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The Lounge => Media and Inspiration => Topic started by: jeff37923 on June 05, 2021, 08:52:14 PM

Title: Conan Literature
Post by: jeff37923 on June 05, 2021, 08:52:14 PM
So, I'm going back to my roots a little bit and have been picking up Conan books. In my youth, I saw the movies and read a handful of stories, but not all of them. Looking at the books now, there are a bunch of authors where I was only familiar with Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter.

My question for the readers is, who do you think are the quintessential Conan story authors whose works I should read? Which authors really understood who Conan was as a character and could write about him?
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: HappyDaze on June 05, 2021, 10:35:42 PM
I'm curious to see the answers this thread gets. I picked up the three Conan story collections several years ago, and they are exclusively REH's stories. I also own quite a bit of the Modiphius Conan line, and it too is exclusively based on the REH material. Because of this, the non-REH Conan stuff (aside from a few old Marvel comics from the early 80s) is a total blindspot for me.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: yancy on June 05, 2021, 11:22:00 PM
I don't have a shit ton to say about this unfortunately, because I too, recently got a collection of just about every Conan story written by Robert E. Howard, with no stories by anyone else, and haven't read lots of Conan work by other people since the early 80s.

I remember the older stuff (L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter) as being mostly dire. I do favorably remember the Marvel Comics stuff using Conan and Kull, at least compared to the short stories, and I've read some of those within the past decade, they hold up ok.

I did recently read both Karl Edward Wagner novels/novellas using Howard's characters, Legion from the Shadows (Bran Mak Morn) & The Road of Kings (Conan), and I'd tentatively recommend both of those as *okay*, not as awful as the things I remember. Really though, you'd be better off reading his Kane stuff, which includes several Conan-type stories much better than either of those were.

So really this is just an excuse for me to shill for KEW :/

Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Ratman_tf on June 06, 2021, 01:07:07 AM
I got The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, which is just the REH stuff, and enjoyed it.
I've intentionally stayed away from other authors, as I feel like Conan was REH's thing, and I really am not interested in the character interpreted by another author.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: HappyDaze on June 06, 2021, 01:08:57 AM
I got The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, which is just the REH stuff, and enjoyed it.
IIRC, Conan ejaculates three or four times in that one, right?
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: oggsmash on June 06, 2021, 06:43:52 AM
So, I'm going back to my roots a little bit and have been picking up Conan books. In my youth, I saw the movies and read a handful of stories, but not all of them. Looking at the books now, there are a bunch of authors where I was only familiar with Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter.

My question for the readers is, who do you think are the quintessential Conan story authors whose works I should read? Which authors really understood who Conan was as a character and could write about him?
  I have the three collected works by REH, and have a few books a buddy gave me a few years ago by the "pastiche" authors.  There is a very noticeable drop off in ability and general tone IMO when I read one of the other books.   The books also seem to make Conan a different character at times than as presented by REH, and much of the story telling seems to be people trying to be REH instead of just telling a story about the same guy their way.

   I think the REH stories are very, very hard to beat.  Dark horse comics does have a few issues where they pick up from an REH story and "fill gaps" as to what the Cimmerian was up to in the mean time.  I also favor the Savage Sword of Conan collections (the old black and white comics) offered in compendiums as well.  But the REH stories reign completely supreme, and reading a book by another author (that is not a graphic novel or comic, which these seem to translate Conan's "feel" better than other authors can do with just the written word.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Premier on June 06, 2021, 09:18:07 AM
IIRC, Conan ejaculates three or four times in that one, right?

Actually, most of the ejaculation is done by other characters.

"Zogar Sag’s dead?" ejaculated Conan.
- Beyond the Black River

"Kozak!" ejaculated Shah Amurath, recoiling. "I did not know a dog of you escaped! I thought you all lay stiff on the steppe, by Ilbars River."
- Iron Shadows in the Moon

"Conan, the Cimmerian!" ejaculated the woman. "What are you doing on my trail?"
- Red Nails

"Nabonidus! The Red Priest!" ejaculated Murilo, his brain a dizzy vortex of whirling
amazement. "Then who—what – ?"

