I read every Conan story by Robert E Howard. Let's talk about them.
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- This was a fun ride. If you want to read the stories they can found at this link.
(the link broke and I can't fix it. You can find them all by searching for the story title on Google and add "project gutenberg")
The rest can be found by searching online for the title of the story and Project Gutenberg Australia.
#books #conan #robertehoward #fantasy #reading #bookrecommendations #bookreview - Zábava
Conan is the best example of how 'thief' need not be it's own RPG class. Honestly, Conan is a great example of skill based characters over class/job bases characters.
You are 100% correct. I play thieves and dex based fighters as if I'm Conan.
When they first statted up Conan in D&D, he was both a high level Thief and a high level Fighting-Man. The Barbarian class _allegedly_ inspired by him doesn't resemble him in behavior or ability, and only vaguely resembles the movie version in appearance (it's also in my bottom 3-4 for core book base classes for all editions where it exists).
Yes, I think skill-based systems are generally better even for high fantasy.
Yeah, when I was much younger I remember putting together Conan as a GURPS (point and skill based system) character and having it work pretty well. I don't think doing Conan in D&D can really reflect him nearly as well. He was worth a LOT of points, because ALL his physical stats were sky-high. One thing people who don't read Conan tend to miss is that although yes, he was really, really strong his actual swordfighting style tended to be very Dex-based and mobile.
Hobo Murderer the best title ever!!
Well the reason conan doesnt fit into a class system is that a class system is based on the idea of each character fulfilling a specialized role in a party. Conan is a lone wolf who is superlatively awesome at everything. And not even just big strong tough guy stuff but he's a fucking genius as well. In Red Nails he finds an old scroll in a cave written in a dead language no scholar has ever been able to translate, and he reads it just by thinking real hard. In the next chapter he swims up a river with a sword clenched between his teeth.
Conan is a genius bruiser who uses his brain as much as he uses his brawn. And, contrary to popular depictions, he wears clothes and armor.
I like how he wears heavy armor in Hour of the Dragon. He is a tank!
And he didn’t leave home to revenge his family, he wanted to have fun. It reduced his character to a trope,” You killed my fatha “ bs.
Haha he's not a genius at all, what the? He's just not the moron that barbarians were typically depicted as in the second half of the century. If anything the stories go to equate braininess with corrupt ambition and put more value on simplicity. Everyone that actually tries to use their head in the franchise ends up dying, usually horribly.
@@ULTRAOutdoorsman - He speaks several languages, and in one story used his knowledge of a writing system and a language to translate an ancient scroll. REH created a number of genius bruisers, of which Conan and Kull are two.
@@raydrexler5868- There's a need to be epic, or even EPIC, in movies. The hero can't be on the outs with their people (Kull), or in search of adventure (Solomon Kane, Conan), or just doing their job. There has to be an 'interesting' origin story.
When it comes to fantasy, one thing makes the Conan stories particularly interesting: there's zero Tolkien influence, as Howard died before the publication of the Hobbit.
Of course, this goes for other older stuff as well.
That is a major reason I love Conan stories.
My favorite pre-Tolkien novel is The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson. It was published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring.
The Broken Sword shares of a lot the same influences as Tolkien but it is very adult, very brutal, and very well written. It is like the anti-Lord of the Rings. I love it.
I hear Tolkien admired Conan stories, when he usually had pretty harsh words for almost any other fantasy.
that's a really cool observation. I had just been thinking about the world that these stories were written in versus later writers/series.
He was more influenced by his friend and pen-pal HP Lovecraft. Howard, I mean.
It's one reason I find it irksome when someone proclaims Tolkien invented the fantasy genre. Tolkienesque work is but one part of fantasy, for the rest, our heroes in pulp lead the way.
Aside from being the greatest murder hobo of all time, he may have also been the first and only Hyborian age pulp detective.
I totally agree.
"Conan detective stories" would have been the greatest run of pulp stories ever!
@@JosephReadsBooks Now I will watch the anime "Detective Conan" never the same...Conan is a great second name.
At least the Watson in one. I can't remember the entire plot, but one of the locals correctly deduced that he couldn't have committed a specific bit of mayhem because no human could have done it.
I have to dig out my collections.
My favorite Conan the Barbarian moment (maybe my favorite moment in any book) is when he faces off against a guy who's famous for strangling people; so he beats him by flexing his neck so hard he can't be strangled.
He also strangles the guy. And before they start, the guy is talking about how unstoppable he is, how he practiced from a child starting from ducks and working his way up to humans, and Conan out-strangles him and goes "Try wringing the neck of a Cimmerian bull!"
Sir would enjoy a movie called "the barbarians" hmmmfhmh!!
Baal Pteor
shadows in zamboula
Well, he beats him by breaking his fucking back, the quote about "muscles like rotted string" was basically just him saying that all the dude's kills were cheap shots and he'd never fought a worthy opponent, he didn't just Gaston his way out.
One thing I liked about the Schwarzenegger portrayal of Conan was his accent. All throughout Howard's tales of Conan, the hero is in far off lands speaking with people in different languages. He is never heard, not once, speaking in his native tongue. Whatever dialect he spoke he would have been thick accented as he pronounced words that were sometimes new to him.
That's a good point. I never thought about it like that.
But his eyes were supposed to be blue! Seriously, the eye color and the fact that he was super hairy was mentioned in practically every story. I remember being so upset that they chose Schwarzenegger, because his eyes were brown. I was such a nerd…. They should have picked Roddy Piper. 😂 (Kidding)
Just remember being at the theater and seeing Arnold as Conan and thinking, wow, that is Conan!
@@H457ur- I don't remember him being hairy, but he did have long hair.
