Jewels of Gwahlur.

The jungle has swallowed Alkmeenon, and somewhere in its emerald silence lie the Teeth of Gwahlur, jewels worth a kingdom. Into this forgotten place walks a barbarian with a sword and a very direct sense of purpose.

What it's about

Robert E. Howard sends his most famous creation, Conan the Cimmerian, into an abandoned temple-city deep in the land of Keshan, hunting a fabled hoard of gems. What should be a simple theft becomes a tangle of scheming priests, a false oracle, a treacherous rival adventurer, and half-glimpsed things that move through the ruins. Conan must rely on nerve, muscle and quick wits to survive a night in a place where nothing is quite dead and no one can be trusted.

Themes

The story turns on greed and the way a promised fortune warps everyone who reaches for it. Howard sets his hero's blunt physical honesty against the layered deceits of priests and plotters, and asks what a man will risk when the prize is enormous and the odds are murderous. Underneath the adventure runs the author's recurring fascination with lost civilizations, the ruin that follows decadence, and the vitality of the outsider who owes nothing to crumbling empires.

Why it still matters

Published in the 1930s pulp magazine Weird Tales, this is sword-and-sorcery at full throttle, from the writer who effectively invented the genre. Everything the form is known for is here in miniature: the doomed city, the supernatural menace, the swift and physical prose. For readers tracing the roots of modern fantasy adventure, from tabletop games to blockbuster film, Conan is the source, and this tightly built tale is one of the most enjoyable places to meet him. It moves fast, keeps its scares close, and never wastes a page.

Who it's for

Ideal for fans of pulp adventure, classic fantasy and lost-world tales, and for anyone curious about the origins of the sword-and-sorcery tradition. If you enjoy a lean, propulsive story with a memorable hero and a genuine sense of danger, this one delivers.

Sources and references

Verified references for this edition: Open Library, WorldCat.