The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: The Original Adventures of the Greatest Sword and Sorcery Hero of All Time! [Paperback]

Robert E. Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2003

“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.

In a meteoric career that spanned a mere twelve years before his tragic suicide, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Howard’s writing seems so highly charged that it nearly gives off sparks.”
–STEPHEN KING

“I adore these books. Howard had a gritty, vibrant style–broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger than life. I heartily recommend them to anyone who loves fantasy.”
–DAVID GEMMELL
Author of Legend and White Wolf

“The voice of Robert E. Howard still resonates after decades with readers– equal parts ringing steel, thunderous horse hooves, and spattered blood.
Far from being a stereotype, his creation of Conan is the high heroic adventurer. His raw muscle and sinews, boiling temper, and lusty
laughs are the gauge by which all modern heroes must be measured.”
–ERIC NYLUND, Author of
Halo: The Fall of Reach and Signal to Noise

“That teller of marvelous tales, Robert Howard, did indeed create a giant [Conan] in whose shadow other ‘hero tales’ must stand.”
–JOHN JAKES, New York Times bestselling author
of the North and South trilogy

“For stark, living fear . . . What other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?”
–H. P. LOVECRAFT

From the Inside Flap

?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.

In a meteoric career that spanned a mere twelve years before his tragic suicide, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. 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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 463 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (December 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345461517
• ISBN-13: 978-0345461513
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (129 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > 20th Century

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

209 of 213 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BACK IN PRINT -- Robert E. Howard's great creation!, January 28, 2004

By 

Claude Avary "West Coast Reader" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: The Original Adventures of the Greatest Sword and Sorcery Hero of All Time! (Paperback)

If 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 Sword
2. The Frost-Giant's Daughter
3. The God in the Bowl
4. The Tower of the Elephant
5. The Scarlet Citadel
6. Queen of the Black Coast
7. Black Colossus
8. 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 One
11. The Vale of Lost Women
12. The Devil in Iron
13. 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.

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent tribute to Robert Howard, June 27, 2004

By 

Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: The Original Adventures of the Greatest Sword and Sorcery Hero of All Time! (Paperback)

If a teacher assigned a project requiring you to draw up a list of the most influential authors in the fantasy/science fiction genre, Robert E. Howard would sit safely in the top five. Along with H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, Howard was one of the groundbreaking influences in popular fiction of the 1930s. His influence is still felt today as evidenced by the large number of books containing stories based on his most popular creation, Conan the Cimmerian. Sadly, most of these newer tales, spun from unfinished fragments found in Howard's possession after his untimely demise in 1936, barely manage to attain a shadow of the glory found in the original tales. I think of Lin Carter's "Conan the Liberator," a truly awful piece of junk based on one of these fragments, and I shudder at the damage done to Robert Howard's reputation. That's why we should all give a warm round of applause to Del Rey for releasing this comprehensive collection of the earliest Conan stories. It's great to see a collection of the original tales available for sale at a reasonable price. Moreover, the book contains a foreword from the illustrator chosen to draw for this collection, a fascinating piece of criticism examining Howard's influences, and a few other goodies shedding even more light on how Conan came about. The order of the stories, too, mirrors exactly the sequence in which the author wrote them.

"The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian" is, I am embarrassed to say, my first foray into the original Conan tales. I looked around for these things for years, but always found the prices in the secondary market-usually for moth eaten copies of decades old versions-to much weight to place on my wallet. I did get a chance to read a few of Howard's Bran Mak Morn stories, several of his Cthulhu tales, and a couple of other great stories completely unrelated to Conan. Still, it's not the same. To know Howard is to read the Conan sagas. Included here are thirteen original stories, beginning with "The Phoenix on the Sword" and including such epics as "The Tower of the Elephant," "The Scarlet Citadel," "Queen of the Black Coast," and "Black Colossus." Lesser, but by no means uninteresting stories, include "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," "The God in the Bowl," "Iron Shadows in the Moon," "Rogues in the House," and "Xuthal of the Dusk." Included also is Howard's history of his Hyborian Age, a lengthy discussion of the various nations and peoples that form the backdrop of the Conan adventures. The author's love for setting stories in the historical past led him to create an alternate version of world history, one that resembled in many ways our own ancient times but allowed him to make up things as he went along. The history of the Hyborian Age alone is worth the price of the book.

