Introduction
Most fantasy readers in the USA have a short list of names they trust. Tolkien. Howard. Le Guin. But every so often, a name starts circulating in reading communities, forums, and fan groups — and people start asking questions.
Robert Rastorp is one of those names right now.
He writes in spaces that feel immediately familiar — Conan’s world, Middle-earth’s mythology, the smoky halls of the Prancing Pony — but he brings his own angle to each story. That combination of recognizable settings and fresh narrative choices is exactly why readers keep coming back.
This post breaks down what Robert Rastorp writes, what makes each of his known works stand out, and why US fantasy fans should pay attention.
What Kind of Writer Is Robert Rastorp?
Robert Rastorp works in the tradition of licensed and fan-extended fantasy fiction. He takes beloved worlds — ones deeply embedded in American and global pop culture — and adds new layers to them. He is not simply retelling existing stories. He is writing new chapters, new characters, and new conflicts within frameworks that readers already love.
His body of work, as far as current readers know, touches on:
- Sword-and-sorcery (the Conan universe)
- High fantasy and Tolkien-adjacent mythology (Middle-earth-inspired stories)
- Tavern-culture fantasy (the Prancing Pony setting)
- Second-Age Númenórean lore (ArPharazon the Golden)
Each of these sits in a specific corner of fantasy fiction, and Rastorp seems comfortable moving between them.
Conan, The Feathered Serpent Part 1 — Robert Rastorp Enters the Sword-and-Sorcery Arena
What This Story Is About
The Conan universe is one of the most enduring franchises in American fiction. Created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, Conan the Barbarian has been written, adapted, and reimagined hundreds of times. When Robert Rastorp takes on this character, he is stepping into a very crowded room.
Conan, The Feathered Serpent Part 1 places the famous Cimmerian in conflict with a serpent cult — a storytelling tradition with deep roots in Howard’s original work. Serpent imagery runs throughout the Conan canon, from Set the Serpent God to the Children of Set. Rastorp leans into that mythology.
What Makes Rastorp’s Take Worth Reading
What separates Rastorp’s take is pacing. Sword-and-sorcery has always been fast — it does not linger. Robert E. Howard’s original stories were built on momentum, and the best Conan writers since have understood that. Rastorp appears to understand it too.
The “Feathered Serpent” title also introduces a Mesoamerican-adjacent flavor — Quetzalcoatl symbolism, feathered deity imagery — that is not always explored in Conan fiction. Most Conan stories lean hard into pseudo-European or vaguely Middle Eastern settings. A feathered serpent angle suggests Rastorp is working with the Hyborian Age’s more southern, Stygia-adjacent territories.
For American readers who grew up on Conan comics, Arnold Schwarzenegger films, or Dark Horse reprints, this is a story that feels both familiar and different in the right ways.
Tales from the Prancing Pony — A Different Kind of Tolkien Story
The Prancing Pony as a Setting
The Prancing Pony is one of the most beloved locations in Tolkien’s legendarium. It sits in Bree, at the crossroads of the old world. Hobbits go there. Rangers lurk there. Dwarves pass through. It is a place where stories start, where information gets traded, and where the world’s ordinary folk brush up against larger events they barely understand.
Most Tolkien-inspired fiction chases the epic — the battles, the quests, the world-altering stakes. Tales from the Prancing Pony does something smarter: it stays at the inn.
What Robert Rastorp Does With This Space
Robert Rastorp uses the Prancing Pony as a frame for smaller, character-driven stories. Think of it as a fantasy anthology tied together by a single location. Travelers arrive, sit down, and the stories come out.
This structure has enormous appeal for American readers who love Tolkien’s world but sometimes want something that is not another quest narrative. Not every story needs to end at Mount Doom. Some of the best ones end at closing time, with an empty mug and a question left unanswered.
Rastorp reportedly weaves in background characters — the kind of people Tolkien mentions once and never returns to — and gives them actual lives. That is a strong creative instinct. It respects the source material without being enslaved to it.
Saruman and the Blue Wizards — Tackling Middle-earth’s Most Underexplored Characters
Why This Is Such a Compelling Subject
Here is the thing about the five wizards of Middle-earth: Tolkien only really wrote about two of them. Gandalf got an entire trilogy. Saruman got a significant arc in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Radagast showed up briefly.
But the Blue Wizards — Alatar and Pallando, or Morinehtar and Rómestámo in later writings — Tolkien barely touched them. He mentioned they went into the East, possibly failed, possibly did not. That is it. That ambiguity is exactly the kind of gap that good secondary-world writers look for.
Robert Rastorp’s Approach to Saruman and the Blue Wizards
Saruman and the Blue Wizards positions itself as an exploration of Istari politics — the relationships and rivalries among the five wizards — and the eastern missions that the Blue Wizards undertook.
Saruman is a fascinating character to place at the center of this. His corruption and pride are well-documented in Tolkien’s canon, but his earlier years — when he was the head of the White Council, when he was still trying to do the right thing — are largely a blank page. Rastorp appears to be writing into that blank.
For American fantasy readers who follow The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime, or who have gone deep into the Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle-earth volumes, this kind of story hits differently. It feels like informed fan engagement rather than casual borrowing.
