I own the Coming of Conan the Cimmerian in hardcover. It was the first REH book I ever bought. The Mark Schultz illustrations are gorgeous. I want to cry every time I read Queen of the Black Coast. REH was a master storyteller. We will never see his like again but his legacy endures as long as his stories are read.
One can only imagine where REH would have gone with Conan if hadn't taken his own life. Scarlet Citadel was one of my favorites though, truly, it is hard for me to say which one is my all time favorite since I love them all!
Just read it. You can't spoil this story because it's forever fresh and ripe for another reading. The Conan language, the magic, the full-on war are so great. One of his best, for sure.
Great story. You nailed it. Howard was a master storyteller and could pack in a short story what most fantasy authors would string out across a trilogy.
I was blown away by this one! Certainly has some scope in filling out the world politically, militarily, and probes hard into the edges of the unknown - this dungeon was terrifyingly awesome! Got pretty close to describing a literal Hell (a wold he uses repeatedly) and between this story, "Worms of the Earth" and "the Cat and the Skull" we keep getting glimpses of an Interior Earth - whether Hollow, extra-dimensional or both is still unclear) that must be very diverse, and lore rich. It makes me want Howard to explore it in depth Pelucidar style, but it might loose a lot of it's magic if you shed to much light down there (this story and Worms make excellent use of darkness) and maybe it'd fall apart with too many lost races Howard made up on the spot, but he knew a lot about Hyborea - I wonder if he had details in mind here, or maybe he left that for Lovecraft or Smith. Speaking of which, (spoilers) the thing that mimics womanly screams and The Terror that came from the well - chef's kiss - it's good some things are more then the ubermensch Conan can handle, or even face. Keeping most of it just mad sounds and feelings is so effective, and have Conan just be brave enough to merely escape - even Satha the snake survives! She could still be down there today! Anyway, I could nitpick, a lot is solved with Wizard ex Machina - the "good" wizard that the evil wizard arrogantly left alive to suffer/be saved could solve nearly every problem, allowing him to save his kingdom and redeem himself on the battle field, but whatever, the style is so good, and fresh even today, I mind the conveniences very little. I also have some difficulty keeping track of his battle descriptions, but that could just be me and my lack of military vocabulary - some authors do it better for me, particularly when their not expositioning the nations at the same time - but I can still follow the gist and get excitement from the prose.
This is my favorite Conan story. It's fun to read this in the Savage Sword adaptation from 1978 with Frank Brunner artwork and couple it with the sequel Tim Truman wrote with Dark Horse.
This takes us back to that too many books issue. I'd long been envious of those nice REH collections that you've been showing. So, a few days ago I was searching in the room where most of my books live for something totally unrelated, when I came across a hardcover copy of 'The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian', that I had forgotten I owned.
One of the greatest Conan story. Your words are Super cool and any of them says the truth. The escaping scene is really impressive, that is one of the reasons why Robert E. Howard was a gigantic talent. Thank you for your terrific video again, and Have a nice Friday!
Great video, absolutely love the Scarlet Citadel, you make a really good point.. he really does seem to conjure vivid characters with just a few words..He really was a genius writer; the King of the Pulps!
I just reread this last week. My favorite creepy thing in the dungeon is in the well. I wanted more of that. LoL. You should have talked about the plant that was feeding off of the wizard that He helped. I really dug that part.👍 Queen of the Black Coast was way too short a story for Me. I'm going to be putting out a Unedited Instrumental of Conan, and (The People of the Black Circle)....some time very soon. Great Video Michael 👍😁👍
Your channel has helped renew my interest in reading, and weird/dark fiction. I recently read this one and loved it, especially the dungeon scenes and the escape from it. Awesome epic stuff.
Satha, the old one, appears if I'm not wrong, in another Howard story, wich name I can not remember now. Also Pelias was terrifiying, yes, even Satha was afraid of him.
Okay, I have been wondering, since people don't seem to talk about these books much these days, but they seem a bit related, genre-wise to Conan, so have you read the Death Dealer novels by James Silke? There were four of them, all published in the late '80s/early '90s. I have all four and have read them, but it has been a number of years. I want to dig them out of whatever random-ass box they are currently stored in and re-read them. I remember them being pretty good. I hope I won't be disappointed going back to them. If you haven't read them, Michael, maybe you could at least check out the first book, Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, and talk about it. It could make a good video. Maybe. Also, silly question maybe, but is Robert E. Howard the reason you do the middle initial thing with your name?
I own the Coming of Conan the Cimmerian in hardcover. It was the first REH book I ever bought. The Mark Schultz illustrations are gorgeous. I want to cry every time I read Queen of the Black Coast. REH was a master storyteller. We will never see his like again but his legacy endures as long as his stories are read.
I have the soft covers of this line, and I completely agree. The best versions of Howard's Conan
The Scarlet Citadel is one of my favorite Conan stories!
