The Conan Chronicles: People of the Black Circle Vol 1 - Robert E. Howard

Conan the Cimmerian? … Conan the Barbarian? … Conan the Austrian bodybuilder? Whatever springs into your head when you think of Conan, these books are where it all began. He was immortalised in the two films where he was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and as adaptations go the first film (which s the only one I've seen) is very faithful, and it features material from this, the first of two collections of Conan's adventures.

Yet ...
...furry kittens you've come to the right place. (Alright I didn't mean the last one, there's no brutal murdering of cats never fear …. No honestly there isn't! Eeeerrrrrr….)

The author of the Conan tales is one Robert E Howard, a man who in the course of his short life wrote a good deal of adventures set in the mythical Hyborian age of this world, a sort of timeline before pre history, where war was constant and the rise and fall of ... more

Conan the Cimmerian? … Conan the Barbarian? … Conan the Austrian bodybuilder? Whatever springs into your head when you think of Conan, these books are where it all began. He was immortalised in the two films where he was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and as adaptations go the first film (which s the only one I've seen) is very faithful, and it features material from this, the first of two collections of Conan's adventures.

Yet the stories by Robert E. Howard have an inescapable charm to them, that is if you enjoy, magic, war, giant snakes, giant muscles, scantily clad women, scantily clad men, screaming, torture, blood, Demons, ritual sacrifices, drugs, hypnotism, suicide and cute little tiny furry kittens you've come to the right place. (Alright I didn't mean the last one, there's no brutal murdering of cats never fear …. No honestly there isn't! Eeeerrrrrr….)

The author of the Conan tales is one Robert E Howard, a man who in the course of his short life wrote a good deal of adventures set in the mythical Hyborian age of this world, a sort of timeline before pre history, where war was constant and the rise and fall of empires was as constant as rain falling.

The tales as such vary in length, but they really never vary in content too much. There are certain traits that you can recognise within the heroic fantasy tale, like for instance being impervious to death in a situation where you are faced with overwhelmingly bad odds against you, is slightly unrealistic to say the least. You always know Conan will never die; he will always get the beautiful girl at the end of it and whatever happens he is always able to disprove the stereotypical image of a hulking barbarian with little wits and a big sword ( well apart from the sword/mace/axe ).

Originally published in the American magazine Weird tales, as one off stories it's easy to see why they became so popular. Their length and content are often soaked in very violent and bloody scenes, and as its very comic book in style, the action is swift and quick, with little time for the reader to realise Conan has just killed seventy bandits with a blunt toothpick.

Now saying this I'd highly recommend reading only a few tales at a time, I read a good portion very quickly and as a consequence I suffered burn out from the content. They are much more readable as one off stories not in one continuous flow. I remember seeing all his books printed in single tale form, this perhaps is a better way of reading them, too much of Conan can leave you slightly fuddled and irritated with the writing.

Howard's style can be wonderfully arousing in a sense of how quickly we are swept into Conan's brutal world, it's quick and glorified and often over very quickly. But in how he writes the stories an immediate problem is encountered. Its one of closure, as soon as the story finishes, Conan has either vanquished the enemy, rescued the girl, got the loot or secured himself leadership of a tribe/army etc. Sometimes it's all of them, the more you read the more familiar the plights become, and names merely change.

This collection of stories has a distinctly eastern feel to it, lots of names and places have a similar feel to that of say Mesopotamian cultures. Plus the settings for most of the stories are either deserts or similar environs. Some venture out of these climes into Jungles or out onto the sea.

But when we end with this, we automatically revert back to a Conan with none of these things; he's usually drunk or in a position where we know he will have to do one of the things listed before. It's a maddening cycle of killing, sex and getting drunk.

I'll do am overview of the first set of stories just to give you a flavour;

The Hyborian Age - this is a history of all the lands mentioned in the tales. Basic recounting of who killed who for 1000 years, bit of a drag really.

The Tower of the Elephant - He kills a fat merchant ( what other kind are the?!?!?), stabs giant serpent, he then proceeds to release an ancient demon before stealing a precious jewel and then gallops off into the sunset, yet curiously no girl, how odd!

