Conan is the best example of how 'thief' need not be it's own RPG class. Honestly, Conan is a great example of skill based characters over class/job bases characters.

Conan is a genius bruiser who uses his brain as much as he uses his brawn. And, contrary to popular depictions, he wears clothes and armor.

When it comes to fantasy, one thing makes the Conan stories particularly interesting: there's zero Tolkien influence, as Howard died before the publication of the Hobbit. Of course, this goes for other older stuff as well.

Aside from being the greatest murder hobo of all time, he may have also been the first and only Hyborian age pulp detective.

My favorite Conan the Barbarian moment (maybe my favorite moment in any book) is when he faces off against a guy who's famous for strangling people; so he beats him by flexing his neck so hard he can't be strangled.

One thing I liked about the Schwarzenegger portrayal of Conan was his accent. All throughout Howard's tales of Conan, the hero is in far off lands speaking with people in different languages. He is never heard, not once, speaking in his native tongue. Whatever dialect he spoke he would have been thick accented as he pronounced words that were sometimes new to him.

Beyond the Black River is, to me, Howard’s pinnacle for Conan. Conan being witnessed from someone else’s POV is incredibly fun to witness, then seeing Balthus and Conan running through the forest desperately trying to outrun an army of Picts… chefs kiss. It ls the story I’ve reread most from Howard. I also really enjoyed Tower of the Elephant for the same reasons you mentioned, as well as The Slithering Shadow purely because Conan is fed up protecting someone and ends up duking it out with a demon.

Your murder hobo is my "self-sufficient." Keep in mind that while it is a fantasy setting, Conan's world is really more like a noir ... a hardboiled man in a corrupt world where nearly everybody lies and stabs each other in the back. Conan's not stealing from the weak or the poor. He's not killing people just because he can. You can be alone with him, and he won't just straight murk you and take your stuff.

You were actually correct with the Lovecraft thing Howard and Lovecraft were good friends irl and would often reference each others works ,most notably the book Unspeakable Cults is in both works, to the point some people claim they could be canon to one another

Pelias the Wizard in The Scalrlet Citadel is the most underrated Wizard in fiction ever. Especially when you realize that he predates Gandalf. While imprisoned, he creates zombies to kill the guards and summons a horrible bat monster at will; I wish he was talked about more.

Early on in DnD, there was only the Fighting Man, the Magic User and the Cleric. The Fighting Man is thief and warrior. Conan is definitely that.

Top Conan moment for me has to be killing a monologue-prone dictator with a chair - while the dude was mid-villain speech. That's where the story *starts*, which just tells you everything you need to know. "Our hero killed a monologuing villain with a chair. Now see how he escapes the dungeon he was thrown into as punishment!"

"Conan is the greatest murder hobo who has ever lived" is going to live rent free in my head for months.

Once upon a time I finished reading one of the books somewhere in the middle of the Wheel of Time series, the one that decided me to give up on it. Needing an antidote, I went and read the Conan novella "The People of the Black Circle". It was lots of fun, and what I noticed was that ten times as much stuff happened in 90 pages of Conan than in 800 pages or whatever of that Wheel of Time book. Modern fantasy writers do a lot of stuff well, but they could use some reminders about pace.

My wife asked me how I managed to claw my way out of a serious and prolonged period of mental distress. Conan audio books helped, a lot. He remains to this day, a hugely inspiring character, to me, and Robert E. Howard was an unalloyed genius.

I certainly appreciated the nuance and skill of Conan from the stories. But some of my favourite parts was when he just went full Man-Mode on a thing and outmuscled something. I forget which story it is but he runs into the royal strangler who tries to choke him to death. And instead of doing anything clever, Conan just out-strangles him back, basically racing this guy to see who runs out of breath first. It's awesome. Also Conan is a low-key sociopath and I'm all about it.

My favorite part of the Howard Conan stories was that they were set at all stages of his life, and he has a noticeably different attitude in stories when he was young versus stories when he was more mature.

