The Age of Daredevils Audiobook By Michael Clarkson cover art

The Age of Daredevils

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The Age of Daredevils

By: Michael Clarkson
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
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About this listen

At the dawn of the twentieth century, a small but determined band of barrel jumpers risked their lives in one of the world's most wondrous waterfalls. Only a few survived.

By turns a family drama and an action-adventure story, The Age of Daredevils chronicles the lives of the men and women who devoted themselves to the extraordinary sport of jumping over Niagara Falls in a barrel - a death-defying gamble that proved a powerful temptation to a hardy few.

Internationally known in the 1920s and '30s for their barrel-jumping exploits, the Hills were a father-son team of daredevils who also rescued dozens of misguided thrill seekers and accident victims who followed them into the river. The publicity surrounding the Hills' spectacular feats ushered in tourism, making Niagara Falls the nation's foremost honeymoon destination, but ultimately set Red Hill Jr. on a perilous path to surpass his father's extraordinary leaps into the void.

Like the works of Jon Krakauer and David McCullough, The Age of Daredevils explores the primal force of fear and the thirst for adventure that drive humans to the brink of death to see if they can somehow escape.

©2016 Michael Clarkson. (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
United States

What listeners say about The Age of Daredevils

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

interesting

loved the the history of the falls and what. conveyance that people used in their attempts to go over the falls in one piece and alive.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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great info

really good book for some history about the falls and the river men who lived off of the devastation.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Does it matter?

Mildly interesting at first but it dragged slowly to a non-ending. The stories of a bunch of dumb people risking their lives to go over the falls just doesn’t have any redeeming value.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very interesting

Many years ago my family visited Niagara Falls and while there we visited a museum that had some of the barrels that had been used for the various stunts. I found it very interesting to hear the story about the people associated with those exploits.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A by gone era

You feel as if you know the River Boys who risk their lives and the consequences that play on their families lives saving people who come into contact with Niagara Falls. William Red Hill will always be remembered as a great Man and the patriarch of the Daredevil's.

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12 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating

Who knew. Well I guess the people living near the falls knew. Met some really fascinating characters who were clearly born too soon. Could only wonder what their lives would be like today with cable and social media

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A Story seldom heard

I love little bits of history that rarely make the history books. Everyone knows the people went over the falls in a barrel but to know these people makes history come alive. The Hill family story needs to be told. It kept me involved & sometimes at the edge of my seat. I felt the heart sickness of the wives who were helpless to convince their husbands & father to their children to choose them over the falls. But there was a call, an obsession, or even a vision of fame & money that had to be fulfilled regardless of the insurmountable odds against success.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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who knew?

Interesting niche of History . Like flagpole-sitting and Marathon dancing people didn't have as many distractions as they do today.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Too long

Interesting story at times but drags on with excessive mundane detail. If the story were half the length nothing would be lost.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting

The facts given within are interesting...but this is not a spellbinding book. I could take it or leave it. It is a good choice if you have work to do that would get ignored if you were stuck in a book!

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32 people found this helpful