Finished off the first book, Conan, in what I’d call the definitive paperback series for Conan the Barbarian. Here’s the contents:
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Introduction (L. Sprague de Camp)
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Letter from Robert E. Howard to P. Schuyler Miller (Robert E. Howard)
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The Hyborian Age, Part 1 (Robert E. Howard)
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The Thing in the Crypt (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
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The Tower of the Elephant (Robert E. Howard)
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The Hall of the Dead (Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
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The God in the Bowl (Robert E. Howard)
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Rogues in the House (Robert E. Howard)
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The Hand of Nergal (Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter)
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The City of Skulls (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
I cheated a little in that I didn’t bother to read the Introduction, Letter from Robert E. Howard to P. Schuyler Miller, and The Hyborian Age, Part 1. Sorry if I remember the material wrong, but I wasn’t interested in reading extensive world building and fanboyish claptrap.
In this series of stories, Conan is pretty young, basically a teenager. He wanders away from Cimmeria into the more “civilized” western nations of the area. Most of his initial adventures are as a thief, but by the end of the book he’s become a trained mercenary. Interestingly in the first two-thirds of the book, the stories read with much more of a mystery feel than swords and sorcery.
As one can see, this is again a mix of Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. The straight Howard stuff is pure gold. The Tower of the Elephant, The God in the Bowl, and Rogues in the House are all well paced and written, if occasionally a bit flowery, reflecting the pulp heritage of the era. Special nod to Rogues in the House for inspiring the classic cover art by Frank Frazetta. Carter didn’t do too bad a job finishing up The Hand of Nergal. The other three stories are pretty pedestrian. At the moment, I can’t even remember the plot of The Hall of the Dead.
And just an observation, but I’m pretty sure every story up until The City of Skulls featured some form of the phrase, “Conan, naked but for a loincloth…” C’mon guys, break out a thesaurus once in a while.