Gates of Imagination

Two exiled necromancers come to a land where everyone is dead - and decide to make themselves its emperors.Welcome to Zothique, the last continent of a dying Earth, lit by a fading red sun. Banished from Tinarath, the sorcerers Mmatmuor and Sodosma cross the desert to Cincor, a kingdom wiped out by plague. There they raise its people from their graves, pale and silent servants who obey without will or memory. In the city of Yethlyreom the necromancers rule over a court of corpses. But among the dead, someone is beginning to remember..."The Empire of the Necromancers" by Clark Ashton Smith, first published in Weird Tales in 1932, is one of the finest tales of the Zothique cycle: a dark, poetic and deeply melancholic story about death, power and the rest that the dead deserve. Smith, alongside H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, was one of the great masters of the golden age of Weird Tales.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

🎃 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving – the full, unabridged audiobook of America's most famous Halloween ghost story. First published in 1820, it gave the world the Headless Horseman and remains one of the classic tales to hear on an autumn night.In a drowsy Dutch valley on the Hudson, where the air itself seems full of spells, the people still whisper about a Hessian trooper who lost his head to a cannonball and rides out each night in search of it. Into this haunted place comes Ichabod Crane, a lanky, superstitious schoolmaster with an appetite for good food, ghost stories and the hand of the lovely heiress Katrina Van Tassel. But he has a rival in the boisterous Brom Bones, and the road home from the Van Tassels' autumn party runs straight past the old church bridge…Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

(00:00:00) Intro (00:00:11) Chapter I (00:21:54) Chapter II (00:29:07) Chapter III (00:39:34) Chapter IV (00:44:12) Chapter V (00:52:54) Chapter VI (01:03:31) Chapter VII (01:16:37) Chapter VIII (01:35:42) Chapter IX (01:44:39) Chapter X (01:57:03) Chapter XI (02:21:57) Chapter XII (02:25:14) Chapter XIII (02:30:25) Chapter XIV (02:43:55) Chapter XV (02:50:04) Chapter XVI (02:55:31) Chapter XVII (03:03:05) Chapter XVIII (03:14:49) Chapter XIX (03:27:18) Chapter XX (03:45:23) Chapter XXI (03:59:09) Chapter XXII (04:03:22) Chapter XXIII (04:10:11) Chapter XXIV (04:16:23) Chapter XXV (04:24:53) Chapter XXVI (04:34:50) Chapter XXVII (04:57:04) Chapter XXVIII (05:05:09) Chapter XXIX (05:13:46) Chapter XXX (05:21:14) Chapter XXXI (05:35:22) Chapter XXXII (05:44:36) Chapter XXXIII (05:49:15) Chapter XXXIV (05:56:10) Chapter XXXV (06:04:11) Chapter XXXVI (06:07:34) Chapter XXXVII (06:14:14) Chapter XXXVIII (06:35:19) Chapter XXXIX (06:41:43) Chapter XL (06:54:53) Chapter XLI (06:59:15) Chapter XLII (07:17:35) Chapter XLIII (07:20:26) Chapter XLIV (07:22:27) Chapter XLV (07:23:51) Outro A heartwarming classic romance from the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables, about a woman who decides, at last, to live life on her own terms.Valancy Stirling is twenty-nine, unmarried, and utterly overlooked. She lives under the thumb of her domineering mother and a judgmental family in a small Ontario town, escaping only into daydreams of her imaginary Blue Castle. Then a doctor's letter tells her she has only a year to live – and Valancy stops being afraid. She speaks her mind, scandalizes her relatives, leaves home, and makes a bold choice that leads her to the wild lakes and forests of Muskoka and to the mysterious, much-gossiped-about Barney Snaith.First published in 1926, The Blue Castle is one of Lucy Maud Montgomery's few novels written for adults, and today it is a cult favorite among readers who love slow-burn romance, found freedom, nature writing, and gentle humor. Often called the perfect comfort read, it is a story about courage, self-discovery, and finding joy in an ordinary life.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

(00:00:00) Chapter VIII (00:46:45) Chapter IX (02:04:50) Chapter X (03:12:57) Chapter XI (04:44:28) Chapter XII 📖 The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis - the full, unabridged audiobook of the most scandalous Gothic novel of the 18th century. Published in 1796, it shocked Georgian England, earned its author the nickname "Monk" Lewis and became one of the founding works of Gothic horror.All of Madrid gathers to hear Ambrosio, the abbot of the Capuchins, a preacher believed never to have known temptation. But when a young novice reveals a secret, the man the city calls a saint takes his first step down a path from which there may be no return. Around him unfold a tale of forbidden love, the ghost of the Bleeding Nun and the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

(00:00:00) Chapter IV (02:06:05) Chapter V (03:06:22) Chapter VI (04:11:46) Chapter VII 📖 The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis - the full, unabridged audiobook of the most scandalous Gothic novel of the 18th century. Published in 1796, it shocked Georgian England, earned its author the nickname "Monk" Lewis and became one of the founding works of Gothic horror.All of Madrid gathers to hear Ambrosio, the abbot of the Capuchins, a preacher believed never to have known temptation. But when a young novice reveals a secret, the man the city calls a saint takes his first step down a path from which there may be no return. Around him unfold a tale of forbidden love, the ghost of the Bleeding Nun and the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