One can only imagine where REH would have gone with Conan if hadn't taken his own life. Scarlet Citadel was one of my favorites though, truly, it is hard for me to say which one is my all time favorite since I love them all!
Very enjoyable. Look forward to Queen of the Black Coast.
Every episode of The Robert E. Howard Show is golden. :)
First time I read Scarlet Citadel my first thought was
So this is where every dungeon adventure story came from. ⚔
Yay! 🎵It’s the Robert E. Howard Show!🎵 This story is great! Love this volume of stories!
Just read it. You can't spoil this story because it's forever fresh and ripe for another reading. The Conan language, the magic, the full-on war are so great. One of his best, for sure.
Great story. You nailed it. Howard was a master storyteller and could pack in a short story what most fantasy authors would string out across a trilogy.
I was blown away by this one! Certainly has some scope in filling out the world politically, militarily, and probes hard into the edges of the unknown - this dungeon was terrifyingly awesome! Got pretty close to describing a literal Hell (a wold he uses repeatedly) and between this story, "Worms of the Earth" and "the Cat and the Skull" we keep getting glimpses of an Interior Earth - whether Hollow, extra-dimensional or both is still unclear) that must be very diverse, and lore rich. It makes me want Howard to explore it in depth Pelucidar style, but it might loose a lot of it's magic if you shed to much light down there (this story and Worms make excellent use of darkness) and maybe it'd fall apart with too many lost races Howard made up on the spot, but he knew a lot about Hyborea - I wonder if he had details in mind here, or maybe he left that for Lovecraft or Smith.
Speaking of which, (spoilers) the thing that mimics womanly screams and The Terror that came from the well - chef's kiss - it's good some things are more then the ubermensch Conan can handle, or even face. Keeping most of it just mad sounds and feelings is so effective, and have Conan just be brave enough to merely escape - even Satha the snake survives! She could still be down there today!
Anyway, I could nitpick, a lot is solved with Wizard ex Machina - the "good" wizard that the evil wizard arrogantly left alive to suffer/be saved could solve nearly every problem, allowing him to save his kingdom and redeem himself on the battle field, but whatever, the style is so good, and fresh even today, I mind the conveniences very little. I also have some difficulty keeping track of his battle descriptions, but that could just be me and my lack of military vocabulary - some authors do it better for me, particularly when their not expositioning the nations at the same time - but I can still follow the gist and get excitement from the prose.
This is my favorite Conan story. It's fun to read this in the Savage Sword adaptation from 1978 with Frank Brunner artwork and couple it with the sequel Tim Truman wrote with Dark Horse.
This takes us back to that too many books issue. I'd long been envious of those nice REH collections that you've been showing.
So, a few days ago I was searching in the room where most of my books live for something totally unrelated, when I came across a hardcover copy of 'The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian', that I had forgotten I owned.
Wow! What a fantastic surprise!
One of the greatest Conan story. Your words are Super cool and any of them says the truth. The escaping scene is really impressive, that is one of the reasons why Robert E. Howard was a gigantic talent. Thank you for your terrific video again, and
Have a nice Friday!
Great video, absolutely love the Scarlet Citadel, you make a really good point.. he really does seem to conjure vivid characters with just a few words..He really was a genius writer; the King of the Pulps!
Thank you for this excellent video. Your UA-cam Channel is in my opinion the best to deliver Robert E. Howard related materials and presentations
I just reread this last week. My favorite creepy thing in the dungeon is in the well. I wanted more of that. LoL. You should have talked about the plant that was feeding off of the wizard that He helped. I really dug that part.👍
Queen of the Black Coast was way too short a story for Me.
I'm going to be putting out a Unedited Instrumental of Conan, and (The People of the Black Circle)....some time very soon.
Great Video Michael 👍😁👍
This is a great story, one of my favourites in this volume. I like the drawing at the end of the story with the eagle ⚔
Fun vid! Go Conan Go! :)
Your channel has helped renew my interest in reading, and weird/dark fiction. I recently read this one and loved it, especially the dungeon scenes and the escape from it. Awesome epic stuff.
Satha, the old one, appears if I'm not wrong, in another Howard story, wich name I can not remember now.
Also Pelias was terrifiying, yes, even Satha was afraid of him.
All the pulp greats knew how to expertly use the limited real estate of the page. Not like today’s long-winded commercial fiction authors.
You have a nice reading cadence!
Okay, I have been wondering, since people don't seem to talk about these books much these days, but they seem a bit related, genre-wise to Conan, so have you read the Death Dealer novels by James Silke? There were four of them, all published in the late '80s/early '90s. I have all four and have read them, but it has been a number of years. I want to dig them out of whatever random-ass box they are currently stored in and re-read them. I remember them being pretty good. I hope I won't be disappointed going back to them. If you haven't read them, Michael, maybe you could at least check out the first book, Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, and talk about it. It could make a good video. Maybe.
Also, silly question maybe, but is Robert E. Howard the reason you do the middle initial thing with your name?