Conan The Barbarian: The Complete Collection (Timeless Classics Collection)

Conan is perfect, hence the only problem Ive seen with this book is that it's missing two chapters from the first story in its order. "The Pheonix on the Sword." Can't say why that's missing but it is a real shame for an otherwise spectacular product.

Any story with swords is great. With this single volume you get days and days of swords and all that goes with them. Good deal. Great read. I say, get it.I first encountered Conan in graphic form while flower children protested the Vietnam War. The contrast was striking. Eventually that war and the flower children faded away, leaving Conan—last man standing, as always.It’s great fun to read the original stories. If my mountain cabin were snowed in for a few days or a week and I only had one book, this could easily keep me company. The table of contents lists sixteen stories, an essay (The Hyborian Age), plus “Cimmeria – a poem.” This Conan is comprehensive.As of this review, the Table of Contents does not list “Shadows in Zamboula.” However it is included in this Complete Collection, right after “Beyond the Black River.” The flaw is in the TOC, not the text. The TOC also overlooks the helpful biography of author Robert E. Howard, which comes after Howard’s essay, “The Hyborian Age.”The world keeps spinning while change sneaks up on us. With some reviews more than five years old, I offer a few updates along with general comments.My Kindle version definitely has FIVE chapters for the story “The Phoenix On The Sword,” and FIVE chapters for “The Scarlet Citadel.” Nothing was missing. As noted on the current web page, “New complete edition (fixed missing chapters problem!!).”This version is pretty much just text. There are fantastic illustrations available. They are not here. This Kindle version cost about a buck. I’m pretty happy with this lengthy text for a dollar.Frank Frazetta is famous for his many illustrations of fantasy characters. While reading this book of Conan stories I also looked up Frazetta’s many illustrations of Conan. In Frazetta’s book, Icon, you will find Conan illustrations on the cover and from page 82 to page 99. A couple more on pages 183 and 204 could well be Conan, though not labelled that way.  Icon: A Retrospective by the Grand Master of Fantastic Art Over the years people have become more sensitive to perceived racism and sexism in the world and in literature. Literature is a time capsule that reflects its era of creation. The Conan stories sprang to life from 1932 to 1936, before World War II. This review is being written in 2016, shortly after the Trump/Clinton election contest for U.S. President. Some of the similarities—and the contrasts—can make your head spin. Clearly, social attitudes regarding race and sex vary widely. Many defend their views ferociously. It would be so satisfying if some larger-than-life character would just step up, bash some heads, and get most of those wrong-thinking people straightened out. C’mon, you know you agree. Just, make sure Conan is on MY side, not with the wrong-thinking crowd.Then there is this. Popular literature in English over the last two centuries has included some larger-than-life male action heroes. Once published they don’t change, even while readers’ sensitivities keep morphing. Those characters, frozen by publication, espouse their unique view of the world. Do some characters like Conan think pretty bold stuff about women? Yeah, but their words and actions are generally respectful and acceptable even today, though tinges of condescension or paternalism get more notice. Race pops up, too, often as a journey of awareness for the hero—from the perspective of some modern readers, often an incomplete journey. Some heroes are leavened with self-doubt, scruples, morals, or a conscience. Others seem more simply knit of muscle, blood, and action.That said, THIS book is about Conan. The Cimmerian. The Barbarian. He didn’t spend any time in school. He trained to split heads with sword, axe, or fists. He is a character of swirling grays. We like him because he is the Barbarian who can get angry, break some deserving skulls, and leave others to clean the mess. No paperwork. No lawyers. No consequences. And really, no reality.There is a lot to love here. I hope you find this review helpful.

I note that a number of reviewers have noted there are missing chapters in some of these stories. Of this I have no doubt but I will say that this recent version I purchased was complete so apparently, at least in the copy I received, this problem has been fixed. It should also be noted that Amazon, per usual, has mixed different version and printing of this book all into one bad, ergo we have reviews of not only hard copies, but also Kindle and even the comic book version. This is bad.The tales of Conan have been around for at least 100 years now and are as popular these days as when they were first published – possibly more popular in many ways. I have, over the years, collected all of the Conan books, both those written by Robert E. Howard (the uncut, and unedited versions) as well as all the stories written by other authors of which Howard had nothing to do with. I must say that the original stories by Howard are far superior to those which followed by other authors.Conan is a primal force; force which was written in an age where political correctness was nota big consideration and racism was prevalent. New readers need to be aware of this and not be shocked at some of the situation which appear on the pages of these stories. Just keep in mind that Howard was a leader in this genre and thousands of fantasy books have been patterned after his work over the years. Writing, like everything else evolves with time...fantasy writing is no different.I love having these stories on my Kindle as well as on my bookshelves. As I age an my eyes get weaker year by year I find it comforting to know that with a flick of the finger I can change fonts and keep on reading.

This is an amazing collection and required reading for any sword and sorcerer or fantasy fan! Howard is missed but stands as one of the best story tellers of all time!

I loved the Conan movies from the 1980s and decided that it was high time I read the source material. If you like violent, action-filled adventure Conan the Barbarian is for you. The stories in this book are fun, exciting, and bloody.But I can't recommend this collection. The editing is spotty, with typos and misspellings aplenty. The formatting is all over the place, sometimes changing chapter to chapter. Last, the welcome biography of Robert Howard appears to have been copy-pasted from the Wikipedia article. Many things point to a lack of interest in quality, and I can't fully reccomend this collection of several excellent stories on those grounds.

