my rankings of REH's Conan stories

[geoffrey]

Robert E. Howard completed 21 Conan tales: 20 short stories and a novel. Taken as a whole, they are my second favorite works of fantasy after Tolkien's The Hobbit. Of course, the 21 tales are of varying quality. Here is how I rank them:

The Top Shelf, in order (beginning with the best of the best):
1. "Beyond the Black River"
2. "Red Nails"
3. "People of the Black Circle"
4. "Queen of the Black Coast"
5. "The Tower of the Elephant"

The Middle of the Road, presenting Howard's "typical" Conan stories (in alphabetical order):
"Black Colossus"
"The Devil in Iron"
The Hour of the Dragon (which includes some excellent parts, but as a whole does not get onto the top shelf)
"Iron Shadows in the Moon"
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula"
"The Phoenix on the Sword"
"The Pool of the Black One"
"Rogues in the House"
"The Scarlet Citadel"
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin"
"A Witch Shall Be Born"
"Xuthal of the Dusk" (my favorite of this group of stories, but much surpassed by the similarly-themed "Red Nails")

Bottom of the List (in alphabetical order):
"The Black Stranger"
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter"
"The God in the Bowl" (probably the closest I've ever come to boredom while reading an REH Conan story)
"The Vale of Lost Women"

How do you rank them?

[doublejig2]

I agree, though I might switch out Beyond the Black River for one of middle ones, like this one...

Of one great palace is the recluse and obscene city, Xuthul of the Dusk. Opulent in both ancient perversions and a brilliant science of degenerate lucid dream dalliance, it is presided over in terrifyingly deep well stochastics by the hideous, denizen devouring, slithering demon shadow called Thog.

[geoffrey]

Jan 30, 2024 12:23:07 GMT -6 doublejig2 said:

I agree, though I might switch out Beyond the Black River for one of middle ones, like this one...

Of one great palace is the recluse and obscene city, Xuthul of the Dusk. Opulent in both ancient perversions and a brilliant science of degenerate lucid dream dalliance, it is presided over in terrifyingly deep well stochastics by the hideous, denizen devouring, slithering demon shadow called Thog.

If "Red Nails" didn't exist, I would place "Xuthal of the Dusk" in the top tier. But as it is, I regard "Xuthal of the Dusk" as a sort of practice run for the superior "Red Nails".

All that said, "Xuthal of the Dusk" has the single coolest title by far of all the Conan stories. Further, if I had to recommend a Conan story to a fantasy fan who said, "Hey! What's this Conan all about? What one story should I read to see what's going on?", I would unhesitatingly recommend "Xuthal of the Dusk". It is the best of the typical, representative Conan stories.

[stevemitchell]

I would probably move "The Scarlet Citadel" up to top rank. It has the best parts of "Hour of the Dragon" without the digressions, and it also has Conan's first dungeon crawl. Then I would swap "Pool of the Black One" (very uninspired, a real snoozer) for "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," which is eerily effective despite its short length.

But of course, I am going to continue to re-read all of them!

[kipper]

My personal ranking (alphabetical order within each tier):

Top Tier:
Jewels of Gwahlur
The Man-Eaters of Zamboula
The Phoenix on the Sword
Red Nails
Rogues in the House
The Scarlet Citadel
The Tower of the Elephant
Xuthal of the Dusk

Mid Tier:
The Devil in Iron
The Frost-Giant’s Daughter
The God in the Bowl
The Hour of the Dragon
The People of the Black Circle
The Pool of the Black One
Queen of the Black Coast

Bottom Tier:
Beyond the Black River
Black Colossus
The Black Stranger
Iron Shadows in the Moon
The Vale of Lost Women
A Witch Shall Be Born

[doublejig2]

For what it's worth, I enjoyed the whole corpus, even his worst effort, whatever that might be, what a boon!

[geoffrey]

Jan 30, 2024 20:38:43 GMT -6 doublejig2 said:

For what it's worth, I enjoyed the whole corpus, even his worst effort, whatever that might be, what a boon!

I agree. REH's worst Conan story is better than the best story of most authors!