Devil in Iron

The Dark Storm Conan Chronology #16

by Robert E. Howard

In "The Devil in Iron", Conan adventures on the uninhabited and almost forgotten island called Xapur the Fortified. On Xapur there are ancient ruins of some prehistoric kingdom that was long-since forgotten -- even before the conquering Hyporians had ridden southward. Few visitors come to Xapur, but here a trap is set for the mighty barbarian.Also included in this attractive volume is the exciting favorite of many Conan enthusiasts, "Shadows in Zamboula". Zamboula is a city whose inhabitants are accustomed to night- screams and strange horrors. It is here that Conan encounters cannibalism in the evil house of Aram Baksh.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Adventure, Sword and Sorcery, Classics, Pulp

155 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

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

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mighty warrior (Conan), an evil king, a beautiful scantily dressed girl, a monster... well, this is some serious pulp fiction in a land of fantasy. Oh Mitra. Typical Conan story, but definitely not one of the very best. Nice cover though. Recommended for Conan and Howard fans!

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning: it might be a slightly very good idea NOT to read this review thing, but rather the story it’s supposed to be about. Because there’s a very moderate chance the latter is a little much shorter and stuff. You’re welcome.

So here we have my Barbarian Paramour playing steppes robber leading a merry bunch of fleeing criminals, broken men, escaped slaves and deserting soldiers well-intentioned kozaks, and causing the evil benevolent local overlord (aka He Who Laughs Sardonically) many a brain-splitting headache much blissful joy and cheerful glee. The guy (who’s actually called Jehungir, if you must know. No I didn’t say gesundheit, I said Jehungir *eyeroll*) loves my boyfriend so much that he decides to set a cunningly villainous trap host a party in his honor. Most charming of him, is it not? He even goes as far as forcing inviting one of his favorite slaves friends, Olivia of the Marvelous Contours (OotMC™), to play bait and lure Conan away from his camp the party so that she will keep Conan company and stuff. (He knows of Conan’s “keen relish for women and strong drink,” you see.) Now that’s what I call selfless generosity!

Olivia (aka The Dazzling Vision of Loveliness) and her substantial (if scantily clad) figure are obviously thrilled at the thought of “playing trollop for a barbarian” entertaining my boyfriend. And who wouldn’t? He is a Super Extra Hot and Refined Steppe Robber (SEHRSR™) after all. Anyway, so everything is set up beautifully and then we’re going to fast forward a little bit otherwise we’ll still be here next year Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Stuff (S⁴) happens.



The Dazzling Vision of Loveliness, being slightly rebellious bored and stuff, decides to escape the shrimp out of this dump leave the party prematurely, so my Cimmerian Sweetie Pie very logically takes his “razor-edged faculties and savage wit” and sets off to rescue search for her. (He didn’t have the time to ask her on a date before she left the party, you see.) More S⁴ happens, and Conan suddenly finds himself confronted to “impossible negations of insanity.” (Yay!) There are ruins that were but are no more then again maybe not and/or vice-versa perhaps, and yucky green stuff everywhere (the local cleaning crew must be on strike or something, methinks).

Then a 95% naked lightly clothed Chick of the Supple Limbs and Smooth Bosom (CotSLaSB™) appears out of nowhere and starts shamelessly coming on to my boyfriend. Which is slightly outrageous, if you ask me.

“You are no dream. You are strong. Let us live while we can. Love me!”

Whoa whoa whoa there, CotSLaSB™! Hands off my Barbarian Dumpling! Being high as a barnacle on top quality acid is no excuse and stuff, so back the fish off and stuff or else…



Okay, so after this delightful diversion, Conan is off to investigate further, and suddenly it’s all instinctive repulsion, horror, revulsion and fear (aka Good Times). Then he finds himself ensorcelled by a terrifying, belling resonance (aka More Good Times):

“His reason staggered. All certainty and sanity were swept away, leaving a shadowy universe through which stole hooded figures of grisly potentialities.”

(Woo-hoo! Party time and stuff.)