(00:00:00) Preface - Imiatation of Horace (00:02:37) Chapter I (01:04:01) Chapter II (02:47:08) Chapter III 📖 The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis - the full, unabridged audiobook of the most scandalous Gothic novel of the 18th century. Published in 1796, it shocked Georgian England, earned its author the nickname "Monk" Lewis and became one of the founding works of Gothic horror.All of Madrid gathers to hear Ambrosio, the abbot of the Capuchins, a preacher believed never to have known temptation. But when a young novice reveals a secret, the man the city calls a saint takes his first step down a path from which there may be no return. Around him unfold a tale of forbidden love, the ghost of the Bleeding Nun and the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

The Man Who Went Too Far by E. F. Benson – a classic Edwardian folk horror story, read in full. In a quiet village on the edge of the New Forest, a young man devotes himself to nature with a joyful, almost religious passion. Birds settle on his hands, the years no longer touch him, and in the woods he hears the distant music of pipes. But the old god of the wild has two faces, and the man who seeks to see Pan himself may learn that nature is not only beauty and light.One of the finest weird tales by E. F. Benson, master of the English ghost story, and a perfect companion to The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen and The Willows by Algernon Blackwood. Ideal for fans of gothic horror, Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories, pagan folklore and nature horror, or as a dark bedtime story to fall asleep to.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick – a classic Cold War science fiction short story, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1953.For eight years, humanity has lived underground. After a devastating nuclear war, the survivors of both East and West have retreated deep beneath the surface, working in endless factories to build weapons. On the radioactive surface above, the war goes on, fought on their behalf by tireless robot soldiers, who send back daily reports of burning cities and poisoned land.But when a robot returns from the surface showing no trace of radiation, a small group is sent up to see the truth with their own eyes. What they find there will change everything they believed about the war, about their enemies, and about the machines built to defend them.A sharp, ironic and surprisingly hopeful story about propaganda, fear and the lies we are told "for our own good." Philip K. Dick later expanded this idea into his novel The Penultimate Truth (1964). The Defenders is an essential read for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction, atomic age retro-futurism and classic golden age sci-fi.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

(00:00:00) Introduction (00:04:23) Chapter I - I Meet Sir Henry Curtis (00:25:37) Chapter II - The Legend of Solomon's Mines (00:46:51) Chapter III - Umbopa Enters Our Service (01:12:37) Chapter IV - An Elephant Hunt (01:34:35) Chapter V - Our March into the Desert (02:04:21) Chapter VI - Water! Water! (02:30:01) Chapter VII - Solomon's Road (03:06:03) Chapter VIII - We Enter Kukuanaland (03:25:00) Chapter IX - Twala the King (03:53:27) Chapter X - The Witch-Hunt (04:22:37) Chapter XI - We Give a Sign (04:53:15) Chapter XI - We Give a Sign (05:16:58) Chapter XIII - The Attack (05:37:07) Chapter XIV - The Last Stand of the Greys (06:16:09) Chapter XV - Good Falls Sick (06:39:48) Chapter XVI - The Place of Death (07:04:43) Chapter XVII - Solomon's Treasure Chamber (07:20:31) Chapter XVIII - We Abandon Hope (07:53:50) Chapter XIX - Ignosi's Farewell (08:13:48) Chapter XX - Found Before Nathan Drake, before Indiana Jones, there was Allan Quatermain.Veteran elephant hunter Allan Quatermain is hired by Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good to find Sir Henry's missing brother, who vanished while searching for the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon. Armed with a centuries-old map drawn in blood, the three men cross a scorching desert and freezing mountain passes into the hidden land of Kukuanaland. There they face the tyrant king Twala, the sinister witch Gagool, and a civil war, all before reaching the legendary treasure vault deep beneath the mountains.Fast-paced, atmospheric and packed with danger, King Solomon's Mines is one of the most influential adventure novels ever written. It inspired a century of explorer stories, from pulp magazines to Indiana Jones and modern action-adventure games.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.

Beyond the fields we know lies Elfland, where time does not move and nothing ever ends.The people of Erl grow weary of ordinary rule. They want to be governed by a magic lord, so they send their young prince Alveric across the twilight border of Elfland to win Lirazel, the daughter of the Elf King. He returns with her - but an elf-princess cannot be held by mortal hours, by village custom, or by the slow grief of a world that ages. When her father's third and mightiest rune calls her home, Elfland withdraws to the utmost east, leaving Alveric to wander the years in search of a country that will not be found, while their son Orion grows up hunting unicorns along the border of two worlds.First published in 1924, this is Lord Dunsany's masterpiece and one of the foundational works of modern fantasy literature; a direct influence on Tolkien, Lovecraft, Le Guin, Neil Gaiman and Peter S. Beagle. A lyrical, dreamlike fairy tale for adults about longing, mortality, and the cost of inviting magic across your threshold.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--6962309/support.