The Bloody Crown of Conan (Conan the Cimmerian, #2) by Robert E. Howard

The Bloody Crown of Conan (Conan the Cimmerian, #2) Reviews

• 
  ✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans)

  Overall rating: 3.717384861533333 stars. More or less.
  
  The Adventures of My Barbarian Paramour, Vol. II! Let's do this and stuff!
  
  
  
  Thrilled to see you’re as excited about this as I am, Cimmerian Cutie Pie Mine!
  
  So there are only three stories in this collection. Which is a complete joke compared to
  The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian and its thirteen delicious Barbarian tales. More than a joke, it is quite the rip-off, if you ask me. Well, I guess it depends on one’s perspective and stuff. I mean, it’s a rip-off to me, but probably a blessing to you, my Little Barnacles, since it means you’ll only have to be put through three fascinating reviews instead of thirteen. So yay for you and stuff.
  
  ① The People of the Black Circle: 3.3536 stars and stuff.
  
  I had a bloody shrimping not fun time trying to rate this one. I mean, it’s entertaining enough (my Barbarian Paramour is in it, so DUH and stuff), but it just isn’t as lusciously titillating as previous Conan stories I read. Yes, Howard’s writing is as Slightly Very Fantastic (SVF™) as ever, not to mention Evocative as Fish (EaF™), but there’s something missing here. After giving it much painful thought, I realized what it was: the story is simply not as wonderfully OTT as earlier Barbarian adventures. And that sucks big squid. (Also, Howard spends the first half of his narrative drowning the reader in Central Asian-sounding names, which 1) doesn’t add much to the story, 2) is kinda sorta not thrilling at all, and 3) is a little boring as shrimp.)
  
  But. The Good Old Conan Basics (GOCB™) are still there, hence the not-so-crappy rating.
  
  First and foremost, we have my Barbarian Paramour of the Ever Jovial Disposition (BPotEJD™):
  

  “You are Conan?”
  “Who else? You sent word into the hills that you wished for me to come and parley with you. Well, by Crom, I’ve come! Keep away from that table or I’ll gut you.”
  […]
  “I’ll split your head like a ripe melon!”

  Ah, such a sweetie, my boyfriend. He’s ever the gentleman with the ladies, too…
  

  “He spanked her resoundingly, and she, recognizing this as merely another expression of admiration, did not feel particularly outraged.”

  Said ladies, clearly being connoisseurs of all things Barbarian, know to appreciate Conan’s loving ministrations. And things get smutty faster than it takes to say “unleash the crustaceans!” when he really turns on the charm…
  

  “She closed her eyes and drank in his fierce, hot, lawless kisses with all the abandon of passionate thirst.”

  Such a hot, irresistible babe, my Cimmerian Cutie Pie. Well, okay, he can be “befogged and stupid” sometimes, but it’s usually temporary. Usually.
  
  
  
  Then again maybe not.
  
  Then we have the Inevitable Babe of the Week (IBofW™). In this case, Yasmina, aka the resident wench Kshatriya, Princess of the Supple Figure. I don’t like her as much as previous IBofWs, to be honest. I think she might be a little too stable and reasonable for my taste. She only thinks of silly things like her kingdom and her peasants people and stuff, meaning she’s no bloody fun at all. Still, she’s good enough IBofW™ material. I suppose. I mean, she’s got the wild sobbing and uncontrollable screaming nailed. She even does the “throwing oneself bodily upon others” quite well. And she definitely gets bonus points for “beating her breast in anguish” (ouch).
  
  
  
  Something like that, yes. Only the breasts being beat upon are much more, um, generous and stuff.
  
  Last, but bloody shrimping not least, we’ve got all those scrumpalicious little things that give all Conan stories that certain je ne sais quoi, that Super Extra Fluffy Quality (SEFQ) I’ve come to ever-so-slightly appreciate a little. You know, stuff like…
  
  Black ghastly magic, a bit of blackmail, conches that bellow like oxen in pain (don’t ask), a touch of friendly kidnapping, infernally queer stuff, wild embraces that turn into strangling fests (I told you not to ask), “frenzied crescendos of human ululation,” hot babes panting hard (and not only from exertion, either), skull splitting and decapitation galore, mockery and malignity, wicked little tingles, shuddersome horror, “terrible disembowelling thrusts,” bestial grins of agony, showers of blood (yay!), and villainously villainous villains with super extra handy hypnotic powers:
  

  “I have no more use for you. Kill yourself!”
  Like a man in a trance the warrior thrust the butt of his spear against the base of the wall, and placed the keen head against his body, just below the ribs. Then slowly, stolidly, he leaned against it with all his weight, so that it transfixed his body and came out between his shoulders. Sliding down the shaft he lay still, the spear jutting above him its full length, like a horrible stalk growing out of his back.

  Nice trick, that! (Note to self: take a Mesmerizing 101 class. Might come in handy with seditious shrimps and stuff.) The villain reminds me a lot of myself, actually. Like me, the poor guy has to deal with measly, insignificant little humans day in day out, and our lord shrimp knows what pains they can be.
  

  “How can I explain my mystic reasons to your puny intellect?”

  Yes! This! So much THIS! Finally, someone who understands me! Twinsies and stuff!
  
  
  
  Sorry, what? My villainous companion and my little self don’t look nefarious at all here? Why, that’s exactly the point, my Lovely Arthropods. We aim to deceive the enemy and all that. What beautifully cunning little minds we have!
  
  ➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): as one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived once said, “people who plot on roofs should remember to lower their voices.” And that, my Tiny Decapods, is 1) a scientifically proven fact and 2) the only piece of advice you will ever need. Because truer words were never spoken and all that. And also because I said so and stuff.
  