Yeah, Conan has the 'black Celtic' coloring. Still, Schwarzenegger is more ethnically appropriate than Momoa, given that Cimmerians were proto-Celts, and Celtic peoples lived near what is now Austria (if memory serves).
Your murder hobo is my "self-sufficient."
Keep in mind that while it is a fantasy setting, Conan's world is really more like a noir ... a hardboiled man in a corrupt world where nearly everybody lies and stabs each other in the back. Conan's not stealing from the weak or the poor. He's not killing people just because he can. You can be alone with him, and he won't just straight murk you and take your stuff.
Yeah... that's a murderhobo within context. It came about as a slur during 3/3.5 edition of D&D against the older players who all played "murderhobos" since that's was 1st & 2nd edition were... hell, experience earned used to be directly tied into the Gold Piece value of loot you got. The difference between Roll Players & Role Players... like how 4th & 5th edition D&D is played is a foreign concept to me. D&D was for math nerds but now it's for theater geeks... whereas they used to play White Wolf systems for that.
@@nationalsocialism3504 I understand what's meant by "muderhobo." That's what a lot of games push players to be. You get your rewards for killing as many critters as possible, and you scrounge everything you can carry to sell for gold, and there's no consequences.
Conan's not that. I get that a lot of people find the description funny, but he's a pulp hero with a sword.
I agree, now Kane would be a complete different ball game
“stab each other in the back” quite literally!
I love your description of hyboria
Pelias the Wizard in The Scalrlet Citadel is the most underrated Wizard in fiction ever. Especially when you realize that he predates Gandalf. While imprisoned, he creates zombies to kill the guards and summons a horrible bat monster at will; I wish he was talked about more.
He is super cool!
Pelias just keeps going back and forth between doing comically evil magic and telling Conan "You seem cool, we should hang out." and I don't know if its hilarious on purpose or not but its definitely hilarious.
And foreshadowed/ inspired a similar Elric Villian
In an issue of the Dark Horse Conan comic they have Pelias, instead of having a horse pulling his cart, he has the evil Citadel wizard in the traces with his severed head hung out in front of him. He keeps moving forward trying to get his head and Pelias drives the cart. Absolutely hilarious.
@@johnkeenan1829 Sounds about right.
Early on in DnD, there was only the Fighting Man, the Magic User and the Cleric. The Fighting Man is thief and warrior. Conan is definitely that.
You are 100% correct. Conan the Fighting Man 😎
And before publishing, there was only Fighting Man and Magic User. Cleric was one player's custom class to hard counter another player whose Fighting Man had successfully become a vampire, explicitly inspired by Van Helsing in abilities and some Templar aesthetics were put on over the top to fit the medieval theme.
Beyond the Black River is, to me, Howard’s pinnacle for Conan. Conan being witnessed from someone else’s POV is incredibly fun to witness, then seeing Balthus and Conan running through the forest desperately trying to outrun an army of Picts… chefs kiss. It ls the story I’ve reread most from Howard. I also really enjoyed Tower of the Elephant for the same reasons you mentioned, as well as The Slithering Shadow purely because Conan is fed up protecting someone and ends up duking it out with a demon.
Beyond the Black River is very good. I think about it a lot.
Top Conan moment for me has to be killing a monologue-prone dictator with a chair - while the dude was mid-villain speech. That's where the story *starts*, which just tells you everything you need to know. "Our hero killed a monologuing villain with a chair. Now see how he escapes the dungeon he was thrown into as punishment!"
"Conan is the greatest murder hobo who has ever lived" is going to live rent free in my head for months.
Welcome to the club 😂. When I thought of it I knew I needed to let the world know!
Second is Guts, i guess
The first might be genghis khan depending on how you define hobo
@@ktk44man Attila =)
Muderhobo, that's a new one for me. Can't wait to discover more of Conan.
You were actually correct with the Lovecraft thing
Howard and Lovecraft were good friends irl and would often reference each others works ,most notably the book Unspeakable Cults is in both works, to the point some people claim they could be canon to one another
I always assumed that the two and Clark Ashton Smith all wrote the same universe.
@@Lampoluke Lovecraft corresponded with a lot of other authors and allowed them to build off of his 'universe' and would incorporate their ideas back into his own stories.
@@Lampoluke what we call the broader Cthulhu Mythos is a set of rather strong cultural ideas that have been floating around fiction since the 19th century, with quite a few writers communicating and building off one another. Try not to think about how much this resembles some of the things in such stories. Carcosa for instance was first mentioned in 1886.
@@petoperceptum yeah but The Yellow Sign is not part of the mythos, it is utterly different from the worldbuilding, it was written outside the circle, and more importantly the part that was put into the mythos is a bastardization made by Derleth I believe.
Edit: sorry I went full nerd. I generally like to think at least REH and HPL and CAS to be the more canon ones, then the latter additions I just go with what I vibe with. Hounds of Tindalos may be my favourite Cosmic Horror tale (with the Yellow Sign), but I don't think it fits in the mythos, despite the fact that everyone else does.
@@Lampoluke don't apologise for being a nerd, though to say that the ideas of the Mythos are something unique to Lovecraft's writing is to ignore his place in a larger literary concept that did not start with him, even if he most famously formed much of what we associate with it today.
My wife asked me how I managed to claw my way out of a serious and prolonged period of mental distress.
Conan audio books helped, a lot. He remains to this day, a hugely inspiring character, to me, and Robert E. Howard was an unalloyed genius.
I'm glad his Conan stories helped you out that much!
I agree that he was a genius.
I certainly appreciated the nuance and skill of Conan from the stories. But some of my favourite parts was when he just went full Man-Mode on a thing and outmuscled something. I forget which story it is but he runs into the royal strangler who tries to choke him to death. And instead of doing anything clever, Conan just out-strangles him back, basically racing this guy to see who runs out of breath first. It's awesome.
