Conan is the barbarian hero to end all barbarian heroes; his later imitations seem pallid by comparison

Conan is the barbarian hero to end all barbarian heroes; his later imitations seem pallid by comparison. In “A Witch Shall Be Born,” Conan is captured and crucified. As he hangs on the cross, a vulture flies down to peck his eyes out. Conan bites the vulture’s head off. You just can’t have a hero tougher than that.

L. Sprague deCamp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers (1976), loc. 2,896

For one thing, Morris was not strong on plot. His adventures and encounters “just happen.”

At 65,000 words, this novel is shorter than most of Morris’s fantasies, which is all to the good. It starts off well but tends to peter out. For one thing, Morris was not strong on plot. His adventures and encounters “just happen.” Morris could no doubt have defended himself by saying that he was writing, not a “modern” novel, but a medieval romance of the type of those of Chrestien de Troyes, Gottfried von Strassburg, Lodovico Ariosto, and Sir Thomas Malory. They never worried about intricate, logical, self-consistent plots either.

L. Sprague deCamp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers (1976), loc. 925

They were not about to sit down and master the techniques of dry farming when murder and robbery were so much more fu

A reason for the ferocity of Howard’s barbarians is that the barbarians he knew the most about, the Comanche Indians of Texas, were one of the most warlike peoples on earth. Having just been promoted from food-gathering savagery by acquiring horses, they were not about to sit down and master the techniques of dry farming when murder and robbery were so much more fun.

L. Sprague deCamp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers (1976), loc. 672

Those who fancy that they would relish life in a bygone era assume that they would arrive in the earlier milieu with all the health, wealth, and social status needed to enjoy their visit

Needless to say, those who fancy that they would relish life in a bygone era assume that they would arrive in the earlier milieu with all the health, wealth, and social status needed to enjoy their visit. Nobody would wish to find himself an Irish peasant during the Famine of the 1840s, or a medieval serf, or a slave in the Athenian silver mines at Laureion. Actually, if one were translated to the body of such a dweller in former times, chosen at random, one would be hundreds of times more likely to find oneself a downtrodden proletarian than a baron or an Athenian eupatrid, because the affluent in those days were such a tiny fraction of the whole. For that matter, such a translation would drastically cut one’s life expectancy, because there were so many illnesses and injuries that in those days were fatal.

L. Sprague deCamp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers (1976), loc. 485