r/hughcook

Hello fellow adventurers!

This post is to make you all aware that the first audiobook for Chronicles of an Age of Darkness is almost upon us!

How do you know?

My name is Morgan Scott, and I am very lucky to be the narrator for this amazing book, and I am very excited to see it finally come to fruition!

A few years back(during lockdown), I was looking for an audiobook version of Hugh's work and much to my dismay, no such audiobook existed. In my naivete I thought "Well how hard can it be?".

It turns out, quite hard actually.

I created YouTube channel aptly named Rovac Reading, with the goal of publishing recordings of short stories, and working my way up to Hugh's novels. Alas, that channel has since been taken down due to copyright concerns (It's all due to certain readings about a certain prince created by Michael Moorcock which were republished shortly after my own versions), but before that happened, I found this subreddit and posted a reading of The Invasion Of The Chickens, one of Hugh's short stories.

I am by no means a professional audiobook narrator, this started purely as a fan trying to create something for other fans. As luck should have it, the folks at Zenphos Press are also big fans, who have aspirations of doing the exact same thing. They contacted me and expressed interest in getting me onboard once they had secured the rights. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Over the past few years I have been working with them and preparing for the monumental task of reading these books for you.

Book one The Wizards and The Warriors is now complete, and ready to go in for the final Quality Assurance by the various platforms that will be hosting it for us.

When can we expect the book?

The aforementioned QA by the platforms can take a couple of weeks, but it's ready to go and provided there aren't any issues with it, we can expect it to be published as soon as that is done! Watch this space for the confirmed date.

What platforms will it be available on?

Initially it will be available through Amazon (Audible) And Google Play Books. It will be later expanded to include Apple and Kobo, and then B&N, Everand, smasheords, Tolino, Vivilo, Bookshop.org, Fable, Overdrive, cloudLibrary, BorrowBox, Hoopla,Gardners and Vivilo libraries.

What can we expect?

This is a full unabridged reading of The Wizards and The Warriors. The publishers have been very supportive and eager that this remain a fan production. As such, we are open to feedback on all upcoming books, with the goal of improving with each one. We truly thank everyone who has been supportive of the releases so far, and can't wait to share further works for you to enjoy!

So is it any good?

Well you get to be the judge, especially if you get an early listening copy, and if so please feel free to link a review. I am but a humble apprentice who knows not alliteration from euphony. Please note: As these copies are due to go through the relevant platform checks, they are subject to slight changes with the final release.

To gain access to a copy, please leave a comment below, and a link will be DM'ed to you for download. We are limiting this to the first 50 commenters, so get it while you can!

Finally

A huge thank you to all of the folks at Zenphos. Never would I thought as a young teen, picking up a fantasy novel at a car-boot sale that had a cool cover, that I would one day be the one creating the audiobook version of that novel. I'm sure a Mod will be ducking their heads in here to confirm everything I have said as soon as they can.

That night, Morgan dreamt that he slept in safety in Wales with his cat at his side; he woke to the light of dawn, and found, to his relief, that the dream was true.

"Dearest Hugh,
happy 50th - you made it! I have only just realised you are 50 - I thought that was next year! That is because I thought I was going to be 47 this month. I'm glad you enjoyed the marzipan. With regard to the lost stapler dilemma - I think staplers are designed in a similar fashion to potato peelers, pens and umbrellas ie there is an invisibility conspiracy so you have to keep buying more. We have put bright red tape stripes on our beige one. I hope South Korea isn't bomBed as we have 2 homestays with us for 4 weeks (boys aged 10 and 12)and I hope to send them home in 2 weeks before they eat us out of house and home. Mother says you boys were the same at this age. I'm glad to hear that you too are struggling to be 'Top Dog' on the domestic front managing an ankle biter - parenting is a most humbling endeavour. Your girl sounds just fab xxxxCatherine"

Posted as a comment on Hugh's blog here, twenty years ago:

https://hughcook.blogspot.com/2006/08/e-mail-planet.html#115519687642730631