The People of the Black Circle

About the book

When the king of Vendhya dies under a mysterious supernatural assault, his sister Yasmina seeks revenge against the Black Seers of Yimsha. Her plans involve Conan, now leading hill warriors whose captured comrades give her political leverage. A kidnapping overturns that arrangement, carrying ruler and adventurer into a conflict shaped by rival chiefs, imperial agents, and sorcerers with purposes of their own. The mountain landscape supplies both refuge and danger as alliances shift under pressure. Howard combines rapid physical action with a larger struggle over power, loyalty, and magical domination. Yasmina's determination gives the adventure a strong counterweight to Conan's opportunism, while the setting reflects the exoticizing assumptions of its period's fantasy.

• Sorcery and power
• Unstable alliances
• Captivity and resistance

Why read it

Experience a substantial Conan adventure in which political maneuvering and supernatural menace intensify one another.

English novella from Weird Tales, September–November 1934