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Title: Conan and the Emerald Lotus
Series: Conan the Barbarian #20
Author: John Hocking
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 209
Words: 70K
This was BARELY 3stars. I really thought about knocking it down to 2.5, but it did have some pretty good action scenes, so that saved it.
Once I was done reading this, I went to find a synopsis online to use for this review and somebody seriously screwed up. The blurb from the publisher is completely wrong and/or misrepresents what actually happens in the story and if I had read it first, I’d be seriously annoyed. I’m still annoyed, but not enough to do more than write this one little paragraph about it. And it’s not even the author’s fault; it’s all on the publisher. Sometimes I despise publishers as much as I do writers.
I guess my biggest issue with this story was that the wizard, one who dealt specifically with plant based magics, somehow thinks he can use the Emerald Lotus and not get addicted to it? He experimented on two other wizards, one of who died from withdrawal symptoms for goodness sake. It was exactly like watching a heroine junkie. My issue is that he should have known better and we’re given no reason why he suddenly went “stupid” and used it with no safeguards in place. That’s just plain bad story telling right there.
There was also the distinct lack of full, heaving bosoms, luscious thighs and shapely buttocks. At this point I feel that words like those are part of the Conan lore as much as the descriptions of Conan’s mighty thews, piercing blue eyes and rough cut black hair. Conan is just as randy in this story as in any of the others, but Hocking seems to feel the need to pull a feather down blanket on his descriptions instead of the gauzy silk we’re used to. It’s not necessarily good or bad, but it is different and finding differences in style for the authors who write these Conan fan-ficts is part of why I read them 🙂
This was Hocking’s only Conan story and I’m glad of that. Means I don’t have to spend any time hunting down any more by him and since I wasn’t impressed by this, I certainly won’t be searching out any other books by him.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia & Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis & Real Synopsis – click to open
Having refused to enter the service of a Stygian wizard, Ethram-Fal, Conan suffers a curse which is gradually robbing him of his life. The beautiful sorceress, Lady Zelandra, offers to lift his curse if Conan retrieves for her a deadly emerald lotus which she is addicted to—currently in the possession of Ethram-Fal. To save his own life from the evil wizard, Conan must challenge Ethram-Fal again by stealing Zelandra’s prize from his desert fortress. During his adventure, Conan faces off against bandits, a demon disguised as an oasis, and zombie bodyguards. He’s aided in his quest by the dagger-throwing Neesa and a mute thief named Heng Shih.
-That is from Wikipedia and bears absolutely no relation to the actual book beyond the characters’ names.
Ethram-Fal, rejected from the Black Circle, vows to find the legendary Emerald Lotus, an unearthly plant that increases a wizards power one hundred fold. He finds it and uses two wizards to experiment with it. One of them dies from withdrawal, but not before he kills his own servant and zombifies him to chase down and kill Conan, who refused a job from him. Conan ends up with the other wizard, who is going after Ethram-Fal to kill him and gain enough of the Emerald Lotus dust to wean herself off of it.
So they go into the deepest desert to track down Ethram-Fal, who has taken over the palace of a mythological Stygian sorcerer from millennia ago. Bad things happen, Ethram-Fal is killed by the living plant of the Emerald Lotus and Conan goes on his merry way.
