# The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E Howard

A departure from Sally Rooney.

=> intermezzo-by-sally-rooney.gmi Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Hour of the Dragon is the only novel-length Conan the Barbarian story by Conan's creator Robert E. Howard. I think a bunch of Conan novels were written by other authors after Howard's death at 30 years of age.

I have a real soft spot for Conan stories. Howard had mapped out a history for his Hyborian Age, and he adds a light seasoning of this into his adventure stories, which make them feel embedded in a living world. It's surprisingly complex. Where some fantasy settings may have a big empire and some smaller nations, Howard's has so many countries that the names kind of just roll over me. They have their characteristics, politics, history. Or *maybe* they do. He just gives snippets, and his protagonist, Conan, isn't overly concerned with stuff beyond his immediate goals, so he can just slam his way through a place which we're left to imagine has more going on in it.

I love how he writes the horror elements of his world. Ancient creatures and magic lurking just out of sight. There is a palpable sense that even someone powerful like Conan has no hope against what lies in the dark. I think this is some of his most effective writing.

So, I've read a bunch of Conan short stories prior to this. The novel reads a little like a collection of short adventures with some connective tissue to bind them. Some of the best parts, for me, were the opening and ending chapters which focus not on Conan but on his enemies and their plot. The middle section is mostly Conan hopping from one adventure to the next, and while those are fun, it left me wanting a little more depth.

At the start of the story Conan is a king. After his enemies resurrect an ancient evil, Conan is forced into exile and has to go on a quest to be able to face them. I think the question comes up once, of why Conan doesn't just give up his kingdom, since the odds seem so much against him. He gives some answer, which I don't remember (possibly that he is just pissed off?), but we don't see much of Conan's motivations here. He is intelligent, and there was some measure of justice under his rule. In exile he is aided by a religious sect who are persecuted by most people, but were always treated fairly by King Conan. In the finale, his people flock to his aid. It might've been nice to see more of Conan as king before we're thrown into the adventure. 

I think what I feel is missing, is more interactions between Conan and other characters. He meets some interesting folks along the way, but doesn't talk to them much. A little more musing by the camp fire might've gone a long way.

This might come across as a negative review, but overall I really enjoyed this book. Howard writes a lot of things well. There's a tragic aspect to his work, in that he died so young and we're left to wonder how he might've developed as a writer if he had had more time.

I guess one of the qualities of Howard's writing is that when he leaves something unexplored, he does so in a way that makes it feel worth exploring - the monsters in the dark are mostly unseen, but are intriguing; Conan mostly just smashes heads, but there is enough to make him seem deep and occasionally wise; the world flies by during each episodic adventure, but the glimpses give us a possibly rich history. So I'm conflicted - I *think* I want to know what Howard would've written, if he had delved into these things, but maybe his talent was skirting the edges and leaving us wondering about the gaps. People have spent nearly a century since telling their own stories, in part inspired by what Howard left unsaid.
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