Customer Reviews

Desert Gold (Thorndike Western I)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great story. I found myself hesitant to pick this book up and reluctant to put it down. I haven't been a big reader of westerns, but I have been wanting to do some historical reading. 'Desert Gold' interested me because it was a western that covered the times that it was published in: 1913.

The characters are just good people surviving a harsh environment, protecting whatever and whoever they can. It took me a while to get my mind adjusted to Zane Grey's style of writing, but I really enjoyed everything about it. This is a unpretentious story of finding root, pursuit, escape and survival and it provides a medium for Zane Grey to get philosophical on us during long dusty nights in the desert. Although it may have bogged down a little, I liked the philosophical. Always have. The book has a satisfying ending even if it did finish a little cleaner than it was set up to do.

I read this in the 1964 paperback edition, but it would be great in audio!

Desert Gold is a great read and quickly gets you involved with the story. Zane Grey is simply a treasure and prolific author. This book contains a little big of romance, adventure and takes us back to a time before television and telephones.

I love reading Zane Grey but this is one I had never read before. Great style. Also, great price!! I believe it was just $1.

I just finished the audiobook of Desert Gold, and I still don't know whether I like Zane Grey's writing. This Tantor edition is read by John Bolen, who takes the prize as the worst audiobook reader I've heard. He has no concept of phrasing or inflection. Have you ever learned a foreign language well enough to understand speech, but not to the point that you start thinking in that language? That's how this audiobook feels. Every sentence is read so obtusely that you have to mentally correct the pauses and the rise and fall of the voice into something that makes sense in English before you're ready to take in the next sentence.
At first I thought he might be sight-reading the book, never having rehearsed it. But I read books to my kids without rehearsing - pretty much every parent has - and I never sounded like this guy. And he must have read it in advance, because he has different voices for each character. He must have planned that after reading the book. And what voices! Embarrassingly stupid parodies of human speech. I would suggest that someone teach Mr. Bolen that a reader need not try to play a dozen parts of a play - just read the book. But then we'd still have Mr. Bolen, and he simply can't be trusted to read aloud, regardless of the voice he's trying to employ.
I listen to audiobooks because they make a long commute and service calls enjoyable. This was an exception. It was a study in how a reader can get every word right and every sentence wrong. I finished it, because I'm stubborn that way, but I found myself listening to furniture store ads on the radio, procrastinating my return to the book.
If you find this Tantor edition in a library, as I did, check it out, but check out another book at the same time as a backup. Then you can listen to a little of Mr. Bolen and marvel at how a reader like that got a job recording for a major audio publisher. Then switch books.
I might check out a Zane Grey book in print - maybe even Desert Gold - and see if I like it.