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Blood and Iron  By  cover art

Blood and Iron

By: Dan MacGregor
Narrated by: Brian Barnes, Full Cast
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Publisher's summary

Beginning aboard the U.S.S. Olympia, Blood and Iron is the first in a planned series of six books chronicling the adventures of Levi Rankin. Fresh from the wilds of Wyoming, young Marine Corporal Rankin is savagely tested in the Spanish American War (Battle of Manila Bay) while serving under Commodore Dewey. Rankin's courage is rewarded with a promotion, and he comes of age and learns the lessons of leadership and betrayal in the heat of the Philippine jungles, gunboat duty on the Yellow River, and finally during the brutal Siege of Peking during the Boxer Rebellion.

For Mature Audiences Only: Explicit language and situational violence. Must be 18 years of age to purchase.

©2002 Timberwolf Press (P)2002 Timberwolf Press

Critic reviews

"From beginning to end, the story has a lot of detail and energy." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Blood and Iron

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Blood and Iron

Beware of this title unless you like abridged works. It's billed as 'unabridged' but the intro clearly states that it is an unabridged dramatization BASED on the book of the same title, by the same author. You could sort of say it is an unabridged version of the abridged version! Any way you look at it, it is NOT an unabridged reading of the original book as the description leads you to believe. I encountered this same subterfuge with the supposedly unabridged title, 'Calculated Risk.' Audible was gracious in refunding my credits when I complained but I hope in the future, notice will be given in the description.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Blood and Iron

Abridged or Unabridged I loved it. Bring on the next five in the series. If you have ever been a Marine you will like it for the glimpse into life when the Corps was young. I am not sure I like the dramatization as much as narration, but I loved the story. Usually I listen to Audible on my daily commute on the "L", but this one had me listening in my kitchen. You won't be disappointed

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Squandered Opportunity

Absurd dialog, wooden voice acting, howlingly bad character accents, dizzyingly abrupt scene transitions, gratuitous and self-conscious descriptions of sex, hackneyed characters (the virtuous cowpoke, the villianous/cowardly rich kid, the hot-blooded Spanish Siren, etc.). To add insult to injury, the voice actor who announces the titles of each new scene ("Peking, 1900") sounds just like your dorky uncle Larry when he's trying to make his voice deeper and say something "important".

And it's such a #^*$!$@% shame! As some of the other reviewers (USMC vets it seems) point out the times (1898-1900), places (Phillipines, China river patrol boat, Peking), people and events (Battle of Manila Bay, Phillipines Insurrection, Boxer Rebellion, Seige of the Foreign Legations in Peking) of Blood and Iron are fascinating, exotic and little known. My fellow reviewers show their Semper Fi and make perfectly valid points about parallels with historical greats Dan Daly and Smedley Butler. Why aren't they absolutely furious about the lousy job this "dramatization" did with such terrific material? This story could have been ABSOLUTELY AMAZING in the hands of a good writer. Instead, it rivals the quality of the early volumes of the Mack Bolan canon. I listened to the very end in disbelief, hoping against hope that the story would heave itself up out of the muck and end in a more satisfying flourish. When it was all over, I popped the last disk from the CD player, gathered up the others and threw them in the round file.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Blood and Iron

This is a great story. Let me say that right off the bat. And if it was abridged they did a good job of it and there are no holes or gaps. If your a Marine you'll like it because it deals with a part of the history of the Marine Corps that most of us are a bit foggy on and hasnt been dealt with very much in books or movies. I liked the way that Macgregor inserted actual events (Dan Dalys actions during the Boxer rebellion)and real life characters (Smedley Butler who he names Buller)and weaves them around the main character. He did his homework on the technical side and I only found a couple of things that didnt fit, I think we had Lee straight pulls not Krags then and dont call me Sarge.
Like I said before this is a great story, however that being said the dramitization SUCKED. The fellow that played the main character, Levi was ok and the narrator was good but with very few exceptions the cast was awful. Way overacted and some of the accents were so fake as to be offensive If you can work around the awful voice acting and just pay attention to the story you'll like it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story.

I haven't listened to a production better than this in years. The book is well written and the acting and voices enhance an already good book. I will be watching for another book or production from this author.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

If yoy Liked Richard Sharpe

If you did like and enjoy Richard Sharpe you will really like this one,I could not stop listening once I started, thanks Aubible.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Blood and Iron

I heard a few chapters of this book on XM Radio. I HAD to hear the rest of the book. It was the reason I signed up for audible.com. One of the best audio books ever! I know I will listen to it more than once! ~ Jenna

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Adventures of Young Turnover of the Century Marine

The story covered the historically accurate fictitious adventures of a young Marine 1898 through 1901. It covered his his participation in the Spanish American War, the Philippine "insurrection", and the Boxer Rebellion. The action sequences were gripping. The story was well written and narrated. Actors were employed to voice the parts of some of the characters. This contributed to the enjoyment of the story in most cases, except in the combat sequences, where they did not reflect the voices of young men who were under severe stress. All-in-all, the audiobook book was very enjoyable to listen to.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great Book

This book is so well written that you feel like you are there with the charters. Story keeps yo u wanting more, to see how the adventure will turn out. Highly recommend this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love it

it keeps you going on audio,the only bad part is its not a series, that would be ausume

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