Also Conan is a low-key sociopath and I'm all about it.
Maneaters of/Shadows in Zamboula
Once upon a time I finished reading one of the books somewhere in the middle of the Wheel of Time series, the one that decided me to give up on it. Needing an antidote, I went and read the Conan novella "The People of the Black Circle". It was lots of fun, and what I noticed was that ten times as much stuff happened in 90 pages of Conan than in 800 pages or whatever of that Wheel of Time book. Modern fantasy writers do a lot of stuff well, but they could use some reminders about pace.
I totally agree. Glen Cook, one of my favorite authors, wrote an 8 book epic fantasy series that is smaller than the the first two books in any modern fantasy series.
It was refreshing to read something that short. It didn't feel like it was lacking anything.
A lot of fiction has this problem IMO. Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite sci-fi book for the same reason.
I miss Del Rey, he was a hard nosed editor who did not let authors do whatever they want, thus more focused books.
I tried to read WoT 3different times in my life. I always got bogged down in book 6. The team was split up (worse than usual), Rand had hit full Emo phase, he was dealing with the mundane world politics, all of it very important but very fucking boring. First time I ever used an audiobook. I'd listen to about 90 minutes a night while I was alone at work and I really got into it. Even the boring stuff wasn't bad because if I zoned out for a minute I still heard the important shit and was able to follow along with it feeling like a slog. Sorry now my comment is becoming Jordanesque. I'll just sign off with AUDIOBOOKS RULE!
Jordan got very meandering as he got sicker though he got some purpose back in his last book as the end was drawing nearer... Sanderson finished off the series amazingly though, so it's worth it to power through that slog in the middle. (Personally, I'm hoping that Sanderson will finish ASOIAF after GRRM dies... he has the SciFi background to do that post post-apocalyptic world justice which the shows have butchered into being straight Fantasy.)
My favorite part of the Howard Conan stories was that they were set at all stages of his life, and he has a noticeably different attitude in stories when he was young versus stories when he was more mature.
I agree. That is why I like reading them I'm publication order. You get to jump around his life and see him at different stages.
He learned from experience. Which likely made him the best king Aquilonia had in generations.
My favorite Conan story was "Beyond the Black River", I was impressed by Howards writing because he focused on Balthus story.
That one is great.
I think that and Treasure Of Tranicos are the glaring omissions. Surveying the site of Balthus/Slasher's last stand is so wrenching.
I discovered Conan at twelve years old when my mate bought a Savage Sword of Conan comic. I'd never heard of him up till then. I loved it! Borrowed the comic so often Dave ended up just giving it to me😊. Then I found out there were actual books about Conan - Fast forward to today, I'm 57 and I still love anything Conan. I've read and re-read most of the stories about him (all that I could find over the years) and I've enjoyed almost all of it, but Robert Howard's originals stand out as the best by far - there's a particular 'feel' to them. That's the only way I can describe it.
On the Lovecraft thing: Howard and HPL were correspondents and did include little bits of one another's 'Lore' in their stories.
Keep on reading and enjoying, my friends - this stuff is gold!
I started reading Conan in my late 20s. I was mad at myself for not starting sooner. He is truly special.
Thanks for watching!
@@JosephReadsBooks - a pleasure. Thanx for posting.
Single greatest comic book of all time. SSOC was my childhood
I was ,12 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Waiting for my Dad to pick me up from the Saenger theater in Gulfport. I would go to the news stand and browse. There was a paperback featuring a huge dude, leaning on a battle-axe stop a bunch of dead guys...with a nearly naked woman wrapped around his thigh. Next trip, I bought the book and skipped the movie. 58 years ago. Been hooked for life.
That's a pretty good list. My personal picks are as follows:
1. "Queen of the Black Coast". (I consider it the quintessential Conan story.)
2. "The Tower of the Elephant". (A proper sword-and-sorcery dungeon crawl that really expands the world.)
3. "The God in the Bowl". (A murder mystery in a museum. Enough said.)
4. "Rogues in the House". (A jail-brake turned political thriller.)
5. "The Phoenix on the Sword". (The OG Conan story.)
6. "Red Nails". (Conan fights a dragon wand gets into a gang-war with his maybe-one-day girlfriend.)
7. "The Frost Giant's Daughter". (Turns out Valkyries are terrible.)
8. "The Pool of the Black One". (Another pirate tale, this one has my favorite opening to a Conan story ever.)
I understand I have a pretty substantial list, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for classic, weird sword-and-sorcery and having read "Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus" by Finn J. D. John AND "Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery" by Brian Murphy, I strongly believe his best work was whenever he stuck to the 7 points Murphy outlines in Chapter One "What is Sword-and-Sorcery?" while deviating from the standard formula John points out as the "middle period" of Conan that saw him take off in Weird Tales. Most content creators can attest to this, stagnation kills.
I'm going to look into that Bryan Murphy book. That sounds interesting.
@@JosephReadsBooks It's really good. If you're looking for an academic book on Sword-and-Sorcery it does exactly that, citations, quotes, and all. (or et. all). Also if you're looking for more S&S authors or stories to read, it's a solid contender for a genre canon with its "A Probable Timeline Of Sword-And-Sorcery" list. That can keep you going for quite a while.
@@harrybriggs2586 I appreciate the recommendation!
Thanks for the recommendation of Brian Murphys book, I picked it up!
Yer not a sucker, you are a connoisseur
The People of the Black Circle is one of my favorite stories by Robert E. Howard.
The one I recommend to any pretentious person who says "Conan is bad and aged terribly" and all that usual stuff.
Rogues in the House and The Devil in Iron are two underrated ones that I personally enjoy.
This is the great thing about Robert E Howard and Conan.
