For nearly a century, readers have been drawn into the savage and mysterious world of Conan.
Created by Robert E. Howard in the early 1930s, Conan quickly became one of the most iconic characters in the history of fantasy literature.
His adventures — set in the prehistoric Hyborian Age — combine brutal combat, dark sorcery, lost civilizations, and a primal sense of adventure rarely matched in modern fiction, helping to define the very foundations of the Sword & Sorcery genre.
But new readers often encounter a simple question before they even begin: What is the best way to read the Conan stories?
At first glance, this seems like a straightforward question. Yet the answer is more complex than many expect.
The First Conan Story Was Not the Beginning
The Conan stories were never written as a single chronological narrative. Instead, Robert E. Howard crafted them as independent tales drawn from different periods of Conan’s life and published at the time they were written.
Understanding this unique structure helps explain why there is no single “correct” reading order.
The first Conan story ever published, The Phoenix on the Sword, appeared in Weird Tales magazine in December 1932. However, the story does not show Conan as a young adventurer. Instead, it depicts him at the height of his power — already the King of Aquilonia.
In this tale, Conan must defend his throne against conspirators, sorcerers, and assassins.
For many readers, this creates an immediate surprise.
How did Conan become king?
What happened earlier in his life?
Howard answered those questions gradually through later stories.
Conan’s Many Lives
Across the original Conan tales, readers encounter the character in many different roles.
At various points in his life, Conan appears as:
• A young thief in the city of Zamora
• A wandering barbarian
• A pirate sailing the Western Sea
• A mercenary fighting in foreign wars
• A general leading armies
• And eventually, the King of Aquilonia.
These different stages of Conan’s life appear scattered across the stories rather than arranged in a strict sequence.
Howard intentionally wrote them this way. Each story was meant to feel like a fragment of legend — one adventure among many in the life of a larger-than-life hero.
The Three Most Common Reading Orders
Over the decades, fans have naturally discovered a few different ways to read the Conan stories.
1. Publication Order
This method follows the order in which the stories originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine.
Reading the stories this way allows readers to see how Robert E. Howard developed the character over time. However, the timeline of Conan’s life jumps dramatically between stories.
2. Chronological Order
Some readers prefer arranging the stories according to Conan’s age.
In this approach, tales such as The Tower of the Elephant appear early in the sequence, showing Conan as a young thief in Zamora.
Later adventures like Queen of the Black Coast depict his pirate years.
Finally, stories such as The Phoenix on the Sword, or his only full length novel The Hour of the Dragon (Conan the Conqueror) conclude the timeline with Conan as king.
While this order can create the feeling of a continuous biography, it is not the way Howard originally wrote the stories.
3. The Adventure Approach
Perhaps the most authentic way to read Conan is the simplest.
- Pick a story.
- Start reading.
Because each Conan tale functions as a standalone adventure, they can be enjoyed in almost any order.
This is, in fact, how generations of readers first encountered the character. Many fans discovered Conan through random paperback collections, magazine issues, or borrowed books.
Yet the stories still carried the same power and excitement.
Why Conan Feels Different to Modern Fantasy
Part of the confusion around reading order comes from how different Conan is compared to modern fantasy storytelling.
Today, many fantasy series are written as long, continuous narratives — carefully plotted from beginning to end, with every chapter building toward a single overarching conclusion. Readers are often expected to start at book one and follow the journey step by step.
Conan is not built this way. Each story drops you into a fully formed moment. There is no lengthy exposition explaining how Conan arrived there, no detailed recap of past events, and no guarantee that the next story will follow directly from the last.
Instead, you are placed alongside him — in the middle of a raid, a heist, a battlefield, or a crumbling ruin — and expected to keep up.
This creates a very different reading experience.
The world feels older. Larger. Less explained.
There is a sense that Conan has already lived a dozen lives before the story begins — and will live a dozen more after it ends. For new readers, this can feel unusual at first. But it is precisely what gives the stories their enduring power.
You are not reading a neatly constructed narrative.
You are uncovering fragments of a legend.
A Hero Built From Legends
Part of Conan’s enduring appeal lies in the mythic structure of the stories themselves. Rather than presenting a strict biography, Howard gave readers glimpses into a life filled with countless adventures.
Each one feels like rediscovered legend from a forgotten age.
• A battle fought long ago.
• A city explored and lost to time.
• A sorcerer defeated.
• A treasure stolen.
Together, these fragments create a larger picture of Conan’s life while leaving many mysteries unexplained.
Which Conan Books Should You Read?
For many new readers, the question of reading order quickly leads to another, more practical concern:
Which Conan books should I actually choose?
Over the years, the Conan stories have been published in many different formats — from early paperback editions to modern hardback collections. Not all of them present the stories in the same way.
The most widely recommended starting point is the Del Rey Conan Collections.
These editions aim to present Robert E. Howard’s original stories as they were written, with minimal alteration, and are widely regarded as the closest representation of Howard’s original vision. They include helpful notes, historical context, and restore material that was sometimes edited or changed in earlier publications.
Before these, many readers encountered Conan through the Lancer/Ace Conan Paperbacks.
While highly influential — and responsible for bringing Conan to a much wider audience — these editions often included rewritten or expanded versions of Howard’s stories, along with additional tales written by other authors.
This leads to another important distinction. Not all Conan stories are written by Robert E. Howard.
After his death, several writers continued Conan’s adventures, creating what are often referred to as pastiches — including authors such as L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, and later Robert Jordan.
Some readers enjoy these later additions, while others prefer to focus only on Howard’s original work.
If you are just starting out, the simplest approach is this:
Begin with the original stories. The Robert E. Howard Foundation provides further context on his original stories and publications. Once you have a feel for the character, you can explore the expanded material if it interests you.
As for format, whether you choose individual paperbacks or collected hardback editions matters far less than the stories themselves.
Conan does not require a perfect edition.
Only a place to begin.
So, what is the best Conan reading order?
Ultimately, if you want to know how to read Conan, it may just be the simplest way.
Do not worry too much about chronology or feel pressured to follow a complicated reading guide.
Instead, choose a story that captures your interest and begin there… Within a few pages, you will find yourself immersed in the savage world of the Hyborian Age.
And once you begin, it is very likely you will want to explore the rest of Conan’s legendary adventures.
Because in the end, that is how Conan was meant to be discovered.
Not through strict order or scholarly debate — but through the thrill of adventure itself.
A single story.
A single moment.
A blade drawn in the dark, a whispered spell, a city waiting beyond the horizon.
And from there, the path unfolds.