Conan the Champion

Conan the Champion
Cover of first edition
Author John Maddox Roberts
Cover artist Ken Kelly
Country United States
Language English
Series Conan the Barbarian
Genre Sword and sorcery
Publisher Tor Books
Publication date
1987
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 280
ISBN 0-8125-4260-6

Conan the Champion is a fantasy novel by American writer 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 April 1987 and reprinted in January 1989. The first British edition was published in paperback by Sphere Books, also in January 1989.

Plot

Shipwrecked on the northern shore of the Vilayet Sea, Conan finds himself stranded for the winter in the midst of small warring kingdoms. Joining the force of one of the factions, he finds himself champion of Queen Alcuina in opposition to competing rulers Odoac and Totila. As a wild card in the local struggled, all parties seek to use him to tip the balance in their own favor. Stranded in a mysterious otherworld, Conan and Alcuina must find a way to escape before everything can be resolved.

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."[1] Of this novel he writes "[t]he giant scorpion was nice but otherwise this was not up to Roberts' usual standards."[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

  1. 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.
  2. D'Ammassa, Don. "Conan the Champion" (review on Critical Mass). Nov. 24, 2017.
  3. Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan and the Treasure of Python" (Review), Mar. 24, 2009.
  4. Harvey, Ryan. "Pastiches 'R' Us: Conan and the Amazon" (Review), Sep. 21, 2010.

References

Preceded by
Conan the Raider
Tor Conan series
(publication order)
Succeeded by
Conan the Defiant
Preceded by
Conan, Scourge of the Bloody Coast
Complete Conan Saga
(William Galen Gray chronology)
Succeeded by
"The Road of the Eagles"
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