I can't argue with those choices because they are fantastic. Almost all of the stories are prime candidates for "best story".
The "Three Musketeers of *_Weird Tales"_* (Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith) were none of them very happy men, but Howard seems to have been the most tortured soul of all. When he killed himself after his mother's death, it appears to have been not so much that he couldn't bear to go on without her but that with her safely dead he was without obligations and was finally free to make an exit.
I knew about that and it is heartbreaking.
I spent the winter months listening to the anthology while playing Conan Exiles. 10/10 experience, will probably do it again.
Now that is what I call total immersion!
Conan as Murder-Hobo! Well now I’ve heard everything!
Vagrancy just makes the pulp hero business easier 😂
"His mighty sinews flexed and his sword swung in a glittering arc, a crimson line appeared on the throat of his foe". A Jack Reacher for yesteryear.
I'm reading Reacher novels right now and you are spot on!
I owned all the original Conan books when I was a teenager, with all the original Frazetta artwork. Classic!
What I love about the Conan world is the low fantasy. Magic is "magic" in that world. In countless fantasy stories, magic is so common that it isn't really special anymore. Not in Conan
Fun fact; Robert E Howard and HP Lovecraft were buddies and shared a pantheon of elder gods in their stories. Also, while their attitudes towards racism were pretty bad, it was Howard who ended up pulling up Lovecraft over sexism which then caused Howard to review his own views on general. The Conan stories were not written in chronological order but you can tell the stories written after his epiphany because the bad guys weren't always dark skinned and he wrote more women characters as being able to be strong and independent on their own rights without needing men.
Wow, you exude so much joy talking about these stories you make me want to read that collection all over again! Conan the Murderhobo is the greatest description of him I've ever come across, ha. The thing I was most shocked about with the entire collection is just how well it stands up to the test of time - it's still extremely entertaining! And after reading it, it made me wonder if the people writing the movies based on him have ever even read a one of the stories. He was much more than the raging barbarian I was expecting based on those.
Thanks!
I agree with you 100%.
When it comes to Hollywood, based on the current evidence, I don't think they know how to read 😂.
I’m a huge Howard fan, and fan of Conan in particular! Since you asked for some favorites other than than what you listed (Red Nails and the Phoenix on the Sword being particular favorites) I am definitely going to say the one that gets the least amount of attention but is definitely my other favorite: Wolves at the Border. Conan isn’t the main character in this one but it is a great bit of storytelling and trying to show a different MC to the titular Murderhobo. The story follows a young man named Gault who is a Ranger/Scout and all around badass in his own right as he tries to protect his homeland from an invasion of a savage, bloodthirsty, and brutal enemy. Knowing that his people are facing a genocide if he fails, Gault takes guerilla warfare to an extreme realizing that in order to win he has to be smarter, better and more ruthless than those who threaten his home. It really is a terrific story and a great dessert type of story if your meal has been of the well muscled Cimmerian variety!
Side note: If I were using D&D 5e to make Conan, he’d have the Outlander Background, definitely a very lucky rolled ability score character, with maybe a single level of Barbarian (mainly for the no armor and the rage helps in those clutch moments in the stories just flavored more as determination than anger) with the rest being fighter and maybe a dip into rogue (for expertise, cunning action, and sneak attack helps in those moments when he lays out an ambush, or the many times he catches opponents off guard.)
Additional side note: Everyone likes to crap on the Jason Mamoa flick, but by comparison to the Books, both Mamoa’s and Schwarzenegger’s fall short. I think Mamoa’s build/physique and just the way he moved was closer in appearance to what is described in the books. However everything else in both renditions was wrong, at least in the Mamoa version they got the backstory more correct though again both were off.
Don’t even get me started on the TV show.
However I would really love to see the character brought to full life on the big screen with consultation done on the script by a Howard Scholar and casting done with care to get the characters right. Even going as far as to adapt any of the stories and frame it how Howard said he imagined the stories coming to him to write, an aged King Conan sitting by a fire with a drink in hand sharing his adventures.
Wolves at the Border is fantastic. It is definitely in my "top 10" if I made one.
It was super refreshing to see a different POV.
Maybe someday when Conan is in the public domain some big studio will make a worthy movie/TV show.
"Conan the hobo-king wrecks a bunch of nerds" has got to be the greatest summary ever.
Thanks! That statement was my inspiration for making the video 😂
Looking through the comments, I haven't seen anyone mention my favourite REH Conan story, so I just gotta give a shoutout Black Colossus. I really like the setting for it, and that first chapter is some awesome fantasy-horror.
That is a great one!
I wish Howard's Dark Agnes de Chastillon got more recognition. And wish he had done more stories with her.
I plan on reading those stories eventually. I think they are in the historicals collection.
I was so lucky that my dad introduced me to his collection of Howard's books. He's such an... unexpectedly good writer. His ability to describe a scene with highly visual language is perfect for the sort of pulp nature of the settings he explores. When my son was 12 I gave him my father's collection that was passed onto me. He drank them up and I'm convinced he's now a better person (he's 19) for reading them.
This is the way! 😎
Today I learned about what a murder hobo is and I'm thankful for it
My work is done 😂
I always thought Elric became the reluctant murder hobo after he lead the raid on Melnibone and everyone ends up dead. He destroys his home. The sword ends up killing people at the end of every story.
I need to read more Elric before I pit him against Conan.
I have been reading the newer complete collections of Elric(I think it is in chronological order) and I'm up to the Fortress of the Pearl.
@@JosephReadsBooks I started , I think, reading Brak the Barbarian (John Jakes), and he mostly reluctantly ended up each story taking down some people or monsters who came after him. Very Kwai Chang Cain fron the TV show Kung Fu. Not searching for trouble but always finding it in every story and violently dealing with it.