  
  
  January 13, 2021: it was recently pointed out to me that my reviews for the Cimmerian Hottie's adventures tend to be a teensy little bit longer than said adventures themselves (pure defamation, I say!). I have therefore decided—in a most uncharacteristic show of utter thoughtfulness—to spare you, puny humans, and make the two following reviews Super Extra Short (SES™) and stuff. This has obviously nothing to do with the fact that a) I'm feeling lazy as shrimp to day and b) I don't want to risk exhausting Goodreads most miserable character allotment for reviews again (as may or may not have happened
  here). Quite welcome you are.
  
  
  
  ② The Hour of the Dragon: 3.432658 stars and stuff.
  
  I was tempted to give this one a 5-star rating, but my Barbarian Paramour doesn't whack anyone with a beef bone at any point in the story, which is totally unacceptable and obviously explains my slightly revised rating.
  
  Okay, to be honest, the story itself is not exactly super yummy, which might also explain the crappy rating. First because it's looooonnnnnnnng. You'd think reading a full-length Cimmerian Cutie Pie novel would have me feeling kinda sorta...
  
  
  
  And that's what I thought was going to happen when I started The Hour of the Dragon, too. I mean, at the beginning of the story, Conan has officially graduated to king status (I have such a mighty hot and powerful boyfriend), which makes him go up up up a notch or three on the scrumptiousness scale. But then, the idiot ends up paralyzed after seeing a pathetic mummy and gets himself kidnapped like a moron.
  
  
  
  Tell me about it 🙄🙄.
  
  Then a lot of blah-blah-blah happens. Yes, there are abominable sorceries, grim monstrosities, grisly man-eaters, skewers that come in handy (don't ask), and the Babe of the Week™ has the required supple/lithe/vibrant figure (not to mention the mandatory wisp of silk twisted about her loins), but it all feels kinda sorta meh for some reason. A good thing Conan's wild, passionate and untamed ways make up for all this revoltingly bland stuff:

  He caught her up in his iron arms, crushed her slim, vibrant figure to him and kissed her fiercely on eyes, cheeks, throat and lips, until she lay panting in his embrace; gusty and tempestuous as a storm-wind, even his love-making was violent.

  That's my boy! Or rather, it would be my boy if he decided to tone down his moronic tendencies once in a while. I mean, even the most dimwitted of barnacles knows that doing stuff like tripping mid-leap because your foot got caught in the fold of a bloody curtain is not exactly the most (choose all that apply) cunning/bright/smooth/slick/skillful/sagacious move. Especially NOT when your name is Conan and you're supposed to be a bloody shrimping Barbarian baddass. (And a certain nefarious breeder of murderous crustacean's super hot boyfriend.)
  
  
  
  Glad we agree on that one, Gustav dear.
  
  
  
  ③ A Witch Shall Be Born: 4.5658965846 stars and stuff.
  
  Now we're talking! This story takes us right back to familiar Decidedly Yummilicious Barbarian Territory (DYBT™) and thank fish for that because I was beginning to think my Cimmerian Cute Pie no longer had what it takes to make my exoskeleton tingle all over and stuff.
  
  So, what makes this one especially scrumptious, you ask? Well, the glorious violence and wondrous body count and exquisitetorture and delightful betrayal and enchanting retribution and most splendiddebauchery (
  infamous revelries, yay!) might have helped a tiny little bit. Maybe. There are also super fun crucifixion sessions which might or might not have inspired Monty Python.
  
  
  
  Oh yeah, I can definitely see the similarities there.
  
  Then we've got Salome, the wicked witch who might not be of the East but is really Quite Fabulously Villainous (QFV™) and Most Wonderfully Depraved (MWD™).

  Lust and mystery sparkled in her scintillant eyes, cruelty lurked in the curl of her full red lips.

  I am so in 💕lurve💕. There's a slight chance I might also be in 💕lurve💕 with Salome's marvelously malevolent partner-in-turpitude, Constantius of the Insatiable Lust and Ever Sardonic Tone, aka He Who Utterly Lacks All Characteristics Men Call Good 😍😍. (Weirdly enough, my Barbarian Paramour isn't very supportive of this newfound love of mine, and doesn't seem to be Constantius' biggest fan, either. That's just because he's jealous, if you ask me.)
  
  But, if you want to know the honestly honest truth, it's not the bloodshed or perversion or unmitigated viciousness that really gave this lovely tale another dimension for me. It's not the Fabulous Villainous witch, either. Neither is it her magnificently vile consort. Most appallingly, nor is it my Cimmerian Toy Boy (shocking, I know). The honestly honest truth is that what made this story lusciously titillating for me is my newly acquired boyfriend Thaug, aka the Super Sexey Beast of the Lithe Limbs and Dazzling Smile.
  
  
  
  Told you he was a sex pot.
  
  Conan does NOT approve. Obviously.
  
  👋 To be continued and stuff.
  
  · Introduction to the world:
  The Hyborian Age ★★★★
  · Book 1:
  The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian ★★★★
  · Book 3:
  The Conquering Sword of Conan ★★★★
• 
  J.G. Keely

  Back when I was a young fencing coach, I had an epiphany about how skill develops that has come to define the way I approach learning. I'd be working with students who might have been fencing for a few weeks or a few months when a new face would walk in. I'd put a sword in his hand and set him up against one of the others and, as often as not, the newcomer would get a few points, despite having no foreknowledge of fencing. His frustrated opponent would sigh, shake his head, and declare "it's not my fault, he was doing weird stuff".
  
  When we first begin to practice any activity, we have no preconception for how it's going to feel, for the rhythm or the most effective techniques--we just do what comes to mind. Then, we are taught all the basic rules, and these rules can be constraining. I could beat every one of those regular students because I knew how to deal with circle parries, ripostes, and balestras. There was nothing about the direction of attack or the changes in distance that was going to surprise me. Learning the rules changes how you think about the game, and it makes you predictable.
  
