7 /10 1 Votes
Language English Publication date 1988 Pages 277 pp Originally published 1988 Publisher Tor Books Country United States of America | 3.5/5 Goodreads Series Conan the Barbarian Media type Print (Paperback) ISBN 0-8125-4266-5 Cover artist Ken Kelly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Fiction, Fantasy, Sword and sorcery, Speculative fiction Similar Conan Universe books, Sword and sorcery books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Conan the Marauder is a fantasy novel written by 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 January 1988, and reprinted in 1992. The first British edition was published in paperback by Orbit Books in February 1991.
Contents
Plot
The warlord Bartatua is uniting the Hyrkanian tribes east of the Vilayet Sea into a force for world conquest, beginning with the resistive city of Sogaria. Meanwhile, the exiled Turanian wizard Khondemir schemes to sorcerously control Bartatua's armies in pursuite of his own ends. Caught in the middle are Princess Ishkala of Sogaria, the seductive spy Lakhme, and the enslaved Conan, who must prove himself to the warlord to escape his fate. Everything comes to a head in the ancient Hyrkanian necropolis known as the City of Mounds.
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. Conan the Marauder (1987) and Conan the Rogue (1991) are the best of the set."
Writing of some other Tor Conan novels, reviewer Ryan Harvey called Roberts "the most consistently successful of its stable of authors," 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."