The Bantam Conan Series: The Gem in the Tower

by Gary Romeo

“The Gem in the Tower” was first published in Conan the Swordsman, Bantam Books, 1978. This story by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp features a weird menace that seems a little derivative of Robert E. Howard’s “The Garden of Fear” which was first published in Marvel Tales, July-August 1934 and later reprinted in a digest sized publication along with other stories by different authors in 1945.

Other than the use of a winged menace living in an unscalable tower, “The Gem in the Tower” isn’t really like “The Garden of Fear.” (The resemblance seems more pronounced because Marvel Comics adapted “The Garden of Fear” into a Conan adventure.) In this story Conan is a member of the Barachan pirates. Chronologically, this adventure takes place after “Drums of Tombalku.”

This story starts well enough, Conan is introduced and described: “He was a veritable giant in a tunic of supple leather and baggy silken breeches, with a cutlass on his hip and a poignard thrust into his scarlet sash. Tall was he and deep-chested, with powerful, sinewy arms and swelling thews.” Good sword & sorcery always contains the word, thews. 🙂

Conan is second mate on the Hawk, a pirate vessel. They are on a journey to a nameless island, perhaps still inhabited by a sorcerer named Siptah. The plan is to steal a fabulous jewel. “Legends told of a mysterious gem recovered long ago by the Stygian mage from deep within a desert tomb. A large and glittering crystal it was said to be […]. Immense and uncanny were the reputed powers of that gem […]”

Along with the crew is a magician named Mena. He proves to be ineffective. He’s the first person to have his throat cut. Conan realizes that without magic they will have to attack the tower directly. “… Siptah’s tower had neither doors nor windows.” “Crom and Mitra, has this sorcerer wings?”

Conan once again displays his “dreaming” superpower and has a vision of his captain dying at the hands of a bat-winged monstrosity. He wakes up and his “scalp prickled with a superstitious premonition as he strode to the captain and shook him by the shoulder.” Captain Gonzago, like Mena, was dead. Sliced along the throat.

The story proceeds from this point on. Conan, of course, prevails. This is a rather stereotypical Conan story all in all. Very similar to some of the current batch of e-books that are in the Heroic Legends series. It isn’t bad but it is similar to stories we’ve read before. The last few lines of the story strive for poignancy and give it a small boost.

Robert M. Price, in his classic book, Lin Carter: A Look Behind His Imaginary Worlds, (Starmont Studies in Literary Criticism No. 36) stated that “Shadows in the Dark” was mostly de Camp’s writing and that:

Marvel Comics adapted the story in Savage Sword of Conan #45. The cover is by Nestor Redondo. The story and art are by Roy Thomas and John Buscema and Tony De Zuniga. It is a faithful adaptation. I’ve included the splash page of the Red Sonja story as I believe cheesecake should be as equally exploited as beefcake.