The Conan Chronicles
The Conan Chronicles — (1990-2005) Publisher: “Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities… there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars… Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand… to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.” Conan is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created–a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, facing powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and ruthless armies of thieves and reavers. Collected in this volume, profusely illustrated by artist Mark Schultz, are Howard’s first thirteen Conan stories, appearing in their original versions — in some cases for the first time in more than seventy years — and in the order Howard wrote them. Along with classics of dark fantasy like “The Tower of the Elephant” and swashbuckling adventure like “Queen of the Black Coast,” The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian contains a wealth of material never before published in the United States, including the first submitted draft of Conan’s debut, “Phoenix on the Sword,” Howard’s synopses for “The Scarlet Citadel” and “Black Colossus,” and a map of Conan’s world drawn by the author himself. Here are timeless tales featuring Conan the raw and dangerous youth, Conan the daring thief, Conan the swashbuckling pirate, and Conan the commander of armies. Here, too, is an unparalleled glimpse into the mind of a genius whose bold storytelling style has been imitated by many, yet equaled by none.
The Bloody Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard
Nobody can touch Robert E. Howard when he was at the top-of-his-game. The three stories in The Bloody Crown of Conan are not only some of his best, they are some of his best Conan stories and Conan was his greatest creation. Howard was the father of Sword & Sorcery and next only to J.R.R. Tolkien in being the largest influence of fantasy today. His stories have stark imagery that’s nothing short of amazing. The action moves at break-neck speed, and despite that they were written as pure adventure “pulps,” there’s harsh reality that lying just beneath the surface.
In "The People of the Black Circle", a princess and her kingdom are the target of an elite group of evil sorcerers, the Black Circle. Only Conan, the... Read More
The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard
Dressed in black with the tall slouch-hat typical of Puritan fashion, and armed with sword, flint-locks, and, later, an ancient carved staff, Solomon Kane stalks the 16th century world from the remote reaches of Europe to the bloody decks of the high seas, and into the deepest, darkest African jungles. Whether it be a witch-cursed monstrosity, hell-spawned vampire, mutant throwback, or just a wicked wretch of humankind, Solomon Kane will fight with equal determination and enthusiasm to see good triumph.
Robert E. Howard’s tales are so alive, you almost have to check yourself for wounds. Between the lines broods an ancient feeling of melancholy that lends such realism to the writing. And the beautiful, sweeping illustrations in this book by the award-winning artist Gary Gianni bring that classical storytelling feel to the forefront.
As with all o... Read More
Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard
* If you're not — or not looking to become — a reader of sword-and-sorcery or fantasy tales, then you can probably skip the rest of this review and move on... unless you might acquire a taste for stories of a philosophical barbarian-king, whose axe or sword slays on-comers as easily as you might mosquitoes... *
OK, now that they're gone: this intriguing compilation probably merits 3-1/2 stars, but I'll give one of the genre's cornerstones the benefit of the doubt. Be warned, though, REH's writing can be quite different from that of modern writers: sometimes brooding, sometimes utterly pulp-ish in its almost garish vividness. Nonetheless, it's that very quality that makes it so fascinating and, at times, as strong and elegant as the axe of the protagonist.
Speaking of whom, he is like Rodin's "Thinker" with larger muscles and longer hair. An Atlantian usurper of the thr... Read More
Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard
When the August 1929 edition of Weird Tales magazine appeared, it contained a story titled “The Shadow Kingdom” by Robert E. Howard, which introduced his character Kull, a barbarian adventurer from Atlantis who had risen to the kingship of an ancient kingdom Howard called Valusia. Kull was a precursor to Howard’s more famous later character, Conan, who of course later became well known through comic and movie adaptations, but the Kull character had some distinct differences from the later, lustier, rowdier Conan. For one thing, Kull was much moodier and given to introspective musing and philosophical inquiry into the nature of reality and his own existence. Only three stories in the Kull series were published during Howard’s lifetime (he died by his own hand in 1936), but Howard wrote or started at least nine other Kull stories and a poem about the brooding warrior king before aborting the se... Read More
Almuric by Robert E. Howard
Call me shallow, but I just connect to Robert E. Howard’s yarns.
Esau Cairn is a man born in the wrong age. His freakish strength, athletic prowess, and berserker tendencies only make him an outcast in modern society, where he eventually ends up on the wrong side of the law. So when a scientist who is a sympathetic friend offers him an escape to another planet, it seems like a good alternative to going down fighting.
Once on Almuric, Esau soon regresses to a savage state in order to survive the wild and untamed land. Before long, he runs across a barbaric race of Neanderthal-like men and fair women. Esau’s fighting skills and untamable spirit win him a place among a clan and put him on the path to becoming a warrior-hero. Once Almuric gets rolling, it’s chock-full of the raw action that nobody can do like Howard.