  I've seen the same pattern in writers: often, their first few works are vivid and unusual, difficult to pin down. Writing is still a challenge to them, an unfamiliar thing which they must figure out as they go along, and creativity is always the result of trying to overcome difficulty.
  
  After a while, they begin to settle in to a mode: they have figured out what works for them, they have the methods and shortcuts down. But without hardship to drive them, this can lead to predictable, repetitive work.
  
  This is the second volume in Del Rey's collection of the Conan stories, and it is the only collection of all Howard's original manuscripts for those stories, untainted by later editors. As I mentioned in
  my review, the earlier stories from the first volume are wilder, and show more variability, depicting Conan at many points in his life, dealing with a number of different situations.
  
  This volume is more homogenous: they are about an older Conan embroiled in political machinations, which was enjoyable for a student of history, as anyone who has read Tacitus or Sallust cannot fail to recognize Howard's stylistic inspiration.
  
  That isn't to say that the stories do not also contain the patented bloody action which Conan is known for, but for the first time I began to feel that Conan didn't need action. His stories are always about human desires, about interaction and struggle, and open conflict is only one way to resolve such conflicts. Howard shows he is willing and capable of exploring other aspects of his world, and that, unlike other authors who wrote about the character, Howard never forgets that Conan is not merely some emotionless killer, but a man with "gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth".
  
  But the style and tone of these stories becomes predictable. We do not get the subversive women or eccentric secondary characters, instead there are mostly cliches and placeholders, dull copies of figures we've seen in earlier stories. It seems like Howard has settled into a groove here, which isn't beneficial for pulp or weird fiction.
  
  But there is one thing in this collection that is new for Howard: length. Many authors have tried to transition from short works to novels, and it's rarely a pretty thing to watch. For later master of Sword & Sorcery Fritz Leiber, the additional length meant
  a loss of pace and depth. Whereas before, a hundred pages would hold a half dozen stories, each with its own tone and setting, now it was all the continuation of a single tone.
  
  But Howard shows that he is able to make the transition without losing his fast pace or his myriad views of the world. Though the novel-length Hour of the Dragon takes many themes and ideas from previous stories, the way they are woven together with action, intrigue, and a larger, overarching plot is skillful. There is no filler there--indeed, there are a number of scenes that could have run on longer, with more detail, without hurting the book's pace.
  
  The larger plot is reliant on that genre standby: the fetch quest for the magical
  mcguffin--but Howard's treatment of it is not as simplistic or convenient as most genre books. Conan doesn't port the thing around in his pocket and pull it out to get himself out of jams, the same magic both opens and closes the action of the plot, and the item itself has its own history, distinct from the events of the plot. Beyond that, any careful reader familiar with the Mythos connection between Lovecraft and Howard will see numerous clues about how magic in Conan's world has a more insidious, cosmic source.
  
  What was disappointing in the story was the fact that, despite depicting an ancient, pre-deluge world, the combat was all described in terms of high chivalric cavalry charges, longbows, and heavy armor. It would have been more interesting to see a take on Greek or Roman warfare instead of a rehash of Doyle's
  White Company, especially one so out of place with the tone Howard sets.
  
  So it seems that after his early experiments, stories that were sometimes erratic but rarely repetitious, Howard has settled into a more predictable style, that plateau we all hit after we have learned and internalized a set of rules. But then, why learn them in the first place? The secret is that once we have mastered those rules, once they are second nature, we can begin again to experiment, and to become unpredictable.
  
  Though many think of a 'black belt' as the sign of a master, in truth it is the sign that a student has learned all of those basic things which must be gotten out of the way before the real learning can start. It is only once those basic elements no longer occupy us, we are free to really explore. Just like my young fencing students, you begin unfettered, but also unskilled. As you learn more and more of the rules and techniques, you also become predictable. It is only when you internalize those rules, when they become second nature, that you can become unfettered again, combining knowledge and unpredictability to produce the great hallmark of the master: innovation.
  
  It was my hope that in the next volume, Howard would be able to combine the creativity of his early works with the reliability of this middle stretch and produce final stories might live up to their reputation as the strongest of the Conan tales--but alas, Howard died too young, and never reached that peak. Though the final volume is more polished, more personal, and more thoughtful, never again does he recapture the youthful vitality of his earliest tales.
  
  
  My suggested Readings in Fantasy
• 
  Bruno Neute

  4.5*
• 
  Bradley

  Conan is continuing to make its rounds around my grey matter and settling in as one of the core, foundational fantasies of the last hundred years. The fact that the barbarian remains the most recognizable alpha male in fantastic fiction should say everything I need to say.
  
  But it also deserves mention that these stories are not lightweight fluff pieces of fantasy. Conan himself is the ultimate rugged self-made man, preferring to take what he wants by his own efforts despite multiple offers being dropped in his lap.
  
  This is a man who knows that the journey is always more important than the destination. And he has major scruples, too. Anyone who pricks his pride will be hoisted by their own. Magicians and crafty women never get what they expect out of him, and he, himself, is always driven by what he believes is right. Even if, at any particular moment, the massive subtle changes on the wind make him turn his back on what once might have been best, then.
  
  He is complex and subtly shaded despite being an outward brute. The fact that he can win over many men (and women) purely by his uncompromising understanding of himself and his strength is NOT the same thing as wielding a sword to cut down all his enemies and thereby securing a kingdom. Or two.
  
  The fact is, he loves being the underdog. He may be one brute of a man that may give any woman a look and they lose their clothes as if by magic, and he wins over converts by an overpowering charisma, but none of that would mean anything if he wasn't a man of action.
  
  Add to this the extremely deep worldbuilding that throws so many lines of real history into a huge pot, giving us all an amazingly rich setting both familiar and not, but always big, and it's enough to spark my imagination in the same way as those from nearly a century ago must have enjoyed.
  
