Conan: Broadsword Legacy Collection

by Robert E. Howard

A BEAUTIFUL NEW EDITION OF EVERY CONAN STORY PUBLISHED IN ROBERT E. HOWARD'S LIFETIME.

Arranged in what contemporary scholars consider the preferred reading order, this exhaustive new collection of Conan stories covers every piece that Robert E. Howard published in the thirties and includes his essay on the world of Conan, "The Hyborean Age".

The perfect starting place for anyone interested in one of the greatest heroic characters of all time, CONAN has been lovingly produced by Broadsword Books as an introduction to their new Broadsword Legacy imprint.

In this collection:

The Phoenix On The Sword
The Scarlet Citadel
The Tower Of The Elephant
Black Colossus
The Slithering Shadow
The Pool Of The Black One
Rogues In The House
Gods Of The North
Shadows In The Moonlight
Queen Of The Black Coast
Devil In Iron
The People Of The Black Circle
A Witch Shall Be Born
Jewels Of Gwahlur
Beyond The Black River
Shadows In Zamboula
Red Nails
The Hyborean Age

ebook

First published April 3, 2017

About the author

Robert 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.

Reviews

[Richard Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

This brings back all my memories of reading the Conan paperback books in the 60’s and 70’s. I recommend this book for all the new readers.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to see the precursor to a lot of modern fantasy... but damn, there are a lot of racist things going on in here.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the collected works of Robert Howard on his iconic character Conan the barbarian. This is where the subgenre of sword and sorcery was born and from the interviews I’ve read most writers thereof attribute much credit to Howard. Many account him pivotal as an influence for their own writing while at the same time commenting that his writing wasn’t all that good, which I find amazing-of all the S&S writers I have read his is by far the best. The imagery and characters are very strong and energetic and if the plots at times seem simple it is only because they have been borrowed by so many others over nearly the last century-indeed, these stories forged the frame work for the subgenre and common characters, symbology, and plots thereof. If there is one criticism one might make it is perhaps with the dealings of racism and sexism, though I would urge such critics to remember that Howard was hardly exceptional of these attitudes for his time so I feel it is wrong to hold such against him and his stories. That said, obviously black skinned characters are often dealt roughly and cruelly with, and are nearly always considered as villains or disposable back ground characters. Women, even if strongly characterized, serve primarily as love interests in these pages, as is unfortunate-characters like Valeria or Yasmani might easily have made proper heroes in their own rights, especially in Valeria’s case. The stories in this collection are presented “in the preferred reading order” which seems non-chronological and indeed make me wonder if this is a collection of stories of one Conan or many, for some of the careers, traveling, and ways seem at odds with one another and it smashed against one’s suspension of disbelief to believe one man did all these things. It’s also regrettable how disposable side characters are-if you find a side character you like, enjoy them-once the stories done you won’t see them ever again in any other story. The stories in general for me seemed to fall into a few differing types consisting of pirate stories, wanderer stories, and royalty stories. The wanderer/ adventurer stories are probably the most iconic, where Conan seems most like the barbarian popular cultural consciousness has cast him in. The royal leader stories are the most strange for me, as here Conan is usually well armored and in charge of armies while with many royal, elite underlings. The pirate stories also seemed strange, though sometimes the wanderer Conan is also the thief/rogue Conan, so it’s not to big of a career jump when properly considers. Obviously the setting changes with his careers, and it keeps it lively and interesting to see different areas of the hyborian world. There is a strong mythos and world building that is reminiscent of story building done by the greats in the field of fantasy writing and though I found the history section a bit much towards the end, for those that wish it this volume includes Howard’s pseudo history of his work’s world.
One could and indeed many have written volumes on the Conan stories so I won’t write to much more here other than the following: if you are looking for beautifully written adventure stories and can withstand a lot of racism and a little sexism, I’d strongly recommend this work. It is a classic for a reason.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Conan fan I was really excited to find this book. I was amazed to learn so much about the author and the history of Conan. I loved all the stories and could really imagine what it would have been like. If you are any type of a fan you should definitely give this one a read.

[James Atkison]

Classic reading

Going back into my childhood, Howard was my introduction to sword and sorcery fantasy. This is an excellent collection of his works, bring back to my first reading of many of these stories.

[Scribe Light · Rating 5 out of 5]

The uncut and unaltered original stories, as Howard intended. There are other collections which contain altered versions from the Lancer era of paperbacks, but this is the best for the price, imo.