201 replies to this topic

[Adam]

Hour of the dragon of course. The only Conan novel and in every inch as good as LOTR for me.

[Ancient Ages]

I just finished reading The Black Stranger for the first time and I have to say it was amazing but still not my favourite Conan yarn. The Black Stranger is one the most epic Conan sotires , in my opinion, and has some of the greatest supporting characters in the Conan series. If you have not read the Black Stranger go read it now!

TBS is a good one, yup, but I felt it was a not really a Conan story as an Hyborian story. I don't know what you mean by "epic" really. If anything it was a very personal story more like a play with its claustrophobic setting and strong character tensions. And the whole business of the treasure in the cave seemed to have no strong link to the main story besides acting as a main motivation for the three pirates. I dunno, I was half-expecting the ghost/demon/thing to be in some way tied to the treasure and was disappointed when it didn't. I'd like to read the Black Vulmea version sometime to see how it compares.

[dwraley]

I just finished reading The Black Stranger for the first time and I have to say it was amazing but still not my favourite Conan yarn. The Black Stranger is one the most epic Conan sotires , in my opinion, and has some of the greatest supporting characters in the Conan series. If you have not read the Black Stranger go read it now!

TBS is a good one, yup, but I felt it was a not really a Conan story as an Hyborian story. I don't know what you mean by "epic" really. If anything it was a very personal story more like a play with its claustrophobic setting and strong character tensions. And the whole business of the treasure in the cave seemed to have no strong link to the main story besides acting as a main motivation for the three pirates. I dunno, I was half-expecting the ghost/demon/thing to be in some way tied to the treasure and was disappointed when it didn't. I'd like to read the Black Vulmea version sometime to see how it compares.

Rogue's in the House is my favorite Conan story. The way Howard tells the story added a great deal to it, and if you haven't read the comic version of this by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord, you should as soon as possible. Even though the story goes from text into visual medium, Nord and Busiek do an excellent job of remaining faithful to their source material.

[Kortoso]

...
Rogue's in the House is my favorite Conan story. The way Howard tells the story added a great deal to it, and if you haven't read the comic version of this by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord, you should as soon as possible. Even though the story goes from text into visual medium, Nord and Busiek do an excellent job of remaining faithful to their source material.

Rogues is my favorite, too, but the Dark Horse version hasn't been released yet, unless there's something you'd care to share with us...

[darthgall]

I hit "Pool of the Black One".

I had liked the conan comics, and as a kid I found a very tattered copy of Conan the Adventurer in a library while on vacation with my parents in Colorado. The name of Conan flipped a switch in my mind. And the Frazetta cover really lit me up. I just remember reading that story, and being enthralled by Conan hiding in the reeds watching the black one throw some hapless sailor into the pool, and subsequently shrinking... weird, awesome stuff.

I picked it for the fond memories... don't even remember the rest of it (that's as good an excuse as any to go by that edition now).

Others: Red Nails was awesome, but mostly I like the young conans: rogues int he house, tower of the elephant and god in the bowl.

Mick

[High Lord Dee]

Kind of surprised that no one voted for A Witch Shall be Born. Awesome stuff....


HLD

[Conn of Cimmeria]

It was a hard decision to make, but in the end I had to go with the one that first introduced me to REH and the mighty Cimmerian. Rogues in the House was the first story I ever read by REH, or about Conan. I found the story in an ancient copy of Weird Tales my grandfather had in the attic. When I was about ten I found a whole box of old pulp fiction mags he had kept from when he was a kid. Sadly, I didn't take more than a few to my house before the fire that destroyed my grandpa's old house. And worse, I didn't know the value of what I had found until years later, after most of what I had saved were long lost or destroyed in moves(I was a military brat for several years). I do have the one copy of Weird Tales in which I first read Rogues in the House. It is sealed in plastic, in my safety deposit box at the bank. I have considered having it appraised and insured, just in case. Come to think of it, I wish I had kept quite a few things from that attic before the fire. My great-great grandpa's Confederate Cavalry saber was up there, along with old tintypes and photos of early pioneering ancestors and the like. Crom knows what all that stuff was worth. I probably could have bought a palace in Tarantia with it all!!

[Kortoso]

Conn, you're probably the only one among us who started on Weird Tales. I hoist my morning tea to you!

[PainBrush]

It is sealed in plastic, in my safety deposit box at the bank. I have considered having it appraised and insured, just in case.

