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The Honorable Barbarian

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Country
  
United States

Publication date
  
1989

Pages
  
240 pp

Originally published
  
1989

Preceded by
  
Publisher
  
3.4/5
Goodreads

Language
  
English

Media type
  
Print (Hardback)

ISBN
  
0-345-36091-5

Author
  
L. Sprague de Camp

Genre
  
Fantasy Fiction

Cover artist
  
The Honorable Barbarian t3gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcSMuHsrT6nBHT1o4

Similar
  
L Sprague de Camp books, Novarian series books, Fantasy books

The Honorable Barbarian is a fantasy novel written by L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth and final book of his Novarian series. It is a sequel both to the "Reluctant King" trilogy and to the Novarian sequence's only short story, "The Emperor's Fan". It was first published in hardcover by Del Rey Books in July 1989, with a limited edition hardcover following from The Easton Press in its "Signed First Editions of Science Fiction" series in August of the same year. Another hardcover edition issued by Del Rey in conjunction with the Science Fiction Book Club appeared in January 1990. The first paperback edition was issued by Del Rey in May 1990. The novel has also been translated into French. An E-book edition was published as The Honourable Barbarian by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.

Contents

Plot summary

Jorian, ex-king of Xylar, has had enough adventures to last a lifetime. But when his brother Kerin, youngest son of Evor the Clockmaker, commits an indescretion with Adeliza, a neighbor's daughter, he is packed off on a hasty quest to uncover the secret of an advanced clock escapement for the family firm. A pragmatic, cautious sort, he preps for his journey with a crash course from his experienced brother in useful skills — swordsmanship and foreign tongues, of course, but also lying and burglary. He is hampered and sometimes aided by the sprite Belinka, commissioned by the calculating Adeliza to ensure Kerin's faithfulness.

Kerin's goal takes him east across the Inner Sea, the Sea of Sikhon and the Eastern Ocean to the empire of Kuromon, where he is promised the secret in return for a magical fan lost centuries before. It has the property of making whatever it is waved at disappear without a trace. Along the way he must contend with a treacherous sea captain and his suspicious navigator, the duplicitous sorcerer Pwana, and the pirate crew of Malgo, who has a grudge against Kerin's family.

A more pleasant complication is Nogiri, a princess of the island empire of Salimor, whom Kerin has liberated (much to the displeasure of Belinka) from the pirates. Kerin returns her to Salimor only to lose her to the nefarious designs of Pwana, and a dire fate from which she can only be preserved by a daring rescue — on roller skates!

Finally Kuromon is reached and negotiations are concluded satisfactorily, but only at the cost of an unexpected regime change by fan...

The book's cover photo (see illustration), depicting part of Kerin's rescue of Nogiri, is a clear allusion to the famous balcony scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - with magic elements added.

Setting

As with the rest of the parallel world in which Novaria is located, de Camp bases the countries visited on Medieval realms of our own world. Thus Kuromon combines elements of ancient Japan and China, while the eastern islands are reminiscent of both Japan and Southeast Asia.

References

The Honorable Barbarian Wikipedia


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