The Hour of the Dragon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 first book publication of The Hour of the Dragon as Conan the Conqueror |
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| Author | Robert E. Howard |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | John Forte |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Conan the Barbarian |
| Genre(s) | Sword and sorcery |
| Publisher | Gnome Press |
| Released | 1950 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 255 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | King Conan |
| Followed by | The Return of Conan |
The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a 1935 fantasy novel written by Robert E. Howard featuring his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian.
[edit] Publication history
It was his only full length novel about Conan, and is considered by many to be one of his best works.[citation needed] Originally written for British publisher Dennis Archer, it was first published as a five part serial in Weird Tales between the months of December 1935 to April 1936 after Archer folded. It was first published in book form in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1950 under the title Conan the Conqueror, a title retained by all later editions until 1977. The first paperback edition was published by Ace Books in 1954. The novel has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers, notably Lancer Books in 1967 and Berkley/Putnam in 1977; the latter, reedited by Karl Edward Wagner, was the first edition to restore the original magazine text and title, under which most subsequent editions have been issued. More recently the novel appeared in the collections The Essential Conan (1998), Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon (2001) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934) (Del Rey, 2005). It has also been translated into Japanese, Italian, French, German and Spanish.
[edit] Plot Overview
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The plot is a loosely based melange of motifs from previous Conan short stories, most notably "The Scarlet Citadel", with which it shares an almost identical storyline. It takes place when Conan is about forty-five, during his reign as King of Aquilonia, and follows a plot by a group of conspirators to depose him in favor of Valerius, heir to Conan's predecessor Numedides, whom he had slain to gain the throne. To accomplish this they resort to necromancy, resurrecting Xaltotun, an ancient sorcerer from the pre-Hyborian empire of Acheron. With his aid the Aquilonian army is defeated by that of the rival kingdom of Nemedia and occupied. Conan, captured, is slated for execution until the sympathetic slave girl Zenobia risks her life to free him. Conan's quest to retrieve the Heart of Ahriman in order to defeat the wizard and regain his throne takes him through all the lands of Hyboria. After his eventual triumph he vows to make Zenobia his queen.
In the hardcover Gnome Press edition of the Conan stories, Conan the Conqueror follows the short stories collected as King Conan; in the paperback Lancer/Ace edition, it follows the short stories collected as Conan the Usurper. In both editions it precedes the Björn Nyberg/L. Sprague de Camp novel The Return of Conan (AKA Conan the Avenger).
[edit] References
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd., 299.
| Preceded by King Conan |
Gnome Conan series Conan the Conqueror |
Succeeded by The Return of Conan |
| Preceded by Conan the Usurper |
Lancer/Ace Conan series Conan the Conqueror |
Succeeded by Conan the Avenger |
| Preceded by none |
Berkley Conan series The Hour of the Dragon |
Succeeded by The People of the Black Circle |