My favorite Conan story was "Beyond the Black River", I was impressed by Howards writing because he focused on Balthus story.

That's a pretty good list. My personal picks are as follows: 1. "Queen of the Black Coast". (I consider it the quintessential Conan story.) 2. "The Tower of the Elephant". (A proper sword-and-sorcery dungeon crawl that really expands the world.) 3. "The God in the Bowl". (A murder mystery in a museum. Enough said.) 4. "Rogues in the House". (A jail-brake turned political thriller.) 5. "The Phoenix on the Sword". (The OG Conan story.) 6. "Red Nails". (Conan fights a dragon wand gets into a gang-war with his maybe-one-day girlfriend.) 7. "The Frost Giant's Daughter". (Turns out Valkyries are terrible.) 8. "The Pool of the Black One". (Another pirate tale, this one has my favorite opening to a Conan story ever.) I understand I have a pretty substantial list, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for classic, weird sword-and-sorcery and having read "Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus" by Finn J. D. John AND "Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery" by Brian Murphy, I strongly believe his best work was whenever he stuck to the 7 points Murphy outlines in Chapter One "What is Sword-and-Sorcery?" while deviating from the standard formula John points out as the "middle period" of Conan that saw him take off in Weird Tales. Most content creators can attest to this, stagnation kills.

I discovered Conan at twelve years old when my mate bought a Savage Sword of Conan comic. I'd never heard of him up till then. I loved it! Borrowed the comic so often Dave ended up just giving it to me😊. Then I found out there were actual books about Conan - Fast forward to today, I'm 57 and I still love anything Conan. I've read and re-read most of the stories about him (all that I could find over the years) and I've enjoyed almost all of it, but Robert Howard's originals stand out as the best by far - there's a particular 'feel' to them. That's the only way I can describe it. On the Lovecraft thing: Howard and HPL were correspondents and did include little bits of one another's 'Lore' in their stories. Keep on reading and enjoying, my friends - this stuff is gold!

The People of the Black Circle is one of my favorite stories by Robert E. Howard. The one I recommend to any pretentious person who says "Conan is bad and aged terribly" and all that usual stuff. Rogues in the House and The Devil in Iron are two underrated ones that I personally enjoy.

The "Three Musketeers of *_Weird Tales"_* (Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith) were none of them very happy men, but Howard seems to have been the most tortured soul of all. When he killed himself after his mother's death, it appears to have been not so much that he couldn't bear to go on without her but that with her safely dead he was without obligations and was finally free to make an exit.

I spent the winter months listening to the anthology while playing Conan Exiles. 10/10 experience, will probably do it again.

I owned all the original Conan books when I was a teenager, with all the original Frazetta artwork. Classic!

Conan as Murder-Hobo! Well now I’ve heard everything!

Wow, you exude so much joy talking about these stories you make me want to read that collection all over again! Conan the Murderhobo is the greatest description of him I've ever come across, ha. The thing I was most shocked about with the entire collection is just how well it stands up to the test of time - it's still extremely entertaining! And after reading it, it made me wonder if the people writing the movies based on him have ever even read a one of the stories. He was much more than the raging barbarian I was expecting based on those.

What I love about the Conan world is the low fantasy. Magic is "magic" in that world. In countless fantasy stories, magic is so common that it isn't really special anymore. Not in Conan

I originally got into the Conan series thanks to the game Age of Conan, it's left probably the BIGGEST impression on me growing up, way more than other mmos like WoW or GW1 or SWG, and Age of Conan is probably one of the most dead/lackluster MMO's out there really. But originally when I first got into it as a kid, when I saw stuff like 300 and Black & White 2 and stuff like that and all of it got me further indulged in history as a whole, even more so with the works of Conan most of all. Overall it's definitely became my 2nd favorite series and eventually I do want to get into discussing the Lore of the series and do it some real justice, because a lot of material out there about is seems to be very inaccurate or just lacking in total, simply due to how underrated the series truly is.

