Conan - Conan the Wanderer

Conan the Wanderer was first published by Lancer Books in 1968. The painted cover was created by John Duillo, who also created the cover for Conan of the Isles (bearded Conan!) and Conan the Freebooter (Conan is Tarzan!). The later Ace edition of the novel features a superior cover painted by Boris Vallejo. 

This collection is an odd one, featuring just four stories, one being the novella “The Flame Knife”, written by L. Sprague de Camp from a Robert E. Howard manuscript. It features two sole REH stories, “The Devil in Iron” and “Shadows in Zamboula”. The other story, “Black Tears”, is an original authored by both L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. 

The typical introduction by L. Sprague de Camp features the obligatory map and a history of the stories involved. He makes note that “The Flame Knife” was originally a 42,000-word novella of adventure in Afghanistan titled “Three-Bladed Doom”. The story failed to sell, so Howard shortened it to 24,000 words to no avail. de Camp also provides examples of heroic fantasy, citing works like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn, and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The introduction concludes with a brief bio of the Conan character.

“Black Tears” is the first story in the collection (full review HERE). This is penned by de Camp and Carter, and later was adapted by Roy Thomas and Ernie Chan for The Savage Sword of Conan #38. Additionally, the story is included in the Orbit Books omnibus The Conan Chronicles 2. “Black Tears” picks up after the events in “A Witch Shall Be Born”. Conan is the chief of the Zaugir, an outlaw band of Kozak horsemen. In a setup, a blood brother of the former Zuagir leader sells Conan out to the rival Turanians, who ambush the group. After the battle, Conan is drugged by the Zuagir and left to die in the desert. He eventually finds a city called Akhlat the Accursed. There's an old prophecy that a man will come to town and liberate the city from a vampiric force. 

Parts of this story reminded me of Robert E. Howard's “The Scarlet Citadel”, especially the inevitable boss fight in the city's underground tunnels. The stone statue part of the story was reminiscent of “Shadows in the Moonlight”, with a little bit of “Red Nails” thrown in with the inner-city stuff. I really enjoyed the story and found it to be a perfect companion to “A Witch Shall Be Born”. The descriptions of mountains, tunnels, and the “beast” were executed very well. I know some Conan fans really don't like Carter or de Camp's pastiche style, but as I've stated in numerous reviews, I find their work to be mostly enjoyable.  

Howard's “Shadows in Zamboula” is next (full review HERE). This was originally published by Weird Tales in November 1935 as “The Man-Eaters of Zamboula”. The story was later republished in the Gnome Press collection Conan the Barbarian. It was adapted into comics for Savage Sword of Conan #14. It is a simple formula with Conan investigating a town's mystery, this one being a mysterious inn owned by a man named Aram Baksh. Conan voluntarily checks in at the inn and discovers the secret of the old inn – the guests are on the menu for flesh-eating cannibals! Howard's writing is rich on atmosphere, violence, and Lovecraftish imagery. The theme of Conan accepting a challenge always includes a twist, and this one was no different. This was a fantastic story.

Next is another of Howard's stories, “The Devil in Iron” (reviewed HERE). This first appeared in the August 1934 issue of Weird Tales and was adapted to comics for the October 1976 issue of The Savage Sword of Conan. Like many of these Conan stories, this one features a setup as Conan is lured to an abandoned island by Turan's king. The bait is a young woman, the trap is a giant! Along with the monster and the maiden is a raiding party led by the king's henchman, Agha. The giant's colossal nature and threat didn't affect me much, and the overall adventure left something to be desired. I didn't care for this story that much.

"The Flame Knife" finishes the collection (full review HERE). As I mentioned earlier, this was originally a manuscript titled “Three-Bladed Doom” featuring an Afghanistan adventure. The original hero was Howard's lovable El Borak. There are two versions of this story, one printed in REH Lone Star Fictioneer in 1976 and another in the Zebra paperback Three-Bladed Doom in 1977. Both of these versions feature an ending rewritten by Byron Roark. de Camp decided to take Howard's original work and modify it to fit as a Conan-led story titled “The Flame Knife”. This was originally published in Tales of Conan in 1955. The novella was also published as its own book in 1981 by Ace. It was adapted into comic form in Savage Sword of Conan #31-32. 

In de Camp's novels and stories, Conan is a cookie-cutter hero who personifies all that is good. The bad guys are carbon-copy bad. Conan's characteristics are much different than Howard's more nihilistic approach. That difference in style and characterization weighs down “The Flame Knife”.

Conan is instructed by the king of Iranistan to lead a team of men to hunt and kill a bandit named Balash. The problem is that Conan is friends with the bandit, so he leads his team to warn Balash of the king's pursuit. There's a bloated, convoluted backstory on the Hidden Ones cult and how they feel Conan is instrumental in their affairs. They soon create an army and hunt Conan. 

This story, albeit an average read, feels like something Steve Perry would dredge up as a Tor full-length. Conan fights a giant snow-ape (depicted by Sanjulian on the Ace paperback cover) and ends a longtime rivalry with a foe that was originally introduced in “A Witch Shall Be Born”. Those are the real highlights of the novella, along with the conventional swordplay, typical crazy cults, cave creatures, and prison escapes. 

Overall, this is a really enjoyable collection of Conan adventures, highlighted by “Black Tears” and “Shadows in Zamboula”. If anything, these old Lancer and Ace paperback collections are worth having in any book collection. I see them often in used bookstores, and they make great travel companions for a quick read on the go. Get a copy of the book HERE.