Shame on Audible for Hiring this Narrator!

So how bad is William Mark Woelfle? I have smoke coming out my ears. This un-be-lie-va-bly bad narrator says "tacky-turn" for taciturn. Custer of the famous last stand becomes -- no, really! -- custard! The little word "a" which most of us pronounce "uh" is with Mr. Woelfle always a long a, i.e., "ay." The result sounds like a young child reading word by word. Did anyone ask how far this deep voice got in school? He quite ruined "colloquy." When he read that a character had been "mizzled" (misled), I had to write this review and stop listening. Volunteer readers do better over on Librivox!

3 people found this helpful

Horrible narrator

Worst, utterly worst narrator EVER. Skip this and try Zane Grey with someone else. You will glad that you did.

2 people found this helpful

Stinks

The narrator Stinks! I wished I could turn this book back in. It is absolutely terrible.

2 people found this helpful

the narration ever

the stories are amazing. After getting used to the clinical narration, the listen was not so bad. I wonder how the narrator understand the way people talk. His narration can dramatically the meaning of the sentence. It requires constant a adjustment to get the true meaning of the written sentence. I love the stories.

2 people found this helpful

Woelfle woefully bad

Story was good. Not great but just good. William Mark Worfle was THE worst narrator I have ever heard and that made it very hard to finish thes four stories.

1 person found this helpful

Made it through….

Ok, so in my previous review, I said there was no way I would make it through 40hrs of this. Well, I was wrong. Could be I’m just cheap and couldn’t bear the thought of not finishing what I’d paid for, but I did finish. The narrator did in fact prevent me from really immersing myself into the story, and wow are there some cringe-worthy moments—“poignant” became “poyg-nant” several times, “haughty” was “how-ty”, “interminable” was “inter-MEEN-able”, and perhaps most legendary of the gaffes was “Custer” becoming “custard.” Not even kidding. I began to wonder if the guy was doing this on purpose. Maybe he’s having a great big laugh reading this. But then the odd cadence and emphasis on awkward words of a phrase…it was altogether cumbersome and doddering. In any case, I did make it ALL the way through each book, albeit with reinterpreting the phrasing in my mind in the midst of the read. Unfortunately, Zane Grey’s wonderful prose languishes beneath an awkward narration, but it is still 40+hrs of great writing, wonderful characters, captivating landscape, and at times beautiful words that I will remember. It’s not ALL inedible; just spit out the seeds.

Does the narrator know English or The West?

The amount of commonly used words, that were mispronounced, was laughable. The most egregious boo-boo was the horse color “sorrel”. It is not pronounced sor-EL, it is SOR uhl. Don’t get me started on “chaps”.

The ejaculating cultural insensitive writer

Listening to this book was the most disappointing thing I have ever heard. It is full of racist remarks and a lot of culturally insensitive descriptions. The writing style doesn't even make kindergarten level. A big disappointment.

Man and his his quest for money, power, and love

a collection of very violent stories but seemingly authentic and captivating right till the end.