The Conquering Sword of Conan

By: Robert E. Howard

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 17 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

In a meteoric career that covered only a dozen years, Robert E. Howard defined the sword and sorcery genre. In doing so, he brought to life the archetypal adventurer known to millions around the world as Conan the barbarian. 

This collection features Howard at his finest and Conan at his most savage. 

Truly heroic fantasy at its best, this volume contains "The Servants of Bit-Yakin", "Beyond the Black River", "The Black Stranger", "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula", and "Red Nails", which is perhaps Conan's most famous adventure.

©2005 Conan Properties International, LLC (P)2009 Tantor

The definitive Conan

This is the definitive Conan compilation presented as they were originally written by R. E. Howard and published by Weird Tales. Excellent commentary on Howard’s life and the backstory on how he came up with the character and the stories.

Tod Mclaren brings the character and scenes to life much better than the other single volume “Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian” narrated by J.D. John. For years since first reading these stories in the Lancer editions published in the 60s and butchered by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, I had always pronounced “Cimmeria and Cimmerian” with an emphasis on the second syllable - Ci MER rian. McLaren gives a much better pronunciation as Cima RIAN with the first R silent. A much better way to say it . Rolls off the tongue easier but it took some getting used to as I had 50 years of the old way in my head from the print versions. Plus he gives Conan a bit of an Irish brogue voice which I found pleasing. The other Conan compilation mentioned earlier gives Conan a voice that sounds too much like Arnold Swartzenegger. Overall I found this version much better narrated.

I liked this compilation so much that I’ll probably get the print versions for my library with a CD(s) attached with the audiobooks.

Better than movies

Streaming action, hard to put it down to go to sleep. Reader does a good job.

Conan stories are timeless

Some of the very best are found this volume. Longer and by a writer that is much more in command of the tools needed to write a good story.

However, these were aimed at a pulp market and not meant to be high literature. There also are many passages that use racial stereotypes and that step over the line to be racist. Plus obvious sexism.

The stories are fun and escapist but certainly express older views on the world.

By Crom! What a Listening Experience!!!

If you could sum up The Conquering Sword of Conan in three words, what would they be?

Fascinating, Riveting, Compelling

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Conquering Sword of Conan?

Conan tricking Nafertari. Who does she think she was, trying to get him to do all this stuff for him, after he completes even more missions. He never said a word, took that ring and was out!!!

Which scene was your favorite?

The strangling of Baal-pteor... i can't help it. I read this scene about 2 years ago, and was happy to know that this book had Shadows in Zamboula.

Any additional comments?

I'm a different sort of Conan fan. I started off, as a young child reading my brothers Savage Sword of Conan mags, then getting into myself, reading hundreds of regular Conan and King Conan books of Marvel. Saw the Conan movies, got treated to 2 different Cartoon Conan series, then took it upon myself to star reading the non-Robert Howard created books like Conan The Wanderer etc. Now i find myself, being fully versed in Howard's work, as with the work of others as sort of an authoritarian of sorts. I can't tell you how many times i've read / listened to Red Nails.

Third Book in the Series

This is the third book in this series, not that such matters a great deal as Conan's takes do not require a reading based on a timeline. As always the tales are epic. Red Nails, in particular, comes to vivid life here and by itself is worth the price of admission.

Not the best in the series, but still solid.

There are some typically solid Howard pulp stories in this collection but there were some that also felt more like filler. It's a good collection with some of the best stories in the Conan series and the narration is excellent.

An amazing body of work

Truly the best stories of Howard's life are contained herein. Even the unfinished draft of a Conan spin-off shines: "The night was black as a witch's hate." RIP R. Howard

Audio is a mixed blessing

The stories are good, they are original Conan, but the audio...for the most part the narrater is really good, but his attempts at women's voices are cringworthy. Whenever he voices a woman, it takes me right out of the story. If we can't get a woman to do those parts, it would be much better just to use his normal voice. He also irritates me with his pronunciation of the word Cimmerian (he says simmer- ri-un not si-mare-ri-an) and celts (as selts). Otherwise he is very clear and strong. Also, the chapters are listed numerically, but no hint to what stories they belong, making it hard to jump to a specific story. With some improvements I could like this format, but I still prefer my Savage Sword adaptations.

Still good

While the stories in this 3rd volume are better written than volume 1, the big chunk at the end of unpunished drafts (including a repeating pair) and summaries seems somewhat out of place to me. Why show Howard's best and then show his incomplete work? The write up about Howard's life was nice, but to short and felt very incomplete as well.

I'm giving this 4 stars, but it's really more 3.5 for me. The first volume was so fun, showing a young author with his new toy. This one, by comparison, was great to start and then fell very hard at the last 3rd of the book. It was all the worse on audiobook.

A sidenote on the audiobooks: when choosing a reader, make sure he knows how to pronounce where the character is from. Also the word demonic. It is not dee-mo-nee-ack. There's not even an "a" in it.

Tremendous Reading! Fine tales well told.

Howard was complex, intelligent, mood filled. He was aware of this in himself and his characters reflected his life and interests. All this was wound into the people he wrote of and the places dark, rich and fascinating they lived in and through. Conan is my favorite of all his characters because his changes are hard to accept. Brutal and yet loved poetry and heart and belly filling laughter. Read Conan and know Howard. Read Howard and believe in the barbarian.