If the breathless pace of Conan’s exploits hooked you—like the white‑bone corridors and running skirmishes of “Red Nails” or the ambush‑ridden frontier warfare in “Beyond the Black River”—you’ll tear through Legend. You get siege walls buckling, last‑stand duels, and a larger‑than‑life warrior in Druss whose axe work hits with the same ferocity as Conan’s tavern‑floor brawls and battlefield charges.

If you loved Conan’s freebooting ruthlessness—raiding with Bêlit in “Queen of the Black Coast,” knifing conspirators in “The Phoenix on the Sword”—meet Elric. He’s a haunted swordsman whose sentient blade, Stormbringer, drinks souls while he topples empires and betrays tyrants. It’s the same uncompromising, do‑what‑it‑takes energy, but filtered through doom‑laden sorcery and treacherous courts.

If the blood‑and‑mud tone of Conan’s harsher tales grabbed you—like the brutal frontier survival of “Beyond the Black River” or the corpse‑strewn feud inside Xuchotl in “Red Nails”—this mercenary chronicle will feel like home. Croaker’s annals plunge you into night raids, shifting loyalties, and raw, ground‑level sorcery where victories are costly and heroes are scarred.

If the self‑contained rush of Conan’s capers thrilled you—like the jewel‑heist and alien encounter in “The Tower of the Elephant”—you’ll love roaming Lankhmar with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. These tales bounce from cursed ruins to sorcerers’ bazaars, serving up knife‑edge dungeons, clever thievery, and monster‑dodging escapes with the same punchy, standalone immediacy.

If the eerie, inexplicable magic in Conan’s world drew you in—demon‑ridden altars, cursed relics, and sorcerers whose powers defy tidy rules—you’ll relish Vance’s twilight realm. Wizards hoard half‑remembered spells, bargains twist like in Conan’s weirdest encounters (think the otherworldly Yag‑Kosha), and every spell feels like opening a door you may not be able to shut.