King of the Bastards

By: Brian Keene, Steven L. Shrewsbury

Narrated by: Doug Greene

Part sword and sorcery, part extreme horror, King of the Bastards is a wild adventure across seas, beaches, and mountains full of horrifying monstrosities, dark magic, and demonic entities.

Rogan has been many things in his life as an adventurer - a barbarian, a thief, a buccaneer, a rogue, a lover, a reaver, and most recently, a king. Now, this prehistoric bane of wizards and tyrants finds himself without a kingdom, lost in a terrifying new world, and fighting for his life against pirates, zombies, and the demonic entity known as Meeble. And even if he defeats his foes, Rogan must still find a way to return home, regain his throne, save his loved ones, and remind everyone why he's the king of the bastards.

©2015 Apex Publications (P)2017 Beacon Audiobooks

Unabashed Pulp fantasy goodness!

I picked this up on a whim, liking the idea that someone wrote an unabashed old school pulp fantasy. I wasn't disappointed! This reads like an old RE Howard Conan book, only one where Conan had his kingdom, tired of the throne and passed his kingdom on to his heir to rule while he want back out and had more adventures. All this takes place in a pre Hyperborea Eath, so some of the countries and places will sound similar. If that sounds intriguing, this is the book for you. While on a fishing trip off one of his old ally states, in a bireme of all things, his ship is attacked by a tentacled horror, Pirates, and then zombies after the ship is destroyed. Before the ship sank, though, Rogan is told by the lead pirate he was sent by Logan's unknown bastard son, and he has conquered his kingdon and imprisoned the rightful king, and are raping and pillaging across his kingdom. They end up on a beach in unfamiliar territoy and discovver a tribe of natives. The native, and a group of Amazons who happen to be staying with the natives, agree to help them get home if they get rid of the evil necromancer and his demon on the top of the local mountain. Well, needs must, so if off to slay the wizard. What follows is a wild trip to the mountain, with the inevetible comingling with the Amazons, with hilarious results.The climb up the mountain is crazy, and the fight after involving magic, strange science and even a dash of time travel is just gonzo fun. This being pulp fiction, you can probably figure out how it ends. It is a lot of fun right through to the end.

The characters are all larger than life Conan archetypes. Rogan is big, powerful and an epic warrior, even pushing 60. His nephew and aide is also an epic warrior. The Amazons are all beautiful, even with the one breast missing (traditional Amazons) and great warriors, all while being wildcats in bed. This is certainly not a PC kind of title. Its much more old school, and I think it is an underserved market in the current marketplace. While they may be over the top, they are entertaining. The settings are well thought out and described, and fit the story well. The plot is fast paced, and relies on a lot of action to keep things moving.You just dont see this kind of book written too much anymore, sadly.

Doug Greene's narration was solid, keeping the story moving and giving the characters their own voices. Very good effort on his part.

If you are into the kind of fantasy RE Howard was writing, this is something you may want to check out. I know I am looking forward to any sequels.

Fun barbarian adventure

You get exactly what you expect, and if it is what you are looking for this story is a lot of fun.

Cool title

I thought this was going to be a grimdark fantasy. Instead it was a simple mess. The dialogue went from old style cliche' to " I am going to take a p*ss". The narrator sounded like he read the whole thing from a teleprompter without ever seeing it before. He didn't even attempt to change voice once throughout the whole book.

awful narrator. can't listen to it.

I love Keene books and was looking forward to a short, exciting adventure but this narrator is just bad. tried to give it awhile to see if I could adjust to him but I can't. he's dull and doesn't fluctuate his voice at all