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    The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
    The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
    The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

    Written by Robert E. Howard

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    With Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard created more than the greatest action hero of the twentieth century-he also launched a genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery. But Conan was not the first archetypal adventurer to spring from Howard's fertile imagination.

    He was...a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan.... A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things.... Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect-he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane.

    Collected in this volume are all of the stories that make up the thrilling saga of the dour and deadly Puritan: "Skulls in the Stars," "The Right Hand of Doom," "Red Shadows," "Rattle of Bones," "The Castle of the Devil," "Death's Black Riders," "The Moon of Skulls," "The One Black Stain," "The Blue Flame of Vengeance," "The Hills of the Dead," "Hawk of Basti," "The Return of Sir Richard Grenville," "Wings in the Night," "The Footfalls Within," "The Children of Asshur," and "Solomon Kane's Homecoming."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 18, 2010
    ISBN9781400182282
    The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

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    Reviews for The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

    4.5/5

    23 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'd previously read all but three of the tales included in this collection, so with those titles not appearing separately, I added this volume.The stories I've read before were in another collection called "The Right Hand of Doom". The three that are new to me are titled "The Children of Asshur", "Hawk of Basti", and "The Castle of the Devil".These are all labelled as "fragments" with them being unfinished. They vary in length, with "The Children of Asshur" being the longest, though this was also the one I liked the least. The other two were more upbeat and have potential to blossom into something good.The character of Solomon Kane is well-crafted by the author but he's not one of my favourite creations by the brilliant Robert E. Howard. There's more variation to the stories than in some of his other works though. I find Kane tales quite hit and miss, though four stars seems an apt rating, as the good stories outweigh the weaker tales.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I find short story collections some of the hardest books to read. It's hard to get into a rhythm, and the impetuous to continue on is not there. This book was no exception. Solomon Kane is a fantastical man who sees only right and wrong and goes around the world defeating evil. I found the stories to be rather gothic in emotion and style, and I really had a hard time caring what happened next to this character. Overblown, dramatic, and boring. Not a good combination.
    • 4/5
      A book of short stories about Solomon Kane, Robert E Howard's Puritan avenging angel. Howard's prose is so visceral that he could make an IRA prospectus thrilling. Great book!
    • 4/5
      There a bunch of pulpy goodness here, much of it a product of its time (for better or for worse). I'm amazed at 1) how many incomplete Kane stories there actually were, and 2) how often every character shrugs their shoulders.
    • 5/5
      This is the ultimate in heroic fantasy. Quintessential. It's dark, edgy and intense -- beautiful, like an old master's painting, with vivid descriptions, emotions, and gritty, detailed fight scenes. This work has a lot of energy.
    • 4/5
      Kane is a grim guy. Not too hard too tell that Howard penned him. Determined, grim and resourceful. He wanders a world of fog, darkness and hypocrisy setting wrongs to right. Glad he is on our side.
    • 4/5
      It's Surprising just how powerful the old greats truly were.
    • 3/5
      I really was unprepared, though I had prepared myself because I have read other R E Howard stories, for just how racist these stories are. I tried to enjoy them for what they were in spite of this, but it was difficult at times. What enjoyment I could get was good enough, apparently, to get through these. They are good stories, and definitely R E Howard; and, while I feel uncomfortable recommending them because of the racism, if you can get past that part these stories are pretty darn good in a lot of ways.

      But, I keep asking myself if I _should_ have tried to get past the racism. I mean it's not like reading Sir Richard Francis Burton, and forgiving him for being a product of his time while reading fantastic stories of real life adventures of someone larger than life. These Solomon Kane stories are fantastic stories of fictional adventures and so there's less reason to forgive and less reason to choose to read them and more reason to choose to fill my time with other things.

