The Compleat Conan

Robert E. Howard: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (illustrated by Mark Schultz, Del Rey Books, ISBN 0-345-48385-5).

As with last year's reading of Howard's tales of Solomon Kane and my reading of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, what I'm getting in this collection is not what I expected. I thought I "knew" Conan. Heck, didn't I see the movies with the Terminator? How wrong you can be. Although "pulp", these are an excellent set of tales so far (haven't quite finished it yet!). Del Rey is doing a great job with this series, bringing Howard's works out the way he wrote them, providing drafts and fragments so we can see what else was there, etc.

So far, in this collection, the stand-out stories are The Tower of the Elephant with its tortured (and very sympathetic character) of an alien/god and Queen of the Black Coast with a very strong female character (so much for the myth that pulp fiction never featured strong female characters). Either, especially Queen of the Black Coast, would have made a far, far, far better feature film than the dribble we got. Ah well. Maybe somebody will do it right some day!

Thoughts upon concluding the book: Very enjoyable read. Conan, as Howard wrote him, is far different from Conan as he has been depicted in other media, just as Tarzan, as depicted by Burroughs is vastly different than how he has generally been depicted in other sources. Sure, Conan seems to slip into a rage at least once per story, but he also plans, saves his fellow man (mostly woman), thinks, considers and even gets scared. These stories show the influence of Howard's fellow fantasy writers, especially Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft. The miscellaneous material is excellent, especially the essays. This shows that Howard designed a world to make Conan more real, he just isn't plopped down into the middle of a cardboard fantasy kingdom. Some of the story fragments were fun, and it is a shame Howard never finished them.

An excellent collection and I'm looking forward to continuing my exploration of Robert E. Howard in these new Del Rey editions.

Made up of: Foreword (Mark Schultz); Introduction (Patricia Louinet); Cimmeria (poem); The Phoenix on the Sword; The Frost-Giant's Daughter; The God in the Bowl; The Tower of the Elephant; The Scarlet Citadel; Queen of the Black Coast; Black Colossus; Iron Shadows in the Moon; Xuthel of the Dusk; The Pool of the Black One; Rogues in the House; The Vale of Lost Women; The Devil in Iron; The Phoenix on the Sword (first submitted draft); Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age; The Hyborian Age; Untitled Synopsis (one); Untitled Synopsis (The Scarlet Citadel); Untitled Synopsis (Black Colossue); Untitled Fragment (one); Untitled Synopsis (two); Untitled Draft (one); Hyborian Names and Countries (notes); Hyborian Age Maps (drawings); Appendices: Hyborian Genesis (Patrice Louinet); Notes on the Conan Typescripts and the Chronology (Patrice Louinet); Notes on the Original Howard Texts (not indicated); Sketches (Mark Schultz).

Counts as 29 entries in the 2006 Short Story Project.