"The Bloody Crown of Conan" gets high marks

"Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities . . . there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. . . . Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand . . . to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

I really enjoyed reading Robert E. Howard's book, "The Bloody Crown of Conan," and I recommend it to anyone out there with a taste for action and adventure.
Howard, who wrote for pulp magazines for a mere 12 years in the 1920s and 1930s before his tragic suicide, single-handedly invented the genre of fiction called "Sword and Sorcery."
Howard is most famous for creating Conan the Barbarian, one of the greatest fictional heroes of all time and a prize of American fiction. Conan is a swordsman who cuts a path across the lands of Howard’s fictional Hyborian Age, facing powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures and ruthless armies of thieves and reavers.
When most people think of Conan, they think of Conan in the movies, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Forget all that. The Conan feature films, while enjoyable in their own right, do the character a grave disservice.
Schwarzenegger’s Conan is powerful, but lumbering, clean cut and shaven, a team player. Howard’s Conan has catlike reflexes and an animal cunning that matches his crushing strength. He’s fiercely independent and a skilled leader with most of his appeal stemming from an untamed and savage charisma that lacks the softness of civilized men.
"The Bloody Crown of Conan," recently published by Del Rey Books, is an illustrated collection of three of Howard's longest and most famous Conan stories - two of them taken directly from Howard's typescript - along with a collection of the author's previously unpublished and rarely seen outlines, notes, and drafts.
This 384-page book includes "The People of the Black Circle," "The Hour of the Dragon" and "A Witch Shall Be Born." These timeless tales feature Conan as an outlaw chief, captain of the palace guard and the usurped king of Aquilonia.
These stories are also great because they give us a glimpse into the mind of a genius whose bold storytelling style has been copied by many, yet equaled by none. Stephen King said it best when he said "Howard’s writing seems so highly charged that it nearly gives off sparks."
In the end, it can be said that Howard was a one of a kind writer, an American great, and with Conan he was at his best. If you enjoy fantasy, go out and get a copy of "The Bloody Crown of Conan" today. If you like what you see there, check out other recently published Howard books, including "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian," "The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane," "Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" and "The Conquering Sword of Conan."