The Complete Chronicles of Conan [Hardcover]

Robert E. Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2009 | Series: Gollancz

Conan the Cimmerian—the boy-thief who became a mercenary, who fought and loved his way across fabled lands to become King of Aquilonia. Neither supernatural fiends nor demonic sorcery could oppose the barbarian warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legendary Hyborian age. Collected here in the chronological order they were first published are Robert E. Howard's definitive stories of Conan, exactly as he wrote them. A foreword and afterword by Stephen Jones provide a biography of Howard along with a comprehensive overview of his writing and background on the world of pulp fiction. World Fantasy Award-nominee Les Edwards contributes a black and white frontispiece, along with a gold embossed work on the leather-style cover, while Hugo Award- and Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and author Stephen Jones provides an insightful afterword. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Howard was the Thomas Wolfe of fantasy, and most of his Conan tales seem to almost fall over themselves in their need to get out."  —Stephen King

"A hero of mythic proportion, fashioned by a storyteller who helped define what a modern fantasy should be. Rogues in the House is one of the finest tales of sword and sorcery ever written."  —Raymond E. Feist, author, The Riftwar Cycle

"Handsome."  —Fantasy and Science Fiction

About the Author

Robert E. Howard's (1906–1936) tales of heroic and supernatural fantasy won him a huge audience across the world and influenced a whole generation of writers, from Robert Jordan to Raymond E. Feist.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 928 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz; Centenary ed edition (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575077662
• ISBN-13: 978-0575077669
• Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 6.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

(1906-1936) Robert Erwin Howard was born and rasied in rural Texas, where he lived all his life. The son of a pioneer physician, he began writing professionally at the age of fifteen. Howard killed himself in June 1936 when he learned that his beloved mother had fallen into a coma.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

154 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An imperfect collection, August 22, 2009

By 

T. Simons (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Chronicles of Conan (Hardcover)

If you're at all a fan of fantasy, you owe it to yourself to read the original Conan stories written by Robert E. Howard. He's one of the very few writers of pre-Tolkien fantasy whose characters are still household words a hundred years later. There's a reason. Conan is an elemental, archetypal character, and Howard's writing is masterful -- as Stephen King described it, "Howard's writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks." No one else in fantasy has ever managed to write action as ferociously primal as Howard, and Howard's original Conan stories have a madness and a ferocious joy that no other writer has ever completely recaptured. If you've only seen Conan through knockoffs or films, do yourself a favor and read the original: the difference is like whiskey to water.

I like this collection because it's a one-volume collection of all Howards' Conan stories, in order of publication without extraneous materials edited by L. Sprague de Camp or others based on Howard's notes -- for example, it foregoes including "The Treasure of Tranicos" (de Camp's edited version) in favor of Howard's original Conan story, "The Black Stranger" (which was rejected for publication, rewritten by Howard for another character named Black Vulmea, which was again re-written by DeCamp as "Tranicos"). It contains Howard's two essays on the Hyborian Age (detailing history before and after Conan, respectively), the poem "Cimmeria," and all in all contains everything it needs to contain and nothing it shouldn't -- a solid, single-volume collection of the original Conan stories by Howard, in order of publication.

There are two comparatively minor flaws with this volume.

The first is that for some of the stories herein, the editor used the text as initially *published*, rather than as initially *written*. While a great improvement over publishing de Camp's altered versions, this is still a problem because Howard's editor at _Weird Tales_ made some edits to the stories. This isn't a critical issue for most readers, but if you'd prefer to spend the extra for complete textual accuracy, the three-volume Del Rey set (_The Bloody Crown of Conan_, _The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian_, and _The Conquering Sword of Conan_) used, as much as possible, Howard's original, unedited text. So for sticklers, go with those editions.

The second flaw with this volume is the artwork. There's a great deal of magnificent Conan artwork out there, and the illustrations in this volume aren't the best I've seen. Again, not a major issue, but if this had included Frank Franzetta's Conan illustrations, it would have been a heirloom volume.

A complete list of the contents:

The Hyborian Age (essay)
Cimmeria (verse)
The Phoenix on the Sword
The Scarlet Citadel
The Tower of the Elephant
Black Colossus
The Slithering Shadow
The Pool of the Black One
Rogues in the House
Shadows in the Moonlight
Queen of the Black Coast
The Devil in Iron
The People of the Black Circle
A Witch Shall Be Born
Jewels of Gwahlur
Beyond the Black River
Shadows in Zamboula
Red Nails
The Hour of the Dragon (verse)
The Hour of the Dragon
The God in the Bowl
The Black Stranger
The Frost-Giant's Daughter
Drums of Tombalku (draft)
The Vale of Lost Women
Wolves Beyond the Border (draft)
The Snout in the Dark (draft)
The Hall of the Dead (synopsis)
The Hand of Nergal (fragment)
Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age
Afterword: Robert E. Howard and Conan by Stephen Jones.

92 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Counter, November 30, 2008

By 

RG69 (US) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Complete Chronicles of Conan (Hardcover)

Just making a note to people looking at this product. The other reviewer is reviewing the wrong product. He is reviewing the Conan comic book collected edition. This book is all of the original Robert E Howard Conan stories in chronological order in their true form. If they were not completed, then they were left that way. This is pure 100% Robert E Howard.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, May 28, 2009

By 

Steve B. (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Chronicles of Conan (Hardcover)

I really like the book. The fonts are very easy to read compared to the Del Rey trade paperback, three book series.

I wish the book construction was better. The hardcover version has a simulated leather cover that can scuff if one is not careful. Also, the book's spine is too soft so when the book is opened in the middle, the inner spine with the stitching and glue arches and the outer spine with the simulated leather arches the other way. I can push the outer spine in but then it folds inward. This is a good way to ruin such a fine book. The paperback version isn't any better since the book is so thick that the spine will crease unless one is very carefull. Mine is already creased. I'm keeping the hardcover one for my collection and I use the paperback version to read. The paperback version is exactly the same as the hardcover except for the cover materials.

Also, I wish there were more illustrations.

I first started reading Conan when I was a kid. A friend of mine had the Ace paperback collection (some stories were edited by various authors). I bought all of the same books and later sold them to a used bookstore when I was in college. I missed those stories and was glad to find these new books. Even though I have the three book Del Rey series, I wanted this one for my collection too.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read Conan! I used to imagine I was in a different world while reading Conan.

This is so great having all of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories in one book.