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John C. Hocking
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Conan: Black Starlight: The Heroic Legends Series Kindle Edition

by John C. Hocking (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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Capturing the electric short fiction energy that led Robert E. Howard to be one of the top fantasy writers of the century, with exclusive serialized eBook stories starring Conan, Solomon Kane, and more by many of today’s top writers in fantasy and sword-and-sorcery.

Seeking to avoid the Stygian border guard and cross the River Styx, Conan, the sorceress Zelandra, her scribe Neesa, and bodyguard Heng Shih discover a town that seems to be deserted. To preserve his own life, the town’s lord had bargained with a demon that still lurks there. It wants Zelandra’s cache of Emerald Lotus and will kill anyone who tries to stop it. Conan and his allies must defeat the demon and its minions—human and inhuman—in order to survive. Originally published as a twelve-part serial in Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian comic book (2019-2020), this is a direct sequel to CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS, re-released this month in the new volume CONAN IN THE CITY OF THE DEAD.
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  1. Book 2 of 7
    Savage Tales Short Fiction
  2. Print length
    79 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Titan Books
  6. Publication date
    October 17, 2023
  7. File size
    2937 KB
  8. Page Flip
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  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS:


Straight-ahead non-stop action and exotic pulp-flavored fun… Hocking infuses the supporting characters with humanity and believability, and even imparts a degree of pathos to the villains—Adventures of Sword & Sorcery magazine


Praise for Conan and Robert E. Howard:


Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.—Stephen King


In Howard's grim and all too realistic view, the barbarians are always at the gate, and once a culture allows itself to grow soft, decadent or simply neglectful, it will be swept away by the primitive and ruthless.—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post


I read books, and I dreamed of Mars, and the planets in those books, and of the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard’s Conan books…—George R. R. Martin, author of A Game of Thrones


Those of us who believed in Conan at the right moment in our lives never stop believing. We might not grow up to become him, but we never grow out of him, either.—Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CG2W7X46
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Titan Books (October 17, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 17, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2937 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 79 pages
  • Customer Reviews:

About the author

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John C. Hocking

John C. Hocking

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Winner of the Harper’s Pen Award for sword and sorcery fiction, John C. Hocking is the author of two novels starring Conan the Cimmerian. His short fiction has appeared in the Flashing Swords ezine, Black Gate, Skelos, Weirdbook and Tales from the Magician’s Skull. Recently retired, he is currently working on a new novel. He lives in Michigan with his wife, son, and an alarming quantity of books.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
80 global ratings
Great new Conan story
5 Stars
Great new Conan story
I am really enjoying the Heroic Legends Series. It lets modern writers tell new stories about classic heroic characters, but in the writer’s own voice.In Conan: Black Starlight, Conan’s crew fights to retrieve their wizard's invaluable stash of Emerald Lotus from a demon and its minions who rule over an abandoned town on the Stygian border.It was a lot of fun seeing Conan as part of an adventuring crew. They are a diverse group of roughly equal companions who each offer something unique. Also, I’m a sucker for monsters and there were some great ones in this story.I really enjoyed Conan: Black Starlight. It makes me want to get a copy of John C. Hocking’s book Conan in the City of the Dead.
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Top reviews from the United States

Christopher Rowe
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly and enthusiastically recommended for any reader of fantasy fiction
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2024
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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. Hawking, 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 Living Plague 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 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.
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Matt Spencer
4.0 out of 5 stars Best I've read so far of this pastiche series
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2023
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Of the three entries I've sampled from the new Titan series, this one landed by far the strongest, in no small part for being significantly longer and making smart use of the extra breathing room.

