Robert E. Howard 44 min read

Into golden-spired Valusia rides King Kull in triumph, but beneath the pomp coils an ancient menace of serpent-men who wear the faces of trusted men, and only Kull can see the truth.

Robert E. Howard's 1929 story is a landmark of fantasy, often called the first true sword-and-sorcery tale. Vivid, brooding, hugely influential. Read it for the foundational Kull adversary story that launched the whole genre, the barbarian king, the shape-shifting serpent-men, and a chilling conspiracy of hidden monsters, told with the mythic power Howard would bring to Conan.

In its time

Published in 1929, during the 1920s, the pulp era proper.

Reading it

44 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Hugh Rankin