Conan and the Emerald Lotus
 cover of Conan and the Emerald Lotus | |
| Author | John C. Hocking |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Ciruelo Cabral |
| Language | English |
| Series | Conan the Barbarian |
| Genre | Sword and sorcery Fantasy |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | 1995 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 279 pp |
| ISBN | 0-8125-4499-4 |
| Preceded by | Conan the Gladiator |
| Followed by | Hawks Over Shem |
Conan and the Emerald Lotusis a fantasy novel written by John C. Hocking featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in trade paperback by Tor Books in November 1995; a regular paperback edition followed from the same publisher in September 1999.[1]
According to Hocking, he wrote the novel out of dissatisfaction with the Conan novels being published in the early 1990s, "trying to put into the story all the things I thought were missing from Conan pastiche at that time." After taking three years to write it, he was proud enough of the result that he "didn't want to just drop it into a drawer ....[s]o I sent out a handful of letters, and L. Sprague de Camp responded ...that if I sent him my book he'd look it over. He liked it a lot and LOTUS was published."[2][3]
Plot
Having refused to enter the service of the wizard Ethram-Fal, Conan has been subjected to a curse the is gradually robbing him of life. The sorceress Lady Zelandra offers to lift the curse in return for the barbarian retrieving for her the deadly emerald lotus to which she is addicted -- which is in the possession of Ethram-Fal. To save his own life from Ethram-Fal Conan must challenge the evil wizard again but stealing the sorceress's price from his desert fortress. He is aided by the dagger-throwing Neesa and the mute Heng Shih.
Reception
According to Howard Andrew Jones, "If you were to ask Conan fans who wrote the best Conan story after Robert E. Howard, a lot of people would point to John Hocking. ... it is Hocking, above all, who consistently makes people's favorites list. ... Hocking may well be one of the best hopes readers of sword and sorcery have today."[2]
Notes
- ^ Conan and the Emerald Lotus title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ a b Interview of John C. Hocking, January 2005, by Howard Andrew Jones, on Pitch Black Books' Sword & Sorcery website.
- ^ "Interview with John C. Hocking and John O'Neill," April 5, 2010, on The Sorcerers Guild website.