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Book Details

Conan the Wanderer

78.6% complete
1968
2020
1 time
See 4
Black Tears
Shadows in Zamboula
The Devil in Iron
The Flame Knife
Book Cover
Has a genre Has comments Has an extract Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
2297
 Conan*
#4 of 12
Conan*     See series as if on a bookshelf
A series of books about Conan the Cimmerian written by Robert E Howard, L Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter.  This is the core series of books which are all from or based on stories or notes by Robert E Howard.

1) Conan
2) Conan of Cimmeria
3) Conan the Freebooter
4) Conan the Wanderer
5) Conan the Adventurer
6) Conan the Buccaneer
7) Conan the Warrior
8) Conan the Usurper
9) Conan the Conqueror
10) Conan the Avenger
11) Conan of Aquilonia
12) Conan of the Isles
Copyright © 1968 by L. Sprague de Camp
No dedication.
The noonday sun blazed down from the fiery dome of the sky.
May contain spoilers
Leading the tall dark girl, he strode into the cleft that led to the road to Kushaf.
Comments may contain spoilers
Black Tears, by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, is published here for the first time.

Shadows in Zamboula was first published in Weird Tales for November, 1935; copyright 1935 by Popular Fiction Publishing Co.  It was reprinted in Skull-Face and Others, Sauk City: Arkham House, 1946; in Conan the Barbarian, N.Y.; Gnome Press, 1954; and in The Spell of Seven, N.Y.: Pyramid Publications, 1965.

The Devil in Iron was first published in Weird Tales for August, 1934; copyright 1934 by Popular Fiction Publishing Co.  It was reprinted in Conan the Barbarian.

The Flame Knife was first published in Tales of Conan, N.Y.: Gnome Press, 1955; copyright 1955 by Gnome Press.

The biographical paragraphs between the stories are based upon A Probable Outline of Conan's Career, by P. Schuyler Miller and Dr. John D. Clark, published in The Hyborian Age (Los Angeles: LAN Y Coöperative publications, 1938) and on the expanded version of this essay, An Informal Biography of Conan the Cimmerian, by P. Schuyler Miller, John D. Clark, and L. Sprague Camp, in Amra, Vol. 2, No. 4, copyright © 1959 by G. H. Scithers, used by permission of G. H. Scithers.
Extract (may contain spoilers)
It was the stealthy opening of a door which awakened the Cimmerian.  He did not awake as civilized men do, drowsy and drugged and stupid.  He awoke instantly, with a clear mind, recognizing the sound that had interrupted his sleep.  Lying there tensely in the dark he saw the outer door slowly open.  In a widening crack of starlit sky he saw framed a great black bulk, broad, stooping shoulders, and a misshapen head blocked out against the stars.

Conan felt the skin crawl between his shoulders.  He had bolted that door securely.  How could it be opening now save by supernatural agency?  And how could a human being possess a head like that outlined against the stars?  All the tales he had heard in the Zuagir tents of devils and goblins came back to bead his flesh with clammy sweat.  Now the monster slid noiselessly into the room, with a crouching posture and a shambling gait; and a familiar scent assailed the Cimmerian's nostrils, but did not reassure him, since Zuagir legendry represented demons as smelling like that.

Noiselessly Conan coiled his long legs under him; his naked sword was in his right hand, and when he struck it was as suddenly and murderously as a tiger lunging out of the dark.  Not even a demon could have avoided that catapulting charge.  His sword met and clove through flesh and bone, and something went heavily to the floor with a strangling cry.  Conan crouched in the dark above it, sword dripping in his hand.  Devil or beast or man, the thing was dead there on the floor.  He sensed death as any wild thing senses it.  He glared through the half-open door into the starlit court beyond.  The gate stood open, but the court was empty.

Conan shut the door but did not bolt it.  Groping in the darkness he found the lamp and lighted it.  There was enough oil in it to burn for a minute or so.  An instant later he was bending over the figure that sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood.

