Going for the longest title in the masterworks series, comes the beginning of the Conan saga, created by the prolific Howard and carried on by a host of lesser writers. Howard died young, he committed suicide aged 30, but arguably his most famous hero lived on and is still going strong to this very day.

In this volume, Conan is a young man from the barbarian North, wandering around in corrupt cities, demon haunted jungles and all manner of nasty places. He is a thief, a mercenary and if he finds anything that ain’t nailed down, it’s his. He is the original anti-hero. I , for one, enjoyed this volume, sure, Conan is a slightly absurd character, sure, there are a lot of dodgy racial stereotypes, sure, women do not come off very well. But for sheer bloody minded excitement and entertainment this is worth a read, if only to see how far literature has come since Howard’s day.