The Hall of the Dead - The balance is restored somewhat in this short synopsis, where Conan runs off with a girl, after some altercations with pursuing angry guards.

The God in the Bowl - I found this one hilarious, Conan is caught by some guards when sneaking inot a palace and accused of an act of murder he did not commit. And then proceeds for the whole tale a sort of stand off with bristling egos between the guards and various nobles who enter in on the fracas. It had a very disturbing and unexpected end to it though, an outstanding tale.

Rogues in the House - Now this is a good story, in this Conan wrestles with ape men people, and runs around a mansion beset by cunning trickery.

The Frost-Giant's Daughter - Conan is the last man standing in a skirmish between two forces. A Beautiful woman now visits and mocks him; filled with rage and arduous lust in equal measure he follows the apparition across the snow locked land.

Queen of the Black Coast - He gets taken prisoner by Queen Belit while at sea, she then proceeds to appoint him as her joint king, I assume through becoming smitten by his lovely eyes ….

Belit - 'Take me and crush me with your fierce love, go with me to the ends of the earth and the ends of the sea! I am a queen by fire and steel and slaughter - be thou my king?'

( I had to giggle at this, who the hell could keep a straight face when this has been directed at you!!!! )

Conan - 'Ummm kkk' * raises eyebrow * 'Sure thing.'

Conan didn't actually say that line but you get the picture! So off he sets for more sex and slaying, yet this time on a boat, well you got to have a change of scenery once in a while.

The Vale of Lost women - I shall make a note of saying that these stories should be taken with a pinch of realism. Howard lived and died in good old Texas, but as such this is no reason for his racial views, he could be labelled as not having a very good grounding of more worldly issues and concerns.

Accordingly within the stories you can notice a significant use of 'black' terminology. We often have 'black' savages, who are constantly slandered by the author. A reviewer on Amazon summed it up by saying 'Sexist, Politically Incorrect, Stupid, but damn good fun!!!' I wouldn't go that far, though there are some aspects of these issues, but nothing too upsetting or offensive, apart from the 'black' terminology, which was quite overused in one story for my liking, as it really stood out.

That in a way exemplified much of the content; throughout we are faced by silly and naive women, who at the same time are all too easily wanton (around Conan of course) they posses no real intelligence.

Though some are just as cunning and bloodthirsty as Conan and often deny his sexual lust, and remain aloof, they then go on to from a welcome opposite to Conan's stature, in a way embodying his attributes. That being said, these tales are a stupendous mix of fantasy clichés, very much a product of the times.

I would certainly recommend them, fun they may be, yet politically correct they most certainly are not. Alright I may have overemphasised looking back, it in now way shape or from lessens the pleasure you an derive from these wacky recounting of a day in the life of Conan.

I shall warn thee once more though, do not read them all at once, do take your time, unlike i did. Savour them for what they were originally published as, fun short swashbuckling romps, though beset with many a cliché, they still entertain and give you pleasurable reading by the bucket load.

I couldn't give it five stars; it didn't fully deserve it in my opinion. Taken on their own, they serve the original purpose with more fluidity and verve. So independently they make brilliant reading, yet read in one go this is not the case. As it stands this makes a marvellous addition to anyone's bookcase. As the single volumes are all too hard to come by now it makes it invaluable to have all the stories in one book instead of many.

The Complete lists of stories contained within are as follows …

The Hyborian Age
The Tower of the Elephant
The God in the Bowl
Rogues in the House
The Frost-Giant's Daughter
Queen of the Black Coast
The Vale of Lost women
The Snout in the Dark
Black Colossus
Shadows in the Moonlight
A Witch shall be born
Shadows in Zamboula
The Devil in Iron
The People of the Black circle
The Slithering shadow
Drums of Tombalku
The Pool of the Black One

And an afterward about the author by Stephen Jones

Extra Information

This cost me £7.99 in the shops, standard price there!

On Amazon its £6.38 new, while £3.25 used!

ISBN: 1857989961
 

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