Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian

The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus

By: Robert E. Howard, Finn J. D. John

Narrated by: Finn J. D. John

Length: 35 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Howard & Finn John are a great combo!

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.

mind blown

I didn't expect to burn through these stories so quickly but they're some of the best raw fantasy I've ever read or heard. I highly recommend!

Finally to read the actual source material

How it could take me this long to actually consume all of Howard's original material is surprising. I truly enjoyed it and recommend others do so as well. Conan is well worth the time!!

Needed for fans of Conan

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!

fantastic listen, though probably not for everyone

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....

Excellent Presentation of the History of the Stori

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

CROM

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!

Outstanding reading

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

A must have for all sword and sorcery fans

This series is not only a great tapestry of the exploits of one of fantasy’s most well known characters, but an example of modern fantasy’s beginnings. Any reader/listener will be hard pressed not to enjoy this collection of wonderful stories

Great audio book

I’m a huge fan of the Original Movie, and now am a fan of the original source material. The narrator is great. My only minor complaint is the narrator’s narration of female characters. He tries well, but hearing a man do a feminine voice is sometimes laughable. I’d like it better if they got a woman to do the female characters.