Clancy's Crossing

By: Evan Green

Narrated by: Richard Aspel

Length: 19 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

They say no one from the convict settlement of Sydney Town crossed the steep ranges of the Blue Mountains until 1813. But the quick-witted convict Clancy Fitzgerald did it in 1798, dragging with him the proud - but reluctant - Eliza Philips. Faced with constant danger and wrenching isolation, Clancy and Eliza found themselves pale-skinned strangers in a land of ancient traditions and spiritual beliefs.

©1995 Evan Green (P)2012 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Excellent

Being a European loving Australia this book drew me completely in the history of the land. With great respect for the aboriginals.

Rugged and wonderful

What was one of the most memorable moments of Clancy's Crossing?

The birth of Caroline... the differing reactions of Eliza and the Aborigines

Have you listened to any of Richard Aspel’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. I listening to him in "Batavia" and "Can't buy me Love." This book is by far and away better than both! It was a masterful performance, with accents, great inflections, and NONE of the pauses that made those other two books so frustrating.

Any additional comments?

I normally don't like this type of genre, and I was a bit wary of listening to Aspel after my disappointment with his reading of "Can't Buy me Love"... I am glad I read this. it is a rugged bush story, with all of the elements of an American wild-west story: gold prospecting, conflicts with Natives, old sensibilities confronting new exploration. I normally don't like books where I don't, on some level, like the protagonist's, but I can understand Clancy's motivations, Eliza's frustration as a wife, and the natives' hospitality and confusion regarding the white people in their midst.

This is a fantastic book, performed admirably. I can't wait to read Alice to Nowhere (also read by Aspel) and Dust and Glory (performed by Humphrey Bower, one of my favorite narrators of all time).

Rapid Degeneration into Imperial Soap Drama

This novel had all the makings of a great wilderness (man and woman against nature) all-night listen. Two British "transported convicts" escape tyrannical imprisonment in the 18th Century prison colony of Australia's New South Wales, but they hightail into aboriginal wilderness.

So far so good…right?

Then, fortunes change for the two star-crossed escaped-cons and they re-emerge into Sydney Society as a couple of out-ot-place, very well-to-do frauds. The novel degenerates from there into tension between the haves and have-nots. The author unsuccessfully attempts to keep the tension going by reintroducing a nemesis, however it's trite and campy, like a bad script for a "B" grade Aussie made-for-TV movie.

There is some great historical fiction in this listen, however, if you have read other Australian Historical Fiction (or seen the fine films from that continent), this novel may leave you wanting to put up a long Rabbit Proof Fence between you and this novel. It's a good journey, but not Dreamtime drama.

I give this novel one boomerang up and one musket down.

clancy tale

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

the narrator getting the voices right the aboriginals sound weird his english voice and irish are ok but the native is annoying the story also make the aboriginals seem wrong in there tribal ways and bushcraft are a lot differant to the books

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

didn,t make it that far hard to get through

Would you listen to another book narrated by Richard Aspel?

maybe but was very disappointed

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointment the other evan green book was okay