Looking through the comments, I haven't seen anyone mention my favourite REH Conan story, so I just gotta give a shoutout Black Colossus. I really like the setting for it, and that first chapter is some awesome fantasy-horror.

I was so lucky that my dad introduced me to his collection of Howard's books. He's such an... unexpectedly good writer. His ability to describe a scene with highly visual language is perfect for the sort of pulp nature of the settings he explores. When my son was 12 I gave him my father's collection that was passed onto me. He drank them up and I'm convinced he's now a better person (he's 19) for reading them.

Fun fact; Robert E Howard and HP Lovecraft were buddies and shared a pantheon of elder gods in their stories. Also, while their attitudes towards racism were pretty bad, it was Howard who ended up pulling up Lovecraft over sexism which then caused Howard to review his own views on general. The Conan stories were not written in chronological order but you can tell the stories written after his epiphany because the bad guys weren't always dark skinned and he wrote more women characters as being able to be strong and independent on their own rights without needing men.

"His mighty sinews flexed and his sword swung in a glittering arc, a crimson line appeared on the throat of his foe". A Jack Reacher for yesteryear.

Best thumbnail text EVER!

I’m a huge Howard fan, and fan of Conan in particular! Since you asked for some favorites other than than what you listed (Red Nails and the Phoenix on the Sword being particular favorites) I am definitely going to say the one that gets the least amount of attention but is definitely my other favorite: Wolves at the Border. Conan isn’t the main character in this one but it is a great bit of storytelling and trying to show a different MC to the titular Murderhobo. The story follows a young man named Gault who is a Ranger/Scout and all around badass in his own right as he tries to protect his homeland from an invasion of a savage, bloodthirsty, and brutal enemy. Knowing that his people are facing a genocide if he fails, Gault takes guerilla warfare to an extreme realizing that in order to win he has to be smarter, better and more ruthless than those who threaten his home. It really is a terrific story and a great dessert type of story if your meal has been of the well muscled Cimmerian variety! Side note: If I were using D&D 5e to make Conan, he’d have the Outlander Background, definitely a very lucky rolled ability score character, with maybe a single level of Barbarian (mainly for the no armor and the rage helps in those clutch moments in the stories just flavored more as determination than anger) with the rest being fighter and maybe a dip into rogue (for expertise, cunning action, and sneak attack helps in those moments when he lays out an ambush, or the many times he catches opponents off guard.) Additional side note: Everyone likes to crap on the Jason Mamoa flick, but by comparison to the Books, both Mamoa’s and Schwarzenegger’s fall short. I think Mamoa’s build/physique and just the way he moved was closer in appearance to what is described in the books. However everything else in both renditions was wrong, at least in the Mamoa version they got the backstory more correct though again both were off. Don’t even get me started on the TV show. However I would really love to see the character brought to full life on the big screen with consultation done on the script by a Howard Scholar and casting done with care to get the characters right. Even going as far as to adapt any of the stories and frame it how Howard said he imagined the stories coming to him to write, an aged King Conan sitting by a fire with a drink in hand sharing his adventures.

I wish Howard's Dark Agnes de Chastillon got more recognition. And wish he had done more stories with her.

I’ve got all 17 of the Conan books published by Sphere Books from the 70’s (with edits by Lin Carter & L Sprague de Camp) and you’ve inspired me to do a re-read. Well done sir.

Robert E. Howard is my favorite writer, along with Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, C.L. Moore, Karl Edward Wagner, Jack Vance, and Michael Moorcock. Highly recommend Solomon Kane, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn. Always brings me great joy to see more people talking about the pulps.

Great video about the greatest Murder-Hobo ever. So glad you will be with us for Cimmerian September!

