Lancer/Ace Conan books: 2016 re-read

[Aaron]

Nice goal there, I started reading Conan in that series of books as well. Between those and the Red Sonja series that was coming out at the time they were my introductions to the Sword and Sorcery genre. I have been meaning to go back and reread all of those books again for some time. Might actually try and sneak a few books in now haha

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Myself, I came to Conan (and Howard) relatively late -- when I was young (late 70s/early 80s) the comics were big, the Ace paperbacks were in the local bookstore and the movies were coming out, but nothing ever quite grabbed me -- I was more of a fan of Burroughs and Barsoom.

Then when I went off to college, the public library in the college town happened to have a copy of Conan (Ace #1) on the shelf, so I gave it a try and ended up picking up all of the rest of the Ace books in fairly short order. Yeah, the series as a whole definitely had its ups and downs, but it brought me to Conan and to Howard, which can only be a good thing.

(I did start getting Red Sonja comics -- there was a short series that started in the early 80s that I picked up -- and the Solomon Kane miniseries. Might have started with the books if they would've been available in the local public library.)

[Aaron]

Yeah I loved the comics. I still have an entire run of the Conan comics, all volumes. Plus a full run of Savage Sword and Conan Saga LOL. Red Sonja comics were also a hot item I still have full runs of them too.

[Aaron]

LOL yeah the comics and magazines do take up some room. I have a number of the Dark Horse reprints but only up to seven or eight I think. Thatbis definitely a series I should get current on. It is so much easier reading it that way than digging for the issue. Only problem is you lose out on the additional material that was in the magazines.

[Dan]

The Ace paperbacks were also what introduced me to Conan, though it was much later than most of the folk here. I'd been reading high fantasy, in one form or another, since I was a wee one, but it was sometime in high school (early 2000's) that I discover Conan and Robert E. Howard, the Del Rey reprints and the general resurgence of Conan had not quite started yet, and I would pick up whatever copies of the Ace paperbacks as I could find at used book stores, flea markets and garage sales. Made quite a collection of them too, sometimes even grabbing multiple copies.

I will agree that there were some ups and downs with the Conan series written and edited by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, but at the same time it was nice to see different voices continuing the saga, and many other authors later too. I think they really started something with their pastiches and some of their stories were really quite good, if you can just get past the fact that they aren't Robert E. Howard.

While I collect comics, and love Conan, I never actually got into the Conan comics, maybe one day I'll attempt that series. Probably not right away though.

As for the Ace paperbacks, I think I'll actually read Hour of the Dragon this year. As sad as it is, I've never actually read that one. Somehow the novel length Conan story always seemed daunting to me, can't imagine why now...

[S.wagenaar]

I really feel the de Camp/Carter/Nyberg pastiche material was generally superior to the later Tor novels. And part of that is because Conan or S&S in general plays out better as short stories rather than full length novels. I would love to see this earlier pastiche work collected in one big omnibus book. I would buy it!

[Aaron]

That would be a sweet deal to get them in an omnibus hardcover! I heartily second that lol

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

As it happens ... Sagas of Conan

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

As for the Tor novels, I admit I haven't read any of them, and I know there are some good ones out there, but I kind of got the impression that they collapsed under their own weight -- not because they were novels, necessarily, but because it got to the point where Conan would've needed a Franklin planner and a personal assistant to fit all of those adventures into his schedule.

[Aaron]

From 2004, it would seem that there wasn't a good enough response to do them all I guess. To bad though.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Also, Conan the Swordsman and Conan the Liberator. Someone would have to check, but I'd guess that's pretty much all of the Carter/de Camp/Nyberg that you could pluck out of the Ace series without including any of the more posthumous collaboration sorts of things.

All available on Kindle ...

[S.wagenaar]

Actually, there are four Conan tales in Conan of Aquilonia, plus Conan the Buccaneer and Conan of the Isles- all by deCamp and Carter. Could be more scattered in the Lancer/Ace books, plus the non-Conan adaptions as well...plenty for a 500+ page omnibus!

[Rick]

I grew up and garnered my initial interest in writing and reading from Howard, Burroughs (Pellucidar, anyone?) and Jules Verne. I'm going to go through the 4 Conan and Kull novels I have as soon as I get a chance. Should be fun.