Customer Reviews

Conan The Adventurer (Conan Series, Book 5)

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Darker than the other novelettes, and more uniquely Howard. Plenty of action, the people of the black circle is the best story. Sword swinging and hackles raising on his neck Conan hews through sorcery! An entertaining read, ignore the other bad reviews; this book will keep you occupied for hours with prose that spark the imagination like no others. George Lucas should try his hand at a film rendition of Conan before he dies.

This is the first volume of the collected 'Conan the Barbarian' stories originally published by Lancer Books in 1966, which was to have been 4th chronologically to Conan's 'life' (However the number '2' appears on the spine!) The original paperback edition had cover art by Frank Frazetta. The book contains 4 stories:

People of the Black Circle (REH)

The Slithering Shadow (REH)

The Drums of Tombalku (DeCamp, REH)

The Pool of the Black One (REH)

Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) created the premiere sword-and-sorcery character Conan the barbarian for the pulp magazine "Weird Tales" in the early 1930's. L. Sprague De Camp, an academic and literary fantasist, edited the stories for re-publication in the 1960's. He also obtained outlines for never-completed Conan tales from Howard's literary agent, Glenn Lord, and used them to produce pastiches in the Howard manner. "The Drums of Tombalku" is one of these stories; although REH is listed as co-author the story is really assembled from such adventures as "Jewels of Gwahlur" and "The Slithering Shadow". Oddly Conan plays an incidental role; it is Almuric the Aquilonian adventurer who discovers the lost, decaying city of a dying race who are preyed upon by a supernatural monster, and rescues the damsel in distress. Conan is tacked on at the end in a bit of mercenary intrigue that appears to be included only to give him a role in the story - as a fairy Godfather?

Of the real Howard stories, "People of the Black Circle" is the best, a neat mixture of sorcery, intrigue and action. "The Slithering Shadow" is a formulaic lost-city- decayed-race- monster-threatens-the-ingenue story, and "Pool of the Black One" is only a minor variation on the theme.

I bought this as a gift for my dad since he had one growing up and had lost it over the years. He loved the book and it was in excellent condition, good buy for the price!