It was a gigantic black man, naked but for a loin cloth.  One hand still grasped a knotty-headed bludgeon.  The fellow's kinky wool was built up into hornlike spindles with twigs and dried mud.  This barbaric coiffure had given the head its misshapen appearance in the starlight.  Provided with a clue to the riddle, Conan pushed back the thick red lips and grunted as he stared down at teeth filed to points.

He understood now the mystery of the strangers who had disappeared from the house of Aram Baksh; the riddle of the black drum thrumming out there beyond the palm groves, and of that pit of charred bones - that pit where strange meat might be roasted under the stars, while black beasts squatted about to glut a hideous hunger.  The man on the floor was a cannibal slave from Darfar.

 

Added: 30-Jul-2019
Last Updated: 27-Sep-2024

Publications

 01-Mar-1970
Lancer Books
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Mar-1970
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$0.95
Pages*:
222
Catalog ID:
74976
Internal ID:
2134
Publisher:
ISBN:
Unknown
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
John Duillo  - Cover Artist
LARGER THAN LIFE...
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
IS THE HERO OF HEROES


"Up the slopes and at them!"

It was the voice of Conan.  An instant later, the giant form of the Cimmerian himself came charging up the steep, perilous slope on a huge, fiery stallion.  His wild, unshorn mane streamed out from under his steel cap like a tettered banner; black mail clad his lion-thewed torso.  To the astonished Turanian warriors, he was like a demon out of myth.  In his scarred first, the mirror-bright broadsword rose and fell...

Thus the fabulous figure in the epic sword-and-sorcery fiction meets new dangers in BLACK TEARS, a blazing short novel published in this volume for the first time anywhere, with three other great Conan adventures and an introduction by L. Sprague de Camp.
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:

Other book covers for this series run

 01-Jan-1980
Ace
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Jan-1980
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$1.95
Pages*:
222
Read:
Once
Reading(s):
1)   23 Mar 2020 - 29 Mar 2020
Internal ID:
2174
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-441-11674-4
ISBN-13:
978-0-441-11674-4
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
Boris Vallejo  - Cover Artist
CONAN
THE WANDERER


Conan, nearly invincible and the mightiest of mankind's heroes, finally meats his match!

"No wor was spoken.  No word was necessary....  Kosatral came upon him in an irresistible surge.  There was a fleeting concussion, a fierce writhing and intertwining of limbs and bodies, and then Conan sprang clear.  In that instant of contact he had experienced the ultimate madness of blasphemed nature; no human flesh had bruised his, but metal animated and sentient; it was a body of living metal which opposed his...."

This the most fabulous figure of epic sword-and-sorcery fiction meets diabolical dangers in the four superb Conan adventures included in this volume.
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:
No printing stated

Read this after finishing City of Illusions by Ursula K Le Guin.
Image File
01-Mar-1970
Lancer Books
Mass Market Paperback

Image File
01-Jan-1980
Ace
Mass Market Paperback

Related

Author(s)

 Lin Carter
Birth: 09 Jun 1930 St. Petersburg, Florida, US
Death: 07 Feb 1988 Montclair, New Jersey, US

Notes:
Lin Carter (June 9, 1930 - February 7, 1988) was born and raised in St Petersburg, Florida.  He later returned there after serving in the US Army  in the Korean Conflict where he received a Purple Heart.  He moved to New  York City and attended Columbia University in 1953 and 1954.  He worked as  a copywriter for law firms, ad agencies, and book publishers.  In 1969 he  became a full-time writer, editor and anthologist of fantasy & science  fiction until his death in February 7, 1988.

Fantasy was Carter's great favorite genre and the most of his writings were about "Swords and Sorcery".  He began writing stories while in high school with L Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs and J.R.R. Tolkien being his major influences.

Lin became an editor at Ballantine Books where he reprinted many of his earlier works.  Dell and DAW also published a lot of Lin Carter's stories.

 L Sprague de Camp
Birth: 27 Nov 1907 New York City, New York, USA
Death: 06 Nov 2000 Plano, Texas, USA


 Robert E Howard
Birth: 22 Jan 1906 Peaster, Texas, USA
Death: 11 Jun 1936

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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