The Bloody Crown of Conan

Robert E. Howard is a writer who’s work I frequently come back to. His short stories and novellas hold as much excitement for me now as they did when I first read them at the age of twelve. I travel a lot, and listen to many an audio-book while on the road, so I was more than happy to see an audio collection of Conan stories available for purchase.

The stories are read by Todd McLaren, and it must have been a daunting task for him. Every fan of the Conan stories has a distinct idea of what he should sound like. We were all somewhat forgiving of Arnold making Conan sound like a bit like a special-education student, because we were finally seeing him come to the screen, but this is the real deal, the stuff written by his creator. Sure enough, the first time McLaren read a line of Conan’s dialogue I thought, “That’s not Conan’s voice.” It’s a minor complaint, and one only I and other fellow Conan fanatics would make. After a while, however, I became so caught up in Howard’s prose, his tremendous descriptions of combat, and the intrigues of the Hyborian Age, that it eventually became Conan’s voice I was hearing. McLaren did his job, and did it well.

The collection contains three of the longer Conan works:
The People of the Black Circle: A personal favorite in which Conan becomes caught in the machinations of a wizard in love, a vengeful queen, and some very angry hillmen.
The Hour of the Dragon: A full length novel in which Conan, King of Aquilonia, loses his throne through the seemingly limitless power of the wizard Xaltotun. His only hope of defeating the wizard lies in acquiring an ancient relic known as the Heart of Ahriman.
A Witch Shall Be Born: A witch replaces her twin sister as Queen of the kingdom. Her first act? Crucify Conan, the captain of the Queen’s Guard. While this certainly isn’t the best of the Conan stories, that scene of crucifixion is truly memorable, and elements of it were used in the Conan the Barbarian film.

Also included are two drafts of an untitled and unfinished story that features a brief appearance of Conan. The last disc contains an essay, HYBORIAN GENESIS PART II: Notes on the Creation of the Conan Stories which will be of great interest to Howard enthusiasts.

The Bloody Crown of Conan audiobook is produced by Tantor Audio (www.tantor.com), written by Robert E. Howard, and read by Todd McLaren

T Shirt Joe