Solomon Kane, Robert E. Howard’s Puritain devil-fighter, in 3 MP3 poems

SFFaudio Online Audio

Three poems by master fantasist Robert E. Howard are available in MP3 format. Read by Paul Blake, they were released as a promotion for a Wandering Star book on Kane.

The Savage Tales Of Solomon Kane

Listen to the poems:

1. The One Black Stain |MP3|
2. The Return Of Sir Richard Grenville |MP3|
3. Solomon Kane’s Homecoming |MP3|

And for interested parties trying to find hardcopies, here are the details:

The Savage Tales of Solomon KaneThe Savage Tales Of Solomon Kane
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Paul Blake
1 CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wandering Star
Published: 1998
ISBN: 0953425304 (Limited Edition), 0953425304 (Ultra Limited Edition)
The CD, only available with purchase of one of two boxed sets, contains three Howard poems about his dour Puritan hero:
The One Black Stain
The Return of Sir Richard Grenville
Solomon Kane’s Homecoming
This CD is only available with purchase of either the The Savage Tales Of Solomon Kane “Limited Edition” boxed set (limited to 1050 copies) or the “Ultra Limited Edition” (same package but bound in goatskin and limited to just 50 copies).

I’m pleased to say we should have some more Robert E. Howard news for you in the coming weeks and months too!

Nina Kimberly The Merciless by Christiana Ellis: COMPLETED

news

Christiana Ellis, who I was lucky enough to meet at WorldCon 2006, has now completed her podcast novel Nina Kimberly The Merciless. It is the comedic adventure story of a teenage barbarian princess faced with the task of dispensing with an obnoxious royal suitor. I haven’t finished listening yet, I’m still laughing and snorting my way through her topsy turvy adventure world, but it is fair to say that Nina comes off like Robert E. Howard’s Conan as channeled through Joss Whedon’s Buffy, with an added dash of Arrested Development. Ellis knows how to exploit fantasy’s well-trod paths for comic effect. If you’d been waiting for it to complete before starting now you can!

Nina Kimberly The MercilessNina Kimberly The Merciless
By Christiana Ellis; Read by Christiana Ellis
24 Chapters + 1 Question Show – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Completed: September 2006

The Coming of Conan and Robert E. Howard’s Weird Tales: 2 Audiobooks available for Pre-order

My head may explode from happiness…

I finally spotted them on Amazon.com:

Shadows Kingdoms is the first volume of The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, presenting all of Howard’s Work from the classic magazine Weird Tales, meticulously restored to its original texts. This volume begins with Spear and Fang, Howard’s first professional fiction sale, and concludes with Red Thunder, a gripping sword & sorcery tale. Series characters present in this volume include King Kull and Solomon Kane. A 5 disc CD-Audio edition.

There is also a listing for an MP3 CD edition of the same volume!

The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Shadow KingdomsThe Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Shadow Kingdoms
By Robert E. Howard; Read by ????
5 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wildside Press / Audio Realms
Published: December 2006 / November 2006
ISBN: 0809562286 or 1897304129 (CD), 0809562278 (MP3-CD)
Stories include:
Two-Gun Musketeer: Robert E. Howard’s Weird Tales an introduction by Mark Finn, Spear and Fang, In the Forest of VillefFre, Wolfshead, The Lost Race, The Song of the Bats, The Ride of Falume, The Riders of Babylon, The Dream Snake, The Hyena, Remembrance, Sea Curse, The Gates of Nineveh, Red Shadows, The Harp of Alfred, Easter Island, Skulls in the Stars, Crete, Moon Mockery, Rattle of Bones, Forbidden Magic, The Shadow Kingdom, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, The Moor Ghost, Red Thunder

And perhaps even more exciting….

Original Stories Of Conan The Barbarian Volume 1: The Phoenix And The SwordOriginal Stories Of Conan The Barbarian Volume 1: The Phoenix And The Sword
By Robert E. Howard; Read by ????
5 CDs – Approx 5.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wildside Press / Audio Realms
Published: October 2006
ISBN: 0809562766 or 1897304080 (CD), 0809562758 (MP3-CD)
Stories included:
The Phoenix On The Sword
The Scarlet Citadel
The Tower Of The Elephant
Black Colossus
Gods Of The North

We knew that Fred Godsmark over at the hideously awesome Audio Realms was working on some audiobooks of Robert E. Howard’s works, but the official availability on Amazon makes them orderable! Place your preorders people, the bigger the pre-order demand, the more likely we are to get Volume 2 in each series faster.

Review of The Tower Of The Elephant and The Frost Giant’s Daughter

Fantasy Audio Drama - Conan by Robert E. HowardRobert 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
Themes: / Fantasy / Aliens / Battle / Mythology / Gods /

Alan B. Goldstein had a dream, to bring the Robert E. Howard 1930s pulp magazine hero, Conan The Cimmerian, to audio. In 1974 he contacted Glenn Lord, agent for Howard’s literary estate and proposed a radio series based on Conan. Permission was granted and a pilot was adapted from one of Howard’s shortest Conan tales – “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. After the pilot was completed, Goldstein brought it to Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas. Thomas loved it and expressed an interest in contributing to the project. So together, with Alan B. Goldstein working as producer and Roy Thomas scripting, they decided that a second Conan audio adventure should be made.

Actors Owen McGee and Paul Falzone were again hired to reprise their roles as “The Narrator” and “Conan” respectively. And thus was born the second audio dramatization “The Tower Of The Elephant”. Unfortunately their vision of a Conan radio series was dashed. By the late 1970s, radio dramas were virtually dead. Only these two stories were ever adapted for the aborted Conan radio series. But Goldstein would go on to produce at least one more Conan record – but that, my Hyborian friends, is another story.

Side One – “The Tower Of The Elephant” – 27 Minutes 29 Seconds
Conan is in Zamoria’s City Of Thieves, Arenjun, where in a local tavern he overhears a boastful kidnapper. Before dispatching the cur Conan discovers the whereabouts of The Tower of the Elephant and of the fabled jewel rumored to be secured within it. Soon after Conan is at that bejeweled tower, determined to rob it of it’s jewel – but he has much to contend with – he must surpass another thief, ravenous lions and a giant spider. And what he finds in the tower’s interior is like nothing else in this age undreamed of. Howard’s prose is frothy, wondrous and direct. The performances here are letter perfect and the power of the original short story is successfully translated.

Side Two – “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” – 17 Minutes 41 Seconds
This, the shorter of the two dramatizations, again takes its stylistic cues from Howard’s pulp roots; nearly every word of this adaptation is taken directly from the original text itself. “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” is set in the high mountains that border Vanaheim and Aesgard where Conan has just fought a fierce battle, lying exhausted and near death on the battlefield, a near-naked woman suddenly visits him. Her voluptuous body re-ignites his will to live but when she mocks him, he chases her for seeming endless leagues across the snow-covered mountains. Conan finds it strange that she does not seem to feel the cold that chills his bones, dressed as she is shouldn’t she be frostbitten? Of course it is all a trap, this “woman” is no mortal, she’s lead Conan to her two massively dangerous looking “brothers”. The performances and narration paint a vivid mental film full of both preternatural storytelling and mythological virtue. Structured more as an incident than a plotted adventure the layered mythology of Howard’s invented Hyborian world casts a spell upon the listener. We feel Conan’s weariness and we follow along hotly in his footsteps as he’s tempted by that fleet-footed Valkyrie. It all has a dream like quality and it’s juicily full of pulpy goodness. I truly wish Alan B. Goldstein had got his dream and these two audio adventures had become the first two episodes in the Conan radio series.

Posted by Jesse Willis