The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: Book One: 1 (Conan the Barbarian)

I wanted to complete my Conan collection,the stories are sci-fi fantasy set in a bygone age you have to be a follower of this particular genre.

Contrary to another review which says it's been superseded by the Complete Chronicles edition I much prefer this one (meaning: the 3 volumes). The paper is better quality, the preface gives a clever insight about the way Howard related to his hero, the ordering makes sense (and you can appreciate how Howard's style evolved over the years), the illustrations are beautifully rendered. Personally I also prefer to read from a manageable sized book (especially in bed!) rather than from a volume as heavy as the Chronicles. In term of content this edition contains the same stories (i.e. everything written by Howard on Conan) as the Complete Chronicles. There are some additional material there too, like letters and commentaries to and by Howard, which I don't think you'll find in the Compete Chronicles edition. The only reason you might want the Complete Chronicles is that they are slightly cheaper.Naturally the stories themselves deserve 5 stars, but these 5 stars I give here are for the edition as much as for the work itself.

Been reading the dark horse and new marvel comics for a while now so I thought I would give the original stories a go. Wow,never realised how good a writer and storyteller Robert E Howard was!!!. He really puts you into the story and you can really smell the danky ,musky tombs and visualise the bloody,smashed battlefields!. A master of his trade and Conan is a much more articulate,clever character than the Arnie films make him out!.

Christmas pressie

This is an old story however still a great read

Good read. Everyone should read it

The book arrived safely to the recipient! Many thanks!

Hi, I would like to say that i have no read the book yet, however i found this review very usefull from the American website. It lists all of the books that are covered by this volume.I'll report back once i have read the book.LeeBy Ryan Harvey "Wolf Shadow" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviewsIf you're a fan of fantasy author Robert E. Howard, who wrote for the pulps in the 1920s and 30s, rejoice! His stories of the great barbarian adventurer Conan are coming back in print, without unnecessary editing. These are the original texts.If you enjoy fantasy, but have never read either Howard or Conan -- BUY THIS NOW. It is a must for lovers of fantasy. Banish any notions you have of Conan in other media: movies, comics, books by other authors. Howard's Conan is a stunning, unique creation. At turns bloody thrilling, filled with passionate rushes of action, at other times brooding and beautiful, sweeping you off to strange vistas. Howard was a one of a kind author, an American great, and with Conan he was at his best.This first volume covers the first third of Howard's Conan stories, presented in the order they were written. The included stories are (in order):1. The Phoenix on the Sword2. The Frost-Giant's Daughter3. The God in the Bowl4. The Tower of the Elephant5. The Scarlet Citadel6. Queen of the Black Coast7. Black Colossus8. Iron Shadows in the Moon (aka Shadows in the Moonlight)9. Xuthal of the Dusk (aka The Slithering Shadow)10. The Pool of the Black One11. The Vale of Lost Women12. The Devil in Iron13. The Phoenix on the Sword (first submitted draft)Plus a number of fragments and outlines, and Howard's guide to Conan's world: "The Hyborian Age."All the stories are enjoyable, although a few are minor entries in the Conan canon. The superior works are "The Tower of the Elephant," "The Scarlet Citadel," "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," and "Queen of the Black Coast." The last story is the gem of the collection: a grand romantic tragedy that you will never forget. This is one of Howard's ultimate great works.The volume comes with a treasure trove of supporting material: illustrations by Mark Schultz that have a unique take on the character; an informative introduction and very detailed appendicies that go into the history of how Howard wrote the stories and some of his sources, and textual notes for the truly obsessed.This is simply a superb collection: long-time fans and first time readers will all find something to treasure in this salute to one of the major authors and founders of modern fantasy.

Das Buch kam in einwandfreiem Zustand an.

Vienen muchos extras y muchas ilustraciones.Son algunas de las mejores historias de Conan, desde pirata, ladrón, etc etc.

