The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian | 
so-so94/150 Surprisingly, I've never read a Howard Conan story. I've seen the movies, read the comics, read stories by other authors (Lin Carter and L. Sprague De Camp spring to mind), but never the originals. Taken as straight adventure stories, they're excellent. Conan is a great character, short on dialogue, always jumping into the middle of the action. Unfortunately, by today's standards, these stories are staggeringly racist (Continued below) ⬇️
RamsFan1963 (too many times Conan has to save the white woman from the monstrous black or dark skinned monsters) and sexist. Except for Belit, the Pirate Queen, there isn't a single female character who isn't a simpering, whimpering child who must be rescued by Conan, and at the end fall into his big strong arms. I know its unfair to judge stories written in the 1930s by today's standards, but this still makes for tough reading at times. ⭐⭐⭐ 2y
Bookwomble @RamsFan1963 You'd better give his story "Black Canaan" a miss, then, as it makes his Conan stories look quite progressive in comparison ? 2y
RamsFan1963 @Bookwomble After listening to these stories, I understand why Lovecraft was such a fan of Howard's writing. He found a kindred spirit. 2y
Bookwomble @RamsFan1963 Despite some egregious examples of explicit racism, I think in general Howard was more simply expressing the cultural & (sadly) scientific orthodoxy of his time & place, whereas Lovecraft was more consciously supremacist. REH was usually less concerned about "racial purity" than HPL. Of the Weird Triumvirate, I'd say Clark Ashton Smith is least troublesome in this regard, though naturally he still can't escape retrospective criticism. 2y
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