This version is abridged!

At the end of Part 1, Cal is cold, hungry and talking to someone, and then suddenly he's eating stew. This didn't make any sense to me. I got the book from the library and discovered that the audio book had skipped 20 pages -- it skipped from page 33 to 54. I did some more checking and found a different audio version published by Recorded Books. That version is 30.5 hours long -- 7 hours longer! The Simon and Schuster version is abridged and misrepresented as unabridged.

I also thought the narrator was terrible. He tries to achieve dramatic affect by putting great emphasis on the last word of a sentence and dragging out its pronunciation. "The two rode close together as they had through their years as RAAANGERS." The narrator of the first book, Dead Man's Walk, was much better.

97 people found this helpful

unabridged & missing at least one large chunk

I advised audible that "Both the .aa and .aax (level four and enhanced) versions of Larry McMurtry's Comanche Moon are missing a large chunk of audio at the end of "chapter 1" and "chapter 2" as it is bookmarked in these formats (running from page 33 to page 54 in the hardbound 1997 version." Their response: "I reviewed the audio file for all formats and it does not appear that there is an issue with the audio. When listening to the book on all formats there are no sudden stops or breaks at he ends of these chapters. If you are listening and following along with the written book then you may notice some differences in the content. In some cases even the unabridged versions of an audiobook will not be word for word in relation to the written book."
I understand that even unabridged will not be word for word, but 19 pages is a hefty chunk to be missing. That it isn't highlighted by a sudden stop or break? Faint praise for a significant issue, I think.

75 people found this helpful

Worst narration ever.

This is just awful, weird narration and constantly distracting from the story. Please consider re-recording this great book with a competent narrator. Very disappointed.

28 people found this helpful

Not lonesome dove

I recently bought Lonesome Dove, despite thinking I wasn't a fan of westerns, because of its stellar reviews. That book was an amazing saga, classic American drama, and even after the whole 40 hours (if I remember correctly) I wanted more- so I downloaded Comanche moon and another of the prequels (dead men walking?). You know what? I really am not a fan of westerns. If you like cowboys and Indians, you might enjoy this book, but if you're looking for more like Lonesome Dove, skip it, you will be disappointed.

23 people found this helpful

Vexing

What did you love best about Comanche Moon?

Good story,love the characters

Terrible choice for a narrator. Especially after Dead Man's Walk.

What did you like best about this story?

A return to Gus and Woodrow

If you could take any character from Comanche Moon out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Gus McCrae, he's a talker

Any additional comments?

The narrator was a poor choice for this book. I personally don' like Muller's narration. Would have been MUCH better if Will Patton had done all 4 books.Also the word Vexed or vexing was used almost every 10 pages. It kind of takes you out of the story when an author uses a word like this so often or maybe it was just the annoying way Frank Muller says it.

6 people found this helpful

Killed by an inept narrator

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The story, as with each of the other books in the Lonesome Dove saga, is top notch. McMurty is a master storyteller whose characters easily come to life in the imagination of the reader.

What didn’t you like about Frank Muller’s performance?

Muller has the unfortunate habit, intentional or not, of ending his sentences with a kind of gruff, overly dramatic whisper that is at once laughable and annoying. When I first heard it, I had hoped that it would subside; but, my hopes came to nothing, and the prolonged rising, then falling intonation of Muller's voice led me to abandon the book altogether. I have listened to the other three books in the saga, and each narrator did an excellent job, but this feel far short. The other complaint, one at least two other reviews have mentioned, is that Muller does not vary the voice of the character enough to make them distinguishable. Call sounds like McCrae sounds like Scull sounds like Long Bill Coleman.

Any additional comments?

I cannot vouch for this, but at least one other reviewer has pointed out that there is significant portion (~19 pages) at the beginning of the book that is missing. While I cannot say whether this is accurate or not, this, combined with Muller's poor performance as a narrator, is enough to persuade me to leave the audiobook aside and read the final installment of the saga for myself.

18 people found this helpful

Beautiful Writing, Mismatched Narrator

This book is more about Famous Shoes, Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf, andBlue Duck than Call and McCray. It may be my favorite of the series. Would've been even better with the same narrator who did Lonesome Dove, but only because he was magnificent. I highly recommend Comanche Moon.

10 people found this helpful

This narrator SUCKS!

This has to be the most horribly narrated book I've ever attempted to listen to. I could not suffer through more than about an hour of listening to this man's droning, nasally, completely horrible voice!

15 people found this helpful

Accurate in i5s history, clever storytelling

Lonesome Dove is one of the most entertaining novels I have ever read or listened to. This prequel was almost as fun. McMurtry is a great story teller and this novel is historically accurate. Great characters, great narration.

8 people found this helpful

Very Poor Narration

The storyline is the ONLY reason I kept listening. Frank Muller stinks as a narrator. If Will Patton was not available, the producers should have waited for him. The narration was so poor, I found my mind wandering much of the time, and I had to reverse course, to get back on track. This being a key part of the Lonesome Dove series, I couldn't very well avoid it. Though, I may read the book to get the full effect of the story. There is ONE voice Muller does with any sort of feeling: Gus. Other than that, it is dry and monotonous. And for some reason, Muller draws out the end of sentences when not reading a character's lines. IF you give it a listen, and I pray you won't.... The least you will come away with is the continuation of the series. UPDATE 8/4/20: I stopped listening and returned this title. Not only does the narrator SUCK, the author, for some odd reason, inflicted a passage of Greek language (I think it was Greek) on the storyline. Considering that I, like millions of people across the globe, do not understand Greek, this was a waste of time and space, and given the horrendous narration, the infliction of the Greek was salt in the wound. If you are considering this book, STOP. Deep breath... move on. It was so horrible I don't even care not to know how it ends.

3 people found this helpful