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The Essential Conan
The Essential Conan is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 1998 by the Science Fiction Book Club. It collects the editions of the Conan books, edited by Karl Edward Wagner and published by Berkley Books in 1977. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines Weird Tales, The Phantagraph and The Howard Collector.
- GenresFantasy
643 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1998
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63 people want to read
About the author
Robert E. Howard
2,978 books2,640 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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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 17, 2018
Note, Nov. 16, 2018: When I originally wrote this review, I forgot to fill in the slot for to whom I would recommend this collection; so I've just edited it to rectify that!
The book description above gives a reliable factual description of this anthology's contents (it should --I wrote it! :-)), but I also wanted to add a brief subjective review. For readers unfamiliar with Howard, he was a major figure of the 1920s-30s pulp magazine era, and the father of sword-and-sorcery fantasy; barbarian warrior Conan is the prototypical character of this sub-genre. Conan is a rough-and-tough figure, often a soldier of fortune or a mercenary, sometimes simply an adventurer (and an ex-pirate), an exile from a homeland ravaged by a foreign invader, without family or close personal ties in most of the "Hyborian" world through which he wanders. Strong as an ox, shrewd, and a savage fighter when he needs to be, he's understandably interested in profit for himself and not a paragon of clean living; but he's also not brutal or selfish, and he's a man of honor who lives by a warrior code of fairness and loyalty, and who has his virtues (in one story, for instance, he lets a valuable jewel fall into oblivion, without batting an eye, in order to use both hands to save the life of a woman who's no particular friend of his).
Howard was an imaginative story teller and a master of purple prose, who brings his world of exotic cultures, beauty and danger to life with verve and vividness. In keeping with the literary standards of his era (which, for all the disparagement the term "pulp" comes in for today, were in some respects a lot higher than those of today) he writes without much bad language and without explicit or implied sex --though we sometimes gather that Conan wouldn't object to the latter. Violence, of course, is a different matter; Conan's stories have a lot of it and it can be grisly, but Conan is no more violent than he needs to be in standing up for himself and others. In a few places, Howard can use some racially insensitive or sexist language; but his stories don't have racist or sexist messages (indeed, Valeria in "Red Nails" is a more capable warrior than most men, and a worthy comrade in arms for Conan). All in all, the fiction in this volume is an outstanding example of its type, and would not fail to please any fan of the genre. An added bonus of this volume are the few reproduced drawings from Weird Tales that accompanied the original publications, and the bio-critical "Afterword" --though I occasionally disagree with some opinions in the latter!
The book description above gives a reliable factual description of this anthology's contents (it should --I wrote it! :-)), but I also wanted to add a brief subjective review. For readers unfamiliar with Howard, he was a major figure of the 1920s-30s pulp magazine era, and the father of sword-and-sorcery fantasy; barbarian warrior Conan is the prototypical character of this sub-genre. Conan is a rough-and-tough figure, often a soldier of fortune or a mercenary, sometimes simply an adventurer (and an ex-pirate), an exile from a homeland ravaged by a foreign invader, without family or close personal ties in most of the "Hyborian" world through which he wanders. Strong as an ox, shrewd, and a savage fighter when he needs to be, he's understandably interested in profit for himself and not a paragon of clean living; but he's also not brutal or selfish, and he's a man of honor who lives by a warrior code of fairness and loyalty, and who has his virtues (in one story, for instance, he lets a valuable jewel fall into oblivion, without batting an eye, in order to use both hands to save the life of a woman who's no particular friend of his).
Howard was an imaginative story teller and a master of purple prose, who brings his world of exotic cultures, beauty and danger to life with verve and vividness. In keeping with the literary standards of his era (which, for all the disparagement the term "pulp" comes in for today, were in some respects a lot higher than those of today) he writes without much bad language and without explicit or implied sex --though we sometimes gather that Conan wouldn't object to the latter. Violence, of course, is a different matter; Conan's stories have a lot of it and it can be grisly, but Conan is no more violent than he needs to be in standing up for himself and others. In a few places, Howard can use some racially insensitive or sexist language; but his stories don't have racist or sexist messages (indeed, Valeria in "Red Nails" is a more capable warrior than most men, and a worthy comrade in arms for Conan). All in all, the fiction in this volume is an outstanding example of its type, and would not fail to please any fan of the genre. An added bonus of this volume are the few reproduced drawings from Weird Tales that accompanied the original publications, and the bio-critical "Afterword" --though I occasionally disagree with some opinions in the latter!
September 13, 2015
I recommend reading anything and everything written by REH. I also recommend reading any Conan story available. REH defined the sword and sorcery genre and I don't think anyone (except maybe Fritz Leiber) has done it better.
June 7, 2016
A great Conan omnibus that feature 2 short story collections: "People of the Black Circle" and "The Red Nails"; and the only Conan novel: "The Hour of the Dragon". I started with the short stories and finished it up with the novel. The stories are great, my favorites being "A Witch Shall Be Born", "Beyond the Black River" and the novelette "The Red Nails" which features Valeria. These follow Conan as a thief, warrior, pirate and finally King. I definitely recommend this to anyone who's interested in the sword and sorcery genre. The novel is good but only has a few Conan battles, some of the narrative are generalized battle scenes with Conan absent from the action. Still worth reading and would make an exciting movie if you involve Conan in the more interesting scenes and expanding the female vampire incident.
May 31, 2016
i like conan, but in small doses. if not, he tends to be a little one dimensional and redundant. other than that, he will always be a classic bad ass and therefore, enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews