
The Pioneers
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Narrated by:
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Jim Killavey
About this listen
This is the fourth in Cooper's series of five books known as the Leatherstocking Tales, which were arranged according to the chronology of their hero, Natty Bumpo.
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Critic reviews
"The Pioneers is a rich chronicle of early frontier life filled with action, adventure, romance, and history." (The Literature Network)
Wonderful 4th part of the story of Nathaniel Bumppo!
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This book is especially interesting because it gives a sympathetic but contemporary glimpse at the conflict between American 'Pioneers' and the indigenous people and genuine frontiersmen whose land they settled. These books are in some ways the first 'western' novels, but they do not have any of the simple-minded racism of the movie westerns Hollywood churned out in the 1950s. In the context of our time, the book will be considered racist, of course. Taken in the context of its own time, the book is progressive.
Though it takes place after 'the last of the Mohicans' this was published earlier. But it is more politically relevant today than that more famous work. The Pioneers was published seven years before the ethnic cleansing of Jackson's genocidal "Trail of Tears," and it reminds us that, even 190 years ago, the 'nativist' and 'manifest destiny' movements were objected to by many Americans (Cooper's books were popular at the time). The book is also a poignant warning and reminder that the difference between right and wrong can be over-ridden by corrupt interest combined with jingoism.
It also seems to me that Oliver Wendell Holmes 'Breakfast Table' books, written 30+ years later, owe something to the first few chapters of this novel. At any rate, the conversations among the 'Pioneers' seem authentic, and to have the same 'culture of conversation' that existed then, but has died away now. A time when Americans could disagree without name calling - definitely worth remembering.
Killavey has a clear voice and his words are always easy to catch and understand. His female falsetto is problematic, but that's not unusual in a male reader. But his pronunciation is more problematic (I blame this on the editor, more than the narrator). I'm guessing he is from the UK, based on the way he pronounced 'slough' (to rhyme with bough, rather than through - the way an American would pronounce it, and the way the characters in the book would have pronounced it). But why a Brit would be brought in to read Fenimore Cooper is beyond my guess. And how a Brit could think that the interjection 'och' (which is Scottish, after all) should be pronounced to rhyme with 'botch' is a mystery (and an annoyance) to me. These are just two examples of many mistakes. Any American listener will catch several more errors.
The editing is problematic in other ways, too. The transitions between chapters is non-existent. Between the last word of one chapter, the statement of the title of the next chapter, and the first word of the next chapter, there is no time-space at all. The chapter titles were clearly added afterwards, but they were added badly. Indeed, the last words of at least one chapter were simply chopped off. I suspect Mr. Killavey's voice, probably more sonorous in real life, was 'sped up' by the editors, too.
In sum, I heartily recommend the book, but not this audio edition.
Old fashioned but still relevant, edition is poor
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Painfully bad reading of a 1790's country tale
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Where does The Pioneers rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Medium it is not as good as the previous booksWould you be willing to try another book from James Fenimore Cooper? Why or why not?
YesHave you listened to any of Jim Killavey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Yes very goodIf you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
After the wildernessAny additional comments?
Good book finishes his other stories that were great.Very good not as good as Deerslayer
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A glimpse of the past
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time for a remake
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for its time! The narrator was pretty good but made what I thought were a few pronunciation errors. However I checked them out and they were ok - alternatives pronunciations in a couple of cases, but acceptable.
Five Stars
Excellent and Insightful
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Great Story...Performance was not so Great
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Poor recording
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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
One of the worst readers I have heard on audible. Monotone with a stilted and unnatural rhythm. He does not pay any attention to punctuation and instead pauses at a cadence that according to a syllable count. It is like he is trudging through the paragraphs like a soldier on a long march.It is awful and makes it difficult to follow. "Unbearable" and "tedious" are the best words to describe it.
Would you be willing to try another one of Jim Killavey’s performances?
Absolutely not. I wish there was a feature to "hide" all books read by this author. Never again. I am forturnate it was a low cost book. But given how terrible the reader is I am not surprised the book goes for a pittance.Any additional comments?
Implement a "hide" feature according to readers. This way we can avoid mistakenly buying books from terrible readers more than once.It could also be a valuable metric audible could use in cooperation with publishers to eliminate terrible readers.
Terrible reader.
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