Glancing into these tubes, Murilo saw a bewildering array of smaller mirrors.
He turned his attention to the larger mirror in the wall, and ejaculated in amazement. Peering over his shoulder, Conan grunted.
- Rogues in the House

His breath hissed inward and his ruddy face paled. "Avaunt!" he ejaculated. "Why have you come back from the gray lands of death to terrify me? I was always your true liegeman in your lifetime—"

"Conan!" he ejaculated. "It is the king, or his ghost! What devil’s work is this?"

"What are you saying?" ejaculated the other.

"For Mitra’s sake, be silent!"” ejaculated Public, sweat starting out on his brow. His fingers jerked at the gilt-worked edge of his robe

"Who are you?" ejaculated Thutothmes in a voice as pregnant with danger as the hiss of a cobra. "Are you mad, to invade the holy shrine of Set?"
-The Hour of the Dragon

"By Mitra!" ejaculated the commander. "It is Ascalante, once count of Thune! What devil’s work brought him up from his desert haunts?"
-The Phoenix on the Sword

"By Crom!" ejaculated Conan. "It’s Shamar! The dogs besiege it!"
-The Scarlet Citadel

"Thog!" he ejaculated. "You are real! Whence come you? Who are you? What do you in Xuthal?"

"Crom!" he ejaculated aghast. "You mean to tell me these people lie down calmly and sleep, with this demon crawling among them?"
-Xuthal of the Dusk








Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: ThatChrisGuy on June 06, 2021, 02:53:02 PM
My question for the readers is, who do you think are the quintessential Conan story authors whose works I should read? Which authors really understood who Conan was as a character and could write about him?

Just Howard himself.  The stories by others aren't bad, necessarily, but the Howard stories are in a class by themselves.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: tenbones on June 07, 2021, 09:57:08 AM
Lin and De Camp's Conan stories were definitely not very Howard.

I'd stick with Howard. The rest is "above average" fan-fiction (take that as you will). L. Sprague de Camp is a decent writer... but the tone of Conan is not the same as Howards as I recall. It's been years but I distinctly remember it feeling like something was off.

I'd stick with REH.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Omega on June 07, 2021, 01:29:02 PM
Lin and De Camp's Conan stories were definitely not very Howard.

I'd stick with Howard. The rest is "above average" fan-fiction (take that as you will). L. Sprague de Camp is a decent writer... but the tone of Conan is not the same as Howards as I recall. It's been years but I distinctly remember it feeling like something was off.

I'd stick with REH.

Very agree here. Camps stuff is ok but forgettable. Carters stuff I've disliked across the board. Everything they touch. REH, Lovecraft, and more.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Bedrockbrendan on June 10, 2021, 08:12:31 PM
So, I'm going back to my roots a little bit and have been picking up Conan books. In my youth, I saw the movies and read a handful of stories, but not all of them. Looking at the books now, there are a bunch of authors where I was only familiar with Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter.

My question for the readers is, who do you think are the quintessential Conan story authors whose works I should read? Which authors really understood who Conan was as a character and could write about him?

For me it is just the original Howard stories (all of them: which I think are quite manageable). But I tend to be that way with most authors (I never got too into the other authors who expanded Lovecraft's universe either). Though I am open to changing my mind and read more if anyone feels strongly about a particular author or story. I just find I never quite feel the same about the expanded material of an author handled by other writers (it isn't just characters, prose and story structure I think).

One thing I love about going back to Conan stories is they always inspire gaming ideas for me. Something very gameable about those concepts.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Bedrockbrendan on June 10, 2021, 08:13:57 PM
I got The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, which is just the REH stuff, and enjoyed it.
IIRC, Conan ejaculates three or four times in that one, right?

I am pretty sure he ejaculates in all of them, whether we see it or not
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Bedrockbrendan on June 10, 2021, 08:16:44 PM
I got The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, which is just the REH stuff, and enjoyed it.
I've intentionally stayed away from other authors, as I feel like Conan was REH's thing, and I really am not interested in the character interpreted by another author.

