About the book: 2008 / Despite the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, one cannot help but admit that the renewed interest in the fantasy genre is largely associated with the name of Sprague de Campa (L.Sprague de Camp, 1907-2000). He started out at John W. Campbell's legendary magazine Unknown, where his Harold Shea stories, co-written with Fletcher Pratt, were first published, followed by Certified Sorcerer "(The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941) and other books. Sprague de Camp reworked several of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories to produce the first complete Conan series. De Camp himself prefers to work in the genre of comic fantasy, and I recommend reading his stories “The Goblin Tower” (1968), “The Clocks of Iraz” (1971), “The Unbeheaded King” , 1980), The Fallible Fiend (1973), The Incorporated Knight (1987), The Pixilated Peeress (1991) and The Purple Pterodactyls, 1979) - the last story belongs to the series “about the adventures of Wilson Newbery, a disenchanted financier.” The story below is one of de Camp's early adventure stories, which was long overdue for reprinting. (Annotation by Mike Ashley)