Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria
by Lin Carter
1969 Berkley
Thongor is a young barbarian in ancient Lemuria. He kills an officer in a bar fight, is arrested, escapes, steals an airship, is attacked by flying reptile birds, crashes, and is rescued by a sorcerer. The sorcerer has a quest - to forge a sword from a fallen star to defeat the ritual of sorcerers descended from dinosaurs. Along the way he gets captured and escapes at least four times, picking up another fighter and a princess as companions.
A fun read, lots of adventure and action, plenty of monsters, though the pulpy pace leaves out a lot of descriptions, leaving you guessing what a lot of these monsters look like. Unlike Conan, Thongor is explicitly decked out in Frazetta fashion, with a loincloth and leather harness. He wakes up naked after being dropped in a giant reptile-eagle nest, so I can only assume he was naked through the rest of the book.
A fun, short read that probably covers as much ground as a 800 page epic fantasy. Somehow, the first version of this from 1966 was even shorter.
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