The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate
Historical novel | |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
|---|---|
Publication date | 1961 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 429 |
| Followed by | The Arrows of Hercules |
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate is a
Plot summary
The novel concerns the quest of Bessas of Zarispa, a young officer of the "
Relying on information given him by the priests of Marduk in Babylon that a reptile depicted in reliefs on their temple, the sirrush, is a real dragon and lives at the headwaters of the Nile, Bessas sets out for the source of the Nile, accompanied by his former tutor, Myron of Miletos, who is bored of teaching and wants to make a name for himself in the field of philosophy.
Reception
Harry Cavendish calls the novel "possibly ... the author's most breezily amusing venture into fictionizing classical lore," in which "[c]omic opera attacks and nocturnal ambushes abound ... There obviously is a lot of fictional hocus-pocus in all this, but there's also a shimmering mirthfulness in the writing."
Notes
- ^ Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. p. 50.
- ^ OCLC record for the Phoenix Pick edition
- ^ Amazon.com record for the Phoenix Pick edition
- ^ "Lore of Antiquity Juggled Dexterously," Chicago Daily Tribune, December 10, 1961, p. E3.
- ^ "A Reader's Report on Five Current Titles," The New York Times, December 10, 1961, p. BR48.
- The Pittsburgh Press, December 24, 1961, sec. 2, p. 4.
- ^ "Fiction. De Camp, Lyon Sprague. The dragon of the Ishtar Gate," The Booklist, March 1, 1962, p. 437.
- ^ "Sword and Sorcery Fiction: An Annotated Book List," The English Journal, January 1972, p. 47.
- ^ "Book Reviews," Amazing Science Fiction Stories, September 1983, p. 16.