Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the short story...

Rogues in the House by Robert E. Howard (1934)

From the anthology The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard. See The Coming of Conan the Cimerian discussion hub for more info on the anthology and pointers to discussion of its other stories.

I enjoyed this one a little better than the three prior stories. Conan gets spring from jail and takes revenge on the prostitute who turned him in (made me think of Marion Barry's 1990 crack cocaine bust, obviously not the basis for this story) then turns his attention to helping an aristocrat slay "the Red Priest" who is a substitute for "evil magician" in this story. There's a few plot twists that kept this one interesting. Not the strongest offering overall but an improvement over the three stories immediately proceeding it in this collection.

Randy wrote: "I enjoyed this one a little better than the three prior stories. Conan gets spring from jail and takes revenge on the prostitute who turned him in..."

I liked it, too.

What crime against civilization Conan committed to get tossed in jail? Apparently he killed a police informer. Howard is good at joining Conan in medias res.


Randy wrote: "turns his attention to helping an aristocrat slay "the Red Priest" who is a substitute for "evil magician" in this story. ..."

The priest, Nabonidus, is a bit of technologist instead of a magician. He's invented the periscope, a gas trap, and a variety of other infernal devices.

Worth noting the nobleman, Murilo, who is the political opponent of the priest, is just as corrupt. Murilo's only virtue is having the foresight to hire Conan (with a jailbreak as the price.) Cue "It's Good to Have Jayne Conan on Your Side". :)

I expected the ending (view spoiler)[in which both Murilo & Nabonidus ended up dead, both examples of the corrupting influence of civilization; but it seems Howard disagrees. I also wondered it Conan would reach an accommodation with Thak, the semi-evolved ape Nabonidus had enslaved. You'd think if Howard is in favor of the unspoiled savage as is claimed, Thak would be a purer savage than Conan, or at least his equal. (hide spoiler)].

LOL at "It's Good to Have Jayne on Your Side" - a quick Google search got me to the YouTube video. Very funny.

I agree with you about the spoiler-y ending bit. Also I agree about the introduction of Conan "in media res" which I admit I had to look up. I noticed throughout the collection that Howard had the most interesting ways of dropping Conan into the story, quite often not at the beginning. And when Conan was at the beginning, usually the story had already started without us.

This one didn't really do it for me, felt like Howard had run out of ideas and just snatched elements from his previous stories and mashed them together. And I was just baffled by point of the whole 'go back and knock off the prostitute' section, it had nothing to do with the plot.