The other two are good as well (The Conquering Sword and the Bloody Crown).
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Lurkndog on June 22, 2021, 11:07:47 PM
As others have noted, the Robert E. Howard stories are the original, good ones.

The Conan stories by other authors are known as pastiches (http://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Pastiches) and in this context that is a derogative term.

In the 1970s, there was a revival of interest in Howard's fantasy work, which was called "sword and sorcery" to distinguish it from other fantasy like Tolkien or T.H. White. The Robert E. Howard Conan stories were reprinted, and padded out with Conan stories written by other authors to form paperback collections of 100 pages or so. The result was uneven, but lucrative, and it did keep Howard's name alive and his work in print.

As to why the pastiches are generally not so good, when many of the writers involved were capable of excellent work in their own right, I can only speculate. I suspect writing Conan pastiches was "work for hire" type writing, work done to a mandated formula and style, written for not a lot of money, and produced under strict time constraints. For a professional writer, this was largely mechanical, formulaic work. It would put food on your table and pay the bills, but it wasn't something you poured your soul into. It certainly wasn't writing that would allow you to push in new directions or try out new ideas or develop a unique style.

Lastly, if you have read Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, but only his Conan stories, I strongly recommend checking out his other work. He wrote a broad variety of stories, some of which are surprisingly different in tone from Conan. The Riot at Bucksnort (http://www.amazon.com/Bucksnort-Other-Western-Robert-Howard/dp/0803224257/) collects his western tall tales, and they are delightful and hilarious. He also wrote some cracking good boxing stories centered around sailor and amateur boxer Steve Costigan. The Solomon Kane stories are also worth reading, as are his horror stories.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Spinachcat on June 24, 2021, 12:26:03 AM
No offense Jeff, but the combo of "Conan" with "Literature" sits badly in my guts. Probably because of too much clown world deconstruction idiocy.

As for reading Conan, I would absolutely re-read Robert E. Howard, but after him, the best Conan authors are probably were Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan.

http://readallcomics.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-001/ (http://readallcomics.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-001/)
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: GeekyBugle on August 05, 2021, 10:44:07 PM
So, I'm going back to my roots a little bit and have been picking up Conan books. In my youth, I saw the movies and read a handful of stories, but not all of them. Looking at the books now, there are a bunch of authors where I was only familiar with Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter.

My question for the readers is, who do you think are the quintessential Conan story authors whose works I should read? Which authors really understood who Conan was as a character and could write about him?

IMHO the Ace novels (12?) which include 11 pastiches and the only Conan novel REH ever wrote (Hour of the Dragon AKA Conan The Conqueror)

This includes only Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: GeekyBugle on August 05, 2021, 10:48:54 PM
I got The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, which is just the REH stuff, and enjoyed it.
I've intentionally stayed away from other authors, as I feel like Conan was REH's thing, and I really am not interested in the character interpreted by another author.

Lin and De Camp's Conan stories were definitely not very Howard.

I'd stick with Howard. The rest is "above average" fan-fiction (take that as you will). L. Sprague de Camp is a decent writer... but the tone of Conan is not the same as Howards as I recall. It's been years but I distinctly remember it feeling like something was off.

I'd stick with REH.

Part of the difference is due to the conscious effort in immitating REH, and also some of those pastiches include other works by REH off different characters rewritten to be part of a Conan story.

IMHO the first 12 novels are decent enough, but I might be biased since I read those long before I ever read the REH works by themselves.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Lurkndog on August 07, 2021, 10:58:34 AM
A couple years ago, I dug out one of my Ace Conan anthology books from the 70's. I found that the pastiches were nowhere near the quality of the genuine REH stories. This wasn't as apparent to me back in the day, but it is pretty clear now.