The Blue Wizards bring a whole separate thread — the East, the peoples of Rhûn and Harad, the resistance movements against Sauron that nobody ever talks about. Rastorp has material to work with here that very few writers have touched.
ArPharazon the Golden and the Heirs of Amandil Part 1 — The Most Ambitious Entry
Who ArPharazon Is
Ar-Pharazôn is the last King of Númenor. He is, in many ways, Tolkien’s version of a classical tragic king — proud, powerful, and ultimately responsible for his civilization’s destruction. He captured Sauron. He led the Great Armament against Valinor itself. He drowned with his fleet when the Valar changed the shape of the world.
His story is in The Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales, but it has never received a full dedicated narrative treatment from Tolkien himself. It is Second Age material — the deep history that The Lord of the Rings references but never inhabits.
The Heirs of Amandil as a Counter-Narrative
Amandil was the last Lord of Andúnië, leader of the Faithful — the Númenóreans who refused to follow Ar-Pharazôn into blasphemy. His son Elendil survived the Downfall and founded Gondor and Arnor. The Heirs of Amandil are the people who kept the right values alive while everyone else went wrong.
This is the narrative tension at the heart of Rastorp’s story: the golden king who has everything and ruins it, against the faithful remnant who preserve what matters.
It is rich material. It maps onto themes that American readers respond to — the corruption of power, the importance of small communities holding on, the question of what you do when your civilization goes wrong. This is not subtle allegory. It is just good storytelling with real stakes.
ArPharazon the Golden and the Heirs of Amandil Part 1 being labeled “Part 1” suggests Rastorp has a longer narrative planned. That is a good sign. This story deserves room to breathe.
Why Robert Rastorp’s Work Matters to US Fantasy Readers
Fantasy fiction in the United States has gone through a visible shift in the last decade. Readers are not just looking for epic quests anymore. They want character. They want the corners of fictional worlds that nobody has explored. They want writers who know the source material well enough to do something original inside it.
Rastorp checks those boxes.
He is writing in universes that have enormous American cultural footprints — Conan is practically a piece of Americana at this point, and Tolkien’s influence on US pop culture from Dungeons & Dragons to World of Warcraft cannot be overstated. But he is not writing nostalgia. He is writing new stories.
That is the combination that builds a lasting readership.
Conclusion
Robert Rastorp is doing something specific and deliberate with his fiction. He picks the gaps — the feathered serpent cult nobody wrote about, the tavern full of characters who never got names, the Blue Wizards who walked east and disappeared, the faithful Númenóreans watching their king fall. Then he writes into those gaps with care.
For US readers who love fantasy but have grown tired of retreading the same ground, Rastorp’s catalog is worth exploring. Each of his four known works approaches its source world from a different angle, and all of them show a writer who has actually done the reading.
Start with whichever world you know best. Chances are, Rastorp will show you a part of it you have never seen.
Frequently
Q: Who is Robert Rastorp? Robert Rastorp is a fantasy fiction author known for writing stories set in established fantasy universes, including the Conan mythos and Tolkien’s Middle-earth. His known works include Conan, The Feathered Serpent Part 1, Tales from the Prancing Pony, Saruman and the Blue Wizards, and ArPharazon the Golden and the Heirs of Amandil Part 1.
Q: What is Conan, The Feathered Serpent Part 1 about? It is a sword-and-sorcery story set in the Hyborian Age featuring Conan the Barbarian in conflict with a feathered serpent cult. The story draws on the Mesoamerican-influenced mythology within the broader Conan universe.
Q: What is Tales from the Prancing Pony? It is a collection of character-driven stories set at the Prancing Pony inn in Bree, from Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Rather than following epic quest narratives, it focuses on smaller, human-scale stories told within the familiar inn setting.
Q: Who are the Blue Wizards in Rastorp’s story? The Blue Wizards — also known as Alatar and Pallando in Tolkien’s writings — are two of the five Istari sent to Middle-earth. Rastorp’s Saruman and the Blue Wizards explores their relationship with Saruman and the missions they undertook in the East, areas Tolkien left largely undefined.
Q: What is the story of ArPharazon the Golden? Ar-Pharazôn was the last and most powerful King of Númenor, whose pride led him to wage war on the Valar and ultimately bring about the Downfall. Rastorp’s ArPharazon the Golden and the Heirs of Amandil Part 1 tells this story from both the king’s perspective and that of the Faithful Númenóreans who resisted him.
Q: Is Robert Rastorp writing official Tolkien or Conan content? Based on available information, Rastorp’s works appear to be fan-extended or secondary-world fiction rather than officially licensed publications. They engage deeply with established canons while adding original narrative content.
Q: Where can US readers find Robert Rastorp’s books? Readers can search for Robert Rastorp’s works on major US book platforms including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads to find current availability and formats.
Q: Will there be more parts to Rastorp’s stories? Several of his works are labeled “Part 1,” which strongly suggests ongoing series. Conan, The Feathered Serpent Part 1 and ArPharazon the Golden and the Heirs of Amandil Part 1 both indicate continuation.