Thongor in the City of Magicians

1968 novel by Lin Carter

Thongor in the City of Magicians

Cover art for the original edition.

Author| Lin Carter
Cover artist| Frank Frazetta
Language| English
Series| Thongor series
Genre| Fantasy
Publisher| Paperback Library

Publication date

| 1968
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (Paperback)
Pages| 160
Preceded by| Thongor Against the Gods
Followed by| Thongor at the End of Time

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.[1]

## Plot summary

[edit]

The eight survivors of the Nine Magicians of Zaar, whose colleague Adamancus was killed in the previous volume, cloak their Rmoahal henchmen in invisibility, enabling them to capture their nemesis Thongor. The Rmoahal take him to their castle to turn him over to their masters. He escapes into its catacombs where he destroys an ancient worm god, but is retaken by the Zaarians. Mardanax of Zaar then flies him on a pterodactyl to the city of magicians.

Thongor's ally, the exiled Rmoahal prince Shangoth, infiltrates the city to rescue him. The two manage to turn the tables on the magicians, reflecting their own spells against them. Only Mardanax escapes the slaughter.

The book includes a frontispiece map by the author of part of Lemuria.

## Setting

[edit]

The Thongor series is Carter's premier entry in the Sword & Sorcery genre, representing a tribute to both the Conan series of Robert E. Howard and the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He pictures the lost continent of Lemuria as a prehistoric kingdom located in the Pacific Ocean during the Ice Age, where Mesozoic wildlife persisted after the cataclysm wiped them out elsewhere. An intelligent reptilian humanoid race descended from dinosaur reigned supreme as the dominant life form but was partially supplanted by humanity as the continent was colonized by fauna from outside Lemuria. Humans have gradually thrown off their subjection by the older civilization. Culturally, Lemuria is a mixture of civilization and barbarism but overall is precociously advanced over the outside world, boasting a magic-based technology that includes even flying machines. The Thongor books relate the struggle of the titular hero to unite the humans of Lemuria into a single empire and complete the overthrow of the "dragon kings".

## Reception

[edit]

Robert M. Price writes "[t]he Lemurian books pulse with a color and vitality that we miss in many of Lin Carter's later works. ... Yet to his relative inexperience we may also lay the blame for certain inconsistencies and failures to reckon with the implications of what he has written." Among these he notes "Thongor eating dates from the East as if he were in Europe" and "hail[ing] from [Lemuria's] wintry North," when, with the continent "south of the Equator, it would get hotter the further north you went!"[2]

The novel was also reviewed by Alma Jo Williams in Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review, November 1979, and Richard P. Brisson in Sword & Fantasy no. 8, October 2006.[1]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Thongor in the City of Magicians title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
2. ^ Price, Robert M. "Thongor's Saga." Chapter in Lin Carter: A Look Behind His Imaginary Worlds. Mercer Island, WA, Starmont House, Inc., 1991, pages 13-22.

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Works by Lin Carter

Callisto|

* Jandar of Callisto (1972)
* Black Legion of Callisto (1972)
* Sky Pirates of Callisto (1973)
* Mad Empress of Callisto (1975)
* Mind Wizards of Callisto (1975)
* Lankar of Callisto (1975)
* Ylana of Callisto (1977)
* Renegade of Callisto (1978)

Green Star|

* Under the Green Star (1972)
* When the Green Star Calls (1973)
* By the Light of the Green Star (1974)
* As the Green Star Rises (1975)
* In the Green Star's Glow (1976)

Mars|

* The Flame of Iridar (1967)
* The Man Who Loved Mars (1973)
* The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974)
* "The Martian El Dorado of Parker Wintley" (1976)
* The City Outside the World (1977)
* Down to a Sunless Sea (1984)

Zarkon|

* The Nemesis of Evil (1975)
* Invisible Death (1975)
* The Volcano Ogre (1976)
* The Earth-Shaker (1982)
* Horror Wears Blue (1987)

Zanthodon|

* Journey to the Underground World (1979)
* Zanthodon (1980)
* Hurok of the Stone Age (1981)
* Darya of the Bronze Age (1981)
* Eric of Zanthodon (1982)

Near Stars|

* The Star Magicians (1966)
* Tower at the Edge of Time (1968)
* Tower of the Medusa (1969)