  
  We are kinda sick of being peaceful among enemies, after all. The Conan stories are so damn close to what we already live in and the pain and the disgust are just as vital here and now as they would have been in these so-called primitive societies. To me, the stories are very much a raging against the dying of the light.
  
  
• 
  RJ - Slayer of Trolls

  This second volume of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories contains three of the longest REH Conan stories published as well as some unpublished drafts and notes. There are also some illustrations by
  Gary Gianni. The Afterword "Hyborean Genesis" is an excellent biography of REH during the time these pieces were written, giving plenty of interesting background material about the writing and publishing of the stories.
  
  
  The People Of The Black Circle - 3/5 - much heralded Conan story, but it seemed merely average, a slightly fleshed out version of many of the earlier Conan short stories
  
  
  The Hour of the Dragon - 4/5 - the only full length Conan novel written by REH is much the better for the expanded scope allowed by the greater page count. Although some of the situations in the novel are very similar to early short stories, there is much to be enjoyed including numerous supporting characters with fleshed out motives and often shifting allegiances, a lengthy quest to new locations, and a deeper exploration of Conan's character.
  
  
  A Witch Shall Be Born - 3/5 - another long Conan story that stands in the middle of the pack; some of the story is told from the viewpoint of another soldier and the reduced role for Conan doesn't make the story any more compelling
• 
  Edward

  We all know I love Robert E. Howard's writing by now. No change here.
• 
  Joseph

  [Standard disclaimer that Howard was writing for popular fiction magazines in the 1930s and some of his portrayals & descriptions of various minorities and ethnic groups were Not Cool]
  
  This is a meaty collection -- only three stories, but they're all lengthy (including Hour of the Dragon, Howard's only full-length Conan novel). They also all operate on a relatively large scale, with Conan's role ranging from bandit chieftain to King of Aquilonia, and getting caught up in fate of nations-level events.
  
  In order, we have:
  
  People of the Black Circle -- The king of Vendhya is dying due to Blackest Sorcery(tm). Meanwhile, Conan, who's been leading a troop of bandits harassing the borders, is trying to arrange the release of seven of his chieftains who have been captured (so as to assuage their followers, who are part of his troop). Meanwhile meanwhile, the Black Circle (practitioners of the aforementioned Blackest Sorcery(tm)) have their own designs on the kingdom. Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile, Yasmina, the now-late king's sister and ruling queen, finds herself first kidnapped by, then grudgingly allied with, Conan against the aforementioned sorcerers, who are not without their own internal divisions. All told in Howard's fast-paced, highly-readable prose.
  
  Hour of the Dragon -- As mentioned, Howard's only full-length novel about Conan. At this point, Conan is king of Aquilonia, but there's (of course) trouble afoot -- an invasion from neighboring Nemedia, abetted by Blackest Sorcery(tm) (the conspirators have returned to life the sorcerer Xaltotun, thousands of years in his tomb, because that never backfires) leaves everybody convinced that Conan is dead, and he has to embark upon a continent-spanning journey to retake his throne.
  
  A Witch Shall Be Born -- Earlier in his career, Conan is captain of the guard for Queen Taramis of Khauran when she is overthrown by Blackest Sorcery(tm) (see a theme here?). After a particularly memorable incident involving crucifixion and a vulture, Conan finds himself "rescued" by one Olgerd Vladislav, leader of a group of Kozaks who might, or might not, have better things to do than to help Conan rescue Taramis and return her to her proper throne.
  
  As with all of the Del Rey Howard collections, this one closes with an assortment of Howard's drafts and fragments, includes a nice introduction (from Rusty Burke) to put the stories in context within Howard's life and career, and (at least in the print edition) has lovely illustrations from Gary Gianni.
  
  I'm not sure if this is the first collection of Howard's Conan stories that I'd recommend to someone -- they're all a bit tonally similar, lacking the sort of freewheeling adventure you'd find in, e.g., Tower of the Elephant or Queen of the Black Coast or Red Nails -- but they're all great stories nonetheless.
• 
  Malum

  The Hyborian age, where men were men, women were women, and giant snakes were giant snakes.
  
  This collection contains a short story, a longer story, and the novel-length The Hour of the Dragon. I grew up on Conan pastiches, particularly the Tor editions. It wasn't until I was a bit older that I read the original Howard stories and, let me tell you, nothing compares to these original tales. They helped shape sword and sorcery fiction in the same way that The Lord of the Rings influenced epic fantasy.
  
  In another 20 years or so these stories will be 100 years old. It is a testament to how good these stories are that they are still read and praised to this day.
• 
  Michael Sorbello

  The Hour of the Dragon - 5/5
  
  The Hour of the Dragon is worth five stars alone. It combines all of the greatest elements from every other story in the Conan saga while excluding their flaws. It's an adrenaline-filled slugfest with nearly 200 pages worth of war, epic bloody battles and savage warriors against supernatural abominations. The action was incredible and the characterization of Conan is more mature and complex than ever before. The ending is surprisingly heartwarming as we watch a slave girl become a queen while Conan reclaims something precious that he once lost. A fitting finale for the legendary conqueror.
  
  ***
  
  A Witch Shall Be Born - 4.5/5
  
  A Witch Shall Be Born is a story about a queen that is dethroned by her evil twin that was once thrown out into the desert and left to die because she was born with the mark of a witch. The outcasted sister builds up her powerful magic and hatred over the years and turns it against the kingdom that left her to die. The sister steals the queen's place on the throne and commits countless atrocities in her name.
  
  Conan comes along to make the evil sister pay for her crimes and restore the glory of the true queen. A thrilling tale of deception and sisterly betrayal. I ended up feeling a bit sorry for the villain this time around, I can't blame her for hating a world that cursed her to such a tragic fate the moment she was born. Salome is one of the most sympathetic villains in the entire Conan the Barbarian series.
  
