Conan: Black Starlight by John C. Hocking

This second entry in Titan Books’ Heroic Legends series, which chronicles new adventures of Robert E. Howard’s many fantasy characters, is to my mind the best of the excellent lot, at least thus far. Conan: Black Starlight is written by John C. Hocking, considered by many to be the finest living writer of fiction’s most famous barbarian. 

I will describe in a moment the placement of this story in the Conan mythos, which is just a bit complicated, but must first offer, in the strongest possible terms, assurances that this story may be productively read on its own. It absolutely stands as a single, unified piece full of robust action, cosmic horror, and resolute courage in the face of impossible odds—all the hallmarks of the best sword and sorcery in general and of a Conan tale in particular.

But completists may be interested in knowing that the story serves as a “midquel” between Hockings’ two

full-length Conan novels. Conan and the Emerald Lotus was first published in 1995 as part of Tor Books’ lengthy series of homage novels and is justly considered the best of that line. A long-delayed and much-anticipated sequel is Conan and the Living Plague. Both books have just been published by Titan Books in an omnibus edition, Conan: City of the Dead.
 
I again rush to say it is not necessary to read the two novels to read Black Starlight with delight. That said, treating this story as the middle course in a fantastic feast between the two novels to be found in the new omnibus would certainly provide a reward different in kind but not in degree of enjoyment. I did not read the three in sequential order, but I certainly plan to when I inevitably return to this wonderful tale, by this wonderful writer.

Conan: Black Starlight and Conan: City of the Dead are available wherever ebooks are sold.