Conan Stories
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Read these stories for their raw, visceral energy and Howard's masterful creation of a mythic world where barbaric heroism clashes with ancient evil and corrupt civilization.
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Book Summary
Robert E. Howard's Conan stories follow the Cimmerian barbarian's adventures across a mythical Hyborian Age, where he battles ancient evils, supernatural horrors, and corrupt civilizations. Through piracy, sorcery, and savage combat, Conan rises from a wandering mercenary to a king, guided by his own brutal code of honor.
The collection includes tales like 'Shadows in the Moonlight,' where Conan becomes a pirate captain after surviving a demonic attack on a ruined island, and 'Queen of the Black Coast,' where he joins the fierce pirate queen Bêlit in a doomed voyage to an accursed city, culminating in her death and his vengeance. In 'Red Nails,' Conan and the warrior woman Valeria become entangled in a deadly feud between two clans in a lost city, facing ancient horrors and the sinister princess Tascela. Throughout these stories, Conan relies on his physical prowess, cunning, and indomitable will to survive treacherous environments and supernatural threats. He forms passionate bonds with strong women like Olivia, Bêlit, and Valeria, often leading to sacrifice and loss. The Hyborian Age background frames a world where barbarism is honest and vital, while civilization is corrupt and decadent. Conan's personal code of honor and loyalty contrasts with the betrayal and cruelty he encounters, and his rise from mercenary to leader suggests a destined path. The untamed wilderness—jungles, seas, and mountains—serves as both deadly peril and realm of freedom.
Reading guide
Go deeper in Conan Stories
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
Conan
Conan moves through Hyborian kingdoms as mercenary, thief, and eventual king, his enormous frame and smoldering temper matched only by a cunning that keeps him alive when magic turns the world inside out. He bristles at wizards and priests who hide behind illusions, meeting each trap with a growl and a blade. His refusal to kneel to any man or demon drives the early stories, where his brute force and stubborn will collide with forces older and stranger than any sword.
Balthus
Balthus rides with Conan and a handful of borderers into Pictish territory, only to be ambushed and taken alive by warriors whose numbers and strange alliances hint at something far worse than a raid. Bound and bleeding, he watches the shaman Zogar Sag dance before the captives and feels his courage tested against a fear that has nothing to do with death. His greenness makes him the reader's eyes in a land where survival depends on learning fast or dying slow.
Valeria
Valeria fights and schemes alongside Conan in Xuchotl, a sealed city where two feuding factions and a sorceress queen turn every corridor into a trap. Her scream of fury and shame echoes through the tower, pulling Conan into a rescue that nearly kills him. She is no passive prize; her recklessness and pride make her a mirror to Conan's own, and her fate hangs over the story's middle like a blade.
Olivia
Olivia survives a shipwreck only to find herself hunted through moonlit ruins by something that leaves no tracks and kills without a sound. She clings to Conan as her only shield, her dark eyes wells of horror, yet she watches and learns as he reads the wilderness for signs of pirates and worse. Her fear grounds the story's early terror, and her gradual steadiness turns her from burden to witness.
Yasmina
Yasmina rules Vendhya with the weight of her Devi-ship pressing on every choice, until black sorcery tears her from her throne and drags her through lives of suffering that are not her own. Even as she endures the whip and the rack in visions that are also memories, she never loses the consciousness of who she is. Her pride is both her torment and her weapon, and her rescue becomes the axis on which Conan's quest turns.
Taramis
Taramis rules Khauran with imperious dignity until a woman with her own face and a crimson crescent between her breasts reveals herself as Salome, the witch foretold by an ancient curse. Stripped of guards, throne, and name in a single night, Taramis must reckon with a sister whose hatred is as old as their dynasty. Her struggle against Salome's sorcery and usurpation drives the story's early arc, where identity itself becomes a battlefield.
Civilization vs. Barbarism
The book contrasts the corrupt, decadent, and hypocritical nature of civilized societies with the raw, honest, and vital strength of barbarian cultures, embodied by Conan's Cimmerian heritage.
Love and Sacrifice
Passionate, often fatalistic love drives characters like Bêlit and Olivia to extreme acts of devotion and self-sacrifice, transcending death and danger for their beloved.
Supernatural and Ancient Evil
The stories are filled with ancient, inhuman entities, sorcerers, and forgotten gods (like Khosatral Khel and winged monsters) that represent primordial chaos and threats beyond mortal understanding.
Survival and Individualism
Conan repeatedly relies on his own physical prowess, cunning, and indomitable will to survive treacherous environments, hostile forces, and supernatural attacks, often against overwhelming odds.
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