The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

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Conan the Barbarian

#4273.92 of 664 ranked universes · full ranking

Books 20 books Status Complete 1932–1987 Reading commitment High Robert E. Howard Last reviewed 2026-08-05

Overview

Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian (1932–1936, plus posthumous publications through 1987) is the character most credited with founding the 'sword and sorcery' genre, predating and directly influencing both the Elric Saga and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Core Canon is the 20 works wholly written by Howard himself: 16 published in his lifetime plus 4 complete manuscripts rejected by Weird Tales but published posthumously, in each case in Howard's own unaltered text rather than any earlier de Camp-rewritten version. Decades of subsequent pastiche using the character are explicitly out of scope.

Sword & sorcery · For Adult

Core Canon: Reading Order (20 works) counts toward ranking

The Conan Stories Robert E. Howard

WorkYearCanonRating
Cover of The Phoenix on the SwordThe Phoenix on the Sword1932core3.90 (1,704 ratings)
Cover of The Scarlet CitadelThe Scarlet Citadel1933core3.92 (991 ratings)
Cover of The Tower of the ElephantThe Tower of the Elephant1933core4.11 (1,809 ratings)
Cover of The Pool of the Black OneThe Pool of the Black One1933core3.51 (543 ratings)
Cover of Black ColossusBlack Colossus1933core3.75 (750 ratings)
Cover of Rogues in the HouseRogues in the House1934core3.78 (633 ratings)
Cover of Shadows in the MoonlightShadows in the Moonlight; Howard's own manuscript title was 'Iron Shadows in the Moon'; Weird Tales published it as 'Shadows in the Moonlight'; some later paperback editions retitled it again as 'Xuthal of the Dusk'. This entry uses the first-published (Weird Tales) title.1934core3.65 (585 ratings)
Cover of Queen of the Black CoastQueen of the Black Coast1934core3.87 (1,131 ratings)
Cover of The Devil in IronThe Devil in Iron1934core3.58 (594 ratings)
Cover of The People of the Black CircleThe People of the Black Circle; Serialized in 3 parts, Weird Tales Sep-Nov 1934.1934core3.72 (650 ratings)
Cover of A Witch Shall Be BornA Witch Shall Be Born1934core3.74 (768 ratings)
Cover of Jewels of GwahlurJewels of Gwahlur; Howard's own manuscript title was 'The Servants of Bit-Yakin'; published under this title in Weird Tales.1935core3.69 (519 ratings)
Cover of Beyond the Black RiverBeyond the Black River; Serialized in 2 parts, Weird Tales May-Jun 1935.1935core4.00 (784 ratings)
Cover of Shadows in ZamboulaShadows in Zamboula; Howard's own manuscript title was 'The Man-Eaters of Zamboula'; published under this title in Weird Tales.1935core3.65 (453 ratings)
Cover of The Hour of the DragonThe Hour of the Dragon; Howard's only full-length Conan novel; serialized in 5 parts, Weird Tales Dec 1935-Apr 1936. Also submitted as a standalone book to UK publisher Dennis Archer in 1934, who went bankrupt before printing; first true book publication was the 1950 Gnome Press edition (retitled 'Conan the Conqueror').1935core4.11 (5,059 ratings)
Cover of Red NailsRed Nails; Serialized in 3 parts, Weird Tales Jul-Oct 1936; the last Conan story published in Howard's lifetime.1936core4.04 (2,245 ratings)
Cover of The Frost-Giant's DaughterThe Frost-Giant's Daughter; Complete Howard manuscript rejected by Weird Tales in his lifetime; the original Conan text was first published posthumously in Gnome Press's Conan the Barbarian (1954).1954core3.59 (111 ratings)
Cover of The God in the BowlThe God in the Bowl; Complete Howard manuscript rejected by Weird Tales in his lifetime. A heavily rewritten version by L. Sprague de Camp was first published in 1952 (Space Science Fiction, Sep) -- this database registers a different text, not that rewrite. Howard's own restored/unaltered text was first printed in THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT (Donald M. Grant, 1975), predating the more widely-cited Wandering Star (2002)/Del Rey 'The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian' (2003) scholarly editions by decades. Correction 2026-08-06: this entry previously listed 1996, sourced from an unverified secondary claim; 1975 is the correct first-appearance year for Howard's own text per reh.world's detailed publication history (Grant 1975 restored text -> Grosset & Dunlap 1978 -> Wandering Star 2002 -> Del Rey 2003 -> Gollancz 2006). No rating-platform work page distinguishes Howard's restored text from de Camp's rewrite -- the only standalone rating-platform page under this title (work id 17567455) is explicitly the 1952 de Camp version, a different registered work by this project's own rule, so it is not used for this book's rating. Reader-rating data collection for this specific book is not expected to be resolvable through the standard per-book rating-platform lookup; it would require either the rating platform adding a distinct restored-text edition page, or a documented exception to the standard lookup.1975core3.66 (315 ratings)
Cover of The Vale of Lost WomenThe Vale of Lost Women; Complete Howard manuscript rejected by Weird Tales in his lifetime, likely for its racially charged content; not published until The Magazine of Horror, Spring 1967. No other-author rewriting involved.1967core2.81 (155 ratings)
Cover of The Black StrangerThe Black Stranger; Complete Howard manuscript rejected by Weird Tales in his lifetime. De Camp separately rewrote it into a different, altered story titled 'The Treasure of Tranicos' (1953); Howard's own unaltered text was not printed until the Echoes of Valor anthology (1987), later restored in Del Rey's The Conquering Sword of Conan (2005). This entry registers Howard's own text, not the 1953 de Camp rewrite.1987core3.75 (87 ratings)

