''Conan the Gladiator'' is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

novel by American writer

Leonard Carpenter Leonard Paul Carpenter (born February 6, 1948) is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction. He writes as Leonard Carpenter and Leonard P. Carpenter. Life Carpenter was born in 1948 in Chicago, but aside from a year in West Texas in chil ...

, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films (including '' Conan the Barbarian'' and '' Conan the Destroyer'') ...

. It was first published in paperback by

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese sci ...

in January 1995 and was reprinted in August 1999. Carpenter dedicated the book to

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...

Plot

In the city of Thujara in Shem, Conan becomes involved in a street brawl and injures Roganthus, the strong man of a traveling circus troupe. A combination of regret over the troupe's loss and attraction for another member, the beautiful panther-trainer Sathilda, leads Conan to offer his own services as a stand-in for Roganthus. Joining the troupe, he accompanies them first to the town of Senjaj and then across the river Styx to Stygia, where they hope to become wealthy performing in the capital of Luxor. Stygia is usually depicted as a realm of decadent evil, crawling with sinister priests and sorcerers; in this novel, however, the local priests of Set are portrayed more as a fraternity of knowledge-seekers. Luxor is ruled by a tyrannical emperor, Commodorus, who forces Conan's troupe to fight for their lives in his arena against exotic warriors and wild beasts. Conan is disturbed at having to kill opponents with whom he feels some affinity, such as rebel Stygians and the Kushite Muzudaya. Soon, he's temporarily converted by a priest and fellow captive into an uncharacteristic pacifist. Exercising his military knowledge, he forms his fellow gladiators into a defensive phalanx at one point. The plot, seemingly building to a climactic final battle, is instead resolved by a catastrophic natural disaster, in the course of which Commodorus meets a fitting fate and much of Luxor is devastated. Everyone in Conan's troupe escapes from Luxor with the aid of a rebellious priest. In the wake of this event, Conan returns to Shem seeing different employment.

Reception

Critic

Don D'Ammassa Donald Eugene D'Ammassa (born April 24, 1946) is an American fantasy, science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts ...

writes "The closing chapters are quite good but there are some dull sections beforehand."D'Ammassa, Don
"Conan the Gladiator"
(review o

. Sep. 2, 2017.

References

External links

{{Conan 1995 American novels 1995 fantasy novels Conan the Barbarian novels Novels by Leonard Carpenter American fantasy novels Tor Books books