Wow! I wasn't expecting anything near this much of a response!
Okay... WWD -- yes, they were put out by Donald M. Grant. Some of the illustrations were exquisite; others were... meh. But it was nice to have Howard's works before all the extra editing, and see his fragments (like the one that became "The Snout in the Dark"). The same goes for Red Shadows (though the Krenkel illos on that were very fitting, I thought). Once in a while you can come across these for good prices... and if you ever see a decent price on the Grant edition of Sowers of the Thunder... go for it. Lovely book visually, and some great adventure tales....
Con: Do you mean the "non-Howard Conan"? Those are still fairly easy to obtain here, though I'm not sure how they are in your neck of the woods. But if so, I'll warn you -- there's a plethora of them out there, and most are... questionable, at best. Some of them, however, do have merit (though they are not Howard, by any means). Wagner's Conan novel,
The Road of Kings, is a good tale, and a good take on the Cimmerian -- also grim, dark, and tragic. He has a rather good feel for Howard, and a great deal of respect for the man and his work, and it shows. Offutt's Conan stories... they're fun, and have some very nice things about them, but don't quite feel right. However, they are a good read. I don't much care for Anderson's Conan novel (despite the fact I quite like most of Anderson's fantasy work), and the De Camp/Carter pieces vary in quality from pleasant to sheer hackwork to occasionally very good. The less said about Robert Jordan's Conan, the better, in my opinion. (I'll give the man credit for this: he captures the feel of Howard's world rather well, and doesn't do too badly with the character himself... but the storylines, and the writing in general, are very shaky, and as for his female characters... REH himself would gag.)
Ben, GOLLUM: Glad to see others have read more of his work than just the Hyborian age stories. Also, Ben, I agree. Lancer was underrated. So was Zebra, who put out quite a few Howard books in the '70s (as well as books by others "continuing" his characters' tales -- a few of those were not at all bad, either, but most.... *sigh*). The Howard books, however, were wonderful, and ran the gamut. Well worth getting if you can find them for a reasonable price. They also did a reprint of Lovecraft's
The Colour out of Space (and other stories), using, as I recall, the Lancer plates; and they put out several books by Talbot Mundy (the
Tros of Samothrace set) as well as several other things a fantasy lover would enjoy. The Berkley Books set was also quite nice, often being reprints from Donald M. Grant, plus several originals, as I recall....
WWD: The Weinberg book -- very nice, that one; though it is strictly Howard... no followers. As for the James Allison stories... I do wish someone would put them in a volume together, but I don't think all of them have yet been collected in a single place (I'm including the fragments, which are always of interest, too). But that series intrigues me, I must admit...
So... any thoughts on any of these? Favorites? Ones you felt didn't quite work? etc.....
WWD: Weinberg's book is a very nice guide, though it does stick strictly to Howard, none of his followers.
