YMMV / The Hour of the Dragon

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Conan's encounter with Akivasha in the Stygian catacombs. She is revealed to be an ancient vampire, and a big chunk of the chapter is devoted to her power and immortality... then Conan just runs from her, escaping back into the catacombs. While Conan then comes across the priests who have the Heart of Ahriman, she plays no part in helping him find them, and the progression of the plot would be completely identical if her scene were completely cut out. No doubt the publishers wanted a little more Fanservice since neither Zenobia nor Albiona stick around for long.
• Complete Monster:
  • Xaltotun of Python is an ancient sorcerer, one of the rulers of the dark empire of Acheron revived in a dark ritual to help a group of conspirators seize Conan's throne. Creating a plague that kills hundreds to sow unrest with Conan, Xaltotun assists in overthrowing the king and then sits back to let his allies enjoy the spoils. However, Xaltotun has his own agenda. Playing his allies to gain even more bloodshed, Xaltotun intends on reviving the lost empire of Acheron by instituting the greatest blood sacrifice the world has ever seen until the lands run with rivers of blood, all to revive a long-dead magocracy where innocents are regularly sacrificed to fuel his powers. When Conan and allies return to confront the ancient sorcerer, Xaltotun is in the process of sacrificing a woman to bring forth a spell that will annihilate Conan's armies.
  • Valerius, upon taking the throne of Aquilonia from Conan thanks to Xaltotun, soon comes to the realization he is expendable to his allies. In a rage, Valerius decides to ruin Aquilonia beyond all hope of repair. Valerius taxes the people to starvation, beyond hope of paying and sells those who cannot meet the tax into slavery while allowing his soldiers to rape, brutalize and kill innocent civilians at will. Succumbing to debauchery, Valerius enacts purges of those he believes are disloyal to him, even sentencing the Countess of Albiona to death when she refuses to become his concubine.
• Harsher in Hindsight: While the plot looks like a Fantasy Conflict Counterpart of World War II, it was written in 1934 (i.e. Hitler was already in charge but he hadn't yet gathered all the political power and started the escalation which led to the war.)
• Strangled by the Red String: The novel ends with Conan rather abruptly declaring that he will marry Zenobia, even though there has been no mention of her after she saved him from the Nemedian dungeon, and no indication that he has any stronger feelings for her than for any of his previous girls of the week. Zenobia doesn't even appear on-page before the story ends.

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