I've read some Conan but mostly homages by other authors. I like Elric though it does get very gloomy and he is much more basically evil than most heroes I've liked.
@@JosephReadsBooks Elric is a different beast in my opinion. The stories delve into wildly different themes from one to the next and I believe that Elric was even more of a self insert character for M.Moorcock than Conan was for Howard. All in all, Howard's writing shows way more consistency in terms of overall quality. That's not to deter you from keeping to read Elric though! The imagination and - simply put - outlandishness of his stories are something else and definitely worthwhile, albeit a bit eye-rolly at times.
By the way, great video! I'm looking forward to watching more of yours in the future!
And Elric inspired what is probably the best Hawkwind album... Chronicle Live
@@weylins Hell yeah, brother! That live performance is from another dimension! Love that video to Needlegun
“Someday, when all your civilization and science are likewise swept away, your kind will pray for a man with a sword.” - R.E.H.
I originally got into the Conan series thanks to the game Age of Conan, it's left probably the BIGGEST impression on me growing up, way more than other mmos like WoW or GW1 or SWG, and Age of Conan is probably one of the most dead/lackluster MMO's out there really. But originally when I first got into it as a kid, when I saw stuff like 300 and Black & White 2 and stuff like that and all of it got me further indulged in history as a whole, even more so with the works of Conan most of all. Overall it's definitely became my 2nd favorite series and eventually I do want to get into discussing the Lore of the series and do it some real justice, because a lot of material out there about is seems to be very inaccurate or just lacking in total, simply due to how underrated the series truly is.
I’ve got all 17 of the Conan books published by Sphere Books from the 70’s (with edits by Lin Carter & L Sprague de Camp) and you’ve inspired me to do a re-read. Well done sir.
I'm glad I could be a bad influence 😎
Best thumbnail text EVER!
Thank you!
Robert E. Howard is my favorite writer, along with Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, C.L. Moore, Karl Edward Wagner, Jack Vance, and Michael Moorcock. Highly recommend Solomon Kane, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn. Always brings me great joy to see more people talking about the pulps.
I love Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Jack Vance, and Michael Moorcock.
I have read things from all of them in just the last few months.
I did not like Solomon Kane but I am looking forward to Kull and Bran Mak Morn.
I use Howard's writing as a way to "get away" from the other stuff I read. It is so fun and unique.
My next Howard reading will be his Boxing stories.
Conan: The Original Murder Hobo - a good title for a documentary about Conan.
I think it's "A Witch Shall be Born" in which Conan gets crucified and bites out the throat of a vulture that tries to eat him. Excellent story!
I need to read that one again.
Great video about the greatest Murder-Hobo ever. So glad you will be with us for Cimmerian September!
Thanks!
I already have all my pastiches ready to go 💪.
If you ever want to read some of the BEST melee combat stories ever put to paper, read Robert E. Howard's Conan stories.
In a single paragraph, Conan will smash a guy's teeth out, split another guy's skull, squeeze a man until his ribs splinter and then get really violent.
If you're an aspiring writer, R.E. Howard is a master of written action and his work is totally worth studying.
I got into reading Conan for the reason you mentioned. I want to write fast paced action fantasy and I knew Howard was one of the best.
I once read a quote from Howard (that I for the life of me can't find again) where he said he was conflicted about writing female characters. Why? Because the editors only wanted damsels to be saved while if he was going to have a woman as a character in one his adventure stories he wanted her to actually get to be in a character in an adventure story and get to throw as many punches as the men. It's kinda sad reading stories of his like Sword Woman, that he clearly put a lot of love and care into, knowing it was basically impossible for him to get them published in his lifetime, relegating them to only be shared with friends like Catherine L Moore.
It is sad. I know in letters to people like Lovecraft he was adamant that women were the equals of men and that they should be heroes in stories as well.
He was ahead of his times in a few ways and a product of his times on others.
The saddest thing is thinking about what could have been with him.
(I have his Sword Woman collection and I hope to read them after I finish reading Waterfront Fists which is a collection of his boxing stories.)
Reading all the Howard Conan books is on my bucket list. Great to see you had so much fun with the series. Cheers.
My next Howard project is chipping away at some of his Boxing stories.
I love boxing but I feel bad watching it now that I know how bad it is on the fighter's brains.
But with boxing stories I get to enjoy Howard's literary skills and enjoy some boxing as well.
I would recommend to anyone reading this to go ahead and read the "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" stories by Fritz Leiber and the "Elric" series by Michael Moorcock. Together with Robert E Howard's original Conan stories, they form the three pillars of Sword & Sorcery.
As I recall, in "The God in the Bowl" Conan gets mixed up in it because he was attempting to steal something, so of course when someone turns up dead he's the prime suspect. He's not so much "hanging around" as he is under arrest. Of course, I read that 30+ years ago so don't quote me on that.
It is an interesting one since it's a locked room mystery in a fantasy setting.
I was probably misremembering but I feel like he could have escaped at any time but he got sucked into the mystery.
@@JosephReadsBooks Oh, absolutely he could have escaped and he was only theoretically arrested since nobody was brave enough to make it official. The mystery might have sucked him in, but I think a lot of it had to do with his pride. He wasn't going to take credit for a death he didn't cause.
I read all the Conan stories last September during "Cimmerian September" hosted by Booktubers. I had never read them before, but I did enjoy them. I used to think Conan was just a movie and comic book character my son liked as a kid, but little did I know! Fun stories by Robert E. Howard.
Something I found interesting about "The Hour of the Dragon" is that it suggests to me that Howard was anti-Nazi back in 1936. A key plot element is that Conan had decided to let the religion of Asura, which has strong Jewish overtones, have freedom of religion, and they then help him defeat the evil wizard Xaltotun and regain his throne. I don't think that's accidental, I think he was saying something there.
