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| Posted By : Angeline Hawkes - 9/28/2005 8:41 AM | So, it's been years since I read the original books and any of the subsequent volumes. I managed to get a number of them off ebay and am now reading through them in order. I'm on Conan the Usurper currently. And loving it all over again. Even got my husband to start reading them, and he's never read anything but the novel that was based on [or the other way around, can't remember which but the one I have has movie photos in it] from the first Conan movie.
http://www.angelinehawkes-craig.com
The Swan Road
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.asp?ISBN=1-55404-239-9 |
| Posted By : PaulMc - 9/28/2005 8:52 AM | quote:
Originally posted by AngelineHawkes-Craig
So, it's been years since I read the original books and any of the subsequent volumes. I managed to get a number of them off ebay and am now reading through them in order. I'm on Conan the Usurper currently. And loving it all over again. Even got my husband to start reading them, and he's never read anything but the novel that was based on [or the other way around, can't remember which but the one I have has movie photos in it] from the first Conan movie.
eBay and ACE are a good place to start, but if you can you should try the new Del Rey collections or the Berkley collections from the 70s that were edited by Karl Edward Wagner. Those collections present the stories in their original published format.
Personally, I don't have a problem with the DeCamp arrangement, but I think it is proper to point out where one can find the original, unadulterated stories. [:D]
-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net |
| Posted By : Angeline Hawkes - 9/29/2005 4:07 AM | Hi Paul, I've had my eye on the new books. I'm putting them on my Christmas wish list. I don't have the problem some readers do with DeCamp either, but I'd like to read them both and compare.
http://www.angelinehawkes-craig.com
The Swan Road
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.asp?ISBN=1-55404-239-9 |
| Posted By : Shrews - 10/29/2005 5:02 PM | Yeah, but read the new ones that are purer to what REH wanted. Yeah I read all of the old ones. Good stuff to be sure. I guess in my old age I have gotten more refined :P
For all the works of cultured man
Must fare and fade and fall.
I am the Dark Barbarian
That towers over all.
-Robert E. Howard |
| Posted By : Angeline Hawkes - 10/30/2005 8:33 AM | Reading the new ones now [hubbie bought me the books so I crossed them off my Christmas Wish List yay!]. In some spots it is hard to tell what DeCamp edited, in other parts, I can tell a difference. Howard seems more action-driven than the tone in some of the altered spots. That might just be me "thinking" it reads differently though..too soon to tell yet. When I finish the entire first volume of the collected un-DeCamp-ed tales, I'll let you know if I still feel this way.
http://www.angelinehawkes-craig.com
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| Posted By : ragemachine - 1/17/2006 5:50 PM | Angeline,
I've been doing the same but from another direction. I've been reading all the Howard Conan stories in order of publication. This can be hard to do when some have been altered by those pesky de Camp and Carter fellows. If you can, try reading the original magazine versions. The editors cleaned Conan up quite a bit.
I've just finished "The Queen of the Black Coast" which starts almost laughably bad with Belit declaring her love for Conan on the deck of the ship (get a room you two!) but by the end it is a powerful tale. Howard wrote with such vitality. That's why he's on my BIG FOUR LIST
The four writers I emulate for style(in no particulr order):
1. Robert E. Howard
2. Erle Stanley gardner
3. Louis L'Amour
4. Georges Simenon
GW
G. W. Thomas has appeared in over 350 different books, magazines and ezines including Black October Magazine, Writer's Digest and The Armchair Detective.
http://ragemachinemag.tripod.com |
| Posted By : jackmangan - 1/17/2006 6:35 PM | OK, my reading queue is already backed-up, but I'm interested in someday checking out Howard's Conan books. You guys seem to know what you're talking about -- where does one start? Which books or stories?
I'd probably also be inclined to read them in publication order.
Get Spherical!
"Spherical Tomi" from Creative Guy Publishing
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| Posted By : PaulMc - 1/18/2006 4:44 AM | quote:
Originally posted by jackmangan
OK, my reading queue is already backed-up, but I'm interested in someday checking out Howard's Conan books. You guys seem to know what you're talking about -- where does one start? Which books or stories?
I'd probably also be inclined to read them in publication order.
Then start with the three recent Del Rey editions;
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
The Bloody Crown of Conan
The Conquering Sword of Conan
Those have all of REH's originals, in publication order (or, at least, written order.) (which are not chronological in terms of the character's life)
-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net
"Queen of the Sepulcher" still appearing at The Sword Review - Bonus Features |
| Posted By : gwthomas21 - 4/2/2006 11:40 AM | My suggestion is, if you can, start with the Robert E. Howard stories only. Leave the pastiches for later. Make a list and read them in order of publication too. Ignore all the L. Sprague de camp intro stuff, ignore as much of the later additions as possible. Just read Howard. Then if you want more, read the rest. This is a very different experience than following the packaged ACE books. If you can get your hands on them, find the Karl Edward Wagner editions, which are not prettied up.
GW
G. W. Thomas is editor/publisher of RAGE m a c h i n e Books at www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks His website is www.gwthomas.org |
| Posted By : Shrews - 4/9/2006 6:53 PM | yeah stick to REH
KEW wrote a great one in ROAD OF KINGS
one of the few I'd recommend
For all the works of cultured man
Must fare and fade and fall.
I am the Dark Barbarian
That towers over all.
-Robert E. Howard |
| Posted By : Bruce Durham - 4/10/2006 6:53 PM | You may want to try John Hockings's Conan & the Emerald Lotus and Conan the Rogue by John Maddox Roberts. However the consensus, and I tend to agree, is the majority of pastiches are of sub quality.
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