The River

De: Bill Stokes

Narrado por: Johnny Mack

The predatory genes we cannot deny are never more exercised than in deer hunting. In each individual, they travel an age-related arc that begins in youthful passion and settles finally into old-age relaxation. The blood lust with all of its attendant furies and dictates can be an awesome thing when it consumes the deer hunter in the velvet of his life.

Crossing the wild water was crazy, I knew, but I had a desperate need to bag the buck.

©1961 Bill Stokes (P)2017 Stokes Creative LLC

A coming of age short story

The River is a story about a young man out deer hunting trying to get his trophy buck and prove himself. There aren't many pages (or minutes) here, but it will make you feel something.

I love these stories by Bill Stokes. I know these are from ages ago (this one being published originally in 1961) but they still have such great feeling and "oomph" to them. This is the second short story I read by Stokes and it won't be my last.

Johnny Mack narrates The River and does a great job. I felt like he was the character in the book. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he was the perfect narrator for this.

Overall, The River is a great sub-20 minute short story that had me smiling throughout told by a master storytelling (in both the writing and the narration).

I was given a free copy of this book. This has not affected my review of it in any way.

If you enjoyed this review, please vote for it! If you'd like to see more like it you can check out BriansBookBlog DOT com.

so good

this was a short fun listen. i enjoyed it and the narrator was interesting to listen to make this story come to life.

Very well done

I feel like I listened to a story about deer hunting, but there was soooo much more to it. Life lessons, parallels to society in general. It was quite a trip for such a short story, but it packed a punch.

Great short story!

Another great short story by Bill Stokes! This is a story about deer hunting but more of a coming of age story about Bill as well. He goes on a hunting trip to get his first deer. Like most teenagers, Bill was a bit reckless. Act before you think! lol The fastest way to learn important life lessons. Great narration by Johnny Mack.

I gave this story a shot . . .

and it turned out hitting the bulls-eye on all counts. Short, straight to the point, and beautifully narrated. As a lover of the outdoors I felt as though I were right there with the main character as the story spoke with such accuracy and authenticity. I would venture to say that even city dwellers could lose themselves in the wild for a few minutes during this listen; it's that true to life. Again, the narration by Johnny Mack does the trick by hitting the target dead-center.

This is the first time i have read a work by Bill Stokes and I can assure you I will be checking out several of his other stories. Although this audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Boom, I will be purchasing others in anticipation of similar levels of enjoyment.

As an aside, I have already enjoyed listening to this book a few times and anticipate doing so again and again . . . whenever I have 20-minutes to kill.