You might be right. It would be interesting to see someone do a deep dive on the themes in his stories. (I'm not smart enough 😂)
I figured the underground Ashura(?) stuff was about three things: 1) Conan didn't care about practicing religion. There's no way he'd set up a temple to Crom in Aquilonia (which Crom would hate, anyway). He thinks Mitha seems nice, wanting to actually help people, but he's seen lots of religions and any of the ones not practicing human sacrifice (possibly via snake) are just as good, 2) he's a very tolerant guy, being considered an uncivilized barbarian himself, and having met lots of different people and cultures and really enjoying it, 3) it worked really well in the story. For one thing it raised the stakes nicely -- it showed he was a good king, liked by the little people who would suffer under the usurper if he simply fled. For another, it was a nice way to get some exposition -- this well-informed group tells him a sexy woman who spoke up for him is in trouble. Gotta rescue her. It's like plots today where the good guys are rescued by members of the resistance, who turn out to need their urgent help.
(I reread my Ace Conan books during the pandemic)
@@owenreynolds8718 All that is true enough. But we've got a religion which is an old minority religion that tends to keep to itself, whose priests are known for being scholarly men, ABOUT WHOM THERE ARE BLOOD LIBELS, and he sets them up to be assistant good guys. I mean, no I can't prove it, he certainly doesn't CALL them Jewish, but I can't help feeling there's a resonance there that's intentional.
Wow! I'm in good company with your other commenters today! That's great! It's been a long time since I've read any Conan, but I'm planning on waiting so that I can participate in Cimmerian September also.
I am so excited for September. It is going to be a fun month of reading.
I discovered Conan in my teens and Howard has ranked high on my most influential writers list ever since! “Queen of the Black Coast” and “Tower of the Elephant” are probably my favorite Conan stories.
I didn't find Conan until my early 30s.
Better late than never!
Great picks for your favorites!
Conan’s writer was personal friends with H.p. Lovecraft. They liked each others writing. Conan exists in the lovecraft universe according to Howard. When Howard took his life lovecraft was crushed by the loss. He wrote about it.
You nailed it, man! Those are basically my favorite stories as well. Howard was brilliant.
Good video man. I have loved Conan and REH stories for years. Yes, Conan is such a more well rounded character than depicted in say the movies by one A Schwarzenegger. I love some of the other stories by Howard as well. I have several books featuring some of his other heroes(?).
😄 The Sowers of the Thunder features four characters in stories set in various historical periods. The Crusades, Tamerlane and my favorite story set the Siege of Vienna 1529. Kull, Bran Mak Morn and Cormac Mac Art are just the business as well.
The People of the Black Circle and Queen of the Black Coast deserve a mention!
Queen of the Black Coast seems to be very popular in the comments. I like it, I just happen to like these more.
Queen Of The Black Coast didn't grab me enough to be near the top of my list, but what story could be a bigger part of Conan's arc?
I appreciate how passionate you are in this video. Robert E. Howard and Conan don't get enough credit in the fantasy genre.
Thanks! I totally agree.
Have long loved the first ten years of Conan comics books, 1970-80. There are other periods of strong enjoyable Conan comics but for me there are gaps as well. Have been thinking of reading the original pulp mag stories just to see how they are. You've inspired me to seek reprints out. To be honest, years ago I read a genuine original old pulp magazine detective story and it dragged like a chain around your neck. Put me off of pulps for a long time, there's too many cool comic books and vintage comic strips out there for me to seek out new distractions! But REH has always been a hero and I will dig in. The blinded elephant headed god in the tower is a favorite from the first comics run so that can be a starting point. Thanks for your excellent video.
The Elephant Tower is also the original issue #1 of the Marvel comics run in the 80s. :)
Happy you discovered Robert E. Howard. If you haven't discovered it yet I highly recommend the Kull Tales and Solomne Kane stories too.
Back to Conan himself though next to "The Tower of the Elephant" I love "Beyond the Black River", "The God in the Bowl" and "The Pool of the Black One".
But heck, all Conan stories are worth to read them. I think I have reread them (with the comic adaptions) more than 20 times by now and still discover new stuff.
I missed you saying the title for Red Nails but remembered as soon as you had explained the plot!
My favorite is the Teeth of Gwalur. There’s multiple factions, there’s twists and turns, and it’s got a surprise ending.
Man! this video just got me so hyped to read more Conan. I started reading Conan stories about 20 years ago and still have not finished every Robert E Howard story. I've been slowly savoring them, but i think after this i'm just gonna go hard to get them all.
I'm glad I could be a bad influence 😂.
Hey, it almost the same as my list:
1. The Scarlet Citadel (I love the sorcery aspect)
2. The Tower of the Elephant (Duh, ....)
3. Red Nails (An adventure in a lost city, very well written)
4. The God in the Bowl (A murder mystery)
5. Beyond the Black River (Most emotional)
If I had made a top 10 the ones you include would have been in there.
Honestly very few of the stories are stinkers. Which is good. I can always come back to any story and see how I feel about it as time goes on.
I love these old Conan stories. For anyone interested, there's actually a pretty good movie about Robert E. Howard called "The Whole Wide World," from 1996.
It’s kind of ironic that Conan is seen as the quintessential barbarian when ironically he actually more akin to a thief multiclass.
I built him in Pathfinder 2e as a strength based Rogue. I think it is called the Ruffian archetype.
The only thing scarier than a savage barbarian is a smart savage barbarian
Red Nails will ALWAYS be my favorite adventure, really wish it would be made into a movie.
I read all of Howard's Conan stories back in the late 1970's and have reread them many times over the years. I have them all on audio book too and like to listen when I drive. One thing about the stories is that Howard wrote some of the best female characters in literature.