I once read a quote from Howard (that I for the life of me can't find again) where he said he was conflicted about writing female characters. Why? Because the editors only wanted damsels to be saved while if he was going to have a woman as a character in one his adventure stories he wanted her to actually get to be in a character in an adventure story and get to throw as many punches as the men. It's kinda sad reading stories of his like Sword Woman, that he clearly put a lot of love and care into, knowing it was basically impossible for him to get them published in his lifetime, relegating them to only be shared with friends like Catherine L Moore.

I would recommend to anyone reading this to go ahead and read the "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" stories by Fritz Leiber and the "Elric" series by Michael Moorcock. Together with Robert E Howard's original Conan stories, they form the three pillars of Sword & Sorcery.

Reading all the Howard Conan books is on my bucket list. Great to see you had so much fun with the series. Cheers.

Good video man. I have loved Conan and REH stories for years. Yes, Conan is such a more well rounded character than depicted in say the movies by one A Schwarzenegger. I love some of the other stories by Howard as well. I have several books featuring some of his other heroes(?). 😄 The Sowers of the Thunder features four characters in stories set in various historical periods. The Crusades, Tamerlane and my favorite story set the Siege of Vienna 1529. Kull, Bran Mak Morn and Cormac Mac Art are just the business as well.

I think it's "A Witch Shall be Born" in which Conan gets crucified and bites out the throat of a vulture that tries to eat him. Excellent story!

Happy you discovered Robert E. Howard. If you haven't discovered it yet I highly recommend the Kull Tales and Solomne Kane stories too. Back to Conan himself though next to "The Tower of the Elephant" I love "Beyond the Black River", "The God in the Bowl" and "The Pool of the Black One". But heck, all Conan stories are worth to read them. I think I have reread them (with the comic adaptions) more than 20 times by now and still discover new stuff.

You nailed it, man! Those are basically my favorite stories as well. Howard was brilliant.

I read all the Conan stories last September during "Cimmerian September" hosted by Booktubers. I had never read them before, but I did enjoy them. I used to think Conan was just a movie and comic book character my son liked as a kid, but little did I know! Fun stories by Robert E. Howard.

Wow! I'm in good company with your other commenters today! That's great! It's been a long time since I've read any Conan, but I'm planning on waiting so that I can participate in Cimmerian September also.

Man! this video just got me so hyped to read more Conan. I started reading Conan stories about 20 years ago and still have not finished every Robert E Howard story. I've been slowly savoring them, but i think after this i'm just gonna go hard to get them all.

I have read a good % of the Conan novels out to read and one of my favorites is Conan the Hero, I hope I remembered the title as it has been around 17years since i have read but it still stands out in my memories as one of the top epic stories lol. The best revenge payback as he was betrayed by an under officer and tracked the troop down and eliminated them all a couple at a time until it was just his enemy left. I'm trying to not give too much details so I don't spoil the story lol Conan is still my favorite murder hobo 200 books later... Richard Blade and Dimension X is my 2nd, check it out if you never have read. 18 yrs or older lol

The Elephant Tower is also the original issue #1 of the Marvel comics run in the 80s. :)

If you ever want to read some of the BEST melee combat stories ever put to paper, read Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. In a single paragraph, Conan will smash a guy's teeth out, split another guy's skull, squeeze a man until his ribs splinter and then get really violent. If you're an aspiring writer, R.E. Howard is a master of written action and his work is totally worth studying.

As I recall, in "The God in the Bowl" Conan gets mixed up in it because he was attempting to steal something, so of course when someone turns up dead he's the prime suspect. He's not so much "hanging around" as he is under arrest. Of course, I read that 30+ years ago so don't quote me on that. It is an interesting one since it's a locked room mystery in a fantasy setting.

Conan: The Original Murder Hobo - a good title for a documentary about Conan.

I discovered Conan in my teens and Howard has ranked high on my most influential writers list ever since! “Queen of the Black Coast” and “Tower of the Elephant” are probably my favorite Conan stories.

