Conan the Barbarian (The Complete Chronicles)
Robert E. Howard · 1932
Howard invented sword and sorcery in 1932 and created the template for every muscled fantasy hero since. Conan himself is more complex than the archetype suggests; Howard's Hyborian Age is a melancholy world of lost civilizations and declining empires.
The case against
Pulp written at speed for Weird Tales money, and it reads that way in bulk: lush purple openings, a wizard, a snake, a woman in chains who exists to admire the thews. The racial hierarchies of the Hyborian Age are ugly and structural, black kingdoms supplying savages and white ones civilization. Howard at his best is vivid; his average is formula.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
