News, Reviews, and Commentary on all forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror audio. Audiobooks, audio drama, podcasts; we discuss all of it here. Mystery, crime, and noir audio are also fair game.
By Crom, Gods Of The North by Robert E. Howard is bein’ read on Podcastle #162. Get a taste of the real thing before the movie this summer. (Have you noticed that the guy who plays Conan in the summer film also played Drogo in A Game of Thrones on HBO?)
Posted by Tamahome
Dark Horse comics has been releasing affordable phone book sized collections of the old Savage Sword Of Conan stories for a few years now. I’ve got a couple of them. That got me flipping through my old back issues, and in so doing noticing just how much content isn’t in the reprints. What is mostly missing is the bonus material: the pinups, maps, photo-essays, letters columns and of course all the ads. But just today I noticed that SSOC #22 has something I’d never seen in it, at least not with SFFaudio eyes, before. Check out this review, by Fred Blosser, of this vintage 1976 LP entitled Conan: The Bloodstained God/The Curse of the Monolith:
Here’s an excerpt:
The Renaissance Man of fantasy fiction.
So one might describe L. Sprague de Camp.
Novelist, essayist, world traveller, engineer, poet, collegiate fencer, popularizer of science and history. You name it, and de Camp has probably done it. To Conan fans, de Camp perhaps is most familiar as the writer who continued and expanded the saga of the mighty Cimmerian after the death of Robert E. Howard. Whatever one thinks of this work – and opinions differ – it still is difficult to deny the importance of de Camp in the genre. Recently, in association with II Vermont-based studio called Moondance Productions. Inc” de Camp took microphone in hand to essay a new role – that of oral storyteller.
The result? A new record album titled. simply. Robert E. Howard’s Conan. Featuring L. Sprague de Camp. In his liner notes, Moondance producer Alan B. Goldstein calls the LP “an historic event … the first recorded Conan story by a living author of the Conan literature.” Actually, the record contains dramatic readings of not one, but two stories. But Goldstein may well be correct about the “historic” part. At least where Conanophiles are concerned.
Side one of the LP features “The Bloodstained God,” a riproaring talc in which Conan tangles with human and demonic foes while searching for a long- lost idol of gemencrusted gold. “The Curse of the Monolith,” on side two, brings the Cimmerian up against a Hyborian Age version of the Blob while on another treasure hunt. Both yams were co-authored by deCamp- “Monolith” in collaboration with Lin Carter, “God” as a rewrite of a non-fantasy Howard swashbuckler collected in The Swords of Shahrazar (FAX, 1976) as “The Curse of the Crimson God.”
How does de Camp fare on vinyl? Very well. I think. He gives the stories a careful, unhurried reading that most listeners should find appealing. His interpretation of the various voices is also fine. I liked the surly growl that he gives Conan , and the singsong inflections for the Oriental characters.
The sound effects and music blend in nicely with the narration, indicating that a lot of technical work went into the album. “The Bloodstained God” in particular provides a field day for the special effects crew. Swords c lash, hoofbeats clop on Slone, men yell in horror as they are pitched into bottomless chasms. There’s even the creaking of a living statue climbing down from its pedestal in search of prey! These effects provide a keen sense of realism without interfering a bit with de Camp’s storytelling.
In short, if you liked Moondance’s first Conan LP (a dramatization of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” and “The Tower of the Elephant.” reviewed in SSOC #11), you’ll find more of the same here. With of course, the added novelty of de Camp’s performance.
The LP was a limited edition printing (1500 copies made) and contained two abridged short stories with music/quasi-sound effects. I’ve never reviewed it, not being a huge fan of dramatized readings, but it is certainly interesting.
Conan: The Bloodstained God/The Curse of the Monolith
By Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter; Read by L. Sprague de Camp
1 33 1/3 RPM LP – [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Moondance Productions
Published: 1976
On the other hand I do heartily recommend the two Conan audio dramas produced by Moondance that were, apparently, reviewed in SSOC #11 (I’ll try to find my copy of that issue).
Robert E. Howard’s Conan – The Tower Of The Elephant & The Frost Giant’s Daughter
Adapted by Roy Thomas & Alan B. Goldstein; Performed by a FULL CAST
33 1/3 RPM LP – Approx. 46 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMATIZATION]
Publisher: Moondance Productions
Published: 1975
|READ OUR REVIEW|
Posted by Jesse Willis
King Of The Khyber Rifles is an war and espionage novel by one of Robert E. Howard’s favourite writers. Described as “fantastic” (in the literary sense), perhaps because of the inclusion of a fair amount of Theosophy amongst all it’s action and intrigue.
I kind of like Brett W. Downey’s narration too. His rendering of the text sounds very 1920s to me and his voice seems designed to say stuff like: “the kid’s got a lot of moxie I tell you.”