I have read a good % of the Conan novels out to read and one of my favorites is Conan the Hero, I hope I remembered the title as it has been around 17years since i have read but it still stands out in my memories as one of the top epic stories lol. The best revenge payback as he was betrayed by an under officer and tracked the troop down and eliminated them all a couple at a time until it was just his enemy left. I'm trying to not give too much details so I don't spoil the story lol Conan is still my favorite murder hobo 200 books later... Richard Blade and Dimension X is my 2nd, check it out if you never have read. 18 yrs or older lol
I have read and re-read Conan so many times, but I always love re-reading Phoenix on the Sword, Tower of the Elephant, and Queen of the Black Coast. Beyond the Black River is also growing quite strongly on me.
If you enjoyed Conan, do yourself a massive favor and read Kull and Bran Mak Morn.
I have the illustrated collections for both. I want to read at least one of them later this year.
the god in the bowl is my favorite, barbarian noir is something i didn't know i needed so much in my life.
Dude! Fantastic review. I've been reading Howard and various Conan pastiche since about the age of 9. I'm 50 this week. Overall I agree wholeheartedly with your list, although some other personal Conan faves would include The Frost Giant's Daughter, Queen Of the Black Coast, A Witch Shall Be Born, and Beyond the Black River. I would also highly recommend trying some of Howard's other works - namely his Solomon Kane, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn stories.
For Conan pastiche - which are patchy and varied in quality - the L. Sprague we Camp stories aren't bad, but personally I've always really enjoyed the Tor Books Conan novels by John Maddox Roberts (Conan the Valorous, and Conan the Champion being particular standouts). Robert Jordan's Conan novels in this series were also quite good. Currently reading the very recently published Conan: Blood Of the Serpent by S. M. Stirling and very much enjoying it. Hope you continue to enjoy your own exploration of this criminally unknown, misunderstood, and underrated iconic American literary character!
Thank you! Also, thanks for the recommendations on pastiches. I'm going to be hitting up a few book stores next week and I will keep an eye out for them.
Conan as well as Tarzan are both on my to read list . Both are massive with over 20 books in the series each
Make sure you read the Howard Conan stories first. Some of the stories by other writers can be real stinkers.
I have only read the first two Tarzan novels. I plan to read more but I know their quality falls off a cliff eventually.
Great and very enjoyable review on the Conan stories . I love the Robert E Howard Conan stories, i bought the Omnibus book of Robert E Howards's Conan some years ago and i was hooked !
Robert E Howards writing style is wonderful . One of my fave stories is - ''Tower of the Elephant ''
Thank you!
Tower is such a fun read. I have the itch to go back and read it again everytime I tell someone how good it is.
I think that distinction of "the greatest murder hobo" goes to Oedipus. Sophocles invented the murder hobo in the 4th century BC.
He is definitely the prototype for the murderhobo. I love that play.
It's not his best, but I'm partial to the devil in iron.
Robert has a grounded way of forcing the reader to see things from his characters perspectives, and i think it was showcased here well.
It has a sPoOkY beginning with the tribal coastal guy getting offed by a very dark mirror evil merciless version of Conan when the poor wretch removes a cool looking dagger laying on the big guy.
Then, what the characters assume is some sort of necromancer rebuilds an ancient ruined city in, like, a night. Complete with half conscious, long dead people. There's even a drone at one point, which is wildly ahead of its time, considering it was written in the thirties.
Yadda yadda yadda, plot with damsel in distress and b plot bad guys, and the (essentially) space robot is cut down by conan welding the special dagger, the only thing capable of piecing his flesh. The blade almost reminded me of a remote control, which is big time appropriate to combat a mechanical being.
I think most contemporary critics panned it somewhat as Robert E Howard churning something out to make ends meet, but i still appreciated it. Really sucks that the big man couldn't escape his own demons. Would have loved to see what characters he would have created and stories that would be woven in the future.
RIP Howard, and thanks for the post.
It is why in the earlier translation of him into Original D&D (Supplement IV - Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes), he is listed as a Neutral alignment Fighter/Thief dual-class. A COMPLETE murder hobo! I did what you did and read through all the stories in publication order a few years ago. A great time!
And I like your comment about how Howard is the father of Sword & Sorcery (S&S) [as opposed to high fantasy], even if the phrase S&S was not actually coined by Fritz Lieber until 1961, when Leiber used the term to describe the work of Howard (and his own Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories...).
Leiber is another legend I should make a video about. He needs more people reading his works.
I have read every Conan story by Howard (and every Kull and Solomon Kane story) and you've definitely made some fine picks. I have also read the stories by Carter and deCamp, most by Wagner, a few by Offutt... and still there's too many I have not found to read. I like the simplicity of the stories, and the fact they are just good escapist entertainment. More stories should be like this.
I totally agree about enjoying some escapism.
I know there is more to his work than just the fun story but I really enjoy the fun story and I love that I can always dig deeper if I want to search for themes and what inspired Howard.
I plan on reading pastiches from Robert Jordan, Karl Edward Wagner, Poul Anderson, and Andrew Offutt this September.
The highest rated Conan pastiche authors off the top of my head:
Robert Jordan
John Maddox Roberts
Karl Edward Wagner
I planned on reading Wagner and Jordan this September. I will keep an eye out for something by Roberts.
Thanks!
Never read any John Maddox Robert’s, but loved Wagners books.
I stayed with someone when I was young who had a bunch of Conan books in their house. I had already seen the movies and loved fantasy anyway, so I started reading some. I found them pretty entertaining. For some reason the common ending of Conan stories with him walking away without looking back stuck with me to this day.
