Son of a Wanted Man

An Audio Dramatization

By: Louis L'Amour

Narrated by: Dramatization

AN AUDIO DRAMATIZATION

An outlaw's legacy...

In a remote corner of Utah lies the secret outlaw kingdom of Ben Curry. For fifteen years Curry has ruled supreme, as his men have pulled jobs from Canada to Mexico. But the king is getting old... he wants to turn his legacy over to someone younger, tougher. Mike Bastian is Ben's adopted son, a young man who can handle a knife, a gun, his fists, but a man who's never broken the law.

Now, as treachery explodes among Ben's riders, and two honest lawmen—Tyrel Sackett and Borden Chantry—begin to zero in on the gang, Mike must choose...between his loyalty to Ben and his yearning for a different life. Yet when the guns start echoing off the Vermilion Cliffs, the time for choosing is over—and the time for battle has begun.©2005 Louis & Katherine L'Amour Trust; (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Excellent dramatization

A thoroughly enjoyable experience. Only wish the story were longer. Listening to the end was well worth it for the interview with Louis himself!

Narration Problem with Audible Version

First of all, I love the story which is loosely based on the Louis L’Amour novel of the same name which follows Mike Santos (whose surname is Bastian in the novel) being adopted by an outlaw named Ben Curry after a trigger-happy gang member killed Mike's father following a bank robbery and then raising him up to be his successor. I found it to be cinematically immersive and entertaining, like being read a movie script coming to life.

Just to clarify, this review is specifically for the Audible version, NOT the original audio CD. While I have the CD version, I had gotten the digital version a few years back so I could use it whenever I go somewhere (i.e., into town) and use the CD at home. This is so I don't have to take the time to swap discs and potentially get them scratched whenever I drop them by accident. But then I got rid of the Audible version because there is a problem I have with it that apparently is still there.

That problem concerns where the narrator makes the following introduction: "Random House Audio Publishing and louislamour.com present Louis L'Amour's Son of a Wanted Man". Audible for whatever reason has it somewhere completely different compared to how it’s played on the CD version.

In the Audible version, this narration is made BEFORE the prologue which takes place on a dock with two men reading a newspaper reporting the discovery of gold in California (causing the dialogue and music to be disconnected from the rest of the dramatization) while the CD version correctly has the narration AFTER the prologue.

I don’t know why Audible did this. They certainly haven’t done this with the 2015 audio dramatization of Louis L’Amour’s The Diamond of Jeru which I own both the CD and Audible versions of. They really need to fix this problem or else I’m not getting the Audible version again. I have brought this up in an Amazon review once before in 2020 and they clearly haven’t done anything about it since. Guess Audible is either being too lazy or they don’t care. Now I know that such a minor detail may not seem like a big deal for some people and some of them might ask “What’s it matter?” and “Who cares?” Well, I care and I believe that it does matter because this is NOT how it’s played on the original CD version, and I would prefer the Audible version to play just the way it does on the CD.

Story amd Interview

I loved hearing the afterwards about Louis' struggle to become a writer and then how he made his career in Western Literature which at the time was not popular. The story itself is completely intriguing as well and is a great read

Wonderful dramatization

The complex of characters seeking their true was of life is wonderfully told by these actors. I loved it. The interviews at the end were a bonus.

Like old time radio show

I really enjoyed this type of dramatized story telling. I could listen to Terrence Manning read anything, but all the other voice actors was incredible. First rate, great story. I never like the idea of lawlessness being romanticized, to me it’s just wrong. Having Michael/Miguel faced with the dilemma of continuing his father’s life was, of course, the lesson. Thank you to the brothers L’Amour