I first featured the Savage Realms Monthly magazine back in
January during my Sword & Sorcery Audiobook Showcase series. I discussed
what it was about and how much I enjoyed it, focusing on Books 1, 2, and 3. Since
then, Books 4 and 5 have been published on Audible and today I’ll be shining
the spotlight on those.
The same formula of three stories
from three different writers per issue returns, narrated by the always
excellent Moose Matson who really gets into the spirit of things with his
infectious gusto and competent voicing of the various characters. One of the
things I was most looking forward to was listening to the continuing adventures
of Willard Black’s Redgar and Natali. I don’t know about other
readers/listeners, but after three issues worth of following Redgar the Hathor,
I’m firmly invested into this barbarian and can’t wait to hear about his next quest.
It’s a similar feeling to what readers of the original Weird Tales run must’ve experienced waiting for the next issue featuring
Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Kull or Solomon Kane, and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos
stories.
Book 4 starts off with “The
Revenant King” by Willard Black and follows Redgar and Natali venturing into a
town struggling with a plague. I wonder where Black got the inspiration for
that idea! All kidding aside, it’s an engaging tale that gives us a little more
insight into Natali. Another terrific Redgar story that only makes me want to
see what happens next. “Crawling in the Dark” by Chad Wilson follows, a story
about a hero named Brock who must take matters into his own hands and save a
village from giant spiders. I really dug this one as a classic creature
feature. The third and final story, “Uncertain Treasure” by Victor H. Rodriguez,
ends the anthology on a strong note, more about sorcery than swords featuring a
thief and a sorceress. I won’t divulge any more not to spoil the intrigue. We
also get fun author interviews for two of the three scribes featured.
Book 5 gets the ball rolling with
“Tower of Ornelia” by Ben Crawford, a returning author from Book 2, and
features a warrior on a quest for a lost prince. This was a fun tale and I look
forward to reading more of Crawford’s stories in future issues. Next up is
Willard Black’s fifth story in the ongoing Redgar saga titled “The Keshite’s
Lover”. Our adventurous duo winds up in a small town victim of racial prejudice.
This one has a bit of a social commentary and a very cool brawl as things
unfold. Another winning entry in the Redgar series. The last tale, “A Broken Column
in the Salt Plains” by Adrian Simmons, grew on me as it went on because I wasn’t
into it at first. It deals with an archaeologist, past life/memories from a
different era, and Native American imagery. While not exactly S&S, it was a
nice change of pace from the other stories and I smiled at the Star Trek
references. No author interviews for Book 5 sadly.
Savage
Realms Monthly’s fourth and fifth issues continue to showcase solid
and engrossing Sword & Sorcery tales from a diverse crop of authors. If you’re
just joining the party, no worries, you can pick up any issue and won’t feel
lost. The Redgar tales all stand on their own and the other yarns don’t require
to be read in any specific order. SRM is the perfect fix for S&S fans eager
to discover new talent and be immersed into weird and fantastic worlds. Bring
on Book 6!
Rating: Five
stars out of five
Get your copy on Audible
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