The "Conan as the Barbarian member of a D&D party" approach has no precedent in the original source material that I recall/to the best of my knowledge originated with the second movie, and ever since (be it in comics, 80s/90s novels, or the two short-lived TV shows) tends to come served under a thick layer of melted cheese. Hocking, however, makes it not only work but work well...particularly in the handling of a sympathetic sorceress whose dependence on the mystical properties of green lotus resonates like an analog depiction of someone struggling to overcome real life addiction. Of course it doesn't hurt how well the author captures Conan's "voice" (particularly in moments of sardonic devil-may-care humor), with a fine sense of where/when/how to bring the over the top bloody mayhem, with even a few nicely done poetical prose flourishes that Howard might have been proud of.
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James Reasoner
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Conan Pastiches I've Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023
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Having read John C. Hocking’s two Conan novels, CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS and CONAN AND THE LIVING PLAGUE (both of which are soon to be published in an omnibus volume, by the way), I expected to like his novella BLACK STARLIGHT, the second in Titan Books’ new series of short fiction based on Robert E. Howard’s characters. I was not disappointed in the least.

BLACK STARLIGHT is a sequel to CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS and finds Conan traveling with three companions: a powerful sorceress, her mute Khitan bodyguard/lover, and a beautiful, knife-throwing scribe. They arrived at a bordertown on the river Styx, intending to cross from Stygia to Shem, but the place turns out to be a ghost town full of dangers, and to survive they have to penetrate a powerful enemy’s stronghold on some cliffs overlooking the Styx.

Hocking’s Conan yarns always feature numerous supernatural menaces, and that’s certainly true in BLACK STARLIGHT. Several different kinds of evil, necromantic creatures threaten the Cimmerian and his friends, and the action scenes as Conan battles to survive are excellent. The sorcerous stuff is genuinely creepy, as well, providing a blend of adventure and horror that works really well. I raced through this novella and really enjoyed it.

BLACK STARLIGHT was serialized previously in one of the Conan comic book series, but since I wasn’t keeping up with the comics at that time, I vaguely knew of its existence but never read it. I’m glad Titan Books has brought it back and published it in stand-alone form. Not surprisingly, it’s one of the best Conan pastiches I’ve read. Available now and highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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Matthew Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Great new Conan story
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2023
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I am really enjoying the Heroic Legends Series. It lets modern writers tell new stories about classic heroic characters, but in the writer’s own voice.

In Conan: Black Starlight, Conan’s crew fights to retrieve their wizard's invaluable stash of Emerald Lotus from a demon and its minions who rule over an abandoned town on the Stygian border.

It was a lot of fun seeing Conan as part of an adventuring crew. They are a diverse group of roughly equal companions who each offer something unique. Also, I’m a sucker for monsters and there were some great ones in this story.

I really enjoyed Conan: Black Starlight. It makes me want to get a copy of John C. Hocking’s book Conan in the City of the Dead.
Customer image
Matthew Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Great new Conan story
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2023
I am really enjoying the Heroic Legends Series. It lets modern writers tell new stories about classic heroic characters, but in the writer’s own voice.

In Conan: Black Starlight, Conan’s crew fights to retrieve their wizard's invaluable stash of Emerald Lotus from a demon and its minions who rule over an abandoned town on the Stygian border.

It was a lot of fun seeing Conan as part of an adventuring crew. They are a diverse group of roughly equal companions who each offer something unique. Also, I’m a sucker for monsters and there were some great ones in this story.

I really enjoyed Conan: Black Starlight. It makes me want to get a copy of John C. Hocking’s book Conan in the City of the Dead.
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enchiladitos
4.0 out of 5 stars solid Conan story
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2024
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Even though I bought the recent marvel comics that this story was serialized in, I did not read them at the time. Reading the complete story in this single volume was a great. The author did a good job fitting this action packed story into the limited page count. It’s not Robert E Howard but It felt a kin to the pastiche stories in the old marvel or Darkhorse comics.
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Matthew Higgins
5.0 out of 5 stars Hoping this will be included in the upcoming Hocking Conan collection.
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2023
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Ages ago I found a poor copy of Hocking's Conan pastiche. It was great though the copy did not last past that one reading. This is a direct sequel to that novel. I hope Titan will include it in the upcoming volume that will see a reprint of that pastiche and a new one. (I'm also hoping that this Hocking collection will be the beginning of Titan republishing the Conan pastiches (as they've so brilliantly done with Sherlock Holmes pastiches).)
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Top reviews from other countries

