Comanche Moon

By: Larry McMurtry

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 23 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Comanche Moon completes Larry McMurtry's epic cycle of novels of the American West that began with the Pulitzer-Prize-winning masterpiece, Lonesome Dove.

We join Texas Rangers August McCrae and Woodrow F. Call as they are just beginning to deal with the perplexing tensions of adult life -- Gus, and his great love, Clara Forsythe, Call and Maggie Tilton, the young whore who loves him -- when they enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf, the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture.

Comanche Moon joins the 20-year time line between Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove, as we follow Gus, Call and their comrades-in-arms -- Deets, Jake Spoon, and Pea Eye Parker -- in their bitter struggle to protect an advancing Western frontier against the defiant Comanches, determined to defend their territory and way of life.

At once realistic and yet vividly imagined, Comanche Moon is a giant of an audiobook and the keystone to a mighty achievement of storytelling. An epic adventure full of heroism, tragedy, cruelty, courage, honor and betrayal, Comanche Moon is the culmination of Larry McMurtry's peerless vision of the American West.

©2000 Larry McMurtry (P)2000 Simon & Schuster

Fantastic book and one of the greatest Narrators!

Over the years I've spent countless hours on the road traveling between SENM and West Texas. I've been a fan of audio books when they were still in cassette form. Even then, Mr. Muller was riding along in the passenger seat on all those lonely roads. Be it the Dark Tower series by the King or this fantastic tale of the Wild West, no one narrates like Frank Muller, he was the best!

Fantastic

A wonderful story, well read. Can’t pass up this classic story. Rich characters in a impossible scenario.

Fantastic

Best western series out there. Does not matter if you are young or old, if you are interested in westerns, this is the series for you.

Good story, bad narrator

The story is typical McMurtry and enjoyable to a fault, but the narrator gets irritating with his constant drawn out word endings, and the irritation starts immediately. A great story (and several $$$) wrecked by a poor narrator.

Perfect Narrator

Where does Comanche Moon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Although Comanche Moon is definitely NOT as good as Lonesome Dove, it still ranks near the top of the audiobooks I have enjoyed over the last couple of years.

What did you like best about this story?

This story was really more of a Yarn than it was a novel. It was also extremely funny, although you wouldn't be able to guess that just from following what happened. In a way, this was McMurtry's tome to Death and Mortality, which makes it even more amazing to me that it wasn't the least bit heavy-handed. McMurtry was able to talk about facing death in a very serious way that was nonetheless also more than a little bit whimsical. Masterful, really.

Which character – as performed by Frank Muller – was your favorite?

Muller absolutely nailed Woodrow Call. In fact, I thought Muller's narration was spot-on throughout, perfectly depicting McMurtry's tale. I had read several reviews knocking Muller's performance, but I think his comedic timing was pretty near perfect for this particular audiobook. I would LOVE to hear Frank Muller narrate "Roughing It", or really ANY book by Mark Twain.

If you could rename Comanche Moon, what would you call it?

Crime and Punishment

Any additional comments?

This book brought to mind "Little Big Man" almost as much as it did the other books in the "Lonesome Dove" series.

Rambling Story, Excellent Narration

I enjoyed the listen, but found the story to ramble. Too many characters skipping from moment to moment. You lost track of what was happening with the main characters. The narration however was excellent. I wish the narrator had also performed Lonesome Dove. He was able to make each character unique and I was particularly happy not to have to listen to a screeching Gus.

Essential novel in the Lonesome Dove series

Another brilliant book in the Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry. Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae are advancing to middle age but still vigorous Texas Rangers. We follow their encounters with the Comanche still led by Buffalo Hump, but we meet his malignant son, Blue Duck, who is the great villain in Lonesome Dove, the next and most famous book in the series. The characters Inish Skull, the Texas Ranger captain, and his nymphomaniac society wife Inez add color to the novel. Ahumado is the nastiest of villains south of the border. A rich western tale. Excellent narration by Frank Muller. Pick it up, read the entire series.

fantastic from beginning to end!

This is one of my all time favorite books of all time! McMurtry is a master of the old West! I highly recommend this in any form but is great as an audiobook as well!

Too much back story, narration issues.

Any additional comments?

I have enjoyed Lonesome Dove and Frank Muller's narration of other books, but this did not work as well for me on either part. I enjoyed the parts with new characters and the story of the travels into Mexico, but much of of the Lonesome Dove characters story consisted of back story explaining how they would act in the next part of the sequence. I have also enjoyed Frank Muller's narration on several other books, especially "Prince of Tides" and "Shawshank Redemption," but some characters on this one seemed a little cartoonish, and his portrayal of female characters seems over-reliant on falsetto vocal technique here.

Bam!

I love this entire series. Larry McMurtry never disappoints, I enjoy listening to his books while driving it helps pass the time.