Luckily enough, an unknown chick in distress (who might or might not be The Dazzling Vision of Loveliness) starts sobbing hysterically in a most womanly fashion, thus causing my boyfriend to quite miraculously shake off the ensorcellation and stuff. And everything is fine and dandy ever after. Well. More or less. I mean, you kinda sorta know everything is not exactly fine and dandy when part-time zombies start popping out everywhere, a nefarious dude who has a thing for crying out “like the dirging of a great bell” (pretty sure there’s a pill for that) shows up, and Conan’s shoulder-length hair begins to lift on his scalp.



Such a hot babe, my Barbarian!

Ensues a “fierce writhing and intertwining of limbs and bodies” (not the fun kind), after which my boyfriend experiences the “ultimate madness of blasphemed nature” (this is much more entertaining than going to Disneyland, methinks). But he is not that easily impressed, and quickly decides to throw one of his unexpected missiles at his foe. This doesn’t work as well here as it did in previous adventures, though, and he has to resort to using tapestries as lethal weapons (because he’s resourceful like that). Then more S⁴ happens, and low and behold, who do we have here?! None other than Olivia of the Marvelous Contours! Yay and stuff! Well almost yay and stuff because then there’s some desperation and a delicious sense of impending doom, but my boyfriend starts waving his scimitar around for a bit, goes all “grim peril begone and stuff!” and…



My Cimmerian Paramour becomes his exuberant self again, “laughs with undiminished zest,” drinks the nectar of The Dazzling Vision of Loveliness’ lips with all his unrestrained passion, laughs again, makes a Super Witty Barbarian Comeback (SWBC™) or two, laughs again (he’s such a jovial sort, my Conan!), and finally goes on his merry scrumptiously savage way with Olivia (aka the Newly Anointed Squeeze of the Moment) and stuff.

The end and stuff.



[Pre-review nonsense]

Now that's what I call a Most Fitting Conan Cover (MFCC™)! My loincloth-obsessed Cimmerian Paramour hacking at a wild, savage (and hopefully evil) beast with his scimitar, while a Scantily Clad Hot Babe Damsel in Distress of the Supple Lithe Limbs (SCHBDiDotSLL™) lies wantonly nonchalantly at his feet! None of that Xuthal of the Dusk or Rogues in the House Boringly Boring Crappiness (B²C™) to be had here! So yay and stuff! Let's celebrate and stuff!



Full review to come and stuff.

· Introduction to the world: The Hyborian Age ★★★★
· Main review: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian ★★★★
· Book 2: The Bloody Crown of Conan ★★★★
· Book 3: The Conquering Sword of Conan ★★★★

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conan's enemies send the beautiful Octavia to seduce him, so they can move in and kill him. But Conan finds other worldly enemies waiting for him on the island where Octavia waits for him. This story was full of action. Howard's favorite other worldly being - the forty foot serpent makes an appearance, yet again. Not the best Conan story.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conan is tricked into pursuing a girl to an island. On this island there are ruins of a fortress which are haunted by an ancient demon.


The concept of this story definitely feels like a classic Conan story. And the execution of the plot is okay, there’s definitely some gripping action scenes to find here. Still, didn’t really enjoy this one as much as I have other Conan stories.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another ancient ruins on an island story reminiscent of "Shadows in the Moonlight", I always get the two confused but I think it's a slight improvement over that tale... or maybe the two combined would be the best version of the story.

Conan chases a girl onto the island baited into a trap by the governor of Turan meanwhile a fisherman has awakened an ancient demon that resurrects the ancient fortress.

Comics:
Savage Sword 15
Darkhorse Conan the Slayer 8-11

[Seth Skorkowsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been on a Conan kick the past week and have been pounding through the Librivox audio library of Howard's classics.

Interesting monsters and world-building. The iron golem (for lack of a better term) was a fun concept, but the story itself felt more backseat than the other Conan adventures, and more of a means for Howard to show off some of the cool ideas. Definitely worth the read if you enjoy Conan, but it wouldn't be the first story I'd recommend to introduce a new reader to him.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our story kicks off with a lost scoundrel coming across a forgotten temple in a remote island forest. Then we jump over to a conversation elsewhere between two big-shots who use a beautiful woman to trick Conan the Barbarian into visiting that same island.

As we make our way through this jungle and temple with Conan and the sneaky woman by his side, we encounter a few dangerous foes, one incredibly dangerous foe, some crafty work from Conan himself, and a fantastic conclusion.