The King Of The Khyber Rifles
By Talbot Mundy; Read by Brett W. Downey
18 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 9 Hours 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 12, 2010
Athelstan King is a British Secret Agent stationed in India at the beginning of WWI. He is attached to the Khyber Rifles regiment as a cover, but his real job is to prevent a holy war. “To stop a holy war single-handed would be rather like stopping the wind–possibly easy enough, if one knew the way.” King is ordered to work with a mysterious and powerful Eastern woman, Yasmini. Can King afford to trust her? Can he afford not to? First published in Everybody’s Magazine May 1916 to January 1917.
Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/4127
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
Here’s the Talbot Mundy biography from the Classics Illustrated edition of King Of The Khyber Rifles:
[via TriciaG and Annise]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Robert E. Howard sold The Thing On The Roof, a thirteen page horror story, to Weird Tales for $40. It is one of his Cthulhu Mythos Tales. As such it is set within the universe created by H.P. Lovecraft. I think I first encountered it in David Drake’s 1986 Baen Book Cthulhu: The Mythos And Kindred Horrors. But, after looking through my Robert E. Howard paperbacks collection I note that it was also hidden within my 1976 Zebra edition of Pigeons From Hell, edited by Glenn Lord . Can you believe The Thing On The Roof wasn’t listed on the table of contents?!?!
Was that supposed to be funny? An easter egg?
Strangely, The Thing On The Roof features a book collector who’s after a book that doesn’t have all of its contents either. Or maybe this mystery is indicative of something just a little more sinister. I’m seeing more odd parallels here. See, my avocation has been book collecting ever since I visited the Yucatan! And there’s a creepy stone object I got while down in Mexico – maybe it’s cursed?
Wait, who is that clomping on my apartment door? I better finish this post before I answer it.
To sum up, The Thing On The Roof is available, complete and unabridged, over on the Cthulhu Podcast. It is read by FNH, who also recorded The Insidious Doctor Fu Manchu awhile back. Highly recommended:
The Thing On The Roof
By Robert E. Howard; Read by FNH
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Cthulhu Podcast
Podcast: May 15, 2011
|ETEXT|
An archaeologists, and book collector, is asked by an old rival to find a copy of the obscure first edition of Friedrich Wilheim von Junzt’s Nameless Cults. He may live to regret the favour. First published in the February 1932 issue of Weird Tales.
Podcast feed:
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/cthulhupodcast
Also, check out the excellent Roy Thomas adaptation done for Marvel Comics’ Chamber Of Chills issue #3 back in 1972 (available at the Diversions Of The Groovy Kind blog):
Posted by Jesse Willis
The SFFaudio Podcast #079 – Featuring a complete and unabridged reading of Queen Of The Black Coast by Robert E. Howard!
This is perhaps the greatest CONAN adventure ever written. It was first published in Weird Tales, May 1934.
It comes to us courtesy of Audio Realms and TheAudioBookShop.com. It can be found, along with a bunch of other great Howard yarns, in People Of The Dark: The Weird Works Of Robert E. Howard – Volume Two.
Posted by Jesse Willis
My friend Brian Murphy, a too infrequent guest on The SFFaudio Podcast, posted a terrific review of The Call Of The Wild on his blog, The Silver Key back in 2009:
“If you are a [Robert E.] Howard fan frustrated by fruitless searches for like-minded literature, I recommend you turn your gaze backwards, to Howard’s influences, and London in particular. Don’t be turned off by the lack of traditional fantasy trappings in London; while you (unfortunately) won’t find swords, man-eating apes, and giant snakes in The Call of the Wild, there’s plenty here to satisfy lovers of pulp action and adventure, including epic dog duels, murdering Indians, and high-stakes wagers placed on improbable feats of strength. More to the point, there’s more of Howard—the dark philosophy that makes Howard uniquely and greatly Howard—to be found in The Call of the Wild than in most other sword-and-sorcery tales published since Howard’s death. London’s work certainly puts most of the pastiches to shame in this regard.”
You can check out that entire post HERE. I bring it to your attention because there’s now a brand new, ably read, single narrator, public domain audiobook available courtesy of LibirVox!
The Call Of The Wild
By Jack London; Read by Mark F. Smith
7 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 17, 2010
Buck is living a happy life in California until he is sold to pay a gambling debt. Taken to the Klondike to become a sled dog, Buck must toughen up and learn the harsher rules of survival in the North. One of the first of these is how to deal with being harnessed in the same team as a dog that wants to kill him. Large, strong and smart, Buck toughens to his new life. But even the toughest dog can be worn down by constant work, and after 3,000 miles of pulling sleds, Buck nears the end of his rope. Cast away as no longer useful, Buck is acquired by greenhorns whose inexperience nearly kills him, but after being saved by John Thornton, he at last finds a man he can love. Then on a remote gold-hunting expedition, Buck hears a call emanating from the woods and speaking to the wild heart of his distant ancestors. The lure of it almost balances the great love he bears for Thornton, but events take him away from his old life… and into legend.
Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/4751
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
[Thanks also to Betty M. and David Lawrence]
Posted by Jesse Willis