The best Non-Howard Conan works?

[The King]

I already read many pastiches and recently some comics books by Roy Thomas (the reprint of Conan the barbarian by Dark Horse) and I think these comics are better than many pastiche, be it for enjoyment or for adventure ideas.

 

[Bjorn the Barbarian]

I'll chime in here as well and add that I enjoyed the John Maddox Roberts books the most out of all the pastiches.

 

[Hervé]

I' stand on The King's side... Roy Thomas is one of the best Howard followers. His knowlege of the Hyborian world is quite extensive. Some of his pastiches stand among the best ones like "Devil Wings Over Shadizar" (One of Mr. Darlage favourites if I remember well)or "Citadel At The Center Of Time".
His Howard adaptations are also rather good. Take a look at "Red Nails" with Barry Windsor Smith or at some black & white adaptations from SSOC with John Buscema & Alfredo Alcala like "Devil In Iron", "Iron Shadows in the Moon" or "Black Colossus"... The B&W printing, the Gustave Doré-like inking really set the mood of the hyborian age.
Comics are often a bit overlooked when compared to novels but I really think that the Thomas pastiches are worth many of the novels...

 

[xssurdinynexes]

I just read a story called Crypt of the Cobra by the warhammer guy C L Werner. It was a total blast and about the closest thing Ive ever read to a Howard original. You can read this story for free on pulp and dagger.com...
The character is called Grenulf but you wont care after you start reading this super little tale.....this is one of the few things i have ever read that kinda creeped me out there for a sec........the suspense is similar to Pigeons from Hell.......Werner has three novels out there about a solomon kane like character in the warhammer universe........they are called the witch hunter books....gotta get those now!!!!

 

[Style]

The only non cormac mac art thing ive read by offut was Conan the Mercenary.

So I picked up CN2 - Conan the Mercenary, and discovered that it was based on the pastiche from Offut. I immediately stopped reading CN2, and came here for advice. Is Offut's Conan the Mercenary worth my time? If it's something I should read, I would like to read it before reading CN2 so as to avoid any spoilers in the module. Please advise, is Offut's Conan the Mercenary something I want to read?

Hmmm, just noticed it's book 2 of a trilogy (Preceded by Conan and the Sorcerer, Followed by The Sword of Skelos). Is the whole trilogy worth my time? Is it worth leaving CN2 on the shelf till I read these books?

Thanks!

 

[xssurdinynexes]

I enjoyed Conan the Mercenary but I cant give it a huge recommendation because of two things....its really short, much of the space is taken up by some very cool illustrations

also Conan is presented as a teenager which I didnt much care for

I have been told that the Sword of Skelos is the best

 

[Aholibamah]

The weakness of most pastiches of Conan is that the sense of who Conan is is weak. For example in Carpenter's and Jordan's work I've noticed that Conan is often depicted as a rather shrewd and cool customer. This is not Conan--think of the smouldering personality that unsettles even tough customers like Mazdak. Basically he's a man of strong passions and very quick responses. This is a significant thing that is often missing from the pastiches.

Another thing is the introspection that Jordan for example suggests Conan having--Conan in the classic stories is a man of action and on the spur of the moment cunning.

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

IMHO the comic series by Dark Horse is the best.

 

[Hervé]

Barbarossa Rotbart wrote:

IMHO the comic series by Dark Horse is the best.

That's what I think, too, although there's been some really nice stuff from Marvel, especially in Savage Sword of Conan. I never was really convinced by other pastiches, be it from Sprague De Camp, Carter, Jordan, Maddox or others...

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

But the Marvel version also used the pastiches, while the Dark Horse version only uses the original stories for the comics.

 

[Hervé]

Not exactly, as Kurt Busiek is also writing his own stories between adaptations. Just like Roy Thomas used to do.

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

That's not what I meant. I meant that the adapted stories during the Marvel run were not only original stories but also stories from the pastiches.

 

[sgstyrsky]

I have enjoyed both the Marvel and Dark Horse versions of Conan. The first six or 7 volumes of the Marvel stuff is great, especially the illustrations by Windsor-Smith.