20 works wholly written by Robert E. Howard himself (16 published in his lifetime, 1932-1936, plus 4 complete manuscripts he finished but that were rejected by Weird Tales and only published posthumously in his own unaltered text, 1954-1996), the modern Del Rey 'Original Conan' trilogy (ed. Patrice Louinet, 2002-2005) presents all 20 together as the definitive, textually-restored, Howard-only edition. No internal in-story chronological order is recorded here: at least six independent, mutually disagreeing chronologies have been proposed by different editors/scholars since 1936 (Miller/Clark, de Camp's two versions, William Galen Gray, Joe Marek, Dale Rippke), and Howard himself is documented as having 'had little more than a general idea of the character's career path' and deliberately wrote the stories out of sequence, the same principled non-invention applied to Steven Brust's Dragaera. Book order here follows first-publication-of-the-actual-registered-text year, which is a sourced fact, not an invented reading order.

Library / Expanded (5 works) context only

Quick answers

Why is it ranked #427?

Ranked #427 of 664 ranked universes.

How the ranking works →

Why explore this universe?

Rated · 20 books · Complete · 20k ratings · Ranks #427 overall

Good choice if you want a long-running sword-and-sorcery universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.

Reading order

Publication order (20 Core Canon books)

  1. The Phoenix on the Sword (1932)
  2. Black Colossus (1933)
  3. The Pool of the Black One (1933)
  4. The Scarlet Citadel (1933)
  5. The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
  6. A Witch Shall Be Born (1934)
  7. Queen of the Black Coast (1934)
  8. Rogues in the House (1934)
  9. Shadows in the Moonlight (1934)
  10. The Devil in Iron (1934)
  11. The People of the Black Circle (1934)
  12. Beyond the Black River (1935)
  13. Jewels of Gwahlur (1935)
  14. Shadows in Zamboula (1935)
  15. The Hour of the Dragon (1935)
  16. Red Nails (1936)
  17. The Frost-Giant's Daughter (1954)
  18. The Vale of Lost Women (1967)
  19. The God in the Bowl (1975)
  20. The Black Stranger (1987)

Internal/in-story chronology is not tracked for this universe. This is the second case in this canon (after Dragaera) where a genuinely disputed reading/story order is documented as deliberately unresolved rather than invented, per Article 2; publication order is treated as primary.

Awards (verified)

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Official resources

Research details

Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.92 across 19,886 ratings on 20 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.

How do we know this?

Admission: Conan the Barbarian admitted; Core Canon = Howard's own 20 works; posthumous pastiche excluded accepted 2026-08-05

Sources: (see source tier definitions)

Related universes: see the Related universes section above.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-17

Rule: Core = 20 works wholly written by Robert E. Howard: 16 published in his lifetime (1932–1936) + 4 complete manuscripts published posthumously in Howard's own unaltered text (1954–1987), registered as one series (The Conan Stories) since Howard himself left no definitive book-length grouping. Expanded = 5 genuine unfinished Howard fragments/synopses completed by L. Sprague de Camp and/or Lin Carter after his death (1966–1969), credited explicitly to both hands. Decades of pure pastiche with no Howard draft at all are out of scope and not registered.

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