It's as if someone fielded an NFL team made up of cosplayers. They might look okay at the outset, but start the game and the truth comes out.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Zalman on October 03, 2021, 11:10:14 AM
As for reading Conan, I would absolutely re-read Robert E. Howard, but after him, the best Conan authors are probably were Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan.

http://readallcomics.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-001/ (http://readallcomics.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-001/)

100% this. In fact, REH and Savage Sword are the only Conan I'd suggest bothering with. And to "authors" I'd add "illustrators" -- John Buscema defined Conan for me visually almost as much as Frazetta.
Title: pastiches
Post by: Ruprecht on October 15, 2021, 06:42:06 PM
Read them all in High School and didn't pay attention to authors so much. Now I have the three compellations of the REH books which I loved.

I'd love it if someone put together a compellation or two of the pastiches so I don't have to  hunt down the books in used book stores.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: mudbanks on November 30, 2021, 09:38:02 PM
Read through all the REH stories at least twice, and as other members have echoed, none of the other authors, not Lin Carter, de Camp, John Maddox, etc, even neared the feel that Howard conveyed in his stories. From reading those pastiches/fan-fics, I got the sense that the authors' visions of Hyboria were not as clear-cut as Howard's, and that there was too much exposition on the narrative and from the mouths of the characters, leading to far less "treading on jewelled thrones" and more "he cometh and conquered and kicked ass". There's far less left to the imagination.

Howard's writing on the other hand has a certain naivety, with most major characters having strong convictions in either the gods or power. He does not focus on minutiae, instead devoting his attention to either describing evocative details to convey emotions to the reader or to drive the story forward. Think about how he describes Zamboula or Fort Tuscelan or the Poitainian fields. In every instance, his style surely evoked not just the appearance, but also the mood, mannerisms and way of life in those places. All of these things I thought were lost in the pastiches.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Ruprecht on November 30, 2021, 10:05:59 PM
For what its worth, I found out that someone did put together a few compilations of the pastiches.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Null42 on December 07, 2021, 08:31:49 AM
Read through all the REH stories at least twice, and as other members have echoed, none of the other authors, not Lin Carter, de Camp, John Maddox, etc, even neared the feel that Howard conveyed in his stories. From reading those pastiches/fan-fics, I got the sense that the authors' visions of Hyboria were not as clear-cut as Howard's, and that there was too much exposition on the narrative and from the mouths of the characters, leading to far less "treading on jewelled thrones" and more "he cometh and conquered and kicked ass". There's far less left to the imagination.

Howard's writing on the other hand has a certain naivety, with most major characters having strong convictions in either the gods or power. He does not focus on minutiae, instead devoting his attention to either describing evocative details to convey emotions to the reader or to drive the story forward. Think about how he describes Zamboula or Fort Tuscelan or the Poitainian fields. In every instance, his style surely evoked not just the appearance, but also the mood, mannerisms and way of life in those places. All of these things I thought were lost in the pastiches.

There's a story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (one of the few conservatives in recent literature, BTW, and worth reading for any fantasy fan with a mathematical bent as there are ideas like infinity and bifurcation theory in his work) about a French poet named Pierre Menard who learns Spanish, converts to Catholicism, tries to live in a medieval fashion, etc. to put himself into the mind of Miguel de Cervantes in order to rewrite Don Quixote from scratch. (Don Quixote has roughly the same status in Spanish literature Shakespeare has in English.) Finally he produces a few lines of the famous book. There's a line: "The archaic style of Menard - quite foreign, after all - suffers from a certain affectation. Not so that of his forerunner, who handles with ease the current Spanish of his time." The joke, of course, is that it's the same text, but Cervantes is just talking naturally but Menard's faking it.

Howard gets to make up his own characters and places for plot reasons. The other writers have to hold to the Hyborian canon. If Howard wants a kingdom, he invents one; the other writers have to go through Howard's kingdoms and find one that fits their purposes more or less.

