Audiobook Review: Lynch: A Gothik Western

Lynch: A Gothik Western

by Nancy A. Collins

Narrated by Lucas D. Smith

Length: 3 hrs 15 mins

Published by Nancy A. Collins

Lynch is about a man who has become an outlaw after losing his family while he served for the Confederate Army. He meets a young woman and becomes a settler in the west. This marriage is short lived when he watches his young bride trampled by cavalry with their unborn child and his house burned to the ground-

and then, himself lynched. 

he is revitalized from his "inconvenience" by a medicine man and seeks revenge on the men who "inconvenienced" him.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. It is a sort of western Frankenstein story. It was not the type of story I normally enjoy but the plot was interesting, the writing was well done for the most part, a couple of times I stopped and thought, "Wait, where did that come from?" or "How did that come about? Did I miss something?" but without making it an epic 20-40 hour audiobook I thought it was great. 

Lucas Smith's voice is- 

unique

to say the least. he has a deep, rich, and somewhat grough voice that is perfect for the main character, Johnny Pearl, and the more you got to know Pearl the better the voice fit him. Smith's voice does not lend it self to other voices, however. most of the time it worked out but I had to use my own imagination when he got to the 13 year old boy and female voices...those were however very rare.

There was also a part or two that could have been more suspenseful, more dramatic, if he had chosen to read it differently. It was partly the writing in a spot or two. 

If you like zombies, Frankenstein, or westerns, you will probably like this book.

Check out

Bitter Seeds
by Ian Tregillis

Princess of Mars
By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Audiobook Review: All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

by  Erich Maria Remarque

Narrated by Frank Muller

This is a story about the horrors of war, plain and simple. It is gruesome and graphic with a purpose and a relevancy. One of the most striking things about the voice the author chose and Frank Muller performed with excellence is the detached indifference.  

At first I was disappointed by the passionless reading until I got into the story and realized that was part of the story. Paul, the main character and story-teller has been so affected by the Great War that he lies about the situation of his friends death to that friends mother and has no problem with it. At another point he reflexively stabs a man repeatedly with a small dagger and is obsessively distraught by it for hours while he sits in a bomb crater as the man dies slowly, unable to help him or end his misery.

I was not the biggest fan of the writing style (or maybe it was the translation, done by A. W. Wheen)  although it was effective being in first person journal style. To me it was a lot of pronouns and a little bit- jerky? disjointed? I'm not sure and thinking about it now it may have been intentional.

Anyway,  This book is non-the-less very well written to the effect of being thought provoking. 

And as the book was written-

so it was read.

I recommend this one for the vivid view of war it brings, to an American, from another side. 

You might also like:

 

Citizen Soldiers 

by Stephen Ambrose

The Grapes of Wrath 

by John Steinbeck  

 

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