Heaven and Hell: Volume Three of the North and South Trilogy

Oh yes I would. Because of the history and the fiction that blended together so wonderfully.

The Lonesome Dove series. For the same reason I would listen to them again. The history blended so beautifully with the fiction. The characters of both series so worth knowing.

Yes, I did. He had good clear voice.

I would not change it. The title fit the story.

John Jakes Triology - North & South, Love & War, Heaven & Hell. What amazing novels!!! Far much better than the tv show which starred Patrick Swayze (RIP a great actor), it was a wonderful tv show but the books are better because of the more details. The books tell of things that the show could not. Please use your credits to listen to them. They are as good as Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series, which John Jakes quotes in the third book of the series. Also, what I loved about the novels is how John Jakes mention many times Charles Dickens and several of his novels.

Having listened to the entire series it felt like Mr Jakes started to lose his enthusiasm for the story. By killing off one of the most interesting characters early in the series he sort of painted himself in a corner. The whole "journal" aspect was annoying and I really wanted to just fast forward through those parts but since I had invested so much time in the previous books I waded through it. I wanted to see how he was going to conclude everything but the series really seemed to go down hill. Some of the story lines were dull at best and only the Charles story line really was worthwhile. With that said even that had some aspects that were very unbelievable. Grover was solid but he could not save the dragging story lines. If you listen to North and South you will probably want to listen to Love and War and so on. Knowing now what I now know I am not sure I would of used my credits.

I went through this whole series, one after another. The third book, while good, was not anywhere near as interesting as the first two. The description of the fight with the Indians with Custer was so vivid, it almost made you sick. I really like the depth of Charles Main's character. On the other end, I felt that few other characters were as developed in this book, as in the others. At times, it felt more like a mish mash of historical facts. Aston was fascinating to watch sink as a result of her own choices. Bent proved to be an interesting character weaving through the books.

All and all, I am glad I read the last book as I would have always wanted to know what happened with each of the characters. But the fact that this book was not to the level of the quality of story telling as the first two was clear. Still an enjoyable read and a must if you have done the first two books.