Book description
Conan the Freebooter: Where Bronze-Age Angst Meets Audio Drama
Listening to Robert E. Howard's Conan the Freebooter feels like discovering your favorite heavy metal band's rough demo recordings-raw, unpolished, and somehow more authentic than the polished versions that followed. This audiobook collection proves that Conan's appeal isn't in literary sophistication but in Howard's ability to craft testosterone-soaked adventures that make modern fantasy seem like genteel tea parties.
The stories here-particularly "The Black Colossus" and "A Witch Shall Be Born"-showcase Howard's genius for creating mythic moments from pulpy ingredients. Our Cimmerian hero doesn't just fight monsters; he embodies the fantasy that we'd all like to believe we possess when faced with life's inevitable humiliations. The audio format actually enhances these tales, transforming Howard's purple prose into something approaching Homeric oral tradition.
L. Sprague de Camp's introduction provides necessary context, though it reads like a scholar trying to explain why he's studying professional wrestling. The man's attempts to "refine" Howard's work feel like putting a silk tie on a barbarian-technically correct but fundamentally missing the point.
What makes this audiobook genuinely entertaining is how unapologetically ridiculous it all is. Conan doesn't just defeat enemies; he defeats them while wearing nothing but a loincloth and his own legendary confidence. The narrator's commitment to delivering lines like "I am Conan, and I brook no rivals!" without irony transforms what could be laughable into something genuinely epic.
Sure, the plotting occasionally resembles a drunk man's barroom storytelling, and Howard's understanding of historical accuracy extends to knowing that ancient people probably had better physiques than modern office workers. But that's precisely why these stories work. They're pure id translated into narrative form.
The audiobook's real triumph is how it captures Howard's rhythm-the man wrote like he was being paid by the exclamation point. Every sentence builds toward some climactic moment of violence or revelation, making these decades-old pulp stories feel surprisingly contemporary in our age of action movies and video games.
Conan the Freebooter succeeds because it doesn't pretend to be high literature. It's fantasy as pure wish fulfillment, delivered with the enthusiasm of someone who's just discovered that yes, you can indeed solve most problems with a really big sword. Sometimes that's exactly what the imagination needs.
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Highway
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Playing a wide variety of audio formats
Works on all devices with iOS 13 and newer
Huge amount of features for a small price
Frequent updates to add new features and improve existing ones
Advanced playback controls
Live sound processing
Changing the timbre of the reader's voice and noise reduction
Translated into more than 20 languages
If you love listening to fiction audiobooks, ListenBook has features to make the process easier.
Edit book data: title, author, cover
Use equalizer to make the sound comfortable for you
Adjust the playback speed
Enjoy dark and light app themes
Supported formats: MP3, M4B, AWB, FLAC, OGG audio files and many more (must be DRM free)
Auto-Bookmarks make it easy to find your place
AirPlay support allows redirection of audio output.
VoiceOver support
Dark mode for night owls
Convenient bookmarking system helps you mark the most important places.
Unlimited bookmarks for each audiobook
Put your own cover on the wager
Share your audiobook with friends
Lock-screen control
Customise app with extensive options
Sleep timer with shake to reset, set custom notification sounds, and a few unique options
Auto rewind depending on paused time, customize rewind times to your liking
Removing background noise from recordings made in classrooms and meetings
Changing the timbre of the reader's voice for a better listening experience