Couldn't be happier with this collection for the price it was offered at.

Howard was a name that kept coming up, and so I picked this up to introduce myself to his writing.Seldom in my life have I enjoyed such investigations so thoroughly. Is it great literature? Some of the stories, yes. The works are deeply engaging and artistic, with a great variety of plotlines: twists amd turns, betrayals, ups and downs and sudden introductions and exits. The descriptions are so evocative and purely seen with the mind's eye at times that I am very impressed.I will also add to the pure entertainment value of the collection that the biographical inclusions at the end are masterfully done, taken from several interesting angles, and don't waste your time. They added a great deal to the work, and I am happy to rate this highly.

Conan stalked up to the Kindle with the soft tread of a hunting panther. In the hands of an ordinary, civilised man, the device would have been of a comfortable size, but in the massive fists of the Cimmerian it almost disappeared."Crom!" he grunted as he accidently flicked the "On" switch with a fingernail like a spade. His square cut black hair bristled with superstitious dread as the screen revealed unfamiliar symbols. However, the barbarian had picked up a smattering of all tongues of all lands in his many years of roaming and was able to read his own name there.Suddenly his eyes became slits and burned with elemental rage. He snarled and whirled about, suspicious of a trick, his broadsword sweeping the area about him in a great arc of swift death...But there was no wizard or assassin creeping up behind him.The fire in his eyes died down as he relaxed once more and turned his attention back to the magical device and began to read."Crom," he exclaimed after a moment, "but surely this is a scan with some obvious mistakes." With a snarl of unthinking rage he threw the Kindle from him. It would have survived the throw of any ordinary man, but not the steely thews of that mighty frame powered by the unthinking instinct that had saved Conan a thousand times. It shattered against a wall of lapis lazuli, falling into a thousand pieces on the marble floor of the ruined and forgotten jungle temple....Actually, the mistakes were not so many as to worry a civilised reader and the purchase of so much for so little treasure need not have awakened the wrath of the wolfish warrior. For, although the text was undoubtedly scanned, yet it had been proof read and mistakes were not so many or so great as to arouse much anger.

There seems to be some confusion among reviewers who claim this is not a complete collection. It is indeed complete, containing all of the Howards stories. The stories written by other hands were done after the author's death and as such are not a part of the true Conan canon, which is contained within this handsome edition. That's not to say some of the continuation works ( many of them completed unfinished works left behind by the original author) were not good, because they were but the true Conan as invented by Howard is what this complete collection is all about.And between these covers are some of the finest sword and sorcery stories ever put to paper - some of these works even helped define the genre. In fact the 1933 story, Tower of The Elephant set the blueprint for where the genre would go in the future and the powerhouse that is Beyond the Black River may be the best Conan story ever written.Get it, dig it, love it.....

As a series of novels the Conan books are great. They lay the ground work for so much of modern fantasy that I'd say they're a must read for any Roleplayer, wargamer or general fanatasy lover.That being said, there are a few poor points with this partucular edition that I want to mention;-The novels in this collection are in publish order, rather than in Conans chronological order. Meaning the open the book to Conan as a legendary king and at some point later on get his 'start' and the growth of the character. This could very easy throw off a new reader to the series.-The book is poorly formatted for kindle. There are missing sentences at the start of chapters, random symbols inplace of some letters, and general overall poor formatting thoughout.Aside from these issues, some people may find the language used in the novels a bit hard to stand. Woman and anyone none White are described in very caricatured ways that reflect the author as a product of his time. If you're uncomfortable reading excessive young female nudity and Black men being described as naked savages, I'd advise against reading this series in general.Overall, I'd recommend this book as a cheap way of picking up the Conan stories. But if you can afford it, I'd advise you lool elseware.

I'm not even half way through the compendium and I'm hooked. The descriptive power of the author is awesome! He sucks me into the story and when disturbed from the tale it's that groggy...Reality? What? Ugh!... I've been reading it as bed time stories. The individual books are fairly short and each story is complete in itself. I grew up reading my older brother's Conan the Barbarian comics (and admiring the Fantasy artists who painted the covers), but these stories (the originals) blow the comics out of the water. As one of the other reviewer noted, the author writes realistic battles. Iron Age history in fiction form...you can smell the blood, hear the screams, feel evil leer at whoever is in its sights! Conan as a character is so much more enchanting than I would have ever guessed. He's hard, considering he was born on a battle field that would make sense, but he has his own personal code of honour and he's not unkind or without a dry humour. I can easily believe that if I could go back in time...I could meet men like Conan - men who survive their day job as Mercenary/thief/whatever it takes to survive and rise above their expectation to something great.

I have always been a Conan fan with Arnold Schwartinegger as Conan he is the perfect Conan and for me always will I've seen the two films he made many times and I discovered on Amazon when searching that there was chronicles of Conan the Barbarian and when I found this Complete Chronicles of Kindle I wanted to download it and read it on the Kindle tablet as in my house I have no more room for real books and I don't sell them when I have read them as I keep them to go back to later. Reading the chronicles of Conan has helped me through this past year of lockdown's etc and I sometimes don't want to get back to real life as I read his many adventures. I love it and thanks for it.