Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian Audiobook By Robert E. Howard, Finn J. D. John cover art

Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian

The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus

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Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian

By: Robert E. Howard, Finn J. D. John
Narrated by: Finn J. D. John
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About this listen

This collection contains all of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author.

A full e-book copy of this book in Interactive PDF format is included and can be downloaded by clicking the "PDF" link in your Audible library (it's in the "Title" column). This PDF includes the audiobook chapter numbers, to make navigation easier.

Excerpt from the introduction:

"When the first Conan of Cimmeria story appeared in the pages of Weird Tales magazine in December 1932, nothing quite like it had ever before appeared in print. Author Robert E. Howard had been writing stories broadly similar to it for half a decade; but it was with Conan, and the Hyborian Age storyworld in which he was placed, that Howard finally fully doped out the sub-genre that would become known as "sword and sorcery", of which Howard is today considered the founding father.

"Conan's origins date back to an experiment in 1926 titled "The Shadow Kingdom", featuring the character Kull, exile of Atlantis. The idea - Howard's great innovation - was, at its core, historical fiction set in a pre-historical period. That pre-historical period - being, of course, lost in the mists of time - could contain anything Howard might like to include: evil races of sentient snake-things, sorcerers, undead creatures, demons walking upon the earth, anything.

"In other words, Howard was creating a secular mythology."

©2017 Finn J.D. John (P)2017 Pulp-Lit Productions
Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Horror Sword & Sorcery Scary
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Classic Fantasy Foundation • Vivid World-building • Passionate Narration • Compelling Protagonist • Masterful Storytelling
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This is the must must have for any fan of sword and sorcery. Finn J.D. John's performance and analysis of the work is superb. John really brings Conan to life and I cannot image Conan in any other voice. This should be required reading for any player of dungeons and dragons!

Needed for fans of Conan

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By this axe I rule! By Crom! Wench fetch me another! I say old chap this 15 word minimum is quite assuredly asinine.

Boobies and battle axes!

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Great value, great stories! Each story has a brief history which was fascinating. Interesting resource for the history of the author.

Excellent Presentation of the History of the Stori

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After reading the Savage stories of Solomon Kane, I was i the mood for some Conan stories, so I bought this "Conan" book.

It was a bit of a surprise it began with a Kull story, but at least it was a good one. What is a bit upsetting, is the next story was Solomon Kane. I also bought Solomon Kane's Homecoming only to find it was a 3 minute poem that is also contained in the the Savage stories of Solomon Kane,

I think Audible needs to be more transparent on what each book contains. This is the 2nd time I bought a Robert E. Howard book only to find the story contained in another book they sold me. I am starting to feel a bit ripped off.

Not Just Conan

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I would say by CROM I ENJOYED THIS! but CROM would not gift me with such for CROM does not care. this was priceless jewel was given to me by Pulp Lit with Masterful readings of Finn J.D. John. and the brilliance of Robert E. Howard. what a Great Pleasure this was!

CROM

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This book was written in the 1930s, when casual racism was an unfortunate part of everyday life. I am not condoning that kind of behavior , I just hope to put into context some of the racial comments written by Howard in the stories here.

When I listened to this, I did so with the mind of an author at the Forefront. I Tried not to think too literally, instead focusing on what he was trying to convey. Just like today in modern fantasy stories, where authors use elves, and dwarves or goblins to confer a feeling of otherness, Howard was writing these stories before that kind of thing became popular. This left for him the only way something strange or outside of Conan's culture was to talk about race or skin color.

He was one of the best authors at World building, going so far as to imagine the world of Conan as a prehistory Earth. Howard imagined where distinct races from the modern world of his time may have originated, and wrote an entire world based around them. The narrator in this book does a very good job of speaking to these kinds of things and generally talking about some of the mechanics of Howard's writing.

Stripped of all the racial undertones, these stories still stand up well, and you can see at times where modern tropes orginated. Hard to think that this was written in the 1930's sometimes.

Other times, it's cringey and pulpy, and mysoginistic in the extreme.

Fun, if only to see where Conan came from....

fantastic listen, though probably not for everyone

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Who knew there was so much more to Conan. Coming from the movie I enjoyed listening to the 30+ hours of stories.

Outstanding reading

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Conan rules so so so so so so so so so so so so much I’m telling ya he’s strong as heck!

Conan rules

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Content: Awesome! Production: Excellent! Vocal Performance: Dude.

I don't believe Finn J.D. John can be blamed for this. Somebody on the production staff is to blame. (Please, PLEASE, let somebody on the staff...).

Doing an Arnold Swartzenegger impression as Conan's voice? Oh, Gods. Bad idea. Big, bad idea. Ain't no idea big enough and bad enough.

I need to burn some sage. And balance some chakras. And walk widdershins seven times around a holy place, And, hell, spit twice while turning around three times and patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time.

Oy.

Seriously?

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The Conan character is well known, but other than the movie with Schwarzenegger, and some comics, I didn't know much about Howard's work. Finn provides amazing insights about the author. For example, like Tolkien, Howard put a lot of effort into defining the history of his world.

The character is in many ways unexpected. He is a barbarian in name only. Despite often taking the role of plunderer, he is honorable and charitable. He is quick witted, and knowledgeable about the world. Lastly, when put in positions of command, he is fair and loyal to those who follow him.

Finn John's narration is great. I'm new to audio books, but I've probably heard him read for over a hundred hours by now, and I'm not bored of him.

Howard & Finn John are a great combo!

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