages, useful when you refuse to stay in one place for less than a few days).
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" has a missed opportunity in not milking the roaming cannibal concept for all its worth and instead focusing on a somewhat helpless woman again, but it does get credit for giving us plenty of intrigue and a foe who's nearly a match for Conan in the brawn department. But especially here you start to get a sense that Conan is nearly invincible and way smarter than everyone else, which means that any outcome is rarely in doubt at any point. Howard's prose tends toward breathless hyperbole at times, describing Conan's every bulging sinew with a heated glee and while it's fun to watch him always come out ahead, I want him to sweat for it a little bit (here someone pretends to be someone else but after they're gone Conan reveals to us that he knew it all along . . . well, good for you).
"The Black Stranger" starts the leap upward in quality. On some level we've been here before as well, with pirates and two helpless women this time but with this story Howard goes full pirate and turns Conan into Blackbeard. What works here is that Conan straddles the space between bystander and agitator. The feud that exists between the pirates has been going on long before Conan enters the scene (and he is absent for a good chunk of the story) but Howard gives them plenty of room to develop their characters before Conan arrives and starts messing everything up by tilting the balance and not playing for any side but his own. His gambit to lure someone to their death borders on the diabolical and with the menace of the Picts always lurking about, it gives the story a sense of urgency and a deadline . . . either they all kill each other, or the Picts decide for them by overrunning the whole camp. What makes this work is the chamber opera feel of the setting, with everyone trapped in a limited space, and the fact that Howard has created several well defined characters who spend most of the story plotting to kill each other in various ways. If you wrap your mind around Conan going all "Yo ho ho", you won't even notice the almost complete lack of magical elements.
"Red Nails" is the first masterpiece and it takes a bit for the full impact of it to sink in. Having a feeling that this was the last Conan story he'd write for a while, he went all out in ensuring it made a statement and spared himself nothing in the depiction. Indeed, it feels like all the sword and sorcery tales taken to their logical extremes, as Conan and the warrior-pirate Valeria coming across a lost city that turns out to be steeped in violence and decadence, the result of a civilization crumbling and everyone else slowly devolving in the ruins. Two tribes still exist in the city at opposite ends and spend most of their time figuring out ways to kill each other, while a woman keeps her skin fresh with the best moisturizer of all. Howard felt this was among his most realistic of stories, though it helps that pretty much everyone but Conan and Valeria are completely out of their minds and as such there's a lot of wading through the crazy, often with swords, that feels like a natural byproduct of civilization being leached out of things, like if "Lord of the Flies" had involved adults instead of kids and all those adults were a little too into S&M. Rather disturbing set pieces abound (my favorite being the room of severed heads) and it all operates along its own twisted internal logic, where hammering red nails into a pillar once you've killed an enemy makes horrifyingly perfect sense. This is probably the Conan story that everyone remembers (the black and white Marvel adaptation is a thing of beauty) because of that blend of the fantastic and realistic and insane, all pushed into the red and steeped in an atmosphere that feels smothering. For me, I acknowledge its genius and if not for the existence of one other Conan story would probably feel this is the ultimate Conan story, despite my misgivings about the whole dragon thing and that climax (magic wands solve everything that swords can't!).
