Book Review: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian

The Conan stories have always been special to me, and I was motivated to read these tales again as nostalgia after losing my Dad. I remember a trip to Alabama, long ago, where Dad went to his old bookshelf and scrounged for a beaten-up paperback. It showed a grim, dark-haired warrior standing on a pile of bodies. The title was Conan the Adventurer by Robert E. Howard. Later that night the bloody tales of the Cimmerian began from me, and I dug up more of my Dad’s paperbacks and later collected even more from Dr. No’s in Marietta, Georgia (now best known as a game store but back then traded and sold books, records, and comics).

I was no stranger to the character, as my first exposure was in the movie Conan the Barbarian starring the Governator. But from the first couple of pages I knew that the original conception of Conan was a bit different from the largely silent avenger in the movie who contemplated the murder of a giant snake on the Tree of Woe. The Conan of the stories was a muscular barbarian, to be sure, but he was neither stoic nor grim. And he was also no idiot; by the time he was king he could speak many languages and was able to read and write in more than a few of them. While he didn’t always understand the agendas or rules of civilized men, he also had no desire to return to the harsh, unforgiving lands of his birth. Conan was certainly no “hero” by most definitions, but he was a loyal and honest friend, could be trusted to keep an oath, and did not mistreat women (unlike many “civilized”) characters in those tales.

What I didn’t know when reading that first paperback (featuring the unusual and unforgettable art of Frank Frazetta) was all the tinkering that was done to the original author’s work. At the time I just knew that some tales were more satisfying for me than others. Only later did I learn that there was revision, “posthumous collaborations,” and pastiches performed by [author:L. Sprague de Camp] and [author:Lin Carter]. Some Howard purists blast de Camp and Carter for bastardizing Howard’s original works, but in the end I’m grateful that they rescued Conan from the pulp magazines of the 1930s and brought the character to a level of popularity that he never knew while Howard was alive.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is the first of three collections of Howard’s original stories. The editors have worked to restore the text to the original published version and in some cases have even gone back to Howard’s original manuscripts (loaned from a collector). It also presents the stories in the order in which they were written, something that required a bit of editorial detective work. It begins with his first imagining of the Hyborian world with a poem, “Cimmeria,” and then begins with the yarn called “The Phoenix on the Sword.”

Howard did not write the Conan stories in any sort of chronological order. The very first tale has Conan as the troubled, middle-aged king of Aquilonia, and the second leaps back into the barbarian’s younger days as a mercenary. He wrote the stories as they occurred to him, as if an old soldier was telling you tales by the campfire in no particular order.

Those looking for political correctness in their sword-and-sorcery should probably look elsewhere. Howard was a Texan in the 1930s, and his views on race and women have offended some modern readers. For me, it’s quite easy to remember the source and just enjoy and action and adventure.

One element to recommend include Howard’s use of language. He was, among other things, a poet. Howard can pack amazing imagery and lots of action in a few short sentences that a lesser writer (a.k.a. me) would have needed several paragraphs in order to say the same thing and not as well. Few authors have ever put such vivid and intense scenes in my head, and never with such economy of words.

Fans of H.P. Lovecraft and tales of Cthulhu should note that Howard was a friend and admirer of Lovecraft the and it could easily be argued that the Conan stories take place within the Cthulhu mythos. The view of the universe, the workings of magic, and the alien creatures from beyond the stars all make perfect sense in Lovecraft’s frightening universe.

The fictional Hyborian age is a well-realized world in which Conan can wander and find adventure. While not the complete creation of Middle Earth, it’s instead a chunk of missing history that “might have” existed long ago. The races, cultures, and places have connections to actual history but free Howard from the research to make such things authentic. Yet the names are the same or similar so the reader doesn’t need much help to understand where Conan is and the places that he’s visiting.

It’s important to note that Howard was a “working writer” in the sense that he wasn’t trying to make art for its own sake. He was writing for magazines and journals, making a living during extremely hard times, and adjusting his work to help it sell. Some of the stories are fun but forgettable, while others manage to transcend. Conan risked incredible danger for great wealth in “The Tower of the Elephant,” yet gave up on his greed to help a pitiable, frightening alien creature. He was ready to die in battle yet ended up finding love that defied death itself in “Queen of the Black Coast.”

There are many reasons to recommend this volume, whether you are already a rabid Howard fanboy (a.k.a. me) or a newcomer to his stories. Read the stories as he originally intended in this collection, as well as The Bloody Crown of Conan and The Conquering Sword of Conan.