Savage Realms Monthly returns
with a new audiobook for Book 6! Readers of this blog know my love for this
awesome Sword & Sorcery magazine. I’ve covered the five previous issues
here and there. This month’s offering features three new authors delivering fast-paced
tales fraught with peril.
This is the first issue not to star
Willard Black’s popular Redgar character and he was dearly missed. For me, it
had become the story I looked forward to the most each month. Anyhow, I get it:
there are only three spots open per book, so you have to give other authors a
chance. So, does issue 6 manage to fill the void left by Redgar’s absence? For
the most part, the answer is yes. The book opens with W.E. Wertenberger’s “Veil
of Black Fire”, a tale featuring a hero named Kol the Saxon, a jade monolith, a
portal, and a sorcerer. All the ingredients are there for a good time and I enjoyed
this one quite a bit. “Shadows of the Silent Sorcerer” by John R. Lehman
follows. Another fun tale about a rogue
trying to rob a sorcerer with a neat plot twist. The third and final tale, “Melkart
and the Mithras Miracle” by Mark Mellon, is my favourite of the lot. This one’s
about a hero battling an evil bull and it has a lighter tone, which I dug.
Author interviews had seemingly
vanished in issue 5 and I’m happy to report that they’re back with this tome. I
always enjoy hearing about a writer’s influences, his creative process and
such. I’ve noticed that about four out of five writers since issue 1 have
stated Robert E. Howard and Conan as their biggest influence and favourite
character in the Sword & Sorcery genre (my picks as well). It just goes to
show how much of an impact Howard and his legendary barbarian have had—90 years
later, we’re all still reading Conan and we continue to enjoy Howard’s writings
immensely.
SRM Book 6 continues to treat us
to fresh voices in the S&S genre and brings us a good dose of literary
mayhem and magic. A shorter book this time around, running at about an hour and
forty-something minutes as opposed to the two-hour plus length of the previous volumes.
Moose Matson keeps getting better and better at narrating these yarns, even
adding some cool sound effects in the last tale. His performance really
enhances the product. As usual, if you’re just hearing about SRM for the first
time, this issue is as good a place as any to start reading/listening and no
prior books are required reading to join in on the fun. However, I highly
recommend picking up the first five issues as they’re all amazing!
Rating: Four
stars out of five
Get your copy on Audible
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