Still, I have to leave the best for last and "Beyond the Black River" to me is THE Conan story. It's the only one I read and felt a chill upon finishing it, where I had become immersed in a smothering and completely alien world that only relented when it was finally over. It takes everything that was ever in a Conan story and strips it away, putting our sword slinging hero in a frontier setting at the edge of civilization where a group of settlers are trying to maintain their existence. Except in the forest just beyond the river lurk the Picts and they aren't too keen on any of the civilization bunk coming by. For the first time Howard takes his theme of civilization versus barbarian and turns into a physical thing, bending the very landscape to the theme as the river becomes a border between the lands that are honest and the lands where people pretend to have logic, something only Conan can easily walk between. This is only time for me that a Conan story actually felt dangerous and full of menace, with the obscuring forest lurking on all sides hiding hordes of people who will fight to avoid the encroachment of civilization, where the old stories are still true. It becomes a race against time as the Pictish threat increases, infusing the story with a rare urgency as the settlers try to hold the line and failing that, have to get the heck out of Dodge before everything gets destroyed. It depicts a clash between two lifestyles that are utterly incompatible, one where no rules exist and one where the rules are only a veneer. It frighteningly displays Howard's belief that civilization is just a nice story we tell each other at night, framed as a losing struggle where losing is the best outcome, for no one can seriously hope to win here. For once, the magical elements feel as weird and alien as they should, steeped in a myth that is truer than stories and an entrance into a world that otherwise has been covered up. Placing Conan in such a realistic setting it only heightens the stakes at play here. It never puts a foot wrong and is so confident in itself that it tosses off the best line in the story to some nameless incidental character. At the end, no less.
The twin strokes of "Red Nails" and "Beyond the Black River" could have cemented any pulp writer's legacy, but when you add in the other nineteen tales it only makes Howard's achievement that much more extraordinary. It's hard to say where he would have gone from "Red Nails", if he even would have revisited the barbarian and not moved into other types of stories that paid better or were more attuned to his newer interests. Maybe if he had lived longer Conan would have faded out with a string of interchangeable sword and sorcery cliches, dulling the impact of what we did get. It still would have been nice to have Howard around for longer to find out anyway.
April 9, 2013
"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind," the borderer said, staring somberly at the Cimmerian. "Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."I started this last volume with trepidation, since my experiences with Clark Ashton Smith and Fritz Leiber had taught me to expect a decline over the course of the writer's oeuvre culminating in either mediocrity or active disgust on my part, but my expectations were not met at all. They were completely inverted, actually--The Conquering Sword of Conan is absolutely the best of the three Conan collections I've read so far.
-Robert E. Howard, "Beyond the Black River"
There's only a few stories here, and two of them are on the same subject, but each of those stories is great. My favorite is probably Beyond the Black River, which I know I've read before somewhere, probably in one of the many edited Conan collections floating around out there, but only vaguely remembered it. I've been looking forward to "that story with the Picts" since I first started reading this collection, and it definitely held up to the image I had in my memories.
There's a section in the end of the book where one of the essays talks about Howard's turn towards drawing from his Texan surroundings to make materials for stories, and that's definitely evident in "Beyond the Black River." When I was reading the story, I kept thinking that Howard's Picts are pretty much the textbook settler picture of Native Americans, with the eagle feathers and the painted faces and the savage rites and the murdering everyone for no reason. The area past the Black River is the American West transplanted to the Hyborian Age, with forests instead of plains and distant uncaring feudal lords instead of a distant uncaring central government. The main difference is that while in America the drama was a foregone conclusion and the Native American way of life was ultimately doomed, in the Hyborian Age the fact that barbarism is superior to civilization (see opening quote) is what dooms the Aquilonian attempt at colonization.
It does seem a little ridiculous that all these barbarian tribes can coexist next to advanced nations based on what happens in our own world's history in those situations, but with the authorial conceits of the Conan stories, it wouldn't happen any other way. I guess it's just another aspect of how European culture has never gotten over the fall of Rome.
Oh, and random fun fact: just like how Vampire's Followers of Set are based on Howard's version of the deity, Werewolf's Black Spiral Dancers are based on Howard's version of the Picts.
This is also the book that has Red Nails, which I've heard a lot about from various places but never read until now. I can see why people like it so much. I personally loved the use of a dinosaur as a dragon--though admittedly, I liked the draft where the dragon herds had come ranging up from the south when the climate changed rather than the published version where they were extinct but raised through black necromancy to guard Xuchotl--and the way that Xuchotl is a city that's also a single contiguous building. That's not a particularly common trope in fiction, but it's one I'm quite fond of. Maybe because I sunburn so easily.
