 However, Conan has not only Numedides' loyal troops, led by General Procas, to overcome, but the magic of an evil sorcerer named Thulandra Thuu.Chronologically, "Conan the Liberator" overlaps the events of the story "Wolves Beyond the Border", and is followed by the story "The Phoenix on the Sword".Shortly before publication of the first hardcover edition in 2002 "Kirkus Reviews" pronounced that "[o]nce again, de Camp and Carter mime Howard's hyperbolic spirit and majestic inverted syntax with great style."