- Conan the Free Lance
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Conan the Free Lance
cover of Conan the Free LanceAuthor(s) Steve Perry Cover artist Kirk Reinert Country United States Language English Series Conan the Barbarian Genre(s) Sword and sorcery Fantasy Publisher Tor Books Publication date 1990 Media type Print (Paperback) Pages 279 pp ISBN 0-812-50690-1 Conan the Free Lance is a fantasy novel written by Steve Perry featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Tor Books in February 1990. It was reprinted by Tor in December 1997.
Contents
Plot
The evil wizard Dimma the Mist Mage suffers from a curse that has rendered his body insubstantial. As a mystical "Seed" held by the Tree Folk might restore him, he directs his enslaved selkies to steal it for him. Meanwhile, the young Conan, enroute to Shadizar, had fallen in with the Tree Folk after rescuing their medicine woman, Cheen. He helps them fend off the selkies' attack, but not before one of them makes off with the Seed and takes Cheen's brother Hok hostage. Conan undertakes to aid the Tree Folk in recovering Hok and the Seed.
Reception
Reviewer Harvey Ryan considered Perry's Conan novel's "goofy," noting that the author "has a reputation among Conan fandom for overkill and general silliness" -- and Conan the Free Lance "won’t change anyone’s mind about Perry’s style." He rates it well below the author's previous novels Conan the Fearless and Conan the Defiant and feels the "one arena" in which it excels is in its brevity.[1]
Notes
Reference
- Conan the Free Lance publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Fantastic Fiction entry for Conan the Free Lance
Categories:- 1990 novels
- Conan the Barbarian novels
- American fantasy novels
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