Title: Conan
Authors: Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter
Cover artist: Frank Frazetta
Offered without comment, in honor of Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)
- OK, one comment — that is some serious MMA shit going on between Conan and the Phantom of the Apera
Two more Frazetta covers in coming days.
~RP
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8 comments:
Isn't L. Sprague DeCamp the guy who wrote _The Ancient Engineers?_ I'm slightly horrified that he would associate himself with a Conan the Barbarian book....
The day you start posting books I bought "BRAND-NEW" (to quote the cover) is the day I begin feeling old. Today is that day.
You don't mention it but I guess you're featuring Frazetta because he died the other day. I always like his stuff.
I owned that volume too, but not until the late seventies. "Lest Darkness Fall" by De Camp is one of the books that turned me into a Science Fiction aficionado. Elaine you can be smart and like Conan, give him a chance He's smarter than John Carter(who I also loved as a child)
Elaine, yes it's the same L. Sprague de Camp. He did write some excellent non-fiction works, but he is still primarily known as a science fiction and fantasy author. He even wrote a few Conan stories. And there's a lot more to Conan than you seem to think.
You know, it never occurred to me that the Conan movies were not...um, 'original screenplays.' I have read some Card, Pohl, and (blanking on another name)--really have only read science fiction from time to time, mostly back in the 70's. What's the best place to start if I give Conan a chance?
Technically speaking, the Conan films are indeed 'original screenplays': the vast majority of the plot of Conan the Barbarian is entirely the invention of Oliver Stone and John Milius, and you can thank Stanley Mann for mangling Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway's story for Conan the Destroyer.
Conan was De Camp's bread and butter, and the massive sales of the Lancers and resulting Conan boom in the '60s and '70s undoubtedly what made him a millionaire. Unfortunately, his somewhat cavalier and none-too-respectful attitude to the stories and the original author Robert E. Howard has earned him a highly controversial status in Howardom.
As for where to start with Conan, the original stories are the only way to go. Del Rey has three volumes featuring Howard's unedited, unexpurgiated texts: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Bloody Crown of Conan, The Conquering Sword of Conan. That's all you really need.
Man, this takes me back to pre-drivers' license High School. I was reading a lot of David Eddings and scribbling down my own stories. An uncle of mine heard about my writing and gave me an old card board box full of paper backs. He pulled this exact book out of it and said, "Don't let anybody tell you writers from small towns in Texas don't make it." I've been a Robert E. Howard fan ever since. That box also introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft. I spent a couple of years reading through that box, and then, like I said, I got my drivers' license. Once I had wheels I abandoned swords and sorcery for chasing tail and getting into trouble. Thanks for helping me remember that old box and my Uncle Bill.
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