"The Devil in Iron" (1934) is my first attempt at a Conan the Barbarian short story and it is included in the Otto Penzler-edited "the Big Book of Adventure Stories" that I am working my way through. I loved this short and will be keeping an eye out for more of these.

"The Devil in Iron" is also the tenth tale in the "Conan: Reaver, Mercenary, Conqueror, King, Cimmerian: The Collected Adventures of the World's Greatest Barbarian" collection published by Castenea.

Verdict: A fun adventure with a great character

Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Conan never gets old...

[Johnny Bahama · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fella who’s dating a dynamite blonde woman, she’d be the one slaying the giant metal man and the erotically long snake.... but yeah whatever Conan.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining reading 📘

I read this as part of the Conan: The Barbarian complete collection in 2018

Robert E. Howard is one of my favortite authors. I started reading the Conan paper back novels in the 1960s. I would highly recommended this novel and author to reads of action novels. 2018

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a Re-read. I read it in Vol. 1 of the three volume Del Rey collection. I read it in anticipation of reading Scott Oden’s Conan short story from Titan Books.

[Andrés Iglesias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otra aventura rápida y divertida. Y de nuevo muy Lovecraftiana. Entretenida.

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I occasionally peruse Project Gutenberg "shelves" to see what's out there. I was looking over the science fiction section when I found The Devil in Iron by Robert E. Howard. It seemed to be pretty popular and though I had never heard of the book or the author before I gave it a shot.

So I'm reading along and even though it qualifies as science fiction because it takes place on another world, it is a sword and sorcery type story. Not my usual genera, but it wasn't too long and I occasionally like to read "a blast from the past" such as this. Pretty soon the characters start talking about a barbarian, ok. Then we find out the barbarian's name is Conan! I had stumbled on an early "Conan the Barbarian" story. I didn't even know the movies had started out as short stories and books.

The novelette is a typical 1930's story with a noble female character who faints at the drop of a hat, disobeys orders and endangers others, yet defends her honor at all costs.

This is a must read for Conan fans and fans of early 20th century fiction or just to reflect on how thankful we can be that things have changed.

[JoeK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've probably read this one before, but I couldn't remember, and since it was part of an anthology, I thought I'd read it again. You tend to forget what a good writer Robert E. Howard was. There's a reason why his admirers rescued his work from the clutches of history. Just his (proper) use of words puts him head and shoulders above the average writer of his time. Many pulp writers overcame their poor vocabularies after they graduated from the pulps, but Howard was already there. I have read some execrable early work by famous writers, but I never ran into that with the Conan series, although I can't speak to a lot of other work Howard did for other pulps.
Anyway, this is a pretty simple story about Conan trying to get a girl he wants from a haunted island, fighting both monsters on the fortress and some local notable who want him dead for organizing raids on the villages and caravans. It wouldn't even be that memorable, except for its novelty at the time it was published, and again, for Howard's word-smithing.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conan leads a band of raiders that harry the mighty kingdom of Turan. Jehungir Agha, lord of Khawarizm and keeper of the coastal border is responsible for stopping them.

His wily counsellor, Ghaznavi, must have read some of the previous chronicles and thinks he knows how to get to the barbarian - beautiful women and strong drink.

Using a beautiful aristocratic slave girl as bait, especially chosen for her 'vitality and substantial figure', the island of Xapur becomes the scene of a deadly trap for Conan after the resurrection of a thousand year old city and its being from the Abyss, Khosatral Khel.

The Devil in Iron is an uneven addition to the chronicles, where some sloppy plotting is (almost) redeemed by a terrific full-throttled finale.

[Seth Kenlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A trap is set for Conan by a local ruler named Agha. Conan is lured to the island of Zapur, and the story gets wild.

If you like lost cities and elder gods and mystery, then this is a great Conan story for you. Interestingly, it's not my favourite, maybe because Conan doesn't get *that* much screen time. He doesn't even make an appearance, I think, til Chapter 4. That would be alright if the supporting cast was interesting but they're not, really, so all in all this one is light on Conan. It could make for a pretty good basis of an RPG scenario, maybe.

