Book excerpt: Conan the Cimmerian: the boy-thief who became a mercenary, who fought and loved his way across fabled lands to become King of Aquilonia. Neither supernatural fiends nore demonic sorcery could oppose the barbarian warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legendary Hyborian age. Collected together in one volume for the very first time, in chronological order, are Robert E. Howard's tales of the legendary hero, as fresh and atmospheric today as when they were first published in the pulp magazines of more than seventy years ago. Compiled by and with a foreward and afterword by award-winning writer and editor Stephen Jones.