"Best "Conan the Barbarian" novel?" Topic

14 Posts

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Uesugi Kenshin	19 Jan 2023 5:10 p.m. PST
link
CeruLucifus	20 Jan 2023 2:18 a.m. PST
It's a trick question, right? There's only one Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon. The rest are short stories, unfinished fragments, or tributes by other authors.
robert piepenbrink	20 Jan 2023 4:40 a.m. PST
CeruLucifus for the win. There are few sadder sights than L. Sprague de Camp trying to write a Conan story. Even Poul Anderson couldn't pull it off, and Anderson was a first-rate author. Karl Eric Wagner said flat-out it couldn't be done, and he should know. Buy the Lone Star/Del Rey, and be content.
Deucey	20 Jan 2023 7:01 a.m. PST
+1 to both!
miniMo	20 Jan 2023 7:30 a.m. PST
Yeah, the de Camp & Carter ones are so barfable! Hour of the Dragon wins by default.
Stryderg	20 Jan 2023 7:50 a.m. PST
Well then, another vote for The Hour of the Dragon
Raynman	20 Jan 2023 7:55 a.m. PST
Robert E. Howard said that his Conan stories were just him writing what was told to him by Conan late at night. Obviously, Conan never visited any of the other authors to give them the straight narrative.
Uesugi Kenshin	20 Jan 2023 9:49 a.m. PST
Rofl. I did not realize that. Thanks for the tip!
Herkybird	20 Jan 2023 2:28 p.m. PST
Indeed, Howard stated that Conan was standing over him with an Axe until he finished!
RAOldham1812	20 Jan 2023 3:22 p.m. PST
How about favorite Conan Story? I like many of them but am partial to the "Tower of the Elephant".
mildbill	20 Jan 2023 4:12 p.m. PST
Red Nails.
CeruLucifus	20 Jan 2023 4:17 p.m. PST
Beyond the Black River.
etotheipi	21 Jan 2023 7:30 a.m. PST
Conan never visited any of the other authors to give them the straight narrative. The later authors after Howard died, no. But he was in a writing circle with HP Lovecraft, August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith and others. They traded and critiqued their stores by mail (I think Howard was the only group member in Texas), though Lovecraft did visit a lot of places (wrote a bucket of travelogues). Those are pretty close to the original source. Brown University has a collection of Lovecraft's letters (the ones he received and kept, not the ones he sent) in their special collections.

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