Fantastical Tales - The Ultimate Collection of Sword & Sorcery Action-Adventures, Time Travel & Mythical Worlds (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Sword & Sorcery, Time Travel, and Mythic RealmsBy Robert E. Howard
Length70h
About this audiobook
Fantastical Tales gathers Robert E. Howard's kinetic visions of sword-and-sorcery adventure, lost ages, time-haunted civilizations, and mythic violence into a sweeping panorama of pulp imagination. Its stories move with muscular urgency: battles are rendered in stark, rhythmic prose, landscapes loom with archaic grandeur, and history dissolves into legend. Situated within the fertile context of early twentieth-century weird fiction, the collection reveals Howard's crucial role in shaping heroic fantasy as a genre of primal conflict, fatalism, and dark wonder. Howard, born in rural Texas in 1906, wrote from the margins of literary respectability yet transformed the pulp magazine into a vessel for enduring myth. His fascination with barbarism, frontier life, ancient cultures, and cycles of rise and decay informed his fictional worlds. Personal isolation, voracious reading, and an intense historical imagination helped produce tales that feel both antiquarian and urgently modern. This collection is recommended for readers seeking the foundations of modern fantasy, admirers of mythic adventure, and scholars of popular literature. It offers not merely escapism, but a fierce meditation on civilization, heroism, and the brutal poetry of imagined worlds.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.5 (18)
Includes Amazon, Goodreads
GenreFantasy
Length70 hrs
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 1, 2016
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Fantastical Tales - The Ultimate Collection of Sword & Sorcery Action-Adventures, Time Travel & Mythical Worlds (Annotated)
26CHAPTER II
2Introduction
27CHAPTER III
3Author Biography
28CHAPTER IV
4Historical Context
29Queen of the Black Coast
5Synopsis (Selection)
30I. — CONAN JOINS THE PIRATES
Show all chaptersShow less
6'Conan the Barbarian' Saga:
31II. — THE BLACK LOTUS
7Cimmeria - A Poem
32III. — THE HORROR IN THE JUNGLE
8The Hyborian Age
33IV. — THE ATTACK FROM THE AIR
9The Frost Giant's Daughter (Gods of the North)
34V. — THE FUNERAL PYRE
10The God in the Bowl
35The Slithering Shadow (Xuthal of the Dusk)
11The Tower of the Elephant
36CHAPTER I
12CHAPTER I
37CHAPTER II
13CHAPTER II
38CHAPTER III
14CHAPTER III
39A Witch Shall Be Born
15Rogues in the House
40I. — THE BLOOD-RED CRESCENT
16CHAPTER I
41II. — THE TREE OF DEATH
17CHAPTER II
42III. — A LETTER TO NEMEDIA
18CHAPTER III
43IV. — WOLVES OF THE DESERT
19Shadows in the Moonlight (Iron Shadows in the Moon)
44V. — THE VOICE FROM THE CRYSTAL
20CHAPTER I
45VI. — THE VULTURE'S WINGS
21CHAPTER II
46The Devil in Iron
22CHAPTER III
47CHAPTER I
23CHAPTER IV
48CHAPTER II
24Black Colossus
49CHAPTER III
25CHAPTER I
50CHAPTER IV
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