I have been reading Conan since I was a teenager, I love all the old Tor Novels, I love Robert Jordan, but I bought the complete Robert E Howard Collection last year. It was amazing, beautiful writing, dated at times but in the best ways. The world has become so soft and safe, Conan is dirty, violent and uncompromising. Shadows in Zamboula, and A Witch Shall Be Born are also excellent.

Today I learned about what a murder hobo is and I'm thankful for it

Have long loved the first ten years of Conan comics books, 1970-80. There are other periods of strong enjoyable Conan comics but for me there are gaps as well. Have been thinking of reading the original pulp mag stories just to see how they are. You've inspired me to seek reprints out. To be honest, years ago I read a genuine original old pulp magazine detective story and it dragged like a chain around your neck. Put me off of pulps for a long time, there's too many cool comic books and vintage comic strips out there for me to seek out new distractions! But REH has always been a hero and I will dig in. The blinded elephant headed god in the tower is a favorite from the first comics run so that can be a starting point. Thanks for your excellent video.

I read all of Howard's Conan stories back in the late 1970's and have reread them many times over the years. I have them all on audio book too and like to listen when I drive. One thing about the stories is that Howard wrote some of the best female characters in literature.

My favorite Conan story is Altar of Victory, written by Gregory Archer. It's a rare case where I can find almost no information about the book, except for the fact that I have the book itself in my library. It's about Conan traveling to the fabled, mystical land of Hildorado (bit on the nose, but the land itself has little to nothing to do with gold) and assembling a party of misfits and thieves on the way before being subjected to a vicious gauntlet of mystical challenges that are meant to test the travelers to determine who are worthy to reach Hildorado. The reason I love it more than any other Conan story is because it employs my favorite trope of a "battle tower" where the party works their way up a tower with each floor offering a new psychological or physical challenge to overcome. Each challenge tests each of the heroes both in terms of their abilities and skills, but also attacks their flaws as people and tempts them to become their own worst enemy as well as the weak link of the whole party. It actually reads like a small Conan seinen manga series more than anything which must be why it caught my attention when I was a teen and kept it to this day

The People of the Black Circle and Queen of the Black Coast deserve a mention!

Hey, it almost the same as my list: 1. The Scarlet Citadel (I love the sorcery aspect) 2. The Tower of the Elephant (Duh, ....) 3. Red Nails (An adventure in a lost city, very well written) 4. The God in the Bowl (A murder mystery) 5. Beyond the Black River (Most emotional)

I have read and re-read Conan so many times, but I always love re-reading Phoenix on the Sword, Tower of the Elephant, and Queen of the Black Coast. Beyond the Black River is also growing quite strongly on me. If you enjoyed Conan, do yourself a massive favor and read Kull and Bran Mak Morn.

Something I found interesting about "The Hour of the Dragon" is that it suggests to me that Howard was anti-Nazi back in 1936. A key plot element is that Conan had decided to let the religion of Asura, which has strong Jewish overtones, have freedom of religion, and they then help him defeat the evil wizard Xaltotun and regain his throne. I don't think that's accidental, I think he was saying something there.

Red Nails might be my fave. Tough ask :)

I always thought Elric became the reluctant murder hobo after he lead the raid on Melnibone and everyone ends up dead. He destroys his home. The sword ends up killing people at the end of every story.

It is why in the earlier translation of him into Original D&D (Supplement IV - Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes), he is listed as a Neutral alignment Fighter/Thief dual-class. A COMPLETE murder hobo! I did what you did and read through all the stories in publication order a few years ago. A great time!

As an "old", the term "murderhobo" was oblivious to me, but is now the funniest fkn thing I've ever heard. Thanks for a wonderful and well spoken review, you've convinced me to start reading again. Cheers!

