Robert E. Howard's Conan (of many suffixes) is a cultural icon. In the late 1960s, Lancer Books began a project to publish of all of Howard's Conan
works -- plus a little.
The volume titled simply _Conan_[1] is the fifth one published, but relates Conan's earliest exploits. It contains assorted background information,
as well as seven stories.
Throughout this recap, the following are used:
REH: Robert E. Howard
LSC; L. Sprague de Camp
LC: Lin Carter
PSM: P. Schuyler Miller
Introduction (LSC): Some biographical information about REH and how
the stories came to be written.
Letter to PSM (REH)): Approving response to PSM's working out of a
chronology of Conan stories.
The Hyborean Age, Part I (REH): Part of an essay giving the history
of the world for several millenia prior to Conan coming on the scene.
Now, the stories start.
The Thing in the Crypt (REH, LC): In an underground storeroom, Conan
fights a corpse and comes out of it with a nice sword.
The Tower of the Elephant (REH): After a bar fight, Conan goes to the
titular tower to steal a fabulous jewel, The Heart of the Elephant. He encounters another thief, with whom he teams up. The other theif doesn't
make it; Conan uses the jewel to magically kill a sorceror who has been
around from before the fall of Atlantis.
The Hall of the Dead (REH, LSC): Conan is pursued, by those who wish to
slay him, into a ruined city that has a reputation for killing all who
enter. He takes on a giant slug, teams up with the leader (and only
survivor) of the pursuers, takes on some zombies.
The God in the Bowl (REH): Conan is caught red-handed burglarizing a
temple where a murder has just happened. A cop is summoned, with his
boss tagging along. The cop is ready to hang Conan, but surprisingly
to me, his boss wants to investigate Conan's story before doing
anything permanent.
Rogues in the House (REH): Conan agrees to kill the enemy of a noble
in exchange for being released from the prison where he is awaiting
execution. By the time that his escape was to have been allowed, the
guard that was bribed to abet it has been killed. Conan gets out on
his own, and debates with himself before deciding to live up to his
part of the bargain anyway.
The Hand of Nergal (REH, LC): From the field of a horrific battle,
Conan is recruited to retrieve a magical artifact.
The City of Skulls (LC, LSC): Conan is captured and sold as a galley
slave.
Conan does not always get out of his scrapes with his sword. In fact, sometimes, he doesn't even get out due to his own efforts, but has
help from others -- even a slave-girl or two.
He sometimes ends one of his adventures with bags of loot, other
times he's lucky to escape alive. He can't hold onto his gains, but
blows them all on drinking and whoring. Conveniently, this sets the
stage for another adventure.
Alkthough a barbarian, he has an ill-defined code of honor. It includes
keeping his word and not taking a woman by physical force or duress.
The stories don't always start with him; the initial focus is often
elsewhere, with him making an appearance after a few hundred or even
a few thousand words.
Although I read this volume in 1996 and again in 2005, I remembered
absolutely nothing about it. It's nice to be able to reread something
and have it be fresh.
My nearly sixty year old MMPB is in amazingly good condition for a
Lancer product, with only two loose pages.
Note that the ISFDB listing says "The artist is not credited, ..."
However, my copy says "COVER PAINTING BY FRANK FRAZETTA" on the page
facing the title page.
[1] <
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?7653>
--
Michael F. Stemper
This sentence no verb.
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