Robert Howard's "Conan"

bropous · 03-12-2007, 02:20 PM

Another of the older authors, Robert Howard has much to recommend his works.

Robert Howard started the entire genre of Swords and Sorcery with his "Conan" stories, about a freebooting barbarian making a living by theft, piracy and mercenary activities. Written in the 1930s, the Conan books are the wellhead from which all of the S&S tales flow. With only his wits, strength, and barbarous energies to serve him, Conan cuts a broad swath across Hyperborea and fights and claws his way to a throne.

Howard has a raw and straightforward writing style, and his stories are very readable and enjoyable. He also created other characters such as Kull, Last King of Atlantis, and Solomon Kane, the puritan with the sword.

Robert Howard died at his own hand in Central Texas, where another great swords and sorcery writer, Michael Moorcock, now lives. Howard had a tragic and short life, but created a character of far greater depth and empathetic quality than the shallow, one-dimensional portrayals of him in the Schwartzenegger/diLaurentis screen treatments.

If you've given the original Conan stories a pass, I recommend giving them another thought. I wasn't a huge fan of the later authors' treatments of Conan such as Robert Jordan's, but if you give a few of Robert Howard's original stories a chance, you will be glad you did.

Butterbeer · 03-12-2007, 03:42 PM

I enjoyed Conan as a youth.

You are right about Howard's raw and straightforward writing style - it has a certain charm, beyond what some pan him for in literary circles.

The only Moorcock i know is Elric- which i rather enjoyed. I liked the edgy relationship with his dark and greedy soul-stealing sword.

GrayMouser · 03-26-2007, 10:48 AM

When I was a kid, I loved both historical fiction and SF. I'd read the Narnia books and the Hobbit but had no idea of the concept of Fantasy- this was in the 60s.

When I was 12 (1966) I picked up an old copy of F&SF magazine and there was a Conan story in it- I was totally blown away-"Hey, are you allowed to just make stuff up like that?" Shortly thereafter discovered LOTR, and then the flloodgates opened, and a lot of reprints started coming out: Dunsany, Eddison , Cabell-plus a lot of the old S&S- not only Howard but Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Leiber etc. Great stuff!

bropous · 03-27-2007, 07:04 PM

The day I was born, Communist China was shelling the Taiwanese-held islands of Qemoy and Matsu. Always had a historic connections with Formosa....its people, its freedom.

Well-Met.

Butterbeer · 03-27-2007, 07:08 PM

Well met indeed - it is good to see some new topics on other authors.

The last sane person · 04-26-2007, 10:00 PM

I agree, the movie portrails of Conan sucked, but I have the original books and comics and have greatly enjoyed his style. Awesome books, I love the way his voice comes through. And the comics are pretty fun too, I must say.

03-12-2007, 02:20 PM	#1
bropous EIDRIORCQWSDAKLMED DCWWTIWOATTOPWFIO Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Littleton, CO Posts: 1,176	Robert Howard's "Conan" Another of the older authors, Robert Howard has much to recommend his works. Robert Howard started the entire genre of Swords and Sorcery with his "Conan" stories, about a freebooting barbarian making a living by theft, piracy and mercenary activities. Written in the 1930s, the Conan books are the wellhead from which all of the S&S tales flow. With only his wits, strength, and barbarous energies to serve him, Conan cuts a broad swath across Hyperborea and fights and claws his way to a throne. Howard has a raw and straightforward writing style, and his stories are very readable and enjoyable. He also created other characters such as Kull, Last King of Atlantis, and Solomon Kane, the puritan with the sword. Robert Howard died at his own hand in Central Texas, where another great swords and sorcery writer, Michael Moorcock, now lives. Howard had a tragic and short life, but created a character of far greater depth and empathetic quality than the shallow, one-dimensional portrayals of him in the Schwartzenegger/diLaurentis screen treatments. If you've given the original Conan stories a pass, I recommend giving them another thought. I wasn't a huge fan of the later authors' treatments of Conan such as Robert Jordan's, but if you give a few of Robert Howard's original stories a chance, you will be glad you did. __________________ "...[The Lord of the Rings] is to exemplify most clearly a recurrent theme: the place in 'world politics' of the unforeseen and unforeseeable acts of will, and deeds of virtue of the apparently small, ungreat, fogotten in the places of the Wise and Great (good as well as evil). A moral of the whole (after the primary symbolism of the Ring, as the will to mere power, seeking to make itself objective by physical force and mechanism, and so also inevitably by lies) is the obvious one that without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless." Letters of JRR Tolkien, page 160.

03-26-2007, 10:48 AM	#3
GrayMouser Elf Lord Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Ilha Formosa Posts: 2,068	When I was a kid, I loved both historical fiction and SF. I'd read the Narnia books and the Hobbit but had no idea of the concept of Fantasy- this was in the 60s. When I was 12 (1966) I picked up an old copy of F&SF magazine and there was a Conan story in it- I was totally blown away-"Hey, are you allowed to just make stuff up like that?" Shortly thereafter discovered LOTR, and then the flloodgates opened, and a lot of reprints started coming out: Dunsany, Eddison , Cabell-plus a lot of the old S&S- not only Howard but Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Leiber etc. Great stuff! __________________ Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, but pigs treat us as equals."- Winston Churchill

03-27-2007, 07:04 PM	#4
bropous EIDRIORCQWSDAKLMED DCWWTIWOATTOPWFIO Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Littleton, CO Posts: 1,176	The day I was born, Communist China was shelling the Taiwanese-held islands of Qemoy and Matsu. Always had a historic connections with Formosa....its people, its freedom. Well-Met. __________________ "...[The Lord of the Rings] is to exemplify most clearly a recurrent theme: the place in 'world politics' of the unforeseen and unforeseeable acts of will, and deeds of virtue of the apparently small, ungreat, fogotten in the places of the Wise and Great (good as well as evil). A moral of the whole (after the primary symbolism of the Ring, as the will to mere power, seeking to make itself objective by physical force and mechanism, and so also inevitably by lies) is the obvious one that without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless." Letters of JRR Tolkien, page 160.

04-26-2007, 10:00 PM	#6
The last sane person The Black Númenórean Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 6,773	I agree, the movie portrails of Conan sucked, but I have the original books and comics and have greatly enjoyed his style. Awesome books, I love the way his voice comes through. And the comics are pretty fun too, I must say. __________________ Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

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03-12-2007, 03:42 PM	#2
Butterbeer Elf Lord Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: here and there Posts: 3,514	I enjoyed Conan as a youth. You are right about Howard's raw and straightforward writing style - it has a certain charm, beyond what some pan him for in literary circles. The only Moorcock i know is Elric- which i rather enjoyed. I liked the edgy relationship with his dark and greedy soul-stealing sword.

03-27-2007, 07:08 PM	#5
Butterbeer Elf Lord Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: here and there Posts: 3,514	Well met indeed - it is good to see some new topics on other authors.