I recently reread Howard's Conan stories (in a nice omnibus with a suitably naughty Margaret Brundage cover), and the thing that struck me is the total lack of any irony or distance in his writing. He wrote for pay, but he is really and truly passionate about his barbarians, women, sorcerers, and snakes, and he shares that with you. There's no sense that he's doing anything cheesy or as a joke, no winking at the metaphorical camera.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: mudbanks on December 09, 2021, 08:47:59 AM
Absolutely spot on, and it was noted that he had put so much feverish energy into his writing of the Conan stories because it was as if the character himself was next to him, regaling the tales as they had happened. Unfortunately I believe at some point (though I cannot provide a source but I'm sure I had seen this), some critics had taken this out of context for Howard being a little unhinged mentally.

The problem with Howard's writing was that while it lent amazingly well to writing sword and sandal stories, it didn't do so well with certain genres (IMO) like in his contemporary El Borak stories.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Lurkndog on December 09, 2021, 06:37:10 PM
I recently reread Howard's Conan stories (in a nice omnibus with a suitably naughty Margaret Brundage cover), and the thing that struck me is the total lack of any irony or distance in his writing. He wrote for pay, but he is really and truly passionate about his barbarians, women, sorcerers, and snakes, and he shares that with you. There's no sense that he's doing anything cheesy or as a joke, no winking at the metaphorical camera.

He actually had a pretty wide range as an author. His Western tall tales are absolutely over the top and tongue-in-cheek, and delightful. They are collected in a volume from Bison Press called The Riot at Bucksnort (http://"https://www.amazon.com/Bucksnort-Other-Western-Robert-Howard/dp/0803273541/"). I highly recommend them.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 16, 2022, 10:10:34 PM
I've read and still own nearly all the pastiches from the 1980s-90s, which were all full-length novels by the likes of Robert Jordan, John Maddox Roberts, Steve Perry, Leonard Carpenter, Roland Green, Sean Moore, etc.  None are great; a few are pretty fun.  But in general they can't capture the complete Howard vibe because they were written in a completely different era and socio-political landscape that was additionally overshadowed by the popularity of D&D at the time.  At least one of the authors (Perry, I think) explicitly says his story idea came from a D&D adventure he played in.  So you get that, plus the fact that Conan's barbarian code gets twisted into 80s-era SJW so he ends up being more like He-man that Conan in lots of these novels.  So I'd suggest picking a couple up if you find them cheap & used, but stick with REH unless you're really hardcore, like I was in the 90s when I bought them all.

P.S.--For what it's worth Modiphius' claim that they're true to Howard in their RPG is total bullshit.  They add all kind of stuff, including tons of Lovecraft that was not in any Howard story.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Cat the Bounty Smuggler on February 16, 2022, 10:28:41 PM
Actually, most of the ejaculation is done by other characters.

Funnily enough, I count Conan ejaculating three or four times in that, validating HappyDaze's comment.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: mudbanks on February 19, 2022, 09:51:56 AM
Seeing "ejaculated" used unironically in REH's stories never fails to amuse the hell out of me.

Incidentally, I remember using "ejaculated" in one of my essays when I was still in school, inspired by Howard's prose. I got heavily penalized for that lmao.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: oggsmash on February 19, 2022, 12:16:35 PM
Seeing "ejaculated" used unironically in REH's stories never fails to amuse the hell out of me.

Incidentally, I remember using "ejaculated" in one of my essays when I was still in school, inspired by Howard's prose. I got heavily penalized for that lmao.

  It still shows up as a definition for the word via the interwebs.  It does have dated beside it...so maybe your paper grader did not know it was a meaning for the word?
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 19, 2022, 03:30:39 PM
Seeing "ejaculated" used unironically in REH's stories never fails to amuse the hell out of me.

Incidentally, I remember using "ejaculated" in one of my essays when I was still in school, inspired by Howard's prose. I got heavily penalized for that lmao.

  It still shows up as a definition for the word via the interwebs.  It does have dated beside it...so maybe your paper grader did not know it was a meaning for the word?

Yes, it's one of those words like niggardly, that most illiterate morons today don't recognize or know the actual meaning of.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: oggsmash on February 19, 2022, 05:16:05 PM
Seeing "ejaculated" used unironically in REH's stories never fails to amuse the hell out of me.

