Gunman's Tally
Written by L. Ron Hubbard
Narrated by Shane Johnson and Jim Meskimen
2.5/5
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About this audiobook
L. Ron Hubbard
With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most acclaimed and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard.
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Reviews for Gunman's Tally
18 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I don't recommend this book, because philosophy is always woven into a writers works, and this author's philosophy is strange. This is good production for an audio book, but it is the content that I dislike from a philosophical perspective.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I should preface this by saying that I’m not really a fan of audiobooks in general-- I personally find them more effective for non-fiction works than for fiction, where I feel the portrayals limit my imagination and thus my enjoyment of the book. That being said, I could see the effort put into releasing this audiobook, but I didn’t find it particularly well done or enjoyable to listen to.Actually, my favorite part of this audiobook was probably the packaging. It contained several essays on the author and his pulp fiction works in particular. They're biased but nonetheless provide an interesting context. Perhaps the most fascinating tidbit from the biographical essay discusses L. Ron Hubbard’s short-lived Argosy column and reality tv prodromus “Hell Job,” which described his experiences in a series of “dangerous professions.” A quick Google search reveals that some of his assignments included “Mine Inspector” and “Flying Trapeze,” and also, weirdly, “Ethnologist.” I imagine that these engagements shaped Hubbard’s preference for the pulp genre, in which he was extremely prolific.I think that anyone who is a fan of pulp westerns will find this to be a standard offering. The story, admittedly a light one that doesn't really go anywhere quickly, involves cattle ranching and gunfire, and the writing revels in the hardscrabble portrait of the American West that is so appealing to adventure seekers. However, some issues become magnified when the novel is converted to an audiobook format. Descriptions that probably seem standard on the page start to take on a disconcerting tone. I would venture to guess that when Hubbard wrote this story, he did not expect it to get such a treatment. In fact, this revival project raises the question of whether he expected any of these works, which were admittedly printed on cheap, easily decaying paper (hence the name “pulp fiction”) to be preserved for posterity.The prose here may be a matter of taste (I personally find it jarring to read that a man’s brain has “congealed around one thought.”) I also found some of the descriptive writing distracting-- at one point Hubbard writes that a man is an absurdly specific “6 feet 4 and only 130 pounds.” At other points the dialogue seems forced. But these are minor quibbles, and probably apply to the pulp genre as a whole-- the overall problem being that the text is dated in some obvious ways (it’s pretty distracting to hear a story told about a cowboy type named “Bill Gates,” for one.) You have to wonder whether the group of people working on this adaptation in 2012 were aware of that awkwardness, and whether that contributed to how often they veer into caricature.My personal feeling is that inflection can’t replace tone when it comes to convincing voice acting, particularly when the characters portrayed are meant to represent excesses of human experience. “Doc Spriggs”, for instance, boasts accented, slightly gravelly speech, but still sounds like a clean, city-living person, as do most of the actors used here. In a story that depends so much on the extremity of its characters, one would hope for a more committed performance. Most problematic is the fact that the portrayals here are sometimes racist in nature, something that is not rectified by the voice acting: Hubbard refers to a Chinese person as “The Chinese,” “The Little Yellow Man,” etc., while the actor speaks in a stereotypical accent. I think it’s great that the production attempted to adhere to the tone of the source material, but this is one case where they rose to the occasion a little too well.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Reviewed for LibraryThing as an early reviewer.Story synopsis: Gunman’s Tally: Easy Bill Gates rides into town to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of a merciless gunfighter. The aftermath leaves his ranch, his friends and Bill in mortal peril.Ruin at Rio Piedras: Banished to Rio Piedras because of his incompetence and generally unruly behavior, Tumbleweed must deal with an obstreperous ranch owner, rustlers, traitors and the girl he loves.Review: Gunman’s Tally: This is definitely a PG rated story due to language and the treatment of animals. The setting is somewhere in the western US in an area difficult to raise cattle due to the lack of water. Perhaps in the 1930s this wasn’t a stereotypical view of ranching and ranchers. The story is saved by the rather late focus on friendship and support through difficult circumstances.Ruin at Rio Piedras: Although the actors ‘chew the scenery’, this short tale has the redeeming qualities of humor and the success of the ‘good guys’.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I received a set of L. Ron Hubbard audiobooks to review. This was one of them. The audiobook portion was very well-done and was more like a radio drama of old and less like a traditional audiobook. I did not care for the actual book though.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Having never encountered any of Hubbard's work, I judged this book by its cover and expected a pulp western with little substance, but perhaps a mildly entertaining story. If this story was simply flat I would not be surprised, but this narrative, if one could call it that, abounds in plot holes and ill conceived characters, not to mention some criminally offensive writing. His similes fall flatter than a three legged horse on a racetrack. His metaphors are not much better. Keep in mind he only resorts to those when he runs out of adjectives. Also, nothing tragic happens in this story. All the good guys turn out as spotless as a hog in buttermilk. As for the bad guys, well, what do you think? Not even blindness can stop the quickest draw in the West, or wherever the hell this story takes place. Hubbard's not too clear on that, either. In short, this drivel makes Bonanza look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This review contains spoilers near the end. From the description, one knows what to expect regarding the events in this book. Hubbard has written a geographically confusing western with relatively flat characters which fails on almost every level to remain engaging and entertaining. The music and voice actors often cloud the story with overacting and terrible stage accents and it makes it harder to identify or care about any of them. I agree with another review which said it made them laugh because I was laughing quite often while listening, but it was by no means from enjoyment. There are quite a few racist elements to this story which, while to be expected from most pulp novels, really seem placed oddly throughout the book. For example, referring to Mexicans as "Mex" and "Mexs" ad nauseum during one chapter and referring to "Ching the Chinaman" in extremely stereotypical, racist ways. This doesn't add anything to the novel and in context to the story, it seems often forced by the author. The plot is straightforward until the end and never ceases to be overwhelmingly purple. Hubbard definitely takes his time getting to the point or the action and he often overwrites situations and repeats himself. On more than one occasion, he describes a character as doing the same exact thing in the same way within a single scene, such as having a character get up angrily, walk across the room angrily, reach for something angrily, etc... He also repeats the entire character's name rather than using pronouns or shortening anything (Easy Bill is always Easy Bill, Smiling Jimmy is always Smiling Jimmy, etc...) and it gets rather tedious. The ending is the most frustrating part of this book because Smiling Jimmy rides into town and is murdered by Greaser, yet after the climax, reveals himself to be alive. However, Greaser himself and Barton, the main villain, discuss how Jimmy was murdered. When Jimmy shows up to greet Bill at the end, no explanation is given. The only thing readers are told is that Easy Bill can discern what has happened for himself. As a reader, I'm left frustrated with disbelief. Hubbard seems to have copped out at the end to give everyone a happy ending.