Robert E. Howard 1 hr 53 min read

The king of Vendhya is dying by black magic, and his sister the Devi Yasmina swears vengeance on the Black Seers of Yimsha, a quest that will pit her against Conan, chief of the hill tribes.

Robert E. Howard's 1934 story is a superb, sweeping Conan sword-and-sorcery adventure. Vivid, savage, superbly told. Read it for prime Conan, a tale of a warrior-princess, a barbarian chieftain, and the dread sorcerers of a haunted mountain, set on Howard's vividly imagined Hyborian frontier of Vendhya.

In its time

Published in 1934, during the 1930s, space opera soars.

Reading it

1 hr 53 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).