Brilliant job Del Rey and the illustrations by Mark Shultz are peerless; worthy of a Zingaran princess. Howard's stupendous imagination lights fires all over my brain when I read these stories. Who can ever forget the subterranean demigod demon in Xuthal of the Dusk?...or Conan's fistpumping "Who dies first?" fighting off 20+ assassins in the Phoenix on the Sword. Howard had a flare for action but his prosaic descriptions of landscapes and architecture were often the highlight of his stories. On a different note, my copy has an odd page duplication that starts at p.228 whereupon it repeats pages 213-228. Did anyone else find this in their copy? I've contacted Del Rey about it but so far no response. It doesn't interfere with the stories involved in so far as I can pick up at p.229 fifteen pages later. I wonder if there's another book in print with those pages missing? I sense the hand of sorcery in this.Addendum-the publisher, Penguin/Random House, have decided to hide behind a purported U.S. regulation that 'prevents' them from sending replacement books to customers who purchase their faulty books outside of the U.S. because, get this, the book has restriction rights to only be sold in the U.S. even though I can prove I bought it new in Japan. Twisted logic, crap company.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is a great collection of Robert E Howard's masterful shorter stories on the mighty thewed barbarian. This is also the best audiobook series of Conan that you can buy. I own the "Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus" audiobook as well and this one narrated by Todd Maclaren is the superior of the two. (Although I laugh every time I hear him say "Beneath his sandaled FREET" yes, that mistake made it through.)Included are: The Tower of the Elephant, Queen of the Black Coast, The Phoenix on the Sword, Black Colossus, The Scarlet Citadel, The Frost Giants Daughter and many more. I highly recommend either the book or the audiobook as Conan is a series that any fa of fantasy NEEDS to experience. Robert E Howard was a master before his time!!

What more can be said after 100 positive user reviews, with only two negatives which are either nonsensical or idealistically motivated, to convince you that this is a top quality book? The editors have done the heroic service of bringing the original Howard Conan stories back into print and in their original sequence for the first time, with no editorial tampering. Moreover, the stories are brought to life by the excellent illustrations of Mark Schultz, which shimmer with their own creativity and capture a sense of motion perfectly fitting the classic Howardian action sequence. Each section is preceded by a small vignette of the section's climatic episode, whetting the reader's curiosity and drawing him forward like tantalizing carrot. Top marks for the quality of the production. As to Howard's stories, I admit I was completely unprepared for this American Homer. Howard's writing style is simply marvelous with a poetic flair and vividness unmatched in the pulps. He wields a rich complex descriptive vocabulary that is almost unbelievable for someone of his years. Howard was like the Shelley or Keats of fantasy literature. Howard's writing is far more literary in quality than either A. Merrit or Burrough's, his nearest literary progenitors. The dialogue is sharp and entertaining. Howard is master of many moods, alternating from gritty realism to the high, courtly style typical of Dunsany or Vance. As to the individual stories, they vary in quality in terms of plot and imagination, as might be expected, but just about every one is entertaining and has its own great points. The stories are interesting for the variety of types of plot and settings employed by Howard. Some stories are large scale battles with madcap action, such as Black Collossus and Scarlet Citadel. God in the Bowl is a murder mystery styled after Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue, as is Rogues in the House too. Queen of the Black Coast is a take off of Ligeia. Frost Giant's Daughter is like a phantasm, while Tower of the Elephant reads just like a typical Dungeons and Dragons adventure. The best stories are to the front of the book, while the later stories begin to repeat themselves somewhat. The editors explain that Howard was writing quickly because he needed money during that period. In particular, Pool of the Black One is really weak and simply regurgitates plot elements from Iron Shadows in the Moonlight. In both a youth is tortured by large, black hawk-faced men. In one the tormentors are turned to stone, while in the other the youth is made into a statue. In both Conan slays a corsair chieftain to become leader of a pirate ship! The best stories feature poetry and prefatory songs, like the famous preface of Phoenix on the Sword, immortalized by the Conan movie. (Know, O prince, that between the years...) One downside of the stories to me is the pointless eroticism on nearly every page. The act of a female disrobing before Conan is tedious in its ubiquity. Howard casts a wide net, attempting to appeal to many varieties of fetishism. I'm not sure whether this represents Howard's own motive or a general marketing device of the pulps, which were the soft porn of their day. There is no frank sexual content and some barbaric activity is appropriate, but it gets a little too sleazy in its obvious lascivious intent. A second negative point in my opinion is a slight lack of imagination in the monsters. Almost all the badies are oversized garden creatures. Giant spiders, snakes, etc. And whatever the foe, Conan always prevails simply by hacking it to death. Never a cerebral solution to a problem. But then again, that's Conan. Another charming dimension to these stories is the philosophy and symbolism that are woven into the text--this is no mere fluff! There are many discussions of religion and literature that ring true in the real world. Xuthal of the Dusk has subtext about the decline of America--amazing how artists always see their own time as having fallen from a golden age. Lost Women has an interesting message that was stunningly echoed in the movie version. In short, these stories entertain at many levels. There are reverberations of Howard throughout the subsequent fantasy literature. Vance, Leiber, all the Americans pay homage to this genius who invented Sword and Sorcery. And the similarity between Thoth-Amon's frantic searchings for his magic ring and that of Tolkien's Sauron is more than uncanny!