Cautiously, Conan felt his way down
the stone stair, peering ahead as far as the torch could throw its feeble
beams. He found himself in a spacious passage, higher than his head and wider
than his outstretched arms. No sound save the hiss of the flaring torch, so
faint as to be barely audible even to his keen ears, dispelled the sepulchral
silence. The smell of carrion rowelled his nostrils.
Bantam - December 1980 |
That’s
right, with Conan in the underground tunnels beneath Yezud, City of the Spider
God. Sometimes I get carried away with escapist pulp fiction and hairy-chest
barbarians who swing swords first and ask questions later. I picked this paperback
up for two bucks, expecting a couple hours of blood ‘n glory and, well, sort of
getting it. L. Sprague de Camp’s 1980 novel Conan and the Spider God
is a fine adventure, but not quite the same Conan as Robert Howard created.
That’s not a bad thing. Here, Conan is a bit more thoughtful and measured in
his actions. And here too, Conan actually falls in love. But we still get the cool
blood-soaked swordplay, evil sorcery and monsters that make Conan’s adventures irresistible.
The plot?
Well, Conan is a captain in the Royal Guard of the king of Turan, until he goes
AWOL after getting blamed for kidnapping the king’s favorite wife, Jamilah. He
makes his way through a series of encounters involving a handful of shady
smugglers with an ability to cast hypnotic spells, to old comrades from past
adventures, thievery and taverns and jealous wenches, to finally arrive at last
into the mountain city of Yezud, home of the Spider God and his nefarious
priests. Turns out these priests are the real culprits behind the kidnapping of
Jamilah. Their intent is to use her as some sort of political ransom plot…it
doesn’t matter. In Yezud, Conan is hired as a blacksmith after using a false
name. His plan is to rescue Jamilah and steal the jeweled eyes of the from the
spider-god statue in the Temple of Zath. However, before any of this can happen
he falls in love with Rudabeh, one of the dancing girls and servants in the
Temple of the Spider. Rudabeh turns out to be more fully realized character
than one would assume for a Conan story. She manages to keep Conan’s lusts at
bay, convincing him that she’s not giving up the good stuff just so he can run
off and leave her for some other adventure afterward. It all leads to a pretty
cool finale in the underground caves beneath the Temple of the Spider God with
a monstrous…well, I’ll let you guess exactly what.
Yeah, if
you want the real deal when it comes to Conan you have to go to the source,
Robert E. Howard. There have been scads of Conan stories and appearances since
the original run back in Weird Tales, some good, some not so good. I’ve not
read enough of the other Conan novels to give you an informed opinion on who
measures up to the original. I’m too busy riding a tin can to an office park,
wishing I was freebootin’ and wench screwin’ instead. Oh well…
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