I definitely love most of the stories you mentioned here. I prefer "Phoenix" as a Kull story, myself, "By this Axe I Rule". Two favourite Conans that were not mentioned in the video are "Beyond the Black River" and "Rogues in the House". The former I enjoy because Conan is not really the point of view character, and it gives an interesting new perspective on what Conan blasting into someone else's world would be like, not to mention that while we know Conan has to make it out alive, the same can't necessarily be said for a POV character who is not Conan. 'Rogues" just has an incredibly fun atmosphere to it, and love the Murders in the Rue Morgue tribute, as well as the opening with Conan breaking out of jail and getting some hilarious revenge on the person who turned him in.

I love these old Conan stories. For anyone interested, there's actually a pretty good movie about Robert E. Howard called "The Whole Wide World," from 1996.

Great and very enjoyable review on the Conan stories . I love the Robert E Howard Conan stories, i bought the Omnibus book of Robert E Howards's Conan some years ago and i was hooked ! Robert E Howards writing style is wonderful . One of my fave stories is - ''Tower of the Elephant ''

For those who want the list of 6 stories: 1- Tower of the Elephant (quite short, very good) 2- Phoenix on the Sword (quite short, very good as well) 3- Red Nails (almost book length, quite good too) 4- Hour of the Dragon (full length novel, also quite good) 5- The Scarlet Citadel (quite short, very good, great) 6- The God in the Bowl (not as short, very good).

I had that one ticked off my reading list by age 12. I was and still am a huge fan of Conan. When I go to the comic book store, I will _always_ walk out with an issue of Conan. If you read RE Howard and HP Lovecraft back to back you soon realize that although Lovecraft tended to write in the first person and Howard in the third, rheir style is very similar.

Conan as well as Tarzan are both on my to read list . Both are massive with over 20 books in the series each

Have read the collected short stories multiples times over multiple decades. For me, no-one else writes combat scenes as well as Robert E Howard. Reading them is a visceral experience. You can visualise the fight happening before your eyes, sinew by sinew. Maybe I'm just an old fanboy. I appreciate there are many great fight scene writers in the fantasy genre, andf that you will all have your favourites, and different opinions to this one, so no offence intended.

totally agree -- and i have had your enthusiasm for these stories my whole life. too bad there aren't more of them (although even before his sadly youthful death howard got tired of conan and dropped it to move on). i also like the kull, bran mac morn and solomon kane stories too. howard knew what he was doing and had great, and as you said, almost timeless style.

I read all of the REH Conan stories "in order" a few summers ago. It was absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended.

Thatnk you for this Break down. It is really helpful.

I have the three Del Ray editions of all the Howard Conan stories, and I've only read the first but I've really enjoyed it. I found the stories in there are not only great on their own, but also better than some modern epic fantasy series that I've read. My favorite story so far is The Frost Giant's Daughter, it's so atmospheric and I really like the Norse inspiration of the setting. The ending is really what makes that story my favorite in particular. This was a great video!

My favorite is the Teeth of Gwalur. There’s multiple factions, there’s twists and turns, and it’s got a surprise ending.

Loved it As an old head myself who grew up on Conan both comics and Movie's I will say thank you and Great job explaining Conan one of the best character's in fantasy also like Soloman Cain the Puritan. Another Robert E Howard Character.

I have read every Conan story by Howard (and every Kull and Solomon Kane story) and you've definitely made some fine picks. I have also read the stories by Carter and deCamp, most by Wagner, a few by Offutt... and still there's too many I have not found to read. I like the simplicity of the stories, and the fact they are just good escapist entertainment. More stories should be like this.

For anyone who enjoys Robert E. Howard I strongly recommend checking out Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber (fun fact, some of which also contain unusual and unexpected 'adult' moments).

The highest rated Conan pastiche authors off the top of my head: Robert Jordan John Maddox Roberts Karl Edward Wagner

I stayed with someone when I was young who had a bunch of Conan books in their house. I had already seen the movies and loved fantasy anyway, so I started reading some. I found them pretty entertaining. For some reason the common ending of Conan stories with him walking away without looking back stuck with me to this day.