It's worth up to a few bones depending on condition - but it isn't worth moneywise anything near needing to be appraised or insured - unless except to you for sentimental value of course . I sold off my collection of about 80 or so issues of Weird Tales about 4 to 5 years ago - including a decent number of issues Howard was in - including that one you mentioned - from '33 I think it was - maybe '34 , dunno without going to look it up this very minute . Check out Weird Tales issues on ebay & maybe the few shops online that deal in old pulps . You can get a good idea of what they're worth - by their 'final' auction prices -if they actually sell - NOT by the starting prices - there's a couple guys who put 'em up for auction again & again - some issues of which they posted & re-posted for the better part of a year because of their ridiculous pricing . The fact that being printed on such cheap pulp-stock they didn't last in any decent condition for the most part thru the years - if they even survived all the paper-drives during the war & afterwards - so they are pretty rare in even 'regular' yellowed condition & that makes some clowns think they can set whatever price they want - well months & months later they still haven't sold online in a lot of cases . There's actually a couple good price-guides finally on the market now for pulp-mag collectors ( & damn well - about time !! ) - can't recall the exact name or publishers offhand , but you could prob. find it easy enough in a few searches .

[vtavisigoth]

OMG. Definitely "Beyond The Black River". Oh no! I can't explain why without spoiling it. So how about some random words:

copper weapons, running, raw frogs, deception, arrows, more deception, cunning, wit, balustrades, sands, uncomfortable alliances, poor defenseless females, escape and a few months later the road to ********.

[Taranaich]

It's a shame nobody's voted for Phoenix on the Sword, it had one of my favourite Conan chapters in it.

[Xaltotun]

So many to choose from!
"Black Colossus."

[Kortoso]

OMG. Definitely "Beyond The Black River". Oh no! I can't explain why without spoiling it. So how about some random words:

copper weapons, running, raw frogs, deception, arrows, more deception, cunning, wit, balustrades, sands, uncomfortable alliances, poor defenseless females, escape and a few months later the road to ********.

You're not a bus driver are you?

[PainBrush]

- or a postal employee ?

[AMRA_thelion]

-a photographer at Sears?

[Darkstorm Dale]

My choice is Red Nails.

The story really hangs together well, in my opinion. It features a Conan completely on top of his game and Howard provides pretty much everything I require from a heroic fantasy story.

[leburtski]

My pick was Frost Giant's Daughter. REH used an economy of words and painted a kick-ass little scene that pretty much everyone here can recite chapet & verse, as it were. I don't mean reciting text, but we can all describe the imagery, the emotions, the smell of testosterone thick in the air . . .
REH's longer stuff does the same, but has a rhythym to it, almost an ebb & flow. Frost Giant drops you in the middle of a feeding frenzy and chums the water. It is an incredibly tight piece of writing that grabs you and holds you in place until the ride's over.
The only other piece I would have voted for was Queen of the Black Coast; the image of Conan on the shore, watching Belit's funeral pyre head out to sea and disappear over the horizon has a poignant feel to it that's stuck w/ me for a looong time now. Anyway, there it is.

[The Cimmerian]

BEYOND THE BLACK RIVER is my favorite story.

It was also my first REH read, which (I'm embarrassed to say) happened about 3 months ago! I picked up a copy of RED NAILS, the Berkeley/Putnam copy from 1977 (edited by Karl Edward Wagner).. the one with the Ken Kelly dustpapers, and it was the first story in there. What a read! It gave me what I feel is the TRUE Conan... and the story was an absolute page turner for me. Even with the death of the secondary character, who was supposedly autobiographically based on REH himself! The story lives up to it's famous final quote.

Previous to this, I had read about half the run of SAVAGE SWORD, and some of the comics here and there. None of them had the power of this story.

I have since gotten both THE COMING OF CONAN and THE CONQUERING SWORD OF CONAN, and read them. I am also looking for the third. I love the stories, even the ones that are supposedly not as good. I really enjoyed RED NAILS, as well. But BEYOND THE BLACK RIVER has something else in it... a sense of urgency... a realism... a survival aspect that was so real and spoke to me. I consider it high literature, and would rank it with anything from any of the so-called classic American authors (Melville, Hawthorne, etc.).

[balthus]

To me they are all great. My personal favourites are the Jewels of Gwahlur and Beyond the Black River. After Conan recognizes Muriela (who was pretending to be Yelaya) he says, "Crom! is there no honesty anywhere?" This shows Conan's sense of humour, especially since he was not being honest himself when he presented his offer to the Keshans. Also in the same story when one of the servants of Bit-Yakin dropped Muriela and the chest, we have the line that says, "Conan did not hesitate, nor did he even glance toward the chest that held the wealth of an epoch." Beyond the Black River has a few epic spots as well. When Balthus and Conan are fighting the Picts, we have the line "Then he realized the full strength and ferocity of the Cimmerian..." And of course, at the end of the story we have the paragrah " Barbarism is the natural state of mankind" followed at the end by "And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." Awesome lines all.

[Skarthi]

I voted 'Beyond the Black River'.....class....pure class.