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Man I am re-reading my unedited unabridged edition, and to me Howard is just flat-out a much better writer than Tolkien or Lovecraft. I mean I love the other two as well, but there is something that is just so brilliant/vivid about his prose. And I really dig the world all these stories take place in. This was brought on by catching the 1982 Conan film on cable a while back. Arnie is an action hero god, and some of the fights in that film are cool, but Arnie even back in his heyday was just simply not an athletic man. He was just about being big and strong, and this isn't really the impression you get from Conan in the books. Not that he's weak, he's a man's man but he's also QUICK. So how is the Jason Momoa Conan? I never did see that and now I'm interested.
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May 27, 2017 07:10
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If I wanted to read some non-Howard Conan stories, where should I start? Are any of them any good at all? I understand L. S. DeCamp is thought of as a hack, and he mainly just edited/added to unfinished Howard stories. I think the Wheel of Time author wrote some original short stories or novels, has anyone read those?
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Jun 1, 2017 17:28
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I believe this list comes from a Conan RPG, so grain of salt and all that. But it has helped me to picture some of these places as I have been reading through all the REH stuff (next up is a Karl Edward Wagner book) AQUILONIA: Medieval France ARGOS: Merchant-ruled Italy ASGARD AND VANAHEIM (NORDHEIM): Viking-age Denmark or Norway BARACHAN ISLES: The Caribbean Islands, particularly Tortuga BORDER KINGDOM: Baltic countries such as Estonia or Latvia BOSSONIAN MARCHES: Medieval Wales and/or Scotland BRYTHUNIA: Medieval Germany, Poland, or Lithuania CIMMERIA: Gaelic Ireland and Scotland CORINTHIA: Medieval Greece DARFAR, KESHAN, KUSH, PUNT, ZEMBABWEI, AND THE BLACK KINGDOMS: Ancient African kingdoms such as Darfur, Nubia, Kush, Somaliland, Zimbabwe, and others HYPERBOREA: Medieval Russia, particularly Novgorod HYRKANIA: A cross between Mongolia and Scythia IRANISTAN: Caliphate Iran KHAURAN: Medieval Syria KHITAI: Feudal-era China KHORAJA: Constantinople or the land known as Outremer KOTH: The Byzantine Empire NEMEDIA: The Germanic Holy Roman Empire OPHIR: Medieval Sicily or Malta PICTISH WILDERNESS: A combination of Scotland and Native American North America SHEM: The west is the Iron Age Levant (Canaan) and Assyria, and the east is Arabian STYGIA: Ancient Egypt TURAN: Seljuk Turkey VENDHYA: Mughal India ZAMORA: Persia, especially Baghdad ZINGARA: Reconquista-era Spain
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Jun 27, 2017 19:53
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Sorry to double post but I just had to share something. I'm watching the 1982 Conan with the commentary track, and totally out of the blue, Milius says: quote:I was really in need of a mission, when Conan came down the pike. Because I had just made Big Wednesday (surf movie), which was a very personal movie to me personally. And Big Wednesday was a total financial failure. And I felt that the only possible, honorable thing I could do was to join the French Foreign Legion. That last bit just came so out of nowhere, I just could not stop laughing. Still can't.
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Jul 1, 2017 06:33
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:And my personal favorite is The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, just for what happens to Baal-Pteor (it's the single most badass thing Conan ever does, IMO) I finally just got to this story, reading near the end of my collection of R.E. originals. I had been dying to know what you were talking about, and it did not disappoint.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:41
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I've finished all the Howard stories, and it was time well spent. I know they vary wildly in quality and there is a lot of repetition, and I know Conan isn't a real great character in story terms, because he really has no flaws, but man, I loved it. I guess my favorite was "Beyond the Black River". I also really liked "The God in the Bowl" and "The Black Stranger" Next up, Karl Edward Wagner Conan stories!
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Jul 21, 2017 19:00
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Amazon is developing a Conan series Who knows how it will actually turn out, but it sounds like they are pretty serious about making it as much like the Howard stories as possible!
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Feb 14, 2018 23:51
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Has anyone played the new Conan 2d20 game? I was thinking about getting back into D&D but then I heard about this, and the Hyborian Age would probably be my ideal setting for a fantasy RPG. Alternatively, if there is an SA thread for the Conan game that you know of, please link me to it. I can't seem to find one in the TG subforum.
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Mar 28, 2018 22:03
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Ok, sorry
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Mar 29, 2018 02:18
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I love Beyond the Black River best of all his Conan stories. There are a couple of others I rank close, but it's #1. I love the real historical inspiration REH describes in that letter above, and how this story probably more than any other best embodies his thesis about barbarism always triumphing. Also the fact that it ends kind of on a downer, which I imagine was somewhat unusual for a hero-serial at the time? The Picts as portrayed here are also really interesting. The Picts are a lot like the Cimmerians in many ways, but have remained more technologically primitive. They don't make steel, and they remain even more savage and warlike than anyone else in the Hyborian age. The Pictish wizard Zogar Sag has managed to unite 15 or 16 clans, whipped them into a feverish bloodlust, and is about to lead them over the Black River, into the Westernmost Aquilonian frontier. He's able to get them to follow because he has strong magic, very real magic (compared to a few other REH sorcerers). It is almost a Lovecraft-like kind of elder god cult thing, where he can control those forest animals that "remember" this elder god, and even summon animals that went extinct eons ago. The Picts are kind of stuck in time, between the Hyborian people who worship Mitra/Set/Crom and a much older age, when men and animals alike all worshipped a single old god of Nature. Very cool. I've been trying to find a comic adaptation of this story. It doesn't look like Dark Horse ever did one, strangely. I bet Marvel did in the 70s, I will have to check.
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Apr 15, 2018 21:04
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Aye, he was a better fighter than many men.
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Apr 16, 2018 19:01
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Yes sir, and I can get that in trade paperback! I looked at some panels online, and that's not quite the way I imagined Zogar Sag and the Picts, but I'll take it. Because it appears to be the only comic adaptation ever, which is weird.
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Apr 17, 2018 05:12
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Never read any other versions. Period.
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Aug 4, 2018 19:45
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Man I’d give anything for a nice leather-bound single volume of all the unaltered Conan stories.
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Aug 11, 2018 04:11
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Oh, sweet! Thank you!
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Aug 14, 2018 23:39
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On the Milius/Schwarzenegger commentary track, Milius himself sounds like he’s seeing it for the first time.
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Aug 19, 2018 23:33
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