  ***
  
  The People of the Black Circle - 4/5
  
  Hill Chieftain Conan heads into the Himalayan Mountains to rescue the Vendhyan queen, as Turanians, Afghulis, and Irakzais are caught in the machinations of demonic sorcerers of the Black Circle. It's a visceral, bloody and blindingly fast fantasy adventure that keeps up a consistent pace. It's an adrenaline rush from beginning to end.
• 
  Jason M Waltz

  Thrilling adrenaline pumping reading! First time I've ever said that a padded & repetitive novel packs a wallop with its main character: Conan leaps off the page, actually makes the book heavier and thicker and meatier at every appearance. His passion, menace, and flashing blue eyes literally can be felt, sensed and believed in. Fun, fun read!
• 
  Mike (the Paladin)

  Contains:
  The People of the Black Circle
  The Hour of the Dragon
  A Witch Shall Be Born
  
  This is the second volume of the original, unedited Howard versions of the Conan writings.
  
  Like many Conan is one of my first introductions into fantasy and Conan personifies the Sword and Sorcery sub-genre of fantasy. He was great to read when Howard came up with him and he's still a great read today.
  
• 
  H. P.

  The Bloody Crown of Conan is the second of Del Rey’s three-volume collection of Robert E. Howard’s Conan yarns. Including Howard’s only Conan novel, it has the fewest stories of any volume in the collection. The Bloody Crown of Conan is also heavily illustrated, this time by Gary Gianni, who did excellent work for George R.R. Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms collection. I don’t like his Conan artwork quite as much (the art in my paperback copy is black and white). There is a foreword by Gianni, an introduction by Howard scholar and series editor Rusty Burke, several synopses, drafts, and notes, and the second part of editor Patrice Louinet’s long essay on the Genesis of the Hyborian Age.
  
  The stories in this volume are longer than those in the first volume. Conan is well served by stories running more in the novelette range. The novel, The Hour of the Dragon, can’t help but feel a bit conventional, though, even with its breakneck pace. This volume might be a better introduction to Conan than The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian.
  
  Robert E. Howard’s writing is raw and full of truth. It’s rough around the edges and occasionally a little stilted. But don’t let anyone tell you he wasn’t a great stylist. He wrote bloody, visceral action scenes. I’ll take the below passage from the first volume over R.A. Salvatore’s action scenes any day.
  
  “Details stood out briefly, like black etchings on a background of blood. She saw a Zingaran sailor, blinded by a great flap of skin torn loose and hanging over his eyes, brace his straddling legs and drive his sword to the hilt in a black belly. She distinctly heard the buccaneer grunt as he struck, and saw the victim’s tawny eyes roll up in sudden agony; blood and entrails gushed out over the driven blade. The dying black caught the blade with his naked hands, and the sailor tugged blindly and stupidly; then a black arm hooked about the Zingaran’s head, a black knee was planted with cruel force in the middle of his back. His head was jerked back at a terrible angle, and something cracked above the noise of the fray, like the breaking of a thick branch. The conqueror dashed his victim’s body to the earth—and as he did, something like a beam of light flashed across his shoulders from behind, from right to left. He staggered, his head toppled forward on his breast, and thence, hideously, to the earth.”
  
  Howard really wanted to be a poet, and it shows in his prose. He also had a strong command of rhetorical devices. He tended to tell, then show, but that’s a small bug for a deep reader and a feature for a shallow reader. Similarly, he uses a lot of repetition, especially when describing Conan. Definitely a feature when you’re reading stories in a magazine months apart, mildly annoying when reading the stories in rapid succession.
• 
  Donna

  This is the second of three books in Del Rey's collection of Howard's original Conan stories. The first book in this set,
  The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, would be a better place to start for anyone new to reading Conan, I think the shorter stories are more accessible in terms of getting into the character.
  
  In The People of the Black Circle, Conan attempts to use a princess as a bargaining chip for the return of his captured lieutenants, but then he's drawn into her quest for revenge. I really enjoyed the confrontation at the end, though some scenes in the middle seem to lag.
  
  The Hour of the Dragon is Howard's only novel-length Conan piece, it's about Conan's attempt to reclaim the throne of Aquilona from the minions of an ancient wizard. I especially loved Conan's escape from captivity and a bold rescue that happened a bit later. It's gritty and entertaining, but Conan has a lot of near-misses with his goal that make it read like the serial it was first published as, so the story benefits from giving it a little space every few chapters.
  
  A Witch Shall Be Born is about a doppelganger queen who causes havoc in a small country. The only flaw in her plan to rule is that her ally left Conan in the desert to die rather than killing him outright. Seriously, it's like some villains are just asking to die horribly. Conan's role as a bandit chief was fantastic, though I wish that the fight at the end of this one had been more drawn out.
  
  The essay about the creation of these stories was really interesting, but I barely skimmed the rest of the book's content. Reading an author's unfinished drafts always weirds me out, it seems too much like snooping through his diary or something.
• 
  Jared Millet

  The second of the Conan anthologies presents Howard at the peak of his craft, featuring some of his long-form work in a novella, a single short story, and Howard's only completed novel. While Howard didn't write the Conan stories in anything like chronological order, the barbarian of these adventures is clearly older, cannier, and more wise to the world than the young, thieving slayer of his earlier tales. The opening and closing stories of this edition feature Conan as a war-chief of various mid/far east nations (blatant analogues of Persia, Afghanistan, and India) where the hero is honing is skills not just as a mercenary but as a leader of men.
  
