I thought I’d do a shortened
version of Sword & Sorcery Roundup from time to time, starting this month—Sword
& Sorcery Spotlight where I’ll focus on a couple of S&S titles that
caught my attention or am anticipating for the current month.
What better way to start than to
take a look at the recently released Audible version of Savage Realms Monthly Book 20 from May 2023! As usual, we get three
Sword & Sorcery tales and author interviews, all narrated with aplomb by
Moose Matson. “Crypt of the Night Queen” by Remy Morgeson runs about 28 minutes
and is my favourite of the bunch. It concerns a thief named Fex who gets more
than he bargained for after meeting a woman in a bar. A fast-paced yarn that is
engaging from beginning to end. Next up, “The Spirit of the Steppe” by Carl Brown,
clocks in at about 48 minutes. A solid tale from a new author about three youths
on a hunt to slay an unnatural beast as a rite of passage to become warriors. We
cap things off with “Hag of Bones” by W.E. Wertenberger running at about 51
minutes. It’s a story about a Saxon by the name of Kol and his men who battle
the undead and the witch who controls them. I’ll admit that this is the one I liked
the least of the three. It just didn’t retain my interest, but it’s a well-written
tale that fans of Viking stories will surely enjoy.
The proceedings are conducted by
our ever-reliable master of ceremonies, Moose Matson, who always seems to have
a blast bringing these tales to life. We even get extra special effects in the
form of wenches laughing and voice effects in parts of the stories. It really
contributes to making these audiobooks a fully immersive experience and I dig
that a lot. As usual, no knowledge of previous issues of SRM is required to
enjoy these fantastic tales and you can pick it up as an audiobook or
print/kindle at the link below.
Savage Realms Monthly: Book 20
In Conan news, Titan Books and
Heroic Signatures will be publishing a new series of Conan the Barbarian short
stories, Savage Tales Short Fiction, as
well as other characters created by Robert E. Howard such as Solomon Kane and Bran
Mak Morn. Its comic book division, Titan Comics, is already red-hot this year with
the new Conan the Barbarian series penned by Jim Zub with artist Robert De La
Torre, this will only add to the excitement. They will be released monthly on eBook
platforms starting September 26th. Here is the publishing schedule of
Savage Tales Short Fiction for the
first year:
“Conan: Lord of the Mount” by Stephen Graham Jones
– September 26th, 2023
“Conan: Black Starlight” by John C. Hocking –
October 17th, 2023
“Solomon Kane: The Hound of God” by Johnathan
Maberry – November 28th, 2023
“Conan: The Child” by Brian D. Anderson – December
26th, 2023
“Conan: The Shadow of Vengeance” by Scott Oden –
January 30th, 2024
“Belit and the Jade Temple” by V. Castro –
February 27th, 2024
“Bran Mak Morn: Red Waves of Slaughter” by Steven
L. Shrewsbury – March 26th, 2024
“Conan: Terror from the Abyss” by Henry Herz –
April 30th, 2024
“Conan: Lethal Consignment” by Shaun Hamill – May
14th, 2024
“Solomon Kane: The Banquet of Souls” by Steven
Savile – June 25th, 2024
“Conan: Bone Whispers” by Michael Stackpole – July
23rd, 2024
“Conan: The Halls of Immortal Darkness” by Laird
Barron – August 20th, 2024
“El Borak: The Siege of Lamakan” by James Lovegrove – September 24th, 2024
There you have it, folks! That’s plenty to get excited about. Stay tuned to the blog for more Sword & Sorcery news, heavy metal music articles, and free short fiction from yours truly.
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