A Black Stone Novel by James Lovegrove
Dedicated to the memory of Robert Ervin Howard who dreamed up whole worlds and peopled them with heroes
Cover by Jeffrey Alan Love
From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures
Spoilers! Spoilers!
500 years ago. The earth quakes, ruptures and destroys the city of Ghuht, most citizens perish in the cataclysm. Lovecraftian lilac/pink light bleeds out of the earth fissure and transforms the survivors's second generation into flying monsters. The flora and fauna surrounding the city also gets warped and rechristened The Rotlands. The Rotlands are constantly expanding, taking over the planet.
After centuries of inbreeding, the monsters become infertile, they decide to kidnap women from adjacent regions, it doesn't work. Their Leader Khotan-Kha gets a brilliant idea: to further his dying race he'll send emissaries to capture "mutant" children and let the light mutate the youngsters into a new generation of immunized winged creatures.
Honouring Bêlit’s memory, Conan is visiting Shem, her homeland. In the city of Eruk, Conan and his accomplice, Drusus of Nemedia try to steal from merchant Sakhimael. They only find a Saber-toothed tiger on guard duty, it apparently kills Drusus, Conan/Amra kills the big cat.
Conan befriends three Æsir: married couple Hunwulf Ivarson, Gudrun Ingensdóttir and their boy, Bjørn.
The three Æsir live on the run trailed by their tribe. Hunwulf slew Heimdul Leifson the Strong (in The Garden of Fear (1934)), brother Ragnar Leifson the Relentless, a fan of The Blood Eagle (a method of ritual execution) seeks vengeance.
Hunwulf (who is also author James Allison) can predict the outcome of a roll of dice (he cannot lose at Fortune's Precipice) and is privy to strange unexpected visions from his past and future incarnations. Hunwulf communes with his incarnations, they reveal future knowledge to him. It's similar to clairvoyance/second sight/premonitions.
Bjørn Hunwulfson also has an unusual ability, he can impose his will on cats, birds, dogs, tarantulas, salamanders, scorpions and crocodiles.
Conan gets hired to train Bjørn in self-defense.
A still breathing Drusus gets Conan arrested. With Conan captured Bjørn gets taken by Ragnar and his cronies. Krraa-Bhaak, a bat-winged man, kills the snatchers and takes Bjørn to the ancient, destroyed city of Ghuht in Kush.
29 other "mutant/gifted" kids with preternatural/magical abilities are also kidnapped by lizard-like winged monsters, including: Layla who manipulates fire, Heqet's daughter a healer and Zevia who sees spirits and elementals.
Conan (trying to redeem himself) joins the parents to find Bjørn. But first the Cimmerian takes a breather to snuff out Drusus.
Both Conan & Hunwulf have beefs with winged horrors. Bêlit was murdered by one and Hunwulf had his wife kidnaped by another.
Hunwulf uses his foresight to find his son. His incarnations tell him to go to Ghuht and warn him about the BLACK STONE eye sigil.
X'aan (Zevia's older brother) joins our heroes to guide them through the contaminated Rotlands.
Conan and co encounter a giant tapeworm, a mistletoe jellyfish, a bull with shark teeth, a giant leech, beetles, a parrot-bat-monkey, an amphibian, giant termites and a giant earthworm. They find a beach and rapids. An enormous turtle attacks, Conan wounds it and it turns away.
They finally reach Ghuht, in the centre of the city, in an amphitheatre, inside a crater/sinkhole, a religious ceremony is taking place. 400 winged lizard-people (the Folk of the Featherless Wing) are listening to their elected Hierophant Khotan-Kha.
Brekh-Orak's Granite Orrery looks exactly like the BLACK STONE eye sigil, when it is announcing the arrival of The Night of the Obsidian Moon.
The Lovecraftian light's metamorphic capabilities grow exponentially only when the Earth is directly between the moon and Sun... and specific stars align.
Conan tips a monolithic column into the sinkhole, the avalanche of broken stone and debris crushes the lizard-people that are patiently waiting at the bottom for the children to appear next to the glowing fissure.
