Treasure of Tranicos

René

Banded Mongoose
As I understand it, this story is the re-written Black Stranger.

Why did de Camp / Carter rewrite it? It's already a Conan story, i.e. they hadn't to adapt it like Three bladed Doom which is set in 20th century Afghanistan.
 
The Black Stranger as written did not fit the chronology that de Camp believed in. De Camp wanted Thoth-amon to be a foil for Conan, so he wanted Thoth-amon in the story. Also, the original ending did not suit de Camp - he wanted the story to lead right into Conan's usurpation of the throne, instead of as a springboard to another pirate career.

De Camp rewrote the part of "Wolves on the Border" that establishes that nearly a six to ten years had passed since "Beyond the Black River" and Conan's assumption of Aquilonia's throne. He wanted a faster transition than Howard did.

De Camp's Chronology: Pool of the Black One, Red Nails, Jewels of Gwahlur, Beyond the Black River, Treasure of Tranicos, Wolves Beyond the Border (within weeks or months of Treasure of Tranicos), Phoenix on the Sword.

Rippke's Chronology (using only Howard sources): Pool of the Black One, Beyond the Black River, The Black Stranger, Red Nails, Teeth of Gwahlur, Wolves Beyond the Border (six years or more after The Black Stranger), The Phoenix on the Sword.

Mongoose's Conan, at least in the books I write, uses the latter chronology. Marvel's Conan comic used de Camp's chronology; Dark Horse's Conan comic, so far, has been using Rippke's.

Interestingly, Howard rewrote the story himself as a non-Conan story starring Black Vulmea the Pirate when The Black Stranger failed to sell. Howard's rewrite can be found in "Black Vulmea's Vengeance."
 
What I read so far from de Camp / Carter (Conan the swordsman, Conan and the spider god) gave me the impression that they were minor writers at best, but to rewrite original stories and press them in a supposedly more fitting pattern is IMO a disgusting mixture of stupidity, arrogance and lacking imagination.

Funny thing I found in GURPS CONAN German, that de Camp / Carter discarded Wagner's Road of Kings as a work not fitting into the saga...

Lucky christianity that the two guys didn't take a theological career: we wouldn't have recognized the bible after they had synchronized and "improved" it.
 
René said:
Lucky christianity that the two guys didn't take a theological career: we wouldn't have recognized the bible after they had synchronized and "improved" it.

That was the Council of Nicea's job! They were the De Camp and Carter of their day!
 
De Camp also completed unfinished stories from Howard. Though I don't particularly like his pastiche novels, his short stories are quite better.
 
René said:
Funny thing I found in GURPS CONAN German, that de Camp / Carter discarded Wagner's Road of Kings as a work not fitting into the saga...

I think that was more of hissy-fit on de Camp's part because Wagner was trying to publish unedited Conan stories (he got three booklets published before de Camp was able to get him to stop).
 
VincentDarlage said:
De Camp rewrote the part of "Wolves on the Border" that establishes that nearly a six to ten years had passed since "Beyond the Black River" and Conan's assumption of Aquilonia's throne.

Ok, I've read Rippkes chronology, and while I don't find it perfect, its the most satisfactory so far. I don't think Howard gave such coherence to the tales as he implies, yet coherence enough as to consider De Campy re-writings as crimes.

Following then Rippkes chronology (I will do for my campaign), five years happen between both tales (not as much as ten, certainly). But I have found an error in The Road of Kings, where, in the Aquilonia section where king Numedides is referred, it is clearly stated that two years pass between those tales. Was it an error of the moment, Vincent?
 
The unedited texts were unavailable to me when I started Road of Kings. I had made changes to the text after I submitted the work originally, but a lot of my textual changes I requested didn't quite happen for that particular book. I would love to have the chance to put out a Revised Road of Kings to fix some of those errors.
 
VincentDarlage said:
The unedited texts were unavailable to me when I started Road of Kings. I had made changes to the text after I submitted the work originally, but a lot of my textual changes I requested didn't quite happen for that particular book. I would love to have the chance to put out a Revised Road of Kings to fix some of those errors.
You should propose it to Mongoose under the form of online errata so that we can download it.
 
VincentDarlage wrote:
I would love to have the chance to put out a Revised Road of Kings to fix some of those errors.

This reminds me of Akivasha stats :wink:

The King wrote:
You should propose it to Mongoose under the form of online errata so that we can download it.

Bingo. Other option would be creating a Vincent Darlage's Revised Road of Kings section in Signs and Portents. Though now I think about it, a separate errata & more freebies in S&P would be better. 8)
 
Raven Blackwell said:
Let's not kill the poor man with overwork. Let him have an RL and wait patiently for his gifts, children....8)
someone spoke once this saying: "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger".
I consider this concept more than silly but it's the way of life of many Conan's fans.
 
The King said:
Raven Blackwell said:
Let's not kill the poor man with overwork. Let him have an RL and wait patiently for his gifts, children....8)
someone spoke once this saying: "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger".
Yeah, the guy who said that went insane. :p
The King said:
I consider this concept more than silly but it's the way of life of many Conan's fans.
True enough. Besides, it's fun to say. :p
 
Bregales said:
The King said:
Raven Blackwell said:
Let's not kill the poor man with overwork. Let him have an RL and wait patiently for his gifts, children....8)
someone spoke once this saying: "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger".
Yeah, the guy who said that went insane. :p
The King said:
I consider this concept more than silly but it's the way of life of many Conan's fans.
True enough. Besides, it's fun to say. :p
The guy who wrote this is the philosoph Friedrich Nietzsche: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/friedrichn159167.html
 
He is the same guy who wrote "a small woman can not have depth" (or can not be deep).

I believe he was a kind of Socrates.
 
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