"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyberborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."
Welcome to the world of the Hyborian Age, a pseudo-historical world that existed 15,000 years ago, created by American Author Robert E. Howard. Howard, who lived between 1906-1936, if you do the Maths, you can see that he only lived up to the age of 30. During his short life, and even shorter life as a writer, Robert E. Howard has wrote numerous amount of stories, and have crafted some of the most unforgettable and immortal characters ever to embrace the world of fantasy literature. Such as Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Kull of Atlantis, and most importantly, Conan the Cimmerian (aka Conan the Barbarian). The paragraph I quoted above is actually the opening of the first Conan story written by Robert E. Howard in 1932. As you can see, this writing shows how good Howard is in his craft as a writer. As you read the narration, not only was Howard able to pain pictures of the Hyborian age into your mind with a few words, but you also get the feeling that he is about to tell you something epic and mystical, tales from an age long forgotten and has just been unearthed.
Robert E. Howard is my most favourite author. His writing is full of energy, and he is able to paint pictures in my mind with whatever scenery he is trying to describe. His writings, although prose in style but always inspire the feeling of poetry in the way he constructed the sentences. Howard suffered from clinical depression for most of his life, and at the age of 30, he committed suicide. Yet his greatest creation, Conan the Cimmerian has survived and whose popularity is ever increaseing more than 70 years after his death. As the famous author Stephen King remarked "Howard was the Thomas Wolfe of Fantasy, and most of his Conan tales seem to almost fall over themselves in their need to get out." King also said "Howard's writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks." Howard will be remembered as the founding father of the sword and sorcery genre.
In March last year, after seeing the advert for Wandering Star's Complete Conan of Cimmeria collection, I decided to purchase all 3 volumes. These collections costed me a fortune, and my wallet shrank as if air flew out of a formerly full balloon. This set of books was the most expensive books I have ever purchased, and I was unsure about my decision at the start. The books were shipped from the UK, weighting 5kg in total and packed in a big paper box. The complete set contains all 21 short stories and some fragment writings about Conan, written during Howard's life time between 1932-1936. These stories are unabridged and are arranged in the order according to their original publication date. Needless to say, this is Conan as Howard intended him to be, before Marvel's make over to turn Conan into a popular figure in comic books, and before Arnold's portrayal in the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian (which is not even closely related to any of Howard's Conan stories.)
Each volume is illustrated by a different artist, amount to hundreds of beautiful illustrations alongside the texts. Some are colour paintings, while some are black and white drawings. Only 1950 copies are printed for each volume world wide, and are signed by the artists who did the illustrations. One can say that these books will one day worth a lot more than they are at the present. On ebay, the average price is currently 240~250 US dollars per volume. Each of the books is hardcovered, with a dust jacket and a slipcase. All in all, these three books are gorgeously crafted and definitely worthy of collection in one's personal library (especially if you are a fan of Howard.)
Unlike my other reviews on this blog, I will not review the stories of Conan and discuss the content in detail, as I have already done so with another book review on "The Complete Chronicles of Conan" from last year. However, I often ponder on the possibility that if Howard had lived past 30 years of age, what contribution could he have brought to the world of fantasy fiction, and to literature in general? I dare say that Howard would have surpassed the achievement of J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis with his energetic, beautiful writing and the ability to tell great stories.
Because of the way Howard wrote Conan, sometimes I wonder if Howard was not inventing a new character, but merely chronicling the adventures of a legendary wanderer long forgotten in the sand of time.. an elemental, ferocious barbarian who travelled the ancient world full of mysteries and wonders that no longer exist. Untamed by the civilization and free from its culture of pretentiousness, always working for his own gain yet never betrayed his own code of honor and principles no matter how difficult the situation is. It is the barbaric and primal honesty, elemental fury, stoic and resilient attitude that outlines Conan's character, and it is with these characteristics that defines Conan as one of the greatest fiction characters that has ever being created alongside Tarzan, James Bond and Sherlock Holmes. As author Raymond E. Feist remarked about Robert E. Howard's Conan "A hero of mythic proportion, fashioned by a storyteller who helped define what modern fantasy should be."
So is this set worth 700 dollars from my bank account? Every cent of it!
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