Conan the Marauder
 cover of Conan the Marauder | |
| Author | John Maddox Roberts |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Ken Kelly |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Conan the Barbarian |
| Genre | Sword and sorcery Fantasy |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | 1988 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 277 pp |
| ISBN | 0-8125-4266-5 |
Conan the Marauder is a fantasy novel written by John Maddox Roberts featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Tor Books in January 1988, and reprinted in 1992. The first British edition was published in paperback by Orbit Books in February 1991.[1]
Plot
The warlord Bartatua is uniting the Hyrkanian tribes east of the Vilayet Sea into a force for world conquest, beginning with the resistive city of Sogaria. Meanwhile, the exiled Turanian wizard Khondemir schemes to sorcerously control Bartatua's armies in pursuite of his own ends. Caught in the middle are Princess Ishkala of Sogaria, the seductive spy Lakhme, and the enslaved Conan, who must prove himself to the warlord to escape his fate. Everything comes to a head in the ancient Hyrkanian necropolis known as the City of Mounds.
Reception
Don D'Ammassa, writing of Roberts' Conan novels, noted that "[a]lthough Roberts did not recreate Howard's character exactly, making him more intellectual and less inclined to solve every problem by hitting it with a sword, his evocation of the barbaric setting is superior to that of most of the other writers contributing to the series. Conan the Marauder (1987) and Conan the Rogue (1991) are the best of the set."[2]
Writing of some other Tor Conan novels, reviewer Ryan Harvey called Roberts "the most consistently successful of its stable of authors,"[3] and "the most consistently entertaining" of them, showing "deft ability with storytelling and action scenes, and a thankful tendency not to overplay his hand and try to ape Robert E. Howard's style."[4]
Notes
- ^ Conan the Marauder title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ D'Ammassa, Don (February 2006). Encyclopedia of fantasy and horror fiction. Infobase Publishing. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-8160-6192-1. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
- ^ Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan and the Treasure of Python" (Review), Mar. 24, 2009.
- ^ Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan and the Amazon" (Review), Sep. 21, 2010.