The official adaptation of CONAN THE BARBARIAN, the seminal film written by John Milius and Oliver Stone, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones. In the novel by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, the Cimmerian youth Conan witnesses the death of his parents at the hands of Thulsa Doom, a priest of Set. Enslaved, he is trained as a gladiator. Gaining his freedom he allies with Subotai, a Hyrkanian archer, and a skilled swordswoman thief named Valeria. Together they raid the Tower of the Serpent, then Conan breaks away to seek the cult of Doom—and revenge on the sorcerer who leads it.

Renowned science writer L. Sprague de Camp studies our global "wrong-headedness" by examining our primitive past. Writing with insight and humor, de Camp explores what makes us tick as the products - and victims - of our prehuman past. He delves into the legacy of evolution and shows how it has affected our historical and social development. The survival traits of our ancestors, which include foraging in bands, scrounging for food, and chasing other scavengers away from the kill, are at the heart of our highly competitive and combative nature - the tendency to view others as adversaries. Are we "only monkeys shaved"? Can we overcome our prehuman character? The Ape-Man Within answers these and other fundamental questions facing our global society.

Set in the time of Dionysios I of Syracuse, at the beginning of the 4th century BC, Th e Arrows of Hercules tells the tale of Zopyros of Tarentum, an engineer who invents an improved type of catapult. *** He is quickly drafted by Dionysios into Syracuse's war efforts against Carthage, which sets him on a series of adventures including a battle against Etruscan pirates and a kidnapping in Carthage. *** L. Sprague's meticulous attention to historical accuracy makes this a remarkable read which entertains as much as it teaches us about fascinating events that shaped the course of history. *** ---------- "Exciting and quite believable adventures."-Classical World ---------- "Rousing piece of fi ction...pace is rapid and unrelenting." -Th e Arizona Republic ---------- "Highly Recommended...intriguing novel."-Library Journal

The Bronze God of Rhodes is written as the memoirs of Chares of Lindos. **** Chares of Lindos was a Greek sculptor born on the island of Rhodes. A pupil of Lysippos, Chares eventually built the Colossus of Rhodes, now considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. **** These memoirs present the trials and tribulations (some of them hilarious) of the sculptor as he undertakes various projects and is forced into a number of adventures, particularly in Ptolemaic Egypt. **** This is the second historical novel that L. Sprague de Camp wrote (in order of writing), drawing upon his extensive and detailed historical knowledge of the period.

What finer way for Alexander the Great to honor his old tutor Aristotle than to send him an actual Indian elephant? *** After capturing a magnificent specimen from an Indian ruler, Alexander tasks Leon of Atrax, a cavalry commander, to deliver the animal to Aristotle in Athens. *** Leon leads a motley crew of companions (and the elephant) from India to Greece, encountering all sorts of dangers and adventures while attempting the long and arduous journey. *** "An amazing narrative vehicle for the display of ... a fairly complete composite of the life and times of which the author writes."-The Chicago Daily Tribune *** "By hybridizing a Middle-Eastern travelogue with an Alexandrine comedy of manners, the author has produced a specimen only slightly less rare then elephants in Westchester-to wit, a historical novel with a sense of humor."-The New York Times

Bessas of Zariaspa is a young officer in the Immortals regiment, sworn to protect and obey his King at all costs. The King wishes immortality and to that end tasks Bessas to find items that make an immortality potion, including the blood of a dragon and the ear of a king. *** The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate is a swashbuckling historical novel with larger-than-life characters, set in a detailed historical background that only a scholar such as de Camp can create.

Rogue Queen is a ground-breaking novel by L. Sprague de Camp that was one of the first science fiction books to deal with sexual themes, paving the way for more daring works by future authors. *** Part of the Viagens Interplanetarias series, the story takes place on a planet circling the star Lalande 21185, also known as Ormazd. When humans arrive on the planet they find a hive-like society with a hyper-fertile queen being serviced by male drones. *** All the other females of the species are infertile, or so it is believed. However, when one of the worker females rebels she discovers that the workers infertility is largely a result of the diet they follow.

In film and television, thousands of fine scripts by established writers are never produced. The Black Coat Script Library is dedicated to presenting some of those scripts. Reginald Rivers -- RIVERS OF TIME -- take those who can afford it back to the Cretaceous to hunt the biggest game that ever roamed the Earth: the flesh-eating Giganotosaurus. But even there, the deadliest predator of all remains Man! Roy THOMAS was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1972 to 1974, and is noted for his scripting of Conan the Barbarian, The Avengers, X-Men and The Incredible Hulk. Between 1980-2000, Roy co-wrote and sold nine screenplays, of which two (Conan the Destroyer and Fire and Ice, co-written with Gerry Conway) were made into films.

This classic novel was published in 1939 in the magazine, 'Unknown Worlds', and was never issued as a book publication. It is a unique work in the genre, a dark, Faustian satire that may also be taken seriously about a man who matches wits with the Devil himself. With this first book publication, Gateways Retro Science Fiction revives a legendary and influential masterpiece of the SF/Fantasy genre.