Tarzan

Not for everyone, thankfully.

Revisado: 02-25-24

I almost hate that it’s getting so popular lately and I hope to God Hollywood doesn’t desecrate this magnificent work. It is utterly impossible to translate this prose to film.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Decent, but selective history

Revisado: 08-08-22

The background of the Missouri-Kansas border war is rather skewed and the violence and brutality of the Kansas Red Legs and Jayhawkers is actively downplayed and often outright omitted to create a specific narrative.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good for someone new to the Viking era

Revisado: 02-01-22

Jumped around a lot, lots of rambling, could have been much better, but it should set someone uninitiated in the history of Vikings fairly well.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Meh (and I know the M-A War well)

Revisado: 03-19-21

Written like a young adult novel, some cringe dialogue. Also Mexican President Paredes declared war against the United States on April 23rd, 1846. Why does the author state that the US did so first?

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Updated Review: Never underestimate Alan Le May

Revisado: 01-29-20

My first review was when I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish it:
“It doesn’t help that I’m 10 chapters in and I’ve heard more about cows and cattle and sod and soddies and handwringing women than is in ten standard westerns.”
Yet the next 30 plus chapters more than made up for the slow start. The narrator who I didn’t like listening to for extended periods became less bothersome and more impressive as his various character voices came into their own. If this is your first Alan Le May go listen to The Searchers next, it’s even better and the narrator for that one is easier to listen to.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Ron Hansen is excellent again

Revisado: 12-06-19

The sample doesn’t do justice to the fantastic voice work of Bramhall’s dozen different men and women all recognizable by their own sound.
Hansen recreates this story in the best way possible.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

The best historical fiction and the best narrator performance on Audible

Revisado: 10-24-19

I am not in any way one of these people that gives four and five stars to everything, if you can see my reviews you’ll see that. I can be a harsh critic, especially when it comes to the choice of the narrator:

This is such a fantastic work I can’t believe I went this long without reading it. This is a serious and direct novel, it has a pall of sadness throughout and yet there’s not a boring moment in the entire book.

I’m a long time fan of Patrick O’Brien’s Master and Commander series, hailed by many historical fiction aficionados as the best of the genre, and competing against 21 books of that series I would put The Searchers at number one.

If you’re looking for an easy listen like a Louis L’Amour book this isn’t for you. If you think all Native Americans were Wood Fairies, this isn’t for you. This book isn’t a happy, little western action novel, there’s no obvious hero, Everybody is flawed just like real life.
This book is western literature.

This blows anything by Larry McMurtry away like a 10 gauge shotgun.

It’s nothing like McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, but it’s every bit as good if not better, and that’s something I thought I would never say about another book set in the 19th century west.

Also this is one of the few narrator performances that I am telling friends to listen to rather than to read.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Another story mismatched with an overly perky and proper narrator

Revisado: 09-13-19

Who makes these choices? Terrible match up. Schlesier was one of the greatest researchers of the plains peoples, most especially the Cheyenne. His approach is serious and deeply researched and accurate. The narrator over accentuates and over annunciates. It’s too much like the schoolhouse instruction of how to read a story.
If you know Schleiser’s work and know the Cheyenne get it, the narrator is not unbearable, he just makes it feel like a teen novel.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Good story sterilized by narrator

Revisado: 09-05-19

The first book had an older man with a grizzled voice that didn’t accentuate the text like a junior in high school. One can only imagine how much better the story would feel with the correct voice narrating it. Read this one instead of listening to it

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

A different cover photo is all it needs

Revisado: 03-28-19

Create a better cover art for this and it will get a thousand more purchases and it deserves it, right up there with the best historical books of 19th century warfare on Audible.
Very good telling of this hardly known part of the Civil War.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas