Conan the Valorous

Conan the Valorous
cover of Conan the Valorous
Author(s)	John Maddox Roberts
Cover artist	Kirk Reinert
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Conan the Barbarian
Genre(s)	Sword and sorcery Fantasy
Publisher	Tor Books
Publication date	1985
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	280 pp
ISBN	0-812-54244-4
Preceded by	The Blood-Stained God
Followed by	The Frost Giant's Daughter

Conan the Valorousis a fantasy novel written by John Maddox Roberts featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in trade paperback by Tor Books in September 1985; a regular paperback edition followed from the same publisher in September 1986, and was reprinted in January 1992. The first British edition was published in paperback by Sphere Books in September 1987.

The book also includes "Conan the Indestructible," L. Sprague de Camp's chronological essay on Conan's career.

Plot

Stygian sorceress Hathor-Ka tricks Conan into taking certain items to Ben Morgh, the sacred mountain of Crom, in Cimmeria. His route takes him through Koth, Nemedia and the Border Kingdom, where he is diverted by the rescue of a chieftainess. Simultaneously, the Vendhyan sorceror Jaganath is also traveling to the mountain. In Cimmeria, the clans are gathering against the Venir and their allies the lizardmen who have been preying on them; they too are heading to Ben Morgh, where all comes together in a final battle. As the conflict rages, Conan and a wizard from Khitai wage a more crucial supernatural conflict in Crom's Cave inside the mountain involving the Venhyans, Hathor-Ka and her patron Thoth-Amon. Ultimately Cimmeria is delivered from outside sorcery, and Conan takes off to go raiding with the Aesir.

Reception

Writing of some other Tor Conan novels, reviewer Harvey Ryan called Roberts "the most consistently successful of its stable of authors,"^[1] 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."^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan and the Treasure of Python" (Review), Mar. 24, 2009.
2. ^ Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan and the Amazon" (Review), Sep. 21, 2010.

Reference

• Conan the Valorous publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Fantastic Fiction entry for Conan the Valorous