A Journey West

By: Edward Luttrell

Narrated by: Bill Glenn

Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

A Journey West is the saga of Jasper Mason and his family moving west - seeking a place to call home - while overcoming the dangers and hardships of a challenging and harsh western life. Jasper Mason and his family will face down trouble, ranging from outlaws to small-town politics, as they look for a community where they can put down roots.

The tale is also the love story of Jasper and Marth as they combine their strengths to support each other as they face the adversities of a frontier life. Jasper is an expert with a six-shooter, but he wants no part of the reputation that comes with being a shootist. Martha - being an amazing marksman who has few equals when looking down the barrel of a rifle - yearns for a home and to be part of a community.

From eating dust on the trail to being shopkeepers, Martha and Jasper’s life together is continually tested. When they claim their homestead on the slopes of a majestic mountain, they will face their greatest challenge and a chance to create a home.

©2021 Edward L. Luttrell (P)2021 Edward L. Luttrell

A mostly inoffensive fanfiction of an era

Not bad, but bare bones and fairly dry. Heavy in narration with minimal from characters point of views. Many events communicated via shorter narrative summary before moving on.

There is a minimal character development and limited exploration of the relationships there in. Enough is disclosed to get a general sense of the characters and motivations but not much else beyond. I feel the characters lacked a lot of their own agency and motivations. The result, characters mostly felt shepherded through the story the author wanted to tell vs driving the story.

As for the story itself, it felt like early pioneer family fanfiction. With a heavy dash of idealized Hollywood cowboy tropes and stereotypes of that era.

The book narrator did an adequate job, inoffensive no complaints. Minimal embellishment or emotional intonation was added throughout the storytelling. I believe they did the best they could with the material and any embellishment above and beyond might not have been true to the author's intent anyway.

The strongest points in the story were clearly when the author was pulling from some of their own life experiences, history and or interests. Those weakest were probably character development, relationships, and generally interacting with one another.

I do not know if I would recommend this book to anyone per say, but I definitely encourage the author to continue writing.