The Clocks
Unlike "The Goblin Tower" and "The Clocks of Iraz", which take Jorian far afield to other countries, most of the action in "The Unbeheaded King" takes place in Novaria, mainly the city-states of Xylar and Othomae. As usual, the political constraints under which the protagonist labor are at least as important as the fantastic element. The decidedly unromantic, even hardscrabble circumstances under which he must achieve his goals leaven the fantasy with a strong sense of reality, and highlight de Camp's unusual reversal of the genre's stereotypical rags to riches theme.