The Beginning

Longhorn Series, Book 1

By: Dusty Rhodes

Narrated by: Gene Engene

Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Buck Cordell is a giant of a man in a giant, untamed land called Texas. He builds a cattle ranch where ordinary men all say it can't be done a cattle empire that defies all odds, a family that changes the course of Texas history, and a legacy that outlives the Old West.

Round 'em up: listen to another novel in the Longhorn Series.

©2007 Dusty Rhodes (P)2007 Books In Motion

Nice western fare!!

Absorbing tale. Love Westerns! Great voice on the narration but I have heard better when it comes to the character separation and accents. Good first taste!

western cliches abound

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

Yes, but with a warning. I knew he was a gunslinger, 'cause he wore his rig low, and he had nervous, squinty eyes. You could load that Sharps in the morning and shoot all day. She was the storekeeper's daughter. Get the Point?

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

For a book that's over the top, you need a performance that's over the top, Right, stranger?

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

They must have already made 50 of these, and I went to see all of them. Don't make 'em like this any more though, do they, Pard?

Not too bad.

What did you like best about The Beginning? What did you like least?

The way the two partners got their capitol to start a ranch.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Very interesting.

Would you be willing to try another one of Gene Engene’s performances?

No thank you!

Cowboys, Outlaws and Indians

It was described as a saga across several generations of a pioneer Texas family. I was expecting a historical novel about the settlement of the west. Phillip Meyer, Charles Frazier, Larry McMurtry type of novel. The beginning sounded promising. But the remainder was disappointing. Bad guys, shoot ‘em up, blood thirsty Indians, shoot ‘em up. Damsels in distress. Thousands of cattle for the taking (some were paid for). And lots of frontier justice. Maybe somebody might like this formulaic old timey western. But I found it awfully predictable, outdated and just plain melodramatic.
The narrator was good with many unique voices to distinguish different characters. Except he did horribly with female voices.
I would not recommend this book.

Not so much

What disappointed you about The Beginning?

The entire story was slow moving. Many of the comments the main character made were just cheesy. I found myself rolling my eyes over and over.

Has The Beginning turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I have read/listened to others of this genre and really enjoyed them. I love westerns, but this one just did not do it for me.

What three words best describe Gene Engene’s performance?

The narrator was ok, not great, not bad.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Beginning?

Most of the book seemed to be lacking a punch. I kept waiting for something big to happen, it didn't. I listened to the entire book and was not impressed.

Any additional comments?

It's not a bad story, it just needed something more. The author's descriptions were good I could picture what he was describing, but the story just fell flat and predictable. I felt like the publisher must have "pushed" the author to complete by a date instead of giving the author the time needed to make it great. Disappointing.

Great reader, flat characters

I loved the start of this classic western - the reader was amazing and he transported me into the old wild west. There was a lot of action, which kept me interested for the first half of this novel. And then the action slowed a bit, and with time to think, I realized that I didn't really care about any of the characters. They were neither real nor interesting. There were two kinds of characters - good guys and bad guys. Nothing in between. I felt like I was watching a very long episode of Bonanza or Gunsmoke, which I enjoyed for a while but then it got dull. If you love classic westerns, I expect that you will like this. The writing is good western writing and a lot happens. I enjoyed seeing how the two partners built a huge ranch from nothing. But this so paled in comparison to Lonesome Dove, another western novel about a cattle drive. Lonesome Dove, though, has truly unforgettable characters. The Lonesome Dove audiobook has a lame reader, and so the paper version is best for that. I rated The Beginning 3 stars because I was drawn into the story and enjoyed the first half. I'd say the story is 2.5 star story, but the great reader and fun language boosted the experience to a 3 star one for me.

A little hokey, like the authors name

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I felt like it was geared to a youth audience, I didn't get that when I bought the book.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I didn't make it to the end, I tried, even got close, but didn't make it.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

It wasn't bad, just too juvenile for me. The narrator was pleasant.

Do you think The Beginning needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not for me. Young people, and perhaps the elderly folks would go for it.

Any additional comments?

For me, this book was like tuning in to an old time TV western, entertaining for a while but too unsophisticated to keep your interest.

Simplistic, Predictable, Improbable.

Pros: The story moved along at a good pace. The threads were fairly easy to follow.

Cons:
1. The narrator had a fairly narrow range of voices... as long as the characters were male. His female voices were not well done. His 5 male voices were able to be rendered in both a southern and a Spanish accent, so that helped.
2. There was no "plot" to speak of. Clearly this is going to be a "saga." And that's fine; I like sagas, but not this one because...
3. The story begins with $20,000 falling into the lap of Buck and Chet, which not only gives them an excellent opportunity to successfully kill a lot of people to protect the money (that doesn't belong to them) but also to spend lavishly to start their cattle ranch.
4. They are so insanely successful, that it almost becomes laughable. There are cattle ranchers in Mexico that will sell cattle to him for $3 a head, delivered, knowing he's going to sell them in Missouri for $20. But instead he gets $40 because the demand is so high! Then they plan to begin flooding the market with cattle and instead of any worries about driving down the price, it keeps rising.
5. There is absolutely no problem with finding top-notch, loyal, skilled and willing workers as the ranch operations explode in size from 2 to hundreds in a year.
6. The ranch does get a few challenges thrown their way, but mostly the loyal partners and their loyal cowboys and loyal girlfriends just keep getting money thrown at them.
7. Buck and Chet, in this first book, are putting all this money into LEASED ranch land with only a 5-year lease. Can anyone predict where that is going?
8. When something bad happens, which usually forces them to kill a bunch of people, the boys think about it for a little while and then move on.

In other words, this is a predictable, unchallenging, simplistic, unbelievable story that borders on juvenile.

These hard-bitten survivors of the Confederate army, Texas cowboys don't even say "Damn!"

I'm not buying book two. I'm somewhat sorry I bought book one.