Robert E. Howard, creator of the Conan stories, is often thought of as the "father" of the sword-and-sorcery subgenre of modern fantasy. If Howard is the "father," then de Camp, who revived Howard's work and then built upon it, must be the "stepfather." The subgenre's focus on an ancient and largely unrecorded past, on magic and the supernatural, on swordplay, and on adventurous quests, has been shaped in part by de Camp.

Typical of his sword-and-sorcery tales, The Goblin Tower shies away from direct social commentary, using twentieth-century America primarily for humor and to make the point that the novel does not take place on ancient Earth but instead on an alternate Earth in another "plane" of reality. The magic of The Goblin Tower's world allows for travel among many different planes. The novel is a moralistic tale that emphasizes the advantages of kindness and thoughtfulness...