  The showpiece, though, is The Hour of the Dragon, the perfect King Conan movie that we're never going to see - in which Conan is deposed from the throne of Aquilonia by a resurrected wizard from Acheron and must travel far and wide to gather the allies and magical defenses he will need to reclaim his kingdom. Not only is it evident that Howard was more comfortable with his writing and his character, but also with the breadth of mythology he'd created. Few, if any, of the Conan short stories make reference to any of the others, yet in Hour of the Dragon you can feel Howard dipping into the rich history he'd already established for the character as Conan, now in middle-age, returns to many of the places he'd adventured as a young man to call in old debts make use of his decades of experience. He's even tempted to turn his back on politics and monarchy and return to the simple life of a roaming warrior, but Conan the King is not the same man as Conan the Barbarian, and his growth over the series as a whole, if anything, makes Conan unique in the realm of pulp sword-and-sorcery.
• 
  Timothy Boyd

  YES!! The Conan stories restored to their original texts. Read Conan as Howard intended him to be. You will find that Conan is more than just a big semi-naked barbarian with a sword. He speaks and reads many languages and thinks his way through a lot of what he encounters. But then when that doesn't work he can swing a sword with the best of them. Highly recommended
• 
  Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods*

  The definitive collection of Howard's original Conan stories, in writing order, continues with this second volume. It contains only three stories, although the middle one is a full-length novel, the only such Conan novel by Howard. The stories are mixed in quality, in ascending order. The first, The People of the Black Circle, was the first Conan story that I specifically disliked. It gets bogged down with tribal politics, and the final assault against the wizard's fortress is underwhelming, as Conan's role turns passive and he accomplished little on his own initiative, instead succeeding only by assistance provided by the main enemy's foe. The next and longest tale,
  The Hour of the Dragon, is of decent quality and represents a sampler platter of Conan's life, if you will. I have reviewed this novel separately
  elsewhere.
  
  The real treasure of this volume is the third and final story, A Witch Shall be Born. It does not waste any pages, intrigue and action are thrown at the reader in six short chapters, featuring treachery, sorcery, debauchery, torture, revenge, war, and devotion. The second of these chapters contains a scene that is burned on my memory from a collection of Conan comics, I think from Dark Horse comics, that I read long before I ever read any of Howard's stories. Without any spoilers, it is the single moment that best demonstrates Conan's unbreakable will to live and towering strength. Conan describes this quality himself in speaking of barbarians,

  But you civilized men are soft; your lives are not nailed to your spines as are ours.

  Nailed to his spine, indeed.
• 
  Eric Fomley

  Another great collection. Conan is a great character and I envy Howard's ability to write great Heroic fantasy. Highly recommended.
• 
  Zardoz

  A bit of a mixed bag. This edition contains Howard’s only full Conan novel as well as a good novella and a short story.
  The People Of The Black Circle 4 stars
  The Hour Of The Dragon 3 stars
  A Witch Shall Be Born 2 stars
  
  There is also a great introduction to the book and the Miscellanea and Appendices help the reader understand Howard’s motivations and writing process.
• 
  Vlad

  schemes and sorceries employed to gain power shattered by the enduring and cunning brute
• 
  Michael

  I like my Conan in shorter form than these three stories. I really liked the first story. The second story was looooooooong, seemed to never end, and seemed like multiple stories smushed together that didn't go together. Third one was good. I also enjoyed the essay about how REH created his world.
• 
  Charles

  Conan as Robert E. Howard intended for him to be. Contains "The People of the Black Circle," "The Hour of the Dragon," and "A Witch Shall Be Born." There are also lots of untitled synopsis material and some draft stuff, and a great article called "Hyborian Genesis Part II."
  
  Good stuff.
• 
  Michael Battaglia

  For the second volume of Conan stories, the editors took a different tactic and instead of printing everything in strict chronological order, they put together three of the longer stories into one volume. Which means that the hit-miss ratio has to be better than the first go-round. In the first volume there were like twelve stories and if a couple of them were duffers it didn't matter too much. If only one of these were just Howard going through the motions then it would be almost a third of the book.
  
  Fortunately, after taking some time off writing about the finest barbarian ever to swing a sword at hideous menaces from beyond time and space, he had come back somewhat inspired. Given the chance to write longer tales, he makes good use of the extra space and fills the stories with all sorts of memorable sequences, some of them not even including. What makes it interesting to read these is that it seems that Howard was beginning to see his most popular character as kind of a deus ex machina . . . he didn't become a bystander or supporting character in his own story but there are quite a few sequences scattered around the stories where Conan is absent for great lengths of time (sometimes right from the get-go) and seems to affect events purely by his sheer presence (his well-muscled body and extremely sharp sword don't hurt either), as if his sinews could warp reality. Heck, in "The Hour of the Dragon" he's almost absent for the entire climax, wandering back in for a timely "By Crom!"
  
  Which is to say, it seems that Howard has grown more confident and at the same time more visceral. The stories seem to be more violent, which doesn't mean these are graphic gory beasts (let's keep in mind it's still the 1930s) but there are some sequences that may give you pause and go "Ew". The most famous sequence in "A Witch Shall Be Born" (and pretty much the reason everyone remembers the story) is where Conan is crucified and there's a definite loving attention to his efforts to escape from the nails, and even more detail paid when it comes time to take Conan down from that cross. Pulp scholars the world over have written about the symbolism inherent in such a sequence, that it depicts Conan crossing from human to superhuman and immortal. To me it seems more like Howard was just trying to prove how tough Conan is (for comparison another character gets crucified at the end and Conan goes out of his way to point out what a sissy he is and that he'll be dead soon). The callousness of his villains hit new highs as well, aside from the aforementioned crucifixion sequence, there's another bit where a woman is taken away and the person doing the taking away is all like, "Might I rape her?" and the villain gives the go-ahead with a casual "Rape away, Rapemeister", which probably also made the audiences back then go "Whoa, wait." But it never seems exploitative, which is remarkable in itself. Civilization stinks, Howard seems to be saying, and it's all the worse because we claim we're so civilized. Conan isn't noble, but his consistency of moral code and tendency to do what he says makes him stand out from pretty much everyone else.
  