Incidentally, I remember using "ejaculated" in one of my essays when I was still in school, inspired by Howard's prose. I got heavily penalized for that lmao.

  It still shows up as a definition for the word via the interwebs.  It does have dated beside it...so maybe your paper grader did not know it was a meaning for the word?

Yes, it's one of those words like niggardly, that most illiterate morons today don't recognize or know the actual meaning of.

   Well that one got a guy in trouble big time years ago, I can not remember if it was congress or on a city council of some big city.  I laughed on that one at the outrage.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Pat on February 19, 2022, 07:38:55 PM
Seeing "ejaculated" used unironically in REH's stories never fails to amuse the hell out of me.

Incidentally, I remember using "ejaculated" in one of my essays when I was still in school, inspired by Howard's prose. I got heavily penalized for that lmao.

  It still shows up as a definition for the word via the interwebs.  It does have dated beside it...so maybe your paper grader did not know it was a meaning for the word?

Yes, it's one of those words like niggardly, that most illiterate morons today don't recognize or know the actual meaning of.
It must have been a gay time for intellectual discourse when vocabulary wasn't limited to the modern idiom.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Cat the Bounty Smuggler on February 19, 2022, 10:03:58 PM
They add all kind of stuff, including tons of Lovecraft that was not in any Howard story.

I can go along with adding in Lovecraftian stuff. Howard and Lovecraft were friends and borrowed from each other more than once.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: mudbanks on February 19, 2022, 11:29:43 PM
(https://scontent.fsin6-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/273279561_4706747099435635_7280939437568408900_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=9HRPg54_zdgAX8lStJb&_nc_ht=scontent.fsin6-1.fna&oh=00_AT-eOfjTbfIcZDFbb0dDfjTjMbomTHEneBDorXU2BT9rfw&oe=621612C8)
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 20, 2022, 09:51:37 AM
They add all kind of stuff, including tons of Lovecraft that was not in any Howard story.

I can go along with adding in Lovecraftian stuff. Howard and Lovecraft were friends and borrowed from each other more than once.

Of course; everyone knows this. But Modiphius takes it to the extreme, putting cultists all over the place and adding tons of Lovecraftian stuff while crowing about their "Howardian purity," which they also crap on with their sensitivity-based rewriting of certain supplements to virtue signal.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: jeff37923 on February 20, 2022, 06:21:33 PM
They add all kind of stuff, including tons of Lovecraft that was not in any Howard story.

I can go along with adding in Lovecraftian stuff. Howard and Lovecraft were friends and borrowed from each other more than once.

Of course; everyone knows this. But Modiphius takes it to the extreme, putting cultists all over the place and adding tons of Lovecraftian stuff while crowing about their "Howardian purity," which they also crap on with their sensitivity-based rewriting of certain supplements to virtue signal.

Hence why I don't buy Modiphius.

There is nothing that any other fantasy RPG can do for Conan-esque adventuring that Modiphius does any better.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Tubesock Army on February 22, 2022, 09:56:02 PM
Goodman Games recently had a nice, and informative article on this:

https://goodman-games.com/blog/2022/01/23/the-best-of-the-conan-pastiche-novels-2/
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 23, 2022, 10:30:57 AM
Goodman Games recently had a nice, and informative article on this:

https://goodman-games.com/blog/2022/01/23/the-best-of-the-conan-pastiche-novels-2/

Thanks; that's not a bad take on the pastiches.  For the past couple years I've been intermittently reading all the Conan stories in chronological order of his life, following the William Galen Gray timeline: http://www.barbariankeep.com/galen.html