Great Imperium|

* The Man Without a Planet (1966)
* Star Rogue (1970)
* Outworlder (1971)

Thongor|

* The Wizard of Lemuria (1965/69)
* Thongor and the Dragon City (1966/70)
* Thongor Against the Gods (1967)
* Thongor in the City of Magicians (1968)
* Thongor at the End of Time (1968)
* Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus (1970)
* Young Thongor (2012)
* The Sword of Thongor (Robert M. Price) (2016)

Conan|

| Novels|

* Conan of the Isles (1968)
* Conan the Barbarian (1982)
* Conan the Buccaneer (1971)
* Conan the Liberator (1979)

|

Short
works|

* "Black Sphinx of Nebthu" (1973)
* "Black Tears" (1968)
* "The Castle of Terror" (1969)
* "The City of Skulls" (1967)
* "The Curse of the Monolith" (1968)
* "Death-Song of Conan the Cimmerian" (1972)
* "The Gem in the Tower" (1978)
* "The Hand of Nergal" (1967)
* "The Ivory Goddess" (1978)
* "The Lair of the Ice Worm" (1969)
* "Legions of the Dead" (1978)
* "Moon of Blood" (1978)
* "Red Moon of Zembabwei" (1974)
* "Shadows in the Dark" (1978)
* "Shadows in the Skull" (1975)
* "The Snout in the Dark" (1969)
* "The Thing in the Crypt" (1967)
* "The Witch of the Mists" (1972)

Collections|

* Conan (1967)
* The Conan Chronicles (1989)
* The Conan Chronicles 2 (1990)
* Conan of Aquilonia (1977)
* Conan of Cimmeria (1969)
* Conan the Swordsman (1978)
* Conan the Wanderer (1968)
* Sagas of Conan (2004)

Kull|

* "Exile of Atlantis" (1967)
* King Kull (1967)

Gondwane|

* The Warrior of World's End (1974)
* The Enchantress of World's End (1975)
* The Immortal of World's End (1976)
* The Barbarian of World's End (1977)
* The Pirate of World's End (1978)
* Giant of World's End (1969)

Terra Magica|

* Kesrick (1982)
* Dragonrouge (1984)
* Mandricardo (1987)
* Callipygia (1988)

Kylix|

* The Quest of Kadji (1971)
* The Wizard of Zao (1978)
* Kellory the Warlock (1984)

Other|

* Time War (1974)
* Tara of the Twilight (1979)
* The Tired Tailor of Oz (2001)
* The Merry Mountaineer of Oz (2004)

Collections|

* Beyond the Gates of Dream (1969)
* Lost Worlds (1980)
* The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter (1997)
* Lin Carter's Simrana Cycle (2018)

Anthologies
edited|

| BAFS and
Doubleday
anthologies|

* Dragons, Elves, and Heroes (1969)
* The Young Magicians (1969)
* Golden Cities, Far (1970)
* New Worlds for Old (1971)
* The Spawn of Cthulhu (1971)
* Double Phoenix (1971)
* Discoveries in Fantasy (1972)
* Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy I (1972)
* Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy Volume II (1973)
* Kingdoms of Sorcery (1976)
* Realms of Wizardry (1976)

|

Flashing
Swords!|

* Flashing Swords! #1 (1973)
* Flashing Swords! #2 (1973)
* Flashing Swords! #3: Warriors and Wizards (1976)
* Flashing Swords! #4: Barbarians and Black Magicians (1977)
* Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers (1981)
* Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! #6 (2020/21)
* Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! #7 (2023)
* Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! #8 (2023)

Year's Best
Fantasy|

* The Year's Best Fantasy Stories (1975)
* The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2 (1976)
* The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (1977)
* The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 4 (1978)
* The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5 (1980)
* The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 6 (1980)

Weird Tales|

* Weird Tales #1 (1980)
* Weird Tales #2 (1980)
* Weird Tales #3 (1981)
* Weird Tales #4 (1983)

Other|

* The Magic of Atlantis (1970)

Nonfiction|

* Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (1969)
* Lovecraft: A Look Behind the "Cthulhu Mythos" (1972)
* Imaginary Worlds (1973)

Poetry|

* Sandalwood and Jade (1951)
* Galleon of Dream (1953)
* Letter to Judith (1959)
* Dreams from R'lyeh (1975)

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