THE HONORABLE BARBARIAN

'''The Honorable Barbarian''' is a fantasy novel written by L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth and final book of his Novarian series. It is a sequel both to the "Reluctant King" trilogy and to the Novarian sequence's only short story, "The Emperor's Fan". It was first published by Del Rey Books in 1989.

Contents

Plot summary

Setting

Plot summary

When 'Kerin', youngest son of Evor the Clockmaker and brother of 'Jorian', ex-king of Xylar, commits an indescretion with 'Adeliza', a neighbor's daughter, he is packed off on a hasty quest to uncover the secret of an advanced clock escapement for the family firm. A pragmatic, cautious sort, he preps for his journey with a crash course in useful skills — swordsmanship and foreign tongues, of course, but also lying and burglary. He is hampered and sometimes aided by the sprite 'Belinka', commissioned by the calculating Adeliza to ensure Kerin's faithfulness.
Kerin's goal takes him east across the 'Inner Sea', the 'Sea of Sikhon' and the 'Eastern Ocean' to the empire of 'Kuromon', where he is promised the secret in return for a magical fan lost centuries before. It has the property of making whatever it is waved at disappear without a trace. Along the way he must contend with a treacherous sea captain and his suspicious navigator, the duplicitous sorcerer 'Pwana', and the pirate crew of 'Malgo', who has a grudge against Kerin's family.
A more pleasant complication is 'Nogiri', a princess of the island empire of 'Salimor', whom Kerin has liberated (much to the displeasure of Belinka) from the pirates. Kerin returns her to Salimor only to lose her to the nefarious designs of Pwana, and a dire fate from which she can only be preserved by a daring rescue — on roller skates!
Finally Kuromon is reached and negotiations are concluded satisfactorily, but only at the cost of an unexpected regime change by fan...

Setting

As with the rest of the parallel world in which Novaria is located, de Camp bases the countries visited on Medieval realms of our own world. Thus Kuromon combines elements of ancient Japan and China, while the eastern islands are reminiscent of both Japan and Southeast Asia.