eBook by Gavin G. Smith
Cover by E. M. Gist
From Titan Books, Heroic Signatures & Conan Properties International LLC
Spoilers! Spoilers!
Ileetha (not Ilyth'la) and Conan flee Shadizar (city in Zamora), Ileetha leaves Conan.
The Haft (in Zamora, an homage to Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft Davis and "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft). Conan who is wanted in Zamora wakes up kidnapped, shackled and caged in a wagon.
We meet the abductors:
Xaxix (an alchemist/sorcerer who wears a yellow silken mask aka the High-Priest Not To Be Described from "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" and "Celephaïs" by H. P. Lovecraft)
Nassas (a moneyed Zamoran with a quarterstaff, vizier to King Hadranor of Zamora)
Vulf (a Vanir with a war hammer, Nassas' bodyguard, a Thorgrim/Sven-Ole Thorsen homage)
Danai of Shem (an archer from Kush, Nassas' girlfriend)
Conan steals the key to his prison from a sleeping Vulf, escapes and grabs Nassas, Nassas explains that he wants the Cimmerian to slay the spore-producing god who is responsible for the botanical themed nightmares that Conan and the Zamorans are currently experiencing when dreaming.
Conan is given a Stygian sword (with a hollow hilt and removable pommel), a rhino-hide armour and a skullcap.
Conan and co. discover a deserted village. The villagers and the livestock have clearly been herded away.
Wooden-armored mushroom-men attack, Conan kills one, Danai slays another, Vulf dies.
Mounted on a five-legged deer-creature that has a whipping barbed tongue, another mushroom-man attacks, Conan kills the creature and Xaxix makes the rider retreat.
Nassas and Conan are cleansed with Xaxix's anti-fungal concoction.
Danai and Conan spot, on the other side of a valley, mushroom-people (the mindless army of Rot) dancing around a moving tree-thing (The King of Rot... a forest god).
Conan puts Xaxix's anti-fungal compound in his hilt and smears his body & armor with it, the Cimmerian also soaks a face rag with the same alchemical solution to protect himself from the airborne mutagenic fungal spores.
Conan's plan: with Xaxix he'll run through the forest to reach the King of Rot.
Conan is attacked by the mushroom-people and the deer-creatures.
Danai shoots the mushroom-people from afar as Conan makes it to The Plateau of Leng (also from "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" and "Celephaïs").
Conan stumbles upon the villagers who are now integrated into fungal trees. The dying livestock is spread out on the forest floor in a mycelial network connected to... The King of Rot.
From a different reality, a viscous fluid (a Formless Spawn from "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith and "The Mound" by H. P. Lovecraft?) rains down on The King of Rot.
Assisted by Danai, Conan assassinates The King of Rot, the black syrupy rain stops.
Xaxix paralyses the barbarian with a poisoned crossbow bolt and starts consuming the rotting corpse of The King of Rot.
Danai, still from afar, shoots Conan with anti-venom arrows.
Xaxix is slowly changing into a new King of Rot, Conan terminates Xaxix.
What I did like:
Fans of William Hope Hodgson, Matango (1963) and The Last of Us (video game) will love this story.
Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and Lovecraft were pen pals.
Zamora is a country and a city. (Thanks to Von K for reminding me)
Hyperborea, Asgard and Vanaheim mentioned.
Larsha from "The Hall of the Dead" mentioned.
Taurus of Nemedia, Yara the priest/sorcerer, Yag-kosha, the green planet Yag, the Maul, the jungles of Khitai and the dead Kothian from "The Tower of the Elephant" get mentioned.
The siege of Venarium mentioned.
The Æsir from "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" mentioned.
Aurochs (extinct cattle) mentioned.
Conan's father mentioned.
What I did not like:
The editor is not doing his job.
The Aesir are not Picts (from "Beyond the Black River").
The typos and missing words.
I give it a 9/10. An exceptional love letter to H. P. Lovecraft! We need a prequel where Conan finds a tube of fungicide in Ileetha's medicine cabinet.
Oh, and TITAN BOOKS, don't forget, we still need a Heroic Legends Series version of Scott Oden's CONAN: THE DAY OF THE LION (with Oden's CONAN: UNCONQUERED as a free bonus)!