That is the chad barbarian move 😂
totally agree -- and i have had your enthusiasm for these stories my whole life. too bad there aren't more of them (although even before his sadly youthful death howard got tired of conan and dropped it to move on). i also like the kull, bran mac morn and solomon kane stories too. howard knew what he was doing and had great, and as you said, almost timeless style.
I'm excited to read the Kull stories in the future.
I have the three Del Ray editions of all the Howard Conan stories, and I've only read the first but I've really enjoyed it. I found the stories in there are not only great on their own, but also better than some modern epic fantasy series that I've read.
My favorite story so far is The Frost Giant's Daughter, it's so atmospheric and I really like the Norse inspiration of the setting. The ending is really what makes that story my favorite in particular.
This was a great video!
Thanks!
The Del Rey series is so good. You will definitely enjoy the second one. It has Hour of the Dragon in it.
I'm so happy for you accomplishing your milestone. Many more to come. Also, "equal to Conan?" Is that true?
Robert E. Howard has given me so much pleasure with his Conan stories
Red Nails might be my fave. Tough ask :)
As an "old", the term "murderhobo" was oblivious to me, but is now the funniest fkn thing I've ever heard. Thanks for a wonderful and well spoken review, you've convinced me to start reading again. Cheers!
Have read the collected short stories multiples times over multiple decades. For me, no-one else writes combat scenes as well as Robert E Howard. Reading them is a visceral experience. You can visualise the fight happening before your eyes, sinew by sinew. Maybe I'm just an old fanboy. I appreciate there are many great fight scene writers in the fantasy genre, andf that you will all have your favourites, and different opinions to this one, so no offence intended.
He really was a master of the fight scene. They are all so good.
I definitely love most of the stories you mentioned here. I prefer "Phoenix" as a Kull story, myself, "By this Axe I Rule". Two favourite Conans that were not mentioned in the video are "Beyond the Black River" and "Rogues in the House". The former I enjoy because Conan is not really the point of view character, and it gives an interesting new perspective on what Conan blasting into someone else's world would be like, not to mention that while we know Conan has to make it out alive, the same can't necessarily be said for a POV character who is not Conan. 'Rogues" just has an incredibly fun atmosphere to it, and love the Murders in the Rue Morgue tribute, as well as the opening with Conan breaking out of jail and getting some hilarious revenge on the person who turned him in.
Howard supposedly said when he writing the Conan stories he wasn't creating or making them up. He felt Conan was there standing behind his shoulder telling his adventures and Howard just wrote them down.
I loved the way Howard described the dragon in Red Nails. You definitely get it from the perspective of someone who doesn't know what a dinosaur is and has never seen something like it before.
I agree. It is such a great way of describing a dinosaur.
@@JosephReadsBooks He does it with other things, too, like the giant snake in The Devil in Iron. A giant snake is NBD in fantasy today, but the way Howard writes it ... he makes you feel what Conan feels, the terror we would have if we really saw something like that.
I read all of the REH Conan stories "in order" a few summers ago. It was absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended.
I first got into Conan when I was about 10 and consumed every REH book I could get my hands on thereafter. I’m in my 50s now and still a fan of REH’s writing and return to his work whenever I need a good old fashioned, rip roaring yarn.
That is my plan for the rest of my life. If I need a fun adventure I can just reach for a Conan story.
I'm old and read Conan years ago, now I want to get the entire Robert E Howards weird works. I think there might be 8 paperbacks for me. I own the 1st and the 3rd.
I really like the Del Rey Illustrated Robert E Howard collection. You can still find copies new online and they are wonderful.
There are three Conan books. A Kull collection, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, etc...
I definitely see more Robert E Howard in my near future. I want to read his boxing stories.
I enjoy almost ever Conan story, REHs and also many of the ones written by others
I'm so excited to get into the stories by other authors this September.
Currently reading the collection for the first time. Love it.
My only issue is that there's two or three characters named Valerius (a young guard in that story where Conan gets crucified, a veteran in that story about the Picts fighting against colonization, and one of the villains in Hour of the Dragon), plus Valeria. What's up with that??
Maybe it is "John" of the ancient Conan world 😂
Amazing title - Conan the Murder Hobo. Moniker aside, Robert E. Howard's writing style is perhaps par-none. Using this unique brevity and flow that just kept the pace going. Not many authors manage that. Even HPL can be very slow at times, Howard just nails it everytime. Shout out to Black Agnes written in first person. Of course other characters with stories, (Bran Mak Morn, Soloman Kane, Turlogh Dubh O'Brian, (never read any James Allison), El Borak.
One question I always wanted to ask a Howard expert - "How did Robert E. Howard get a hold of all these ancient civilizations, religious concepts, and even military tactics to flush out his novels. No internet in the 1920s.
I totally agree with you about Howard's writing.
When it comes to his knowledge of history and combat I think we can give a lot of credit to his local library and his voracious reading as a kid.
I have a few books about his life and I plan on digging into those at some point. I'm really looking forward to it.
@@JosephReadsBooks Shout out to walking into a library. I really marvel at REH's gift he put to the test (aka the Riddle of Steel), sorry couldn't resist. If you find a biography that delves into the how he got there or breakdown of his writing style, could post? I'll do the same.
Wow! Brings me back to being twelve years old.
I read them all and even the non-Howard stories. ‘Beyond Black River’ is probably my favorite.
True genius often comes at a price. R.E. Howard certainly paid that price.
Yes it does 😢
I had that one ticked off my reading list by age 12. I was and still am a huge fan of Conan. When I go to the comic book store, I will _always_ walk out with an issue of Conan.
If you read RE Howard and HP Lovecraft back to back you soon realize that although Lovecraft tended to write in the first person and Howard in the third, rheir style is very similar.
The current Conan comic is wonderful, the current storyline is a Conan and Kull crossover. Its awesome