Bjørn's kidnapper Krraa-Bhaak is not cool with Khotan-Kha's plans anymore so he shoves the Hierophant into the fissure. Krraa-Bhaak dies. A transformed Khotan-Kha, now 20-foot tall, crawls out of the light from dimensional planes beyond.
Khotan-Kha has trouble killing the minuscule Conan. Khotan-Kha asks the light for more power. St. Elmo's fire surrounds Khotan-Kha and he grows horns and gets even more massive.
The now 60-foot tall chief priest is starting to distend. The saurian cannot contain the light's power anymore. Our heroes wound the giant, Khotan-Kha goes back to the fissure for even more power and balloons into a gigantic eye. The eye stares at Conan and implodes.
The light decides to take all of its power back, it starts sucking everything into the fissure.
Our heroes and the 30 rescued younglings reach the beach. The enormous turtle is back, Bjørn cajoles the tortoise into helping them escape via the rapids.
The Rotlands are no more only raked earth remains.
What I did like:
James Lovegrove is keeping it under his hat for now, but could this be a secret prequel to Wings in the Night (1932)?
A story sandwiched between two James Allison letters (to his editor). Mimicking the relationship between Farnsworth Wright (editor of Weird Tales magazine) and Robert E. Howard. Cleverly done.
Yellow Lotus from Conan Exiles mentioned.
Ishtar, Bel, Nergal, Yun, Ymir, Tarim and Erlik are mentioned.
The Valley of the Worm and Niord are mentioned.
Marchers of Valhalla and Hialmar are mentioned.
Yara, Taurus of Nemedia Prince of Thieves, giant Spider and Yag-Kosha from The Tower of the Elephant are mentioned.
Bêlit and the Zarkheba inlet from Queen of the Black Coast are mentioned.
Thak from Rogues in the House mentioned.
Atali from The Frost-Giant's Daughter mentioned.
Derketa goddess of death and the Dragon/dinosaur from Red Nails are mentioned.
An isolated, decaying society just like in Red Nails.
Underwood No. 5 Typewriter mentioned.
Scarcely part of Titan comics & Heroic Signatures massive narrative event: The Battle of the Black Stone. You don't need to read any of the comics to fully enjoy this thrilling tale.
It took over 40 years, but I finally have a James Lovegrove Conan novel on my bookshelf.
James Lovegrove wrote this novel in only six weeks. The passion was clearly present.
Conan the Barbarian #9 (1970) features an adaption of The Garden of Fear.
Exile of Atlantis homage. Conan like Kull "saves" a woman from her torturers.
A partial lunar eclipse appears foil-stamped in metallic purple-pink on the cover. It looks fantastic!
A luxurious looking, sturdy, well constructed, high-quality hardcover. Bravo CPI Group (UK) Ltd in Croydon, England!
What I did not like:
The source of the mutating light is never truly identified.
Map illustrator Francesca Baerald is not credited. Not cool!
Argos is WEST of Eruk.
The dust jacket does not glow-in-the-dark!
No reversible book jacket featuring alternative evocative Frank Frazetta-like art.
A dust jacket featuring Gudrun Ingensdóttir with Conan would have sold much better.
NO illustrations by Richard Pace? NO illustrations by Rob De La Torre? NO illustrations? What is going on here? Super disappointing!
Conan is much too civilized, mellow and sweet.
Not mature enough. This is clearly young adult literature.
Too politically correct. An author writing a Conan pastiche should never be afraid to offend.
The eye should represent where the cosmic horror Shuma-Gorath resides, not where the daemon-sultan Azathoth dwells.
No advert for Tim Waggoner's upcoming Conan novel!
No advert for the upcoming Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone special edition action figure based on the art of Rob De La Torre!
Cult of the Obsidian Moon is not available unabridged on audiobook?! What?!
I give it a 9/10. Fans of Annihilation (2018) and Color Out of Space (2019) will love this delightful sequel to Robert E. Howard's The Garden of Fear! Support James, Titan Books and Heroic Signatures! Go purchase this officially licensed Hunwulf the Wanderer and Conan the Barbarian team-up book and ask your local public library to get it too. Let's hope we get a Solomon Kane novel from James Lovegrove in 2025!