      In the end, I don't regret reading these stories. I'm just a bit embarrassed by having read them for that reason. And, I certainly have to wonder how much if anything the filmmakers will salvage of the actual stories for the forthcoming film nominally Solomon Kane, or if the name and general characteristics will be all that's left after denaturing the offensiveness out.
    • 5/5
      Great stories written by a great author. I can't say enough about this collection, it's worth the read / listen
    • 4/5
      Fun to read. I enjoyed it more than I would've guessed.
    • 5/5
      Robert E. Howard was likely one of the most influential fiction writers ever. Great stories.
    • 5/5
      I really like the narrator's performance it really brought the storys to live
    • 4/5
      Solomon Kane is an excellent anti-hero, willing to do anything to combat the forces of darkness. He travels the land encountering various injustices and supernatural events. In many of the tales he acts mostly as an observer.
    • 4/5
      Seven short stories available on Gutenberg Australia. First few are so-so but later concerning Kane in Africa fighting Zombie Vampires, Slavers and Harpies are superb. I was supervised by relative openness of Howard toward Africans, especially when you compare him to racist Lovecraft. Another surprising feature of these stories is relative "realism" of Kane Heroics. He is powerful warrior but he is no Conan. He needs help of others and a dose of luck to supplement his skills. Quite different from what I expected. Savage Tales of Salomon Kane are really entertaining stories and Kane is a memorable hero. Definitely worth of time.
    • 5/5
      Some of Howard's best prose, a fair sample of his poetry and what is certainly his most mature, three-dimensional character, in a lavishly illustrated edition.An ideal tool to introduce the delights of R.E. Howard to those readers thatshrug off Conan the Cimmerian.
    • 5/5
      Solomon Kane, the Puritan avenger. I loved the character from the moment I heard of him. He cuts quite a dashing figure despite, or perhaps because of his somber mode of dress. Kane is not very representative of Puritans, but he nonetheless embodies the sterotype quite well. Fanatical in personality, unadorned in both speech and deportment, and convinced of the absolute sovereignty of God. He never sought to analyze his motives and he never wavered once his mind was made up. Though he always acted on impulse, he firmly believed that all his actions were governed by cold and logical reasonings. He was a man born out of his time--a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan, though the last assertion would have shocked him unspeakably. An atavist of the days of blind chivalry he was, a knight-errant in the somber clothes of a fanatic. A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, and urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things, avenge all crimes against right and justice. Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect--he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane.I think the most remarkable facet of his personality is his steadfastness. Swashbuckling heroes of penny dreadfuls typically wield a sword pretty well, but Kane is completely incorruptible. There is simply no point in trying to tempt him because he knows God always triumphs in the end, so there is no point in delaying the inevitable. In fact, he might as well just get on with killing the wicked and be done with it.My favorite story of the collection is Wings in the Night. Kane finds the remnant of a colony of harpies driven south into Africa by Jason in the Age of Heroes. He fights off an attack by the harpies, and badly wounded, recuperates in a local village that has been forced to offer up a sacrifice from amongst themselves in exchange for the protection afforded by the proximity of the harpies against the more vicious tribes living nearby. Initially, the village enjoys a period of respite because the harpies fear Kane, but eventually they simply decide to massacre the villagers for sport whilst avoiding Kane as best they can.Uncharacteristically, Kane curses the heavens for the cruelty of the world, because the villagers had placed a naive trust in him that he knew would come to naught. Yet he could not leave them to the harpies, and he did not have the weapons to overcome the harpies' superior numbers, so he simply waited until doom arrived. Kane of course cleanses the earth of the vile creatures, the but the cost is terrible. There is no attempt to justify this in the name of a greater good or explain God's ways to man, Kane simply avenges the fallen and moves on.An interesting facet of the Kane stories is the idea that the old magic is fading away from the world. Kane, being a tool of God's justice, always defeats the evil creatures he finds before him, even when greater men than he have previously failed. Like the work of his friend Lovecraft, the world of Solomon Kane is full of dark magic that is literally incomprehensible to mere men, but unlike Lovecraft's worlds, justice does indeed prosper at the hands of Solomon Kane. I was reminded of Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark and The Anubis Gates.In both of these books, strange magic lingers from the early ages of the world, but the reign of magic over the Earth has been forever broken, even though a vestige of its former power remains. For Powers, there is indeed a pivotal act in history that has rendered everything forever different, and there is a likeness to be seen in Solomon Kane. Kane vanquishes a demon sealed away in East Africa by King Solomon himself, precisely because he is a lesser man than King Solomon. Unlike his namesake, Kane serves faithfully, and so can now vanquish what was formerly merely restrained.Thus it is somehow fitting that several of the Kane stories remained unfinished, because Kane himself was about completing unfinished business.
    • 5/5
      Howard's characters tend to be cynical mercenaries, hulking bruisers, or both, but Solomon Kane - a lithe, hawk-faced knight-errant with something of the religious fanatic about him - is cut from a whole different bolt of cloth as REH's famous Cimmerian. In many ways, he's Howard's most compelling character, and The Savage Tales... compiles every story, poem, and fragment into which he figured. Many of the stories take place in deepest, darkest Africa, which creates some interesting dynamics for Kane and his Puritan mores, and also provides a perfect setting for Howard to weave his grim magic.
    • 5/5
      Solomon Kane - Puritan adventurer, swordsman with no match and man ready to fight to the very end against injustice and evil-doers wherever they many be. In my opinion one of the greatest book-characters ever.This great collection follows Kane while he hunts down the pirates and murderers, follows a strange call of the deep African jungle - and by doing that goes from one adventure into another, freeing slaves, fighting cannibals, discovering lost cities of old civilizations and all the time coming into contact and fighting ghastly creatures from eons passed.Here are also [unfortunately] unfinished fragments of several tales that just make reader wish for more :)Great collection, great stories.Highly recommended.