Conan the Fearless
 Cover of first edition | |
| Author | Steve Perry |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Kirk Reinert |
| Language | English |
| Series | Conan the Barbarian |
| Genre | Sword and sorcery |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | 1986 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 275 |
| ISBN | 0-8125-4248-7 |
Conan the Fearless is a fantasy novel by American writer Steve Perry, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in trade paperback by Tor Books in February 1986; a regular paperback edition followed from the same publisher in January 1987, and was reprinted at least once. The first British edition was published in paperback by Sphere Books in January 1988.[1]
The book also includes "Conan the Indestructible", L. Sprague de Camp's chronological essay on Conan's career.[2]
Plot
Conan gets stuck in the Corinthian city of Mornstadinos where he enlists as a bodyguard defending a magician and Eldia, a girl who can command fire elementals, against the evil mage Sovartus. Sovartus has been collecting such elemental whisperers and already has the other three; he wants Eldia to complete the set. This brings Conan into conflict with a host of other threats as well, including a demon employed by Sovartus and the witch Djuvula, who happens to be the demon's half-sister, the rich senator Lemparius, who happens to be a were-panther, the avaricious criminal Loganaro, and various and sundry monsters. Plots and counter-plots build up to a climax at Sovartus's stronghold.
Reception
Ryan Harvey rates Conan the Fearless above Conan the Free Lance, one of Perry's later Conan novels, in a review of that book. Harvey assesses the author's Conan corpus in general as "goofy," noting that he "has a reputation among Conan fandom for overkill and general silliness."[3]
"This one is pretty good," opines critic Don D'Ammassa[4]
Notes
- ^ Conan the Fearless title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ Lagomorph Rex. "Hyborean Apocrphya: Conan the Fearless" (Review), March 12, 2011.
- ^ Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan the Free Lance" (Review), Jul. 28, 2009.
- ^ D'Ammassa, Don. "Conan the Fearless" (review on Critical Mass). Oct. 21, 2017.