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The Indifferent Stars Above
- The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's Summary
From the number one best-selling author of The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American frontier.
“An ideal pairing of talent and material.... Engrossing.... A deft and ambitious storyteller.” (Mary Roach, New York Times Book Review)
In April of 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and 14 others set out for California on snowshoes and over the next 32 days endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.
In this gripping narrative, New York Times best-selling author Daniel James Brown sheds new light on one of the most legendary events in American history. Following every painful footstep of Sarah’s journey with the Donner Party, Brown produces a tale both spellbinding and richly informative.
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What listeners say about The Indifferent Stars Above
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Garrry
- 2019-07-22
Outstanding
I knew it was going to be good. It did not disappoint! Very descriptive and captivating.
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- Manitoba Reviewer
- 2021-05-15
One of the top ratings in my library
Author impressed me with his thoroughly engaging and professional treatment of this historic tragedy.
Contrary to some reviewers' panning of the narrator's style, I found him to be well suited for the role and enjoyed the book all the more. If I want animation I watch cartoons.
Overall, highly recommended.
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- Tyler C.
- 2022-05-02
Loved it
Loved the book, at times it was a hard listen due to the sufferings the settlers had to endure throughout the book and especially towards the end but nevertheless these stories need to be passed down throughout the generations to show the lives of our ancestors isn't as glamorous as television shows
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- Brenda
- 2023-08-04
Excellent depiction of this true story
A great read! A nice take on someone who in normal historical circumstances would not be recognized
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- KJS
- 2022-02-21
An Incredible Story & Dry Narration
Brown beautifully weaves the tragedy of the Donner Party together in a cohesive, gripping narrative. Glimpses of life during the American frontier are prevalent and engaging. The author masterfully avoids sensationalizing what is ultimately a story of human perseverance and the distance we are willing to go to save ourselves and those as love. Some may consider this an emotionally punishing read, and it should be - Brown does not hold back on details, and they only enrich the narrative presented.
I believe this book would've benefited from a more animated narrator. While the narration of the story was not horrible, it suffered from a lack of energy, which this story desperately needs in its darkest hours.
Nonetheless, an amazing story, and one that is highly recommended.
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- Karen
- 2023-01-18
Great book
Daniel James Brown is a wonderful