F/SF

Good sword and sorcery novel. I was addicted to these in about 1970-71. ( )

One of the truly great Conan Stories. In Hour of the Dragon we see an older and more mature Conan as the King of Aquilonia. He is calculating, brooding and an reluctant observer to the world around him. As Usual Conan is handed lemons and proceeds to make his bittersweet Cimmerian Lemonade. He is now fighting a war amidst sorcerers, witches and the ever present backstabbing crumb snatchers around him. ( )

aka Conan the Conqueror. This is exactly what you would think, which wasn't what i expected . I really wasn't sure Howard's writing would create the same sort of atmosphere as the films but it is pretty similar and Howard has a nice descriptive style. Although conan is definitely a little bit smarter than the film version.
The middle portion started to lose me, it felt like it was meandering too much and there are a few too many coincidences and lucky escapes. However it picked up steam again towards the end.

This clearly had a big impact as i can see its influence in many places, for example Uncanny X-Men issues 189-191.
There's also a brief appearance by an immortal princess called Akivasha, clearly based on Ayesha from the book 'She', but in this case Akivasha is a vampire and in her turn clearly the inspiration for 'Akasha' from the Anne Rice vampire books.
Also Khemi is mentioned, very similar to 'Khemri' a land in the Warhammer wargaming world. ( )

I read the OG Howard text, true believer. What a master Howard was. His only full-length Conan novel. ( )