Conan the Liberator

Conan the Liberator
Conan the Liberator by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, Bantam Books, 1979
Author(s)	L. Sprague de Camp Lin Carter
Illustrator	Tim Kirk
Cover artist	Bob Larkin
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Conan the Barbarian
Genre(s)	Sword and sorcery Fantasy novel
Publisher	Bantam Books
Publication date	1979
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	274 pp
ISBN	0553127063
OCLC Number	6390811

Conan the Liberator is a fantasy novel written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Bantam Books in February 1979; later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books (1987 and 1991). The first hardcover edition was published by Tor Books in June 2002; a trade paperback followed from the same publisher in 2003. The first British edition was from Sphere Books (1987). The novel was later gathered together with Conan the Swordsman and Conan and the Spider God into the omnibus collection Sagas of Conan (Tor Books, 2004).

Plot summary

Following the events of the story "The Treasure of Tranicos", Conan joins a conspiracy of former comrades-in-arms to overthrow Numedides, the mad and tyranical king of Aquilonia. As commander of the rebel forces, he has the prospect of becoming king himself if they succeed, but he has not only Numedides' loyal troops, led by General Procas, to overcome, but the spells of the evil sorcerer Thulandra Thuu.

Chronologically, Conan the Liberator overlaps the events of the story "Wolves Beyond the Border", and is followed by the story "The Phoenix on the Sword".

Reception

Shortly before publication of the first hardcover edition in 2002 Kirkus Reviews pronounced that "[o]nce again, de Camp and Carter mime Howard's hyperbolic spirit and majestic inverted syntax with great style." The review expressed no other opinion as to the merit of the novel.

References

• Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. p. 42. 
• Conan the Liberator publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "Conan the Liberator / L. Sprague de Camp & Lin Carter" [review]. Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2002.

External links

• "Conan the Liberator" - a book review by Cindy Lynn Speer