"Red Nails" is also the story where we finally get a female character that can fight as well as Conan can. That's not to say that earlier stories have women who are just scenery--for one thing, several of those stories take place from the woman's point of view instead of Conan's, which complicates the subject/objectification discussion--but in "Red Nails," Valeria takes a much more active role in the action than previously. It's still written by a man born in 1906, so the story swerves between treating Valeria as a warrior worthy of respect for her combat prowess or a beautiful woman who's going through some kind of silly phase, but it at least represents a kind of progress. It makes me wonder what else we would have seen in further Conan stories if Howard had lived.
The essays at the end also make a good point about "Red Nails"--it's the ultimate example of Howard's view of civilization. The inhabitants of Xuchotl live in a single structure without ever stepping outside or seeing the naked sky. Their food comes from fruits that feed on the air, and they have no connection with the world at all. In the end, the fall into horrific decadence and war amongst each other over minor slights, commit hideous tortures that take even Conan aback, and eventually kill themselves in an orgy of self-destruction. Civilization here is literally unnatural in its total separation from nature.
The other three stories, "The Servants of Bit-Yakin," "The Black Stranger" (the other story involving the Picts), and "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" didn't stand out quite so much in my mind, but that's not to say they're bad stories. Well, "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" isn't much to write home about honestly, but it's not bad enough to drag down my appreciation of the rest of the book. However, “The Black Stranger” is another story that maps really well to American history on the frontier, though this time to early settlements on the East Coast before the colonies had become more than islands of European civilization surrounded by, to them, alien and hostile powers.
That's not to say there's nothing wrong with The Conquerering Sword of Conan. Howard's racial politics, already pretty uncomfortable in the previous stories, get worse here. Previously, while Howard lumped everyone south of Stygia in as "a black," he tended to make distinctions between the other countries in a more Victorian sense, the way people would write about "the Irish race" or "the German race" and talk about their essentially characteristics. In these stories, pretty much everyone gets divided into white, brown, or black, with scarcely a mention made of nationality. And of course, Conan saves people just because they're white and obviously he can't leave a white person behind to be killed by black people and blech. Sure, you can make an argument that Howard is a product of his time, but it falls down because it's not this bad in previous Conan stories. If there's a reason not to read this book, it's that one.
Also, part of the reason I liked the book so much is because of the various drafts and story ideas that are placed at the end of the book. Some of them are for stories that appear in the book, like "Red Nails," but there's also one called Wolves Beyond the Border that was never published during Howard's lifetime. There's a first draft and a second draft, and the first draft is very rough. It definitely didn't feel like any of the other Howard stories I read, but the second draft was a lot more polished and had a lot more of the...uh, Howardian language I'm used to, with the the square-cutting of manes and the mightying of thews and the dashing of brains and so on.
That's glib, yeah, but the main reason I found this so encouraging is that, like a lot of people on the internet, I have a mostly-finished novel sitting on my hard drive and I often find it hard to work on writing more of it instead of spending an endless amount of time editing what I already have. Reading novels and then looking at what I've written is almost enough to make me just rip the whole thing up, and it's really encouraging to get another reminder that good writing is made, not born. It almost never springs forth fully-formed from the writer's brow, but has to be coaxed and molded over time and through draft after draft until it reaches its final form.
It's not really clear that we would have ever gotten another Conan story, since Howard hadn't written one in almost a year before he died and had written about how his thoughts were turning more towards Westerns instead. If "Red Nails" had been the last one, though, it would have been a fitting ending to the barbarian's stories, and going out like that I'm not surprised that Conan has been so popular to write about in the decades since then. As the ending of the book puts it:
Conan the Cimmerian, however, is still with us. In spite of some difficult years, he has managed to survive, and shows no signs of weakness.And indeed, he has.
The barbarian's longevity wouldn't have surprised Howard.
The barbarian must always ultimately triumph.
Previous review: The Bloody Crown of Conan.
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