If you are into good hard-hitting violence and are up for a rip-roaring ride through Robert E. Howard's Hyborian world, then this book is for you. Having been the only full length novel written featuring the legendary barbarian, Conan, Howard delivers a very solid piece of work with Hour of the Dragon.
Powerful mages resurrect a being of astonishing power and set out to conquer the world. Of course, one of their first acts is to dispose King Conan who is a direct threat to this conquest. With some supernatural help, they succeed in this venture. The rest of this novel features a mad Conan that hacks his way back to the throne of Aquilonia. Recommended.
A note on the Berkeley Medallion paperback edition - the cover proclaims this to be an "illustrated" edition. This is a slight exaggeration as only two rather mediocre pen-and-ink illustrations are found within! These have been taken from the original Weird Tales publication. The "full color fold-out poster" is all of 12 1/2 x 7 inches, and features a larger version of the cover, a rather fanciful Conan.
That being said, it is easily one of the best Conan stories written. In the tale, Conan is the king of Aquilonia, but he has plenty of people conspiring to dethrone him. These conspirators raise the wizard, Xaltotun, from the dead to use his magic against Conan.
They succeed in dethroning Conan when he is paralyzed by the wizard and unable to ride out into battle. After the battle they believe Conan is dead (big mistake) for a time, only he is actually in hot pursuit of the Heart of Ahriman, the only thing capable of defeating Xaltotun.
Naturally, the Heart is not easily obtained and Conan journeys far and wide in his pursuit of it. The story is incredibly fast paced and for a relatively short novel, its packed with action and story. Of course, Conan succeeds at the end and regains his kingdom (as well as gaining a wife).
Even though the story is at a mid-point in Conan's career, its an excellent starting point for those who are new to REH's work. As other reviewer's have noted, this story also exists in paperback as "Conan the Conqueror," although it has been edited to correct grammer and some of REH's politcally incorrect references. Heck, it was the first Conan story I ever read and it got me hooked.
REH is a moody, atmospheric writer and much of his work, including this one, carries a sense of darkness to it. Even this book, where Conan ultimately is victorious carries that feeling to it. It tends to almost carry an air of that darkness, a feeling that no matter what Conan does, his victories will be short-lived and even he will not be able to defeat death when his time comes.
For sword and sorcery fans, this is as good as it gets. Ignore the hoard of imitators who followed and stick to the master-- Robert E. Howard.