If you are getting into Howard, I recommend you try one of his boxing stories. His use of imagery in the ring is incredible. Probably the masterpieces of his writing skills.

Wow! Brings me back to being twelve years old. I read them all and even the non-Howard stories. ‘Beyond Black River’ is probably my favorite. True genius often comes at a price. R.E. Howard certainly paid that price.

My longtime favorite is "Queen of the Black Coast," both in prose and the comic by John Buscema. I do not understand why, after multiple Conan films, the romance between Conan and Belet has never appeared on screen.

I loved reading Conan when I was younger, and still occasionally re-read the stories. As the examples you selected show, the Conan stories didn't follow a standard template or anything. Each story is unique in its setting and plot. I also like that magic is scarce in the stories, so that when it does show up, it's really something special and not commonplace. Howard even wrote one story without any magic at all as a challenge. It's just a frontier adventure story.

I first got into Conan when I was about 10 and consumed every REH book I could get my hands on thereafter. I’m in my 50s now and still a fan of REH’s writing and return to his work whenever I need a good old fashioned, rip roaring yarn.

Amazing title - Conan the Murder Hobo. Moniker aside, Robert E. Howard's writing style is perhaps par-none. Using this unique brevity and flow that just kept the pace going. Not many authors manage that. Even HPL can be very slow at times, Howard just nails it everytime. Shout out to Black Agnes written in first person. Of course other characters with stories, (Bran Mak Morn, Soloman Kane, Turlogh Dubh O'Brian, (never read any James Allison), El Borak. One question I always wanted to ask a Howard expert - "How did Robert E. Howard get a hold of all these ancient civilizations, religious concepts, and even military tactics to flush out his novels. No internet in the 1920s.

The greatest! Howard & Lovecraft are a few of the authors in my headcanon Appendix N.

I really liked this- like hanging out with my buds talkin' stories!

I loved the way Howard described the dragon in Red Nails. You definitely get it from the perspective of someone who doesn't know what a dinosaur is and has never seen something like it before.

Cool books review brah. I had a major crush on Red Sonja when I was a youngster.

It's not his best, but I'm partial to the devil in iron. Robert has a grounded way of forcing the reader to see things from his characters perspectives, and i think it was showcased here well. It has a sPoOkY beginning with the tribal coastal guy getting offed by a very dark mirror evil merciless version of Conan when the poor wretch removes a cool looking dagger laying on the big guy. Then, what the characters assume is some sort of necromancer rebuilds an ancient ruined city in, like, a night. Complete with half conscious, long dead people. There's even a drone at one point, which is wildly ahead of its time, considering it was written in the thirties. Yadda yadda yadda, plot with damsel in distress and b plot bad guys, and the (essentially) space robot is cut down by conan welding the special dagger, the only thing capable of piecing his flesh. The blade almost reminded me of a remote control, which is big time appropriate to combat a mechanical being. I think most contemporary critics panned it somewhat as Robert E Howard churning something out to make ends meet, but i still appreciated it. Really sucks that the big man couldn't escape his own demons. Would have loved to see what characters he would have created and stories that would be woven in the future. RIP Howard, and thanks for the post.

Cool video, where can i find out more about Sumerian September? Sounds interesting.

I think that distinction of "the greatest murder hobo" goes to Oedipus. Sophocles invented the murder hobo in the 4th century BC.

Conan The Hobo sounds like the new epic saga of Conan pastiche books. Always happy to see a new Conan fan. They’re just fun books to read. I’ve been reading Conan for the last thirty years. Here are my three favorites. Tower of the Elephant The Frost-Giant’s Daughter Red Nails

Currently reading the collection for the first time. Love it. My only issue is that there's two or three characters named Valerius (a young guard in that story where Conan gets crucified, a veteran in that story about the Picts fighting against colonization, and one of the villains in Hour of the Dragon), plus Valeria. What's up with that??

the god in the bowl is my favorite, barbarian noir is something i didn't know i needed so much in my life.