Conan stories -- "best" reading order

[finarvyn]

I've recently began re-reading the Conan stories after several years, inspired in part by a strange dream that I had which reminded me a lot of Red Nails and made me dust off that story to re-read it. Along the way I started pondering about what is the "best" way to read the stories, which I'm sure is an often beat-to-death topic but doesn't exist on this board yet. Several ideas came to mind and I thought it would be cool to find out what others thought.

(1) Publication order, as per the Wikipedia page. That way you experience Conan the way fans would have been exposed to him "back in the day."

(2) Written order, which I do not know, but I assume that some Conan stories were published quickly while others were written but never published. This might give a better insight into how REH saw the Conan character evolve with time.

(3) Chronological order, from young Conan to king Conan. This would allow a reader to experience Conan's life in the same way that he would have lived it.

(4) Random order, or names-from-a-hat. Since this genre of adventure story was written so that each one was essentially complete, a random story order could be more serendipitous.

(5) Something else that I haven't considered yet.

[Von K]

Hi Finarvyn.

Technically my pick would be 'all of the above.'

I'd recommend differently depending on the focus of the reader.

If the reader was interested in learning about REH's creative development as a writer, or was a creator looking to learn from REH about how it's all done, then I'd suggest reading the yarns in the straight order they were written (including The Hyborian Age essay, and preferably supplemented by Patrice's essay Hyborian Genesis from the Del Rey edition).

But if the reader's focus was more casual, focused on enjoying Conan and his world as pure narrative then perhaps internal story chronology might be the best way. You run into problems of which order they ought to be read in here, and several chronologies have been presented of which the most widely known are Dale Rippke's and LSDC's. LSDC's was based on P Schuyler Miller's, and Miller's is regarded by some as one of the earliest examples of the fictional biography genre. These chronologies were all posted on the old board and I don't know if they've been reposted here yet.

Once again, if the reader was new to REH's Conan and just wanted to initially sample some tales, I'd probably recommend starting with a couple of the best regarded yarns.

As for me, I first read Conan as option four on your list - I read them as soon as and in whatever order I could find them.

[johnnypt]

I read them in the Ace (Lancer) order first. After reading them in the written order as they are arranged in the Del Rey (and Wandering Star) volumes, I've found that way to be the most fulfilling in seeing how the character grows and changes. Here's the Howardworks listings for each:

howardworks.com/ComingofConan-DelRey.html

howardworks.com/BloodyCrownofConan-DelRey.html

howardworks.com/ConqueringSwordofConan-DelRey.html

Even if you don't have these versions, you can read what you have in this order. The unpublished stories though do add to the entire body of work (ex. the Hall of the Dead/Nestor synopsis helped in the creation of Tower of the Elephant and the unfinished Wolves Beyond the Border drafts laid the groundwork for Beyond the Black River and Black Stranger)

[Grim Wanderer]

Like johnnypt I first read them in the Ace order. I think that reading them in order of publication would makes a lot of sense (this is what I tell people to do when reading Banks' Culture books), but as a fan I think I prefer a chronological order.

[finarvyn]

Yeah, the Ace order was my first exposure but then that also includes a lot of the non-REH material. I was thinking pretty much of the REH-only stories and that's part of what got me pondering about some alternate ways to read the series.

[johnnypt]

I have actually been reading them the past few weeks, doing something I call the "modified" publication order: Read them for the most part as published but read FGD after Scarlet Citadel, Queen after Black Colossus, God in the Bowl and Vale in place of Queen after Iron Shadows, and Black Stranger after Black River. I'm not sure if there was a method to Farnsworth's "madness", but things do build on each other in a slightly different way than the written order. As for the two delayed stories, IS reads fine where it was published (it doesn't make things any clearer when it takes place), but Queen really should have been published in 1933, it reads better closer to the material done when it was written.

[mojo]

I'd do written order with continual reference to Dale Rippke's Dark Storm Conan Chronology at www.barbariankeep.com/cnchronds.html. That way you get the sense of dipping into different points of the character's life and can notice continuity details you might otherwise miss.

[Char-Vell]

I picked random. I advise people who've never read Conan to read Beyond the Black River immediately, followed by Red Nails.

[KiramidHead]

I voted for written order, as I was introduced to the stories by the Del Rey books and had no trouble with them at all.