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Other books by Robert E. Howard
The Dark Man — 
(1978-1979)
The Dark Man and The Dead Remember are omnibus editions of the Dark Man stories. Publisher: The Dead Remember; People of the Dark; Children of the Night; The Garden of Fear; The Thing on the Roof; The Hyena; Dig Me No Grave; The Dream Snake; Old Garfield’s Heart; The Voice of El-Lil; The Gods of Bal Sagoth; The Man on the Ground; In the Forest of Villefere; The Dark Man.
Cormac Mac Art: Tigers of the Sea — (1975) Publisher: Rampaging through the lands of King Arthur, Cormac Mac Art, a Irish descendant of Kull and Conan, is accompanied by Wulfhere the Skull-Splitter in a fight against the men, monarchs, and monsters of a dark age.
Bran Mak Morn: The Last King — (2005) Publisher: From Robert E. Howard’s fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s greatest heroes, including Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane. But of all Howard’s characters, none embodied his creator’s brooding temperament more than Bran Mak Morn, the last king of a doomed race. In ages past, the Picts ruled all of Europe. But the descendants of those proud conquerors have sunk into barbarism… all save one, Bran Mak Morn, whose bloodline remains unbroken. Threatened by the Celts and the Romans, the Pictish tribes rally under his banner to fight for their very survival, while Bran fights to restore the glory of his race. Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, this collection gathers together all of Howard’s published stories and poems featuring Bran Mak Morn–including the eerie masterpiece “Worms of the Earth” and “Kings of the Night,” in which sorcery summons Kull the conqueror from out of the depths of time to stand with Bran against the Roman invaders. Also included are previously unpublished stories and fragments, reproductions of manuscripts bearing Howard’s handwritten revisions, and much, much more. Special Bonus: a newly discovered adventure by Howard, presented here for the very first time.
The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard — (2004-2007) Publisher: Shadow Kingdoms is the first volume of the Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, presenting all of Howard’s work for the pulp magazine Weird Tales meticulously restored to its original magazine texts. This volume begins with “Spear and Fang,” Howard’s first professional fiction sale, and concludes with “Red Thunder,” a gripping sword & sorcery tale. Series characters present in this volume include King Kull and Solomon Kane. Edited by Paul Herman. Introduction by Mark Finn. Cover by Stephen Fabian.
The Best of Robert E. Howard — (2007) 
Publisher: Robert E. Howard is one of the most famous and influential pulp authors of the twentieth century. Though largely known as the man who invented the sword-and-sorcery genre — and for his iconic hero Conan the Cimmerian — Howard also wrote horror tales, desert adventures, detective yarns, epic poetry, and more. This spectacular volume, gorgeously illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, includes some of his best and most popular works. Inside, readers will discover (or rediscover) such gems as “The Shadow Kingdom,” featuring Kull of Atlantis and considered by many to be the first sword-and-sorcery story; “The Fightin’est Pair,” part of one of Howard’s most successful series, chronicling the travails of Steve Costigan, a merchant seaman with fists of steel and a head of wood; “The Grey God Passes,” a haunting tale about the passing of an age, told against the backdrop of Irish history and legend; “Worms of the Earth,” a brooding narrative featuring Bran Mak Morn, about which H. P. Lovecraft said, “Few readers will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of [this] macabre masterpiece”; a historical poem relating a momentous battle between Cimbri and the legions of Rome; and “Sharp’s Gun Serenade,” one of the last and funniest of the Breckinridge Elkins tales. These thrilling, eerie, compelling, swashbuckling stories and poems have been restored to their original form, presented just as the author intended. There is little doubt that after more than seven decades the voice of Robert E. Howard continues to resonate with readers around the world.
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard — (2010) Publisher: Among the great pulp writers whose work continues to enthrall new generations of readers — Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler — few were as versatile as Robert E. Howard. Best known as the creator of Conan, Howard also wrote not only of other memorable fantasy characters, such as Puritan swordsman Solomon Kane and Pictish king Bran Mak Morn, but hundreds of stories of boxing, detection, westerns, horror, “weird menace,” desert adventure, lost race, historicals, “spicies”, even “true confessions.” Robert E. Howard is best known as the father of “sword and sorcery” fiction, an exciting blend of swashbuckling action and supernatural horror epitomized by his characters King Kull, barbarian usurper of the throne of fabled Valusia, and Conan, who wanders the Hyborian Age “to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.” But the young Texas author was far more gifted and versatile than many readers know: in a career that lasted only twelve years before his untimely death, he wrote some 300 stories and 800 poems, covering anastonishing variety of subject matter — fantasy, boxing, westerns, horror, adventure, historical, detective, spicy, even confessions — running the gamut from dark fantasy to broad humor, from brooding horror to gentle love story.
(1906-1936)
Conan the Barbarian: The Stories that Inspired the Movie
Midnight's Choice: Good followup
Blood Rites: Never lets go
The Sword of Shannara: Derivative
