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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9603982">I would push back on this. Obviously it is a matter of taste, but Howard is one of those writers that I find holds up on repeat readings years later. I also think he is much easier for a modern reader to absorb than many of the other writers from that era (simply on the prose front). Yes, these are cliches now, and I am not terribly interested in whether he invented them or was imitating someone else. But if one did invent a cliche, I don't think one can really critique the work for being so (just to mention Frankenstein again this would be like complaining that Frankenstein has the 'tired trop of the mad scientist'. I also would say there isn't anything necessarily wrong with cliches and tropes. Genres are often built  on them, and you can have a novel full of cliches that is thrilling at every turn because the writer has a good command of their craft. Sometimes going after tropes and trying to do a fresh take becomes dull too (I found His Dark Materials very boring because it just seemed to be a diatribe against Narnia: and I am not even a big Narnia fan as I found those books a little on the dull side as well). I did like Pullman's descriptions but that was about all I really appreciated reading him. I think both these approaches (being new and original, embracing cliches), can be equally entertaining. It really comes down to how good the writing itself is, how interested the writer can make me in their characters, and how much I gel with the writer's personality on the page But when it comes to Howard I really like his writing style. It always keeps me engaged. And anytime I read one of his stories, I come away feeling very inspired to create something myself (whereas when I read Sanderson, this isn't my response: and that isn't a criticism of Sanderson, it is just my reaction). I have a number of Conan Volumes and I have to say, they are some of the stories I pull off the shelf more than any other because they are reliably good. If they don't do anything for people fair. But I do think the Conan stories have a lot of value for fantasy fans</blockquote>

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