Shadows in Zamboula by Robert E. howard | Conan the Barbarian



#conan #robertehoward
Narrated by Mark Nilson.

“Shadows in Zamboula” is one of the original stories by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian, first published in Weird Tales in November 1935. Its original title was “The Man-Eaters of Zamboula”.

The story takes place over the course of a night in the desert city of Zamboula, with political intrigue amidst streets filled with roaming cannibals. This story also introduced a fearsome strangler named Baal-Pteor, who is one of the few humans in the Conan stories to be a physical challenge for the main character himself.

By present-day sensibilities, the story is marred by including a racial stereotype – blacks as cannibals – though Howard strove to lessen this by making it clear that the cannibals in Zamboula are only the specific blacks from Darfar, other blacks being untainted. A white character, Aram Baksh, proves to be a more sinister antagonist by facilitating, exploiting, and profiting from the cannibalism of the Dafari slaves.

special thanks to Mark Nilso and all librivox team

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5 thoughts on “Shadows in Zamboula by Robert E. howard | Conan the Barbarian”

  1. So this tale takes place during one eerily long night huh? I don't care if its a Lovecraft story, a Howard story, or a Robert E. Howard P. Lovecraft story, they're all terrific. Keep em coming 🤘🏼

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  2. This guy is a good narrator-shame many Conan stories have been taken down over the last years. The only ones left are all LibriVox recordings. This included. Also, many R E Howard and Faffrd and the Grey mouser stories, and el borak .
    The old days of YT before the Crawlers found them.

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