And it's interesting to see the widely varying takes.  Some of them are decent enough stories, but don't really feel like Conan.  And in general, I think stretching them out to be full-length novels was a mistake (and clearly just a cash grab by the publishers, notably Ace/Tor).  Because I think a good Conan yarn should be fast-paced, short & visceral.  Then move onto the next.  The novels tend to be spend way too much time with often cookie cutter villains and side characters ripped right out of other 80s-90s fantasy fiction. 
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 23, 2022, 10:38:40 AM
And, on a slightly related note, despite their recent forays into virtue signalling, it's really too bad that Goodman didn't get the Conan license instead of Modiphius.  DCC would seem to be inherently a much better system for Conan than that God-awful 2d20 crap.  And Goodman has done a credible job with IPs like Lankhmar.  It will be interesting to see their upcoming take on Dying Earth, which I backed as a KS last year.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: oggsmash on February 23, 2022, 11:19:53 AM
And, on a slightly related note, despite their recent forays into virtue signalling, it's really too bad that Goodman didn't get the Conan license instead of Modiphius.  DCC would seem to be inherently a much better system for Conan than that God-awful 2d20 crap.  And Goodman has done a credible job with IPs like Lankhmar.  It will be interesting to see their upcoming take on Dying Earth, which I backed as a KS last year.

  I agree with that a hundred percent.   I have a couple of Modiphius books (Conan and Mutant Chronicles) Conan because I am a fan and inclination to snatch an iteration of the setting, Mutant Chronicles I was interested in as a setting.   That 2d20 might play much better than it reads, but even after watching videos of people playing it, with meta currency as such...it seems to suck.

  I would have snapped up a Savage Worlds Conan as well.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Zirunel on February 23, 2022, 11:48:16 AM
It will be interesting to see their upcoming take on Dying Earth, which I backed as a KS last year.

I wasn't aware of this. Yes I'll be interested to see it too. could be a difficult setting to do justice to.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 23, 2022, 04:47:07 PM
It will be interesting to see their upcoming take on Dying Earth, which I backed as a KS last year.

I wasn't aware of this. Yes I'll be interested to see it too. could be a difficult setting to do justice to.

It's going to be pretty big, like the initial Lankhmar set because they hit a ton of stretch goals.  So it's slated to be a hefty boxed set.  The funy thing is, I hadn't actually read Dying Earth before backing, though I had read other stuff by Vance.  After backing I read the Dying Earth [ trilogy and frankly, I must say that I'm not crazy about Vance as a writer, but there's definitely stuff I like about the setting.  I like having alternate settings and worlds for dimension hopping campaigns.    So I've got something pretty interesting that will get my players to Dying Earth.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Zirunel on February 23, 2022, 05:06:26 PM
The funy thing is, I hadn't actually read Dying Earth before backing, though I had read other stuff by Vance.  After backing I read the Dying Earth [ trilogy and frankly, I must say that I'm not crazy about Vance as a writer, but there's definitely stuff I like about the setting.  I like having alternate settings and worlds for dimension hopping campaigns.    So I've got something pretty interesting that will get my players to Dying Earth.

I guess we'll differ on that. For me, Vance was the best writer in the genre , and he is almost the only genre writer I still re-read on a regular basis. Dying Earth was I think his first fantasy novel, over 70 years ago, and for me it's still a fun read. Anyway, like you I'm interested to see what comes out of this.
Title: Re: Conan Literature
Post by: Persimmon on February 23, 2022, 06:29:17 PM
The funy thing is, I hadn't actually read Dying Earth before backing, though I had read other stuff by Vance.  After backing I read the Dying Earth [ trilogy and frankly, I must say that I'm not crazy about Vance as a writer, but there's definitely stuff I like about the setting.  I like having alternate settings and worlds for dimension hopping campaigns.    So I've got something pretty interesting that will get my players to Dying Earth.

I guess we'll differ on that. For me, Vance was the best writer in the genre , and he is almost the only genre writer I still re-read on a regular basis. Dying Earth was I think his first fantasy novel, over 70 years ago, and for me it's still a fun read. Anyway, like you I'm interested to see what comes out of this.

Yeah, I prefer the Planet of Adventure books to Dying Earth.  But even those get a bit tedious by the end.  I appreciate the artistic vision, but not crazy about the style.  That's actually how I feel about many, maybe most of the Appendix N authors.  I've been reading lots of them lately because I think you should, but I'm not sure I'll keep re-reading them like I do with Tolkien.