[perineum]

I am pushing through the beginning of Moby Dick at the moment (not easy reading) and I was looking forward to a change of pace. I was thinking Conan because I have read a couple of old paperbacks I have floating around and really liked them. The problem is that it's not exactly clear about where to start on this. I have found a couple of complete works of Howard's on Amazon.com. My question is, what do I have to get to have the complete works from all authors? Wikipedia says there are over 50 books. Anybody have a list or recommendations about collections?

[Electronic6]

For Conan I can only recommend the stuff penned by and only by Robert E. Howard. There was plenty of other writers who tried their hand with Conan, but none of them really capture the feeling that Howard had.

My best tip is to get The Complete Chronicles of Conan:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780575077805/The-Complete-Chronicles-of-Conan

It has all stories written by Howard(I believe) and even has some stories that were left unfinished. It's also in hardcover!

[Orbison]

I know of a series of hardback books for notable authors from the early 20th century (Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft come to mind immediately).

Here's a link to the Conan one on amazon.com - The Complete Chronicles (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Chronicles-Conan-Robert-Howard/dp/0575077662/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272767674&sr=8-3).

They are well made books, and seem to be fairly complete. I have the Lovecraft one myself and I love it.

[johnkarr]

Del Rey (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=conan+del+rey&x=0&y=0&sprefix=conan%2C+del)has most if not all the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories in three volumes. And they rock.

[perineum]

I was going to get that hardcover Complete Chronicles, but went with the three volume paperback set. The hardcover looked nicer, but I thought the 3 paperbacks would be easier to handle while reading.

[the gozzfather]

Del Rey (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=conan+del+rey&x=0&y=0&sprefix=conan%2C+del)has most if not all the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories in three volumes. And they rock.

The Del Rey collections are very good, they also have some great illustrations.

[TheImp]

don't just limit yourself to conan either. solomon kane and kull are arguably just as good if not better. bran mak morn is awesome too.

[perineum]

Those are also written by Howard? I have a huge list of books to read, so I will give the Conan stories a read after Moby Dick first.

[TheImp]

yeah those are also by howard.

[CodanOfCanada]

The current Del Rey prints are a relatively cheap and easy way to get all of REH's Conan stories. Some other author's wrote decent ones, but I worry most about Howard's work, as it stands head and shoulders above most imitators. And like the Imp said Solomon Kane, Kull and Bran Mak Morn are all essentiel Robert E. Howard. Bran is probably my favourite of his characters. Cormac Mac Art has some cool stories too.