Conan of Aquilonia

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Conan of Aquilonia by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, Ace Books, 1977

Conan of Aquilonia is a 1977 collection of four linked fantasy short stories written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The stories were originally published in Fantastic for August 1972, July 1973, July 1974, and February, 1975. The collected sories were intended for book publication by Lancer Books, but this edition never appeared due to Lancer's bankruptcy, and the first book edition was issued in paperback by Ace Books. The book has been reprinted a number of times since by various publishers.

Contents:

"Introduction" (L. Sprague de Camp)
"The Witches of the Mists" (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
"Black Sphinx of Nebthu" (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
"Red Moon of Zembabwei" (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
"Shadows in the Skull" (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At the age of 60, King Conan of Aquilonia engages in his final struggle with his arch-foe, the black magician Thoth-Amon of Stygia, servant of the evil god Set. First Conan must journey to Hyperboria to rescue his kidnapped son Prince Conn from an unholy alliance of the Stygian sorcerer and the witch queen Louhi. Next Conan and Conn carry the struggle to their enemy's stronghold in Stygia itself at the head of an invading army and aided by the white druid Diviatix. Pursuing their defeated foe southward, they confront him again, first in the kingdom of Zembabwei and at last at the very edge of the world, where Conan and Thoth-Amon face each other in a final astral duel.

Chronologically, the four short stories collected as Conan of Aquilonia fall between The Return of Conan and Conan of the Isles.