Ever read R.E. Howard's Conan stories? Only one of them is really a novel- '
The Hour of the Dragon', but they are all good.
Howard's Conan is very different from the John Milius/Oliver Stone version of Conan in the 1982 film 'Conan the Barbarian'. Howard's Conan is cunning, intelligent, and multi-faceted. Howard was possibly insane- he thought Conan stood over him as he wrote according to some reports. But his stories are intriguing.
best part- you can read all those stories for free:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1303751h.html#stories