The technique of creating the adventure story is a straightforward one: set forth a problem that the main character must solve, and then throw as many lifethreatening complications between the main character and the solution as possible. De Camp is a master of this technique, but the adventure story in The Stones of Notnuru seems almost routine with the kidnaping, the war, and even the naked-woman-in-a-pit-full-of-vipers episode, pulled from the stock of routine fiction.

A disappointment in The Stones of Nomuru is the failure to use the archeological dig as anything more than a pretext for the adventure. Salazar hopes to find a great library left behind by the ancient city's last king. The prospect of finding this library, as well as of exploring the ruins of an ancient city, could fire the imagination with the anticipation of bizarre discoveries. But the ancient ruins are not the subject...