It's impossible to adequately summarize every story, or even most of the stories, contained in the collection. A few worth noting include "The Phoenix on the Sword," where King Conan of Aquilonia thwarts a coup attempt with the help of a long dead sorcerer. Another winner is "The Tower of the Elephant," which finds Conan as a thief attempting to steal the wealth locked up in a malefic temple. "The Scarlet Citadel" and "Black Colossus" work so well because the two stories give Howard the opportunity to write extremely involved descriptions of huge battles against a background of magnificently executed scenes of phantasmagoric weirdness. Even the lesser tales contain enough flashes of brilliance and imagination to keep the reader riveted to the page. Conan battles giant apes, evil alien beings that turn humans into shrunken dolls in a magical pond, a vicious god preying on decadent citizens of an ancient city, and slays frost giants in pursuit of a goddess, all without batting an eye. Swords flash, armies clash, women fawn, sorcerers cast spells, and Conan wins the day in his inimitable taciturn style. All of the stories move at a lightening quick pace.

Sure, a few of the stories here follow a rather formulaic structure, but that doesn't make them any less entertaining. I think there's a tendency by some people to sneer at fantasy books and stories; they argue that the simplistic writing style and predictable plots do not inspire readers to peruse REAL literature, and to some extent that claim may contain grains of truth. But as Patrice Louinet makes clear in her introduction and analysis of Howard's Conan stories, this author was an extremely intelligent, well read individual who infused his stories with elements borrowed from Bulfinch's works on ancient and medieval history. As for simplistic writing style, you won't find much of that here. Howard routinely uses elevated prose in the construction of his stories, and while he's no Clark Ashton Smith or H.P. Lovecraft in terms of OED inspired vocabulary, his language still rises much higher than you would think.

The only problem I had with the book concerned Louinet's assessment of Howard's Conan canon. I haven't read much about the underpinnings of writers like Lovecraft, Howard, and the other fantasy writers in the 1930s, but I always suspected the success of these authors rested heavily on the Great Depression. Howard wrote about a warrior of great physical, mental, and moral strength, perhaps, because a man with such traits was necessary in a time of great social turmoil. American audiences yearned for stories that created worlds where bread lines, bank closings, and starvation didn't exist. Moreover, they longed for characters that could triumph over seemingly insurmountable obstacles with nothing more than their native abilities to fall back upon. Anyway, read these stories. All fans of fantasy/horror/science fiction should pick up a copy of this book immediately. I can't wait for the next volume.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elemental Myth Burns on the Page, December 4, 2003

By 

John C. Hocking (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: The Original Adventures of the Greatest Sword and Sorcery Hero of All Time! (Paperback)

In a society in which self-conscious irony has become standard in virtually every form of entertainment, these stories shine with the blinding light of 100% sincerity. This is pulp fiction elevated to the level of myth. Howard's hero moves through, and dominates, the Hyborian Age in much the same way that Beowulf and Odysseus do in their own, older, more respected, myths.
Conan is a character hewn from the fabric of saga and legend; dark, dangerous, unpredictable, as much an embodiment of the forces of nature as a human being. His world comes alive as a wildly imaginative patchwork of ancient and medieval history, filled with haunting references to our own past yet existing as a independent world as lushly alive as any in fantasy.
These stories have been more influential and imitated than practically any others in genre literature. But they have never been duplicated. Howard's prose is shocking in both its power and diversity, frustrating attempts at either imitation or parody. Sharp, hardboiled sentences drive home the fierce brutality of combat. Vivid, often lyrical, passages describe the sprawling majesty of the Hyborian world. Darkly ominous writing depicts the creeping horror of otherworldly sorcery.
If you know Conan only from film, comics or pastiche novels, you don't know Conan at all. Read Robert E. Howard's fiery words and discover some of the most potent, most primal, fantasy ever written.