D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

[Mournblade94]

Did I suggest that it was?

Did I suggest that they should be?

Did I suggest that it was?

I have no idea what you thought you were responding to when you quoted me.

I'm sorry, I'm probably reacting to more alarming ideas that ring similar to what you wrote over the years. No. You did not suggest that.

 

[GnomeWorks]

I recently picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Sure, the premise is very silly. But it's (usually) decently written and it's honestly just fun.

 

[Clint_L]

I recently picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Sure, the premise is very silly. But it's (usually) decently written and it's honestly just fun.

I was rolling my eyes hard, yet turning page after page. And now I've read every book and look forward to the the next (though with some trepidation; the cast of characters has grown to the point where I can't keep track of who is who very well. Fortunately, the conclusion of the most recent book suggests a course correction in this regard). These books are, for me, the literary equivalent of good popcorn cinema: I am amused and entertained, and don't have to think hard. Sometimes, that's all I want.

 

[GnomeWorks]

I was rolling my eyes hard, yet turning page after page.

I think it helps that the author just leans full-tilt into it. It's so over-the-top that it rolls back around to funny.

These books are, for me, the literary equivalent of good popcorn cinema: I am amused and entertained, and don't have to think hard. Sometimes, that's all I want.

Definitely.

 

[gnarlygninja]

How does one go about this? Reading Conan and then shouting at the world there was a character that may have been racist depiction? Is it somebody's duty to go onto forums and blast they just read racism?

This is where the "recognize its problematic" gets absurd. I can recognize it but its not going to stop me from reading it, and I'm not going to go around denigrating the writers.

If I read a modern book (though I haven't really read a fantasy book published after 2018) with these tropes in it I'll be warning people. But I read alot of older writings not just fantasy fiction and this is par for the course. Its just how it was. Attitudes have already changed. At this point its just a characteristic of the books.

If you can recognize something is problematic, you've acknowledged it's problematic, so I'm a little confused why you're asking how to go about doing it.

 

[SteveC]

So I've been thinking about this thread quite a bit because I have an eight-year-old. I remember at eight I won a copy of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe for reading so many books. I'm looking at getting the series on Audible to listen to with my daughter since that's how she prefers to get her books going. The next year, when I was 9, I had a teacher who introduced me to The Lord of the Rings. Not The Hobbit, right into the big books. I remember about 10 picking up that early Silmarilion and bouncing off of it despite trying several times. I finally read it in a class in college.

I didn't read Conan until high school. Probably because of the covers and my parents judging books by them.

So I'm thinking, "What's the onboard for anyone in fantasy these days?" And I honestly don't know. If someone came to me as an adult and asked what to start with, I'd probably try to see if they could handle the kind of book that Lord of the Rings is, since it's not a personal story with lots of fast-moving action. I have so many books that I love but I'm not sure what's a good introduction.

Similarly, for a kid, and many of my friends with kids ask me about this, I'm so far removed from things that Harry Potter or Percy Jackson would be my recommendations, but I realize that makes me feel old. I find that I just can't get into young-adult fiction, since I'm decades away from being one, and what I've read doesn't connect with me.

I get asked this question by friends, coworkers, and fellow parents a surprising amount. And from thinking about this thread, I find that I don't have a good answer. So, thanks for that, thread. You're making me ask questions.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

I've been obsessing over the Wandering Inn and Dungeon Crawler Carl for a while now, so litrpg apparently. Orconomocs was a great recent series.

More objectively, Dungeon Crawler Carl is flying off the shelves at the library, as are the Legends and Latte books in that I haven't ever physically seen our copies and they're drowning in holds, and a display for romantasy just went up.

I'm also still hearing about Scholomance being popular.

 

[J-H]

I read the Hobbit to the boys first, when they were around 8 & 6. Next, we did the Silmarillion to my boys when they were around 9 & 7 (give or take). We are now up to the Cormallen Fields in ROTK, and they are 10 & 8.

I tried to start Narnia first, but my older son recognized the White Witch grooming Edmund and found it too creepy/evil, so we waited until after the Hobbit for the Narnia series.

 

[aramis erak]

Look, Conan hasn't been relevant for over a decade at this pont and while certain trapping of Sword-n-sorcery still exists the genre as a whole is far from any influence these days.

A lot of kids ARE reading Conan. It's honestly surprising how many are, because most of RE Howard (and ER Borroughs, and HPL) are on Gutenburg. Got a cellphone? Grab an old book, free and legal. (I'm reading Airlords of the Han, currently.)

Plus, the Schwarzenegger movies, as disonnected from Howard as they are, are still out there, and last time I watched one, it was "free with ads" on youtube; it's now behind the paywall.

In the 2010's, I was teaching elementary; Conan, despite some NSFW/NSFS material, was being read by 2-3 6th graders a year in one school. Mostly on phones.

Also, keep in mind, there's been a continuous coverage of Conan with rulesets for RPGs for the last 20 years... Mongoose, Modiphius, a new one, and the GURPS Conan in PDF. If new blood wasn't finding it, they would not have spent the resources.

As far as modern S&S fiction? I've not read anything newer than about 1990 in the genre. Closest I've gotten is Narnia, Dresden Files, and Percy Jackson.

 

[TiQuinn]

I think the prevalance of cozy and romantasy is really not something male readers are attracted to though.

You keep bringing up “prevalence” as if that’s the only thing populating fantasy bookshelves and yet I still see plenty of Sanderson, Martin and other writers who do not write in that style. This to say nothing of the various other genre writers (horror, sci-fi, crime, and so on) that are not writing romantasy or coffee shop cozy books. It’s as if the existence of these books at all is the affront.