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[Retropunch]

I read several stories so far, and find those very good.

They are not as strange as Lovecraft's, but still very entertaining. The action scenes in various dungeons and buildings are particularly good, reminding me of thrilling adventures in the Mazes of Menace and the dark city of Angband, except that Conan survived!

Glad you liked them too. I completely agree that the action scenes are very well done, especially considering contemporary fantasy writings (or anything for another 30 years or so) which tended to have very bland - or very flowery - action sequences. 

I really do wish an author (Joe Abercrombie or similar) would do a sort of heavily abridged version of all the Conan tales into one giant novel. The only thing that gets me on a second read through is how repetitive the scene/character setting across the stories is - you end up with Conan being described all over again in each,  and the disconnect between stories (even going in rough chronology) means you sometimes (very rarely though) feel like you're missing something important. Even if it was just a quick 'and then Conan gets chucked off the boat for x, and then goes to y because of z' would help round out the world.

[§k]

Reading The evil in the iron - the chieftain, and then The hour of dragon - the king, is chronologically correct and without repetitive content. Now the missing part is an Amra the corsair story.

[RoseHeart]

If you completed the three part anthology and want more I really recommend Howard's horror anthology. As a bonus there is a Conan story that is not in the other collection.

[JacobVR]

I have a theory. Ernest Hemingway was famous for trying to excise as many adjectives and adverbs from his writing as possible, and of course he has many imitators. I think that Robert E. Howard is a grammatical portrait of Dorian Grey, and all those adjectives and adverbs that all those writers cut from their books made their way into Howard's.

[nenjin]

Huh. I'd have to reread some stories but I don't recall him over doing the adjectives and adverbs. I thought his language was rather plain and to the point, which is a strength of his writing. Could be mistaken though.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I'm listening to Queen of the Black Coast right now. If I never gave to listen to someone talking about heaving bosoms it will be too soon.

[hops]

I honestly avoided the series because it was compared to the Barsoom series, which I thought was utter pulp crap, but had been referred to as "Conan in space." If people actually think that Conan is well written, then maybe it's not as similar to Barsoom as I have thought.

[nenjin]

Conan is pulp, make no mistake. But it's not shitty, self-aware ironic pulp. Or grossly exaggerated for effect pulp.

[hops]

I mean, neither was Barsoom, though. It just felt like I wasted three hours of my life reading about a naked cowboy who jump good.

[Retropunch]

I honestly avoided the series because it was compared to the Barsoom series, which I thought was utter pulp crap, but had been referred to as "Conan in space." If people actually think that Conan is well written, then maybe it's not as similar to Barsoom as I have thought.

It's pretty well written, and very well written for the pulp genre. Especially ones like Phoenix and the Sword, which still has lines that stick with me.

There are a few exceptions where it gets a bit trashy as like all pulp novels, they tend to labour the sexy women bit rather too much (I was never a fan of Queen of the Black Coast for that reason) but overall I think they're written a hell of a lot better than most contemporary fantasy.

I also disliked Barsoom for the same reasons you did, if that helps.

[Edmus]

Heinlein's "Number of the Beast" referenced Barsoom a lot. Maybe if I got the references it would have actually been readable. Anyone else had the misfortune of experiencing that book?

[RoseHeart]

Conan is a real person. Somewhere and he's always true to himself in Howard's writing.

He's not the complete image that a barbarian brings to mind there's a little bit more thought going on, a little bit more reflection and somehow all this is not in conflict with the raw instinct of a wild man.