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<blockquote data-quote="ledded" data-source="post: 1330069" data-attributes="member: 12744">Ok, I see merits and flaws in most of your arguments, but this is what I mainly want to ask:&nbsp;Have you *read* any modern fantasy lately?&nbsp; And I don't mean epic Martin/Brooks/Jordan/etc, but the more 'pulp' writers that truly compare to the type of books that Howard wrote.&nbsp; It is so hard for me to find a fantasy book by a new or unknown author that I can *stomach* long enough to slog through.&nbsp; Come on, skinny elves, burly and surly dwarves, and dice rattling in my head every time these guys write an action scene... it's quite sad.&nbsp; Not to say it's all bad, but there are a lot of writers in the genre that are either gamers or pulp fantasy readers that do not write with even a tenth of the&nbsp; quality or originality of the stuff they were inspired by (and that stuff wasnt *that* original to begin with most of the time).&nbsp; &nbsp;So we can discuss the different literary facets to Howard's actual work, but I can base one thing just off of my personal observation and experience:&nbsp; I know that I still occasionally re-read one of his books today and smile (or occasionally grimace) and still enjoy it on some level;&nbsp; 3 out of 5 fantasy authors I pick blindly off the shelf to try I can almost assure you I can't stomach through a few chapters.&nbsp; I'm just too busy nowadays to put down a book and then think &quot;Wow.&nbsp; There's a few hours of my life that I'll never get back&quot;.&nbsp; Sure, he's got bad cliche's, and style issues, and repetitive imagery, but at least they are *fun* faults... nobody said the stuff was Hemingway <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp;But then again, many folks dont enjoy pulp writing, which is OK, but my main point is that Howard still kicks the Hyborean Crap out of 90% of the pulp fantasy writers of today, and can *occasionally* hold his own with a few of the better ones, despite his faults.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ledded, post: 1330069, member: 12744"] Ok, I see merits and flaws in most of your arguments, but this is what I mainly want to ask: Have you *read* any modern fantasy lately? And I don't mean epic Martin/Brooks/Jordan/etc, but the more 'pulp' writers that truly compare to the type of books that Howard wrote. It is so hard for me to find a fantasy book by a new or unknown author that I can *stomach* long enough to slog through. Come on, skinny elves, burly and surly dwarves, and dice rattling in my head every time these guys write an action scene... it's quite sad. Not to say it's all bad, but there are a lot of writers in the genre that are either gamers or pulp fantasy readers that do not write with even a tenth of the quality or originality of the stuff they were inspired by (and that stuff wasnt *that* original to begin with most of the time). So we can discuss the different literary facets to Howard's actual work, but I can base one thing just off of my personal observation and experience: I know that I still occasionally re-read one of his books today and smile (or occasionally grimace) and still enjoy it on some level; 3 out of 5 fantasy authors I pick blindly off the shelf to try I can almost assure you I can't stomach through a few chapters. I'm just too busy nowadays to put down a book and then think "Wow. There's a few hours of my life that I'll never get back". Sure, he's got bad cliche's, and style issues, and repetitive imagery, but at least they are *fun* faults... nobody said the stuff was Hemingway :) But then again, many folks dont enjoy pulp writing, which is OK, but my main point is that Howard still kicks the Hyborean Crap out of 90% of the pulp fantasy writers of today, and can *occasionally* hold his own with a few of the better ones, despite his faults. [/QUOTE]

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