Robert E. Howard 1 hr 19 min read

On the savage Pictish frontier beyond Thunder River, Conan the Cimmerian defends a doomed outpost against the encroaching wilderness.

Robert E. Howard's 1935 Conan tale, widely regarded as one of his best, sets the barbarian on the borderlands where civilization meets untamed forest and sorcery, in a story famously read as a meditation on barbarism and the frontier. Vivid, thoughtful sword-and-sorcery from the genre's founder. Read it for classic Conan with unusual depth, action, dread, and a real idea beneath the blade.

In its time

Published in 1935, during the 1930s, space opera soars.

Reading it

1 hr 19 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).