Since everyone has their top 10 book list and such, I thought I would list the books that I have ordered for Christmas. Here they are listed in no particular order:
1. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian; By Robert E. Howard
2. Bran Mak Morn: The Last King; By Robert E. Howard
3. Almuric (Planet Stories); By Robert E. Howard
4. The Secret Of Sinharat (Planet Stories Library); by Leigh Brackett
5. Worlds Of Their Own (Planet Stories); Various authors
6. The Fractured Sky: The Empyrean Odyssey, Book II (The Empryean Odyssey); by Thomas M. Reid
7. Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names (Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Volume IV); By Gary Gygax
8. Horus Heresy: Mechanicum (Horus Heresy); by Graham McNeill
Commentary:
The first thing I will point out is that I have a lot of Howard on the list. This was a bit accidental. I have never read a Conan book, so I thought it might be fun to finally read one. The internet has been buzzing a bit about the older pulps, so I am going to take the plunge. I have been plugging Paizo's Planet series, so I thought I would load up on a couple prior to coming back to China. For the most part, these books are rather short, so I am thinking I can knock these out rather quickly. There are a couple that I have read earlier books in the series, so I am trying to keep current on the series. The last one I will mention is the Book of Names. I have heard goo things about this, and I am planning on using it as a reference guide for my pet projects and such. With the licensing agreement moving away from Troll Lord Games, I figured I should get this before it is sold out and not available any more.
4 comments:
That's a good list there. I'm guessing you will blow through The Coming of Conan, and move quickly to The Bloody Crown of Conan as well as The Conquering Sword of Conan. All excellent collections of REH's Conan pulps. Might I also direct you to The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, another great collection of REH pulps.
Dave,
I read Solomon Kane about a month or so ago, and it was excellent! It reminded me of the Witch Hunter series by CL Werner, and I suspect that Werner modeled his hero, Matthias Thulmann after Kane. Werner's Thulmann felt like Kane only moved to the Warhammer universe. Witch Hunter is a very good read, and my only critism is that it is too short.
I am hoping that Howard's other works are as good as Solomon Kane.
That's pretty cool. I don't think there are too many people who have read Solomon Kane, but not a single Conan story! As with most pulp, you can expect a clunker or rehashed plot here or there, but the body of work for the REH Conan stories is remarkable. I envy anyone who has not yet read REH's Conan, you're in for a treat.
When I was reading your comment I could not help but think about the John Carter series. I think Burroughs wrote the same story 10 times, just swapped out the names and the monsters.
But, I am looking forward to reading the Conan stories!
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