Not a bad story, just not the best of the original Robert E Howard ones.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 3 out of 5]

While pursuing an enslaved princess, Conan is led into a trap on a seemingly abandoned island. On this island, Conan discovers a slumbered, resurrected city which is watched over by an ancient evil. It reads like several of the older stories stitched together with a few unrealized new ideas. Not bad, but it feels a bit uninspired at times and doesn’t bring anything new to the expanding universe. Just like Queen of the Black Coast, the villain doesn’t offer much either and the ending after Conan saves the girl feels awkward because he forces herself on her a bit too hard. She takes a liking to Conan, but it still feels a bit cringy.

[Little Timmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Robert E. Howard is my all time favorite writer, but for many years much of his work was heavily edited. This is another of the heavily edited collections of Robert E. Howard's stories. I am a purist when it comes to a writers works. I know some of these stories are no longer PC but they should be read as Howard wrote them and understood that he wrote in another time period. Don't read this book unless you just can't find any others of Howard's unedited books to read. Message me if you need a list of what is good from this awesome fantasy and action writer.

[Steve Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conan saves the girl from evil...classic Conan. However at the end he forces himself on her, and she resists, unwilling. In what would be amHollywood trope, he over powers her and she eventually melts in his arms.

It doesn’t work that way in real life, of course. Women have never gone for that. Such behavior would get you arrested today, and rightly so.

Still a fun and well written read in spite of that. Howard was a master of English. I learn at least one new word with each of his stories.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although some parts of the story seemed to me to be a bit irrelevant and unclear, I did enjoy it and was quite surprised when no ape-like creature showed up. Despite the missing ape it was still recognizable as a classic Conan story by the characteristics that where present in abundance. Including a giant snake and Conan carrying a sobbing girl under one arm while running at full speed, in the end 'crushing her to his mighty chest, covering her lips with fierce kisses'.

[Luana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like a bit of a Conan's greatest hits: ancient evil awakened, bureaucrat human villain, exploring ruins with death traps and a monster or two, ... well, Howard's got dat energy tho so I don't really mind. I think he was trying to suggest that this story's damsel, Octavia, was very busty/buxom but his returning use of the word "big" just made me picture a pretty fat girl which made for the most original part of this story.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick listen on librivox whi Co was great. This is the first Conan story I’ve listened to and I have to say I love how action packed it is for such a short story (less than 3hrs). Yeah it might have the damsel in distress thing going on but I actually like that and appreciate a capable man coming to the rescue! I would listen to another one.

[Tonari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bello, di sicuro superiore a molti altri racconti di Conan di Howard.
Certo, i motivi sono sempre quelli, ma Conan è un po' meno invincibile del solito, e il mistero che circonda la città di Dagonia è stimolante. Dagonia, uhm dove ho già sentito questo nome? Mah.
C'è una bella tensione tra le righe, e la prosa è cesellata in maniera ancora più precisa ed efficace del solito.

[Mark Tallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another Conan story that I really enjoyed. I'm often surprised by how much depth there is to the Conan stories that Robert E. Howard wrote. The stories are not just hack and slash tales, there is a mythology there, world building etc. The Devil in Iron is a strong 3.5 out of 5 for me, 4 stars because of the rating system available on Goodreads.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

devil in iron
Another fantasy adventure Conan the Barbarian yarn by Robert E. Howard.

In this one, Conan and his band of outlaws have been raiding the country side when an elaborate plan is made to capture him by luring him to an island using an attractive slave girl. The plan works, however on the island they encounter an "iron human" who has resurrected the city by magic.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conan is the leader of a band of raiders. His enemies try to catch him in a trap, but the appearance of a mysterious city in the jungle throws everyone's plans sideways. The creepiness of the city and its inhabitants carries the story.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bandleader seeks to lure Conan to a deserted island to kill him using a beautiful girl as bait.
Doesn't quite work out the way he planned as the island is not as deserted as he thought it was

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
https://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/Ro...

http://www.howardandrewjones.com/swor...

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

My copy of this is published by Grosset and Dunlap, and is a recreation of the Donald Grant editions. This one has "The Devil in Iron" and "Shadows in Zamboula," both Conan stories.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this from the perspective on Conan's enemies.
"Hey. he likes girls, let's use the cute slave girl as a trap."
And of course it blows up in their face.