CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS

Let's go back to 1995 for a moment.

The OJ trial is on TV. Kurt has already killed himself. Bill Clinton has begun to at least wink at Monica Lewinsky when he thinks no one is looking, but the scandal has not yet come to light. Not everything is sunshine and roses, despite how my generation tends to romanticize the 90s.

In the Conan world, things aren't looking much better. It doesn't look like Arnie's coming back; the original movie is 13 years old, the sequel is 11 years old with the consensus being that it was just okay, and the Red Sonja movie which pretty much everyone disliked is already turning 10. Marvel's Conan the Barbarian comic ended two years ago. Savage Sword is cancelled this year.

On the printed page, Tor Books has been churning out Conan books at a factory pace- two or three a year about- for the last decade and then some. With that kind of production level, some of them are good, some of them are schlock, and almost none of them have good titles. Can anyone give me a good reason why Conan the Magnificent is called that, specifically? All I'm trying to say is that we were at a bit of a low point for the Cimmerian. 

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Then here comes John C. Hocking out of seeming nowhere- a dude who hadn't ever published anything that I can find, and crafts a pretty excellent Conan adventure. According to interviews with Hocking, he wasn't happy with the Conan stuff being released around that time (I suppose I can relate), so he wrote Conan and the Emerald Lotus over three years from 1993 to 1995. Happy with what he had written, he sent it off to L. Sprague de Camp, who also dug it and decided to publish it.

This is not the first time I've read a story about how someone just cold-called L. Sprague de Camp into publishing their Conan work, but it tickles me every time. 

Conan and the Emerald Lotus is a really fun pastiche. Hocking says that one of the things he felt was missing from late 80s / early 90s Conan was that "Weird Tales supernatural horror flavor," which he does a good job of recreating. His emerald lotus powder is clearly, horrifyingly addictive, yet also increases the power of sorcerers to an extent that you kind of hope that the story's magic users will continue to indulge. With it being written in the early 90s, I spent most of the novel thinking that this was Hocking's take on the crack epidemic in America, a Conan Says No to Drugs. But Hocking says it's really on the nature of power, which makes a lot more sense. We get to watch as a pair of sorcerers occasionally gulp down handfuls of emerald lotus powder between brutal periods of withdrawal.

I feel a sort of kinship with Hocking, because he has said that one of the impetuses for Emerald Lotus was asking himself the question, "If I were to write a Conan novel, when would I set it?" and it seems as though he has a similarly obsessive (is obsessive too strong a word?) fan relationship with the big guy. Because Hocking knows his chronology well, he knew there was a solid place to set the book, and that's in Conan's second mercenary period following his pirate days with Belit in "Queen of the Black Coast."

If we follow the chronologies that include L. Sprague de Camp's material, Conan spends some time in the southern kingdoms while working his way back north. And it's clear that Hocking was setting this story in a chronology that includes stuff beyond just Robert E. Howard's work. 

Hocking embeds some fun chronological stuff for demented completionists like myself to enjoy, like when Conan is first taken hostage by the lackey Gulbanda. The villain of the hour says that Conan was recognized as one who was once a great thief in the city of Shadizar (firmly placing this story after his earliest days). He says that Conan stole the Eye of Erlik (from Andrew Offutt's The Sword of Skelos), a Hesharkna Tiara, and even the Heart of the Elephant from Yara's tower in the city of thieves. Conan flatly replies, "That's a lie," which I love since it's true. He didn't steal it, technically, but he did help destroy it. Conan is also addressed as Amra, placing this story after his first pirate period.

Right after "Queen of the Black Coast" in most chronologies, Conan operates as a mercenary for various entities like in stories "The Snout in the Dark" and "Black Colossus." At the start of "Hawks Over Shem," one of the Howard stories that L. Sprague de Camp wedged Conan into, Conan is mercing in Akkharia in southern Shem, which is where this story begins. It probably places this story right before "Hawks."

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 There's one last, unique aspect of this novel that I really enjoy and think sets it apart from most other Conan stories I've read. Very rare is the supporting cast the star of the story. There are a few where they're fun ("Shadows in the Dark"), and a few where they're truly excellent ("Beyond the Black River"), and quite a few where they're just kind of there (take your pick), but the supporting characters here like Neesa, Lady Zelandra, Heng Shih, and the evil Ethram-Fal are all way more compelling and memorable than many of their counterparts. I think this might be a drawback for some readers: Conan is along for the ride for the whole thing and is certainly at the center of action scenes, but doesn't necessarily drive most of the actual plot action in the story after he's linked up with Zelandra.

Conan and the Emerald Lotus is really fun pastiche that makes me hope we'll get more from Hocking, who seems like a cool guy from the interviews I've seen. I picked up the City of the Dead omnibus that also includes Conan and the Living Plague, so I'll probably read that soon. Additionally, he has a direct sequel called "Black Starlight" which only appears to be available in ebook format along with a few other short pastiches. I'm having trouble keeping up these days!

★★★★☆

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