YMMV / Queen of the Black Coast

• Best Known for the Fanservice: Bêlit's constant half-nakedness and sexy dance are well remembered aspects of the story, as well as minor but memorable lines like "blood-stained altars where naked women screamed" and the naked women aboard a Stygian ship who "posed and postured brazenly." Those are probably the reasons why few people remember that the pirate crew is also composed of completely naked black men. At the end of the day, this is a story where, for the last half, everyone but Conan is naked.
• Breakout Character: Bêlit. Little more than a Girl of the Week (albeit an exceptionally well-written and conceived one), appearing in only this story, she's ranked as one of Howard's most popular characters, probably after only Thoth-Amon and Conan himself, and one of the best Pirate Girls in all of fiction. Many call her Conan's one, true love, or at least the greatest love of his life.
• Crosses the Line Twice: From a modern standpoint, Conan answering the judge's very rational pleas by beheading him on the spot is nothing but unsympathetic barbarism, but at this point it's hard not to find it sheer Black Comedy.
• Escapist Character: Conan, as always, but in this case, heterosexual female readers have their own in Bêlit.
• Fair for Its Day: The idea of a crew of black men subservient to a white character (technically a Semite, but you get the picture), who is also a cynical Bad Boss at her task, might draw some ire after The New '10s, especially given that most of them are essentially unnamed extras. However, they are still part of the "good guys" (by the standards of a Conan story, at any rate), aren't portrayed in a different way than most other marauder bands in Howard's stories, and actually impress Conan with the bravery of their Last Stand, and moreover nothing in the plot implies they don't follow Bêlit of their own free will and/or greed even despite her worst tendencies (piracy is a dangerous buisiness, and while Bêlit has no qualms spending the lives of her crew for a specific goal, they seem to be well aware they were signing up for a dangerous job with a low life expectancy). All in all, this is certainly far from being the most racist Conan story.
• Fanfic Fuel: The story tells us that Conan sailed with Bêlit on the Tigress for years, yet we only get details on their first meeting and final adventure, respectively.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Bêlit's race in the Conan stories is canonically inspired by ancient Semitic people, which she demonstrates in this installment by showing a noticeable gold-fever. Now, if you happen to know that warrior women and being bare-breasted in battle were elements of ancient Germanic tribes...
• Values Resonance: Women in Conan have usually little agency unless they are villainesses, but Bêlit has gone down in history for being an active, independent heroine (for a given value of "heroine") with her own warrior gang and legendary career before even meeting Conan. Her liberated sexuality, conscious choice to have Conan as a partner and ability to charm him are also resonant with modern sex-positive feminism.