After Windsor-Smith the artwork becomes standard comic book fare, and soon after the stories seem to lose an energy, that special Conan-esque oomph, descending into generic sword and sorcery. (I have only read volumes 1-9 of Marvel so they might get better. I hope so b/c I intend to read them all.) One of things the Marvel series has going for it is the writer's love and knowledge of Conan. Roy Thomas has read all the source material and shows great concern staying faithful to its flavor.

Savage Sword of Conan tpb's are awesome. I highly recommend them.

One of the best pastiche novels I've read is Conan the Marauder. Another is Conan and the Emerald Lotus. It seemed the author of the latter was familiar with either the Conan RPG or RPGs in general. Some might be put off by the standard "adventuring party" Conan joins -- he's the barbarian with a thief, wizard and fighter. However, the novel contains some really creepy moments.

 

[J-Star]

Oh boy... it's been a long time, but I've read quite a few Conan pastiches. I first got into Conan just over 10 years ago, when everything by Robert E. Howard was out of print and hard to find. I had seen the Arnold movies and I knew that the Conan character had quite a legcay, and I had to start somewhere. Here's a breakdown of the different Conan authors and their works which I've read, with some comments...

Steve Perry
Conan the Formidable - first Conan novel I ever read, a strange adventure story, and mostly crap

Robert Jordan
Conan the Destroyer - better than the Arnold film
Conan the Invincible
Conan the Defender
Conan the Unconquered
Conan the Victorious
Conan the Triumphant

All good reads, but lacking that special something that makes Robert E. Howard unique. Definitely oversexed, but at that time in my life, that was a plus The recurring lust-hate relationship was Karela was OK, but nothing like the epic quality of Queen of the Black Coast.

John Maddox Roberts
Conan the Marauder
Conan the Rogue
Conan and the Manhunters
Conan the Bold
Conan and the Amazon

Good reads for the most part - I particularly liked the first three. All pastiche writers have their ups and downs, but overall John Maddox Roberts might have been the best of the bunch

Leonard Carpenter
Conan the Warlord
Conan the Hero
Conan the Gladiator

Ehhh... Hero was pretty good and featured de Camp's character Juma, but for the most part Carpenter's work is blah and at times hard to get through.

Roland Green
Conan the Relentless
Conan and the Death Lord of Thanza

HORRIBLE! Not only does Green fail to capture the essence of REH, he can't even write a good story. I couldn't even finish Thanza it was so bad!

Sean A. Moore
Conan the Hunter
Conan and the Grim Grey God

Good stories, good reads... but way too D&D-ish! Hunter has a priest of Mitra who functions exactly like a cleric, for Crom's sake! I liked them at the time, but having since read the work of REH I can see how flawed they were.

I'd like to point out that these are the pastiches I read BEFORE I ever got my hands on anything by Robert E. Howard. Then Baen printed a trade paperback series of Howard's non-Conan work, including a volume of Kull. I picked that up and read it and was like, damn, this is REALLY GOOD! Years later, my wish was granted when Del Rey finally published all of Howard's original Conan stories in three volumes. Needless to say, I snapped them up and loved every paragraph. Finally reading the REAL Conan felt like a homecoming. Also at that time, I got ahold of a few more pastiches, listed below...

Conan the Barbarian (de Camp) - I had to read the movie tie-in once and for all, and it was no better and no worse; I liked it

Conan and the Spider God (de Camp) - good, better than most pastiches, but not quite as good as Howard

Conan the Swordsman (de Camp, Carter, & Nyborg) - I liked this set of short stories, almost as much as I liked the originals by REH

Conan the Rebel (Poul Anderson) - disappointing! Not a bad read, but I thought it was going to be about Conan and Belit's adventures together but it wasn't... Belit only appears at the very beginning and the very end.

Conan and the Road of Kings (Wagner)
Conan and the Sword of Skelos (Offut)

These were decent pastiches.

Conan and the Emerald Lotus (John Hocking) - one of the better pastiches, somewhat closer to REH's style than Robert Jordan, John Maddox Roberts, or other recent pastiche writers

Conan of Venarium (Harry Turtledove) - NO COMMENT

 

[Spectator]

Conan the Valorous, by John Maddox Roberts.