  But all of these are pretty decent and Howard seems to be going out of his way not to repeat himself. "The People of the Black Circle" has Conan nearly becoming a diplomat, negotiating various factions and pitting against each other in his inimitable way, as he kidnaps a princess who's got her own issues in order to rescue some hillmen that he's chief of, while she wants to use him to avenge her brother's death. Meanwhile magic comes in play and is downright creepy for once (a bit where the evil mystic does some mental hocus-pocus on a guardsman and has him impale himself gladly on his own spear is gruesome in how tossed off it seems) as the Black Seers really seem like the kind of people you don't want to mess with. But Howard handles all the various tribes and armies deftly, with everyone having their own motivations they have to either compromise on or keep close to their chests if they want to get their way, which makes for a Conan story that depends more on everyone navigating a narrow political line through their own desire than heads getting lopped off, although that happens too.
  
  "The Hour of the Dragon" is the big gun, the only true Conan novel that Howard ever wrote and judging by the notes at the end of the volume, he went through quite a few drafts to get it right. We're back to Conan being king and although the initial situation is similar to "The Scarlet Citadel" (King Conan gets deposed in battle, has to get his kingdom back), there's much more thought put into this than that earlier story that makes it more than a do-over and instead more of an expanded rethink. As I mentioned, Howard uses all the extra space wisely, showing us the effects of Conan being deposed and how the kingdom is systematically being ruined, while also dancing between the conflicting desires of all the conspirators. Finding the jewel that would restore his kingdom almost seems besides the point with all the intercutting as things gradually devolve into chaos before Conan has to save the day (with so many threats to his throne, you wonder why he even bothered, unless it was out of pure stubbornness). Again, memorable setpieces abound, with my favorite when the weird mystic touches someone with his staff (from across the room!) and the fellow appears to fall to the floor with his bones all melted inside of him. There's so much going on that you barely notice, which is one of the nice things about this novel, for a character that mostly existed in short stories, there's very little vamping. I won't say that every scene is essential but there's not a lot of repetition going on either. Howard is so good at this point that one of his most memorable female character is only around for a few chapters, and she's still memorable.
  
  "A Witch Shall Be Born" is remarkable for a few reasons, one of which is the already discussed crucifixion sequence and the other how Conan only appears in like two chapters and yet you rarely notice with all the other plotting and scheming going on around him. Conan makes the most of his limited screentime and it's fun to see Howard going for broke with debauchery as the evil princess turns the city into the lovechild of Sodom and Gomorrah simply because she can, leaving it up to Conan to straighten out the mess. Even the addition of a Lovecraftian monster, which was once the centerpiece of most stories, is introduced and handled almost in the same page. The prose never seems lazy and you get the sense that Howard is actively attempting to better it, to make it rise above the typical pulp histrionics. As good as Howard was in general, there's a definite singularity of purpose to his best Conan stories that a lot of his other tales don't match and what I find most interesting isn't the battle sequences and fights (although there are plenty of those and they are fairly decent) but the plotting, the attempts to write sword and sorcery tales that transcend the genre. He half-succeeded, as Conan is still remembered today, but mostly as the musclebound sword-slayer who says "Crom!" a lot but if the stories weren't so strong to begin with, the cliches would have never survived for this long.
• 
  Edward Taylor

  Within the covers of this book are not just three great stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard. It is also full of artwork by Gary Gianni, notes and untitled synopsis, and background information about the setting and times of the Age of Hyboria. The second book in a three-book series, it is just as good as the first and the third. And as you can see from the other reviews, none of them are below five stars.
• 
  Jake

  The Bloody Crown of Conan is the third in a series of five collections of REH’s work being published by Del Rey. Three of those volumes feature Howard’s original, unedited Conan stories. The other two cover different fantasy heroes of Howard’s, namely Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane (
  http://www.livejournal.com/users/j_st...). Apparently, I never reviewed the first Conan collection, the Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, but I liked it. And guess what. I liked this too.
  
  Bloody Crown of Conan contains only three stories: “People of the Black Circle,” “The Hour of the Dragon,” and “A Witch is Born.” While it may not sound like much, “The Hour of the Dragon” is the only full length Conan novel that Howard ever wrote. It’s a very neat story, set during the time when Conan is king of Aquilonia. In short, Conan is disposed by an evil necromancer and the mortals he conspires with, and must go on a quest to retrieve something that can kill the necromancer and allow him to reclaim the throne. Lots of high adventure, sword-fighting, strange, otherworldly horrors, and no small amount of intrigue. The other two stories are shorter (obviously), but still packed with good stuff.
  
  I really enjoy Howard’s writing style. It’s very straightforward, but evocative at the same time. He does get into some purple prose on occasion, but it’s the sort of purple prose that’s fun to read. My only real complaint would be that he sometimes over-uses certain descriptors, particularly those involving wolves and panthers. Still, he treads a line between cliché and epic epithet enough that it only rarely bothers me. Oh, and occasionally he starts to drift into the Lovecraft “it was so horrible, I cannot describe it, except in horribly vague terms” trap, which is kind of annoying, especially because Howard’s descriptions of everything else are wonderful. Conan’s crucifixition in “A Witch is Born” had me shuddering on the T. Powerful stuff.
  
  Yes, Conan does get crucified. One of the interesting things about reading these stories is seeing where the Schwarzanegger movie cribbed certain scenes or ideas to create the story it did. In the end, the Schwarzanegger Conan is substantively different from the actual Conan, but I still love the movie, and think it’s very well done. Of course, I’m an unrepentant Schwarzanegger fan for a variety of reasons, so take that for what you will.
  
  Bloody Crown of Conan, and indeed, all the Conan stories, really are required reading for fantasy fans. There’s a good reason why the character has survived this long…he’s awesome.
• 
  A. E. S.

  Two of these are novellas, and The Hour of the Dragon can be construed as a complete book, the only book Howard wrote for Conan the Cimmerian. See my review of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian for Dale Rippke's ordering.
  
  A Witch Shall be Born: This novella deals with themes of paranoia, twist plots and extreme irony, sometimes the cruel type. A queen discovers her evil twin, a witch, has survived being left in the desert to die. Queen Tauramis is arrested and thrown in the dungeon, where it's up to defiant Conan, captain of the queen's guard, to save her. 5/5
  
  The People of the Black Circle: Another king's-sister (king is killed, she vows revenge), Queen Yasmina is kidnapped by Conan and held hostage in exchange for seven of his men. They were kidnapped by HER to try to force him to kill the Black Seers of Yimsha. Kerim Shah, the man who killed the king, is leading an army through the mountain pass during the turmoil, and Conan is going to need all the allies he can get. 3/5
  
  The Hour of the Dragon: Conan is around 45. Continuity in the plot of The Scarlet Citadel is seen as it returns to the problem of Numidedes being slain by Conan, and his heir Valerius returning to the storyline. Desiring the throne, Valerius and his men resurrect Xaltotun, an evil 3,000 year old sorcerer, doubling back on an earlier plotline from a short story. Conan is defeated in battle and captured, but then freed by a slave-girl, Zenobia. The only thing that can defeat the evil Xaltotun is the exact same object that resurrected him - the Heart of Ahriman. His journey takes him through all the lands of Hyboria, Conan promises to return for the beautiful slave, whom he vows to make his queen. 5/5
• 
  Maks

  J’avais adoré le premier volume de cette intégrale des aventures du célèbre « Conan ». Pour ce second volet, je suis encore plus satisfait, ici, pas de multiples nouvelles, mais deux grandes « nouvelles » et un roman sont intégrés ainsi que des bonus (encore une fois).
  
  Patrice Louinet est toujours aux commandes de la traduction et c’est toujours aussi bien, nous sommes littéralement scotchés au texte d’un bout à l’autre et les presque 800 pages passent comme un éclair.
  
  La première nouvelle est bien dans la veine des premiers textes de Robert E. Howard, ceux du premier volume, nous sommes ensuite plongés dans un roman complet et captivant qui se déroule lorsque « Conan » a déjà un certain âge et qu’il est roi. On y retrouve d’ailleurs d’autres textes qui viennent recouper ce roman mais sans se répéter ce qui donne cet aspect « fresque » à l’ensemble de l’oeuvre. Pour la troisième histoire, qui est aussi la plus courte, j’ai trouvé cela un peu moins bien que le reste, mais tout de même intéressant.
  
  Sur le contenu c’est comme pour le premier : aventure, action, guerre épique, héros charismatique, magie, noirceur, bestiaire impressionnant, autant dire une oeuvre majeure de la Fantasy.
  Je n’attends plus qu’une chose, la sortie du troisième tome, ainsi que l’intégrale de « Salomon Kane » (j’ai lu sur un site bien connu de Fantasy lors d’une interview de Laëtitia Rondeau éditrice au Livre de Poche que c’était en prévision après le tome 3 de l’intégrale de « Conan", et ça c’est une superbe nouvelle).
  
  À lire absolument.
  
  Sur le blog :
  
  https://unbouquinsinonrien.blogspot.c...
• 
  Benjamin Thomas

  This book compiles three of Robert E. Howard's longer Conan works, including the only full length Conan novel that he ever wrote, "The Hour of the Dragon." It also contains "The People of the Black Circle" as well as "A Witch Shall Be Born" which contains probably the most famous scene in all of Conan literature: the one where he gets nailed to a tree, crucified really, and left to the mercy of the hungry vultures and the elements. As the title implies, all three stories are from Conan's later days, when he is king.
  
  As in all of these Del Rey editions of Howard's work, the book also contains several untitled synopsis (synopses? synopsizes?), fragments, etc. as well as a thought-provoking essay on Howard and his life and times as it pertains to the included stories.
  
  I think the noble nature of Conan really comes out in these stories, particularly in "The Hour of the Dragon". When Conan has the opportunity to conquer a neighboring kingdom he says, "Let others dream imperial dreams. I but wish to hold what is mine. I have no desire to rule an empire welded together by blood and fire. It's one thing to seize a throne with the aid of its subjects and rule them with their consent. It's another to subjugate a foreign realm and rule it by fear." As Patrice Louinet says in the essay, "Whoever had the idea of retitling Howard's novel, 'Conan the Conqueror' had evidently not understood its theme: Conan is anything but a conqueror by nature."
  
  Enjoyable reading and, of course, absolutely required reading for Conan enthusiasts.
• 
  Craig

  I listened to the 15-disc audio version of this collection; I've read the stories several times over the years in various formats. There are three stories in the collection, three of the longer ones that Howard produced; The People of the Black Circle, A Witch Shall Be Born, and The Hour of the Dragon. The stories are performed well, and it was interesting to compare Conan's character as a king and as a bandit and adventurer from one to the next. The Hour of the Dragon (which I remember as Conan the Conqueror; I read my Dad's Gnome Press edition back before the Hyborian Age ended!) was the only novel-length Conan story that Howard wrote and I think it's the best of these three. It's also interesting to note how many of the little bits and pieces that Howard mentioned were picked up and recycled by the various writers who continued the Conan adventures over the years. This edition also includes a number of unfinished fragments by Howard and some lengthy non-fiction discussions by other authors that didn't suit me as well in an audio version. I would have preferred to skim them and possibly skip over some of the questionably scholarly analyses. I enjoyed revisiting the three main stories very much, though.