thedarkman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Conan pastiche!
Reviewed in Canada on October 23, 2023
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Well, that was a distinct step up from the last Conan short I read (Lord of the Mound). Of course I expected nothing less than excellent from the pen of Mr. Hocking, who has written some pretty dang good S&S in the past, including the fantastic (but rather rare) Conan and the Emerald Lotus, of which this novella is a direct sequel. Conan and his companions from Emerald Lotus are making their way back to Shem from Stygia when they end up facing a demonic threat in an ancient manor that is revealed to them in the Black Starlight of the title. I won't get too deep into details or spoilers, but expect a great pulpy vibe in the Weird Tales tradition, with great atmosphere and well written action sequences. Hocking does not write exactly like Howard, but he definitely captures the character of Conan and the Hyborian Age setting. Conan says and does things that one would expect him to do, and that's the most important thing that a pastiche writer must get correct. Can't wait for the follow-up novel Conan and the Living Plague to be released next year: it's rumoured to be even better than Emerald Lotus!
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Conan fights against demonic horror!
Reviewed in India on December 4, 2023
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Conan Black Starlight is a short story of 79 pages by John C Hocking featuring Robert E Howard's Conan the Barbarian.

Ever since Howard wrote the original Conan stories in the 1930s tons of writers have written pastiche stories. For me, along with Roy Thomas and Jim Zub I would put John Hocking as another writer who gets the character and the Hyborian Age.

The story is 12 chapters and has a good balance of fun characters, action, atmospheric horror.

Highly recommended if you like fantasy stories with strong horror elements.
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Mr. S. Hopper
5.0 out of 5 stars The series is building momentum, it seems.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2023
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A month ago, Titan released the first of these ebook-only novellas, the absolutely-on-the-money 'Lord of the Mount'. Now we get the second, and the first thing to say is that this time you get a lot more story for your £1.99 entry fee. I'd say this one is three times as long (without checking), and the really good news is that it's almost as good as the first.

John C Hocking has written a couple of very well received Conan novels in the past, and judging by this, they'd be worth tracking down. This is one of those Conans that seems to be a pastiche of a number of things all at the same time. Notably, and perhaps most pleasingly, this is heavily influenced by H P Lovecraft's 1926 short story 'The Strange High House in the Mist', which just happens to be one of (for me at least) his most vivid and mesmerising tales. So seeing the surly barbarian treading familiar ground was a genuine pleasure. The plot is straightforward- Conan and three companions are trying to get across the Styx, and find themselves in a haunting and apparently deserted town. Settling into the empty tavern, they soon find there is very definitely a presence nearby- and when assaulted by living dead men and grotesque leech-like flying demons, it becomes obvious that the stench of dark magic (Conan's greatest terror) has fallen upon them.

With a bad guy straight out of the Cthulhu Mythos, and a strange house on an outcropping high above the town shrouded in mist, this one hits all the right notes for me.

I'm not entirely convinced Hocking's Conan is as spot-on as was Stephen Graham Jones' last time- he is at times more reminiscent of Roy Thomas' Marvel version than REH's original- but it matters not. This is great stuff, with a lot of story for your money. It bodes well for Titan's continuing care of the property, anyway.

Note: this story originally appeared in twelve installments, across Marvel's 'Conan the Barbarian' #1 to #12 (2019). So if you have them, you already have this story. But worth it to read it all in one place.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Top quality Conan yarn
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2023
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After a lacklustre start, this is where the Titan series of Conan prose stories really starts to take off. John C Hocking is respected as the author of one of the best Robert E Howard pastiches, "Conan and the Emerald Lotus", and this short tale is a sequel to it.
The protagonist actually comes across like our favourite Cimmerian and not just some generic barbarian. The setting is well realised and you feel like you are in the Hyborian Age. Great supporting cast, exciting plot, what more can I say? Previously published in serial form in a Marvel comic, it is good to have this in an easily accessible format. I look forward to the full length Conan adventure by Hocking planned for next year.
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