Our ongoing series reviewing audio adaptations of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror works. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
Reviewed by John J. Joex
Book Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars
Audiobook Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Of course, most genre fans know Conan as Robert E. Howard’s infamous barbarian character who first sprang to life in a series of short stories initially published in the Weird Tales pulp magazine (the publication that was also a mainstay for other well known names in Horror and Fantasy like H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, and Clark Ashton Smith). But how many have actually read the original tales by Howard? Sure, plenty of Fantasy fans have indulged in the comic book adaptations put out by Marvel and Dark Horse or seen the film and television adaptations. But what about those original stories?
Conan got his start when Robert E. Howard was looking for a new fantasy character and adapted a story he originally intended for his Kull of Atlantis series of short stories. The character’s name had actually first been mentioned in a past lives story that Howard wrote called “People of the Dark”, but he had his first full appearance in the short story “The Phoenix on the Sword”, published originally in Weird Tales. From there, Howard would go on to write an additional twenty tales that would feature Conan and these would chronicle the various phases of his life as a barbarian, a thief, and a king. This relatively short repertoire of stories would live on in print for years, though, as various authors would adapt them and expand on them, bringing in unfinished Howard tales or adding new elements of their own. And then the character would see new life again beginning with the comic book version put out by Marvel in the 70’s that would essentially establish Conan as a franchise.
The original tales have since been compiled into a collection of three books and appear here in the original order that Howard wrote them (the other two books in the series are The Bloody Crown of Conan and The Conquering Sword of Conan). The books mentioned above tried to take the original stories and put them into chronological order and provide some bridging narration, but these three volumes choose not to take that approach. They follow the order that Howard wrote them, even though that sticks to no cohesive timeline. The introduction to the first volume suggests this is best because the story ideas came to Howard as if he was listening to legends recounted to him by the fireside. So some readers may find this a bit nerve-racking, especially if they are unfamiliar with the character, because almost no attempt is made to link one tale to another or fill in any backstory. But a little bit of supplemental reading on Wikipedia should suffice to give the reader enough understanding of Conan’s history to make this a non-issue. The excellent introduction to the first volume also provides some information on the character as well as his publication history.
And these Conan tales are definitely a must-read for Fantasy fans. Howard’s creation is a pivotal character for the genre, and the author delivers grand, epic accounts of Conan’s deeds and triumphs. The Cimmerian is a classic pulp action character from the mold of manly men who could face any challenge and woo any woman, and he does this all with his muscles bulging and his smoldering blue eyes piercing through his foes. Conan gives us the ultimate individual. A man of barbarian roots who will not succumb to civilization even when he reigns as king. And the themes of the barbarian vs. the civilized world dominate many of these tales (along with their myriad fantasy elements). Note that these tales are not necessarily strong on story craft, focusing much more on action and epic grandeur. But Howard excels at that and succeeds in transcending the pulp trappings to give us a mythology of his own making.
The audio adaptation of this book is quite competent with narrator Todd McLaren doing a good job of reading the text and acting out the voices of the various characters. He does seem to give Conan a hint of an Irish brogue early on (Cimmeria is supposedly in that general vicinity) which just does not sound quite right connected to the character (we of course expect to hear the Arnold accent). But that disappears almost right away so it is not too much of an issue. The other thing to note is that Howard’s tales tend to end rather abruptly and McLaren barely gives a beat’s rest when proceeding to the next tale, so that threw me off a few times while listening. But still only a minor quibble. You can buy the audiobook from Barnes and Noble or download it through the Audible.com service. And the Books Free rental service has the audiobook available as well.
If you have never read the original Conan tales, then I recommend either getting the print version of this collection or the audio adaptation, because this delivers a seminal collection of Fantasy stories that helped establish many of the genre standards that would follow in the years to come.
