Plot summary
Seeking vengeance on his enemy, evil magician Mardanax of Zaar, infiltrates Patanga, capital city of Thongor's growing Lemurian empire. He succeeds in striking Thongor down and drugging his wife Queen Sumia into pliability. Under Mardanax's sway she agrees to wed the nobleman the Zaarian has marked out to be his puppet ruler.
The young officer Charn Thovis, fearing for the safety of Thongor and Sumia's young son Thar, spirits the prince away, but a giant flying lizard forces their airboat down and the two fall into the hands of Barim Redbeard's pirates from the rogue city-state of Tarakus. Concealing their identities, the two at first are able to join the crew, but Thar is soon found out and taken hostage by the pirate king Kashtar.
Meanwhile, Thongor's spirit-form passes through a gloomy netherworld, receiving messages regarding his destiny, culminating in a personal encounter with Father Gorm, chief of the Nineteen Gods, who tells him how he has been marked for greatness and must return to the world of the living to complete his work. He is granted visions of a future extending from his own impending conquest of the whole continent through several cataclysms in which the civilization of Lemuria is succeeded by that of Atlantis, and ultimately, "at the end of time," early Egypt. The culmination of his historical vision is thus the beginning of our own recorded history. The author implies that Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age and its premier hero Conan the Barbarian fits into this grand panorama.
In Tarakus, Charn and Thar's shipmates help them escape and return to Patanga to prevent Sumia's forced wedding. Their airboat crashes the ceremony, and the machinations of Mardanax are exposed as Thongor leaps from his coffin and dispatches him.
The book includes a frontispiece map by the author of "Patanga, City of the Flame" and a semifictional appendix on "The Source of the Lemurian Mythos" in which he claims to have derived the overall storyline of the Thongor books from a translation of the rare Indian scriptures known as the Upa-Puranas in combination with some of Helena Blavatsky's Theosophic notions of prehistorical races. The Blavatsky derivation is accurate, but the Upa-Puranas were made up by Carter, and do not in fact exist.
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.
Lemuria, or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the discovery of plate tectonics and continental drift in the 20th century.
The Hyborian Age is a fictional period of Earth's history within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, serving as the setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian.
Kumari Kandam is a mythical continent, believed to be lost with an ancient Tamil civilization, supposedly located south of present-day India in the Indian Ocean. Alternative names and spellings include Kumarikkandam and Kumari Nadu.
Root races are stages in human evolution in the esoteric cosmology of theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, as described in her book The Secret Doctrine (1888). These races existed mainly on now-lost continents. Blavatsky's model was developed by later theosophists, most notably William Scott-Elliot in The Story of Atlantis (1896) and The Lost Lemuria (1904). Annie Besant further developed the model in Man: Whence, How and Whither (1913). Both Besant and Scott-Elliot relied on information from Charles Webster Leadbeater obtained by "astral clairvoyance". Further elaboration was provided by Rudolf Steiner in Atlantis and Lemuria (1904). Rudolf Steiner, and subsequent theosophist authors, have called the time periods associated with these races Epochs.
Conan of the Isles is a fantasy novel by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published October 1968 in paperback by Lancer Books, and reprinted in July 1970, 1972, and May 1973; publication was then taken over by Ace Books, which reprinted the novel in May 1977, May 1979, April 1980, July 1981, April 1982, November 1982, November 1983, June 1984, September 1986, February 1991, and May 1994. The first British edition was published in paperback by Sphere Books in December 1974 a number of times since by various publishers. It has also been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Russian and (supposedly) Japanese.
Conan of Cimmeria is a collection of eight fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter and featuring Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. Most of the stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines. Lancer Books first published the paperback collection in 1969, and reprinted the book in 1970, 1972, and 1973. After Lancer's bankruptcy, Ace Books took over publication. Ace published its first edition in May 1977 and reprinted it in August 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982 (twice), 1984, 1985, 1990, and 1993. Sphere Books published the first British edition in 1974 and reprinted that edition in 1976 and 1987. The book has also been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish and Italian. It was gathered together with Conan and Conan the Freebooter into the omnibus collection The Conan Chronicles.
The Pusadian series is a sequence of fantasy stories by L. Sprague de Camp, begun in the early 1950s and written under the influence of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. The series, also known as the Poseidonis series, prefigured the numerous sword & sorcery settings of the 1960s and 1970s.
Thongor of Lemuria is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the second book of his Thongor series set on the mythical continent of Lemuria. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in 1966. The author afterwards revised and expanded the text, in which form it was reissued as Thongor and the Dragon City, first published in paperback by Berkley Books in 1970. This retitled and revised edition became the standard edition for later reprintings.
The Wizard of Lemuria is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the first book of his Thongor series set on the fictional ancient lost continent of Lemuria. The author's first published novel, it was initially issued in paperback by Ace Books in 1965. The author afterwards revised and expanded the text, in which form it was reissued as Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria, first published in paperback by Berkley Books in 1969. This retitled and revised edition became the standard edition for later reprintings. The novel was also adapted into comic form, appearing in eight issues of Marvel's Creatures on the Loose.
"The Gem in the Tower" is a short story by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, featuring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard. It is a rewritten version of "Black Moonlight", an earlier story by Carter alone featuring his own sword and sorcery character Thongor. The Conan version was first published by Bantam Books in the paperback collection Conan the Swordsman in August 1978, and was reprinted in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5 and later editions of Conan the Swordsman. The collection was later gathered together with Conan the Liberator and Conan and the Spider God into the omnibus collection Sagas of Conan. The story has also been translated into Italian and French.
Young Thongor is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer Lin Carter, with additional material by Robert M. Price, edited and with a foreword by Adrian Cole. It was first published in trade paperback by Wildside Press in May, 2012. Most of the pieces were first published in magazines, anthologies or other books by Carter; the remaining pieces are original to the present work.
Thongor is a character in a series of sword-and-sorcery novels and stories written by Lin Carter, stylized after Conan the Barbarian and set in ancient Lemuria. The character was picked up by Marvel Comics in the 1970s for its series Creatures on the Loose which saw some of Carter's stories adapted, as well as the author himself contributing to later issues.
The Sword of Thongor is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer Robert M. Price, featuring Lin Carter's sword and sorcery hero Thongor of Valkarth. It was first published in trade paperback by Surinam Turtle Press in September 2016. Some of the pieces were originally published in magazines, the author's website, or the collection Young Thongor ; the remaining pieces are original to the present work.
Thongor Against the Gods is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the third book of his Thongor series set on the mythical continent of Lemuria. It was first published in paperback by Paperback Library in November 1967, and reissued by Warner Books in August 1979. The first British edition was published in paperback by Tandem in 1970, and reprinted in March 1973. An ebook edition was issued by Wildside Press in July 2015. The book has been translated into Japanese and French.
Thongor in the City of Magicians is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the fourth book of his Thongor series set on the mythical continent of Lemuria. It was first published in paperback by Paperback Library in April 1968, and reissued by Warner Books in October 1979. The first British edition was published in paperback by Tandem in January 1970, and reprinted in March 1973. The book has been translated into Japanese and French.
Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the sixth book of his Thongor series set on the mythical continent of Lemuria. It was first published in paperback by Berkley Medallion in July 1970, and reprinted in June 1976. The first British edition was published in paperback by Tandem in August 1971, and reissued by Star in April 1979. The book has been translated into Japanese and French.
Bibliography of science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction writer Lin Carter:
The Flame of Iridar is a science fantasy novella by American writer Lin Carter set on an ancient, inhabited Mars. It was first published in paperback by Belmont Books in May 1967 together with the unrelated Kris Neville novella Peril of the Starmen as the "Belmont Double" anthology, The Flame of Iridar/Peril of the Starmen. The anthology was reissued in trade paperback by Wildside Press in August 2018. A chapbook of the Carter work alone, constituting its first stand-alone edition, was published by Sabre Press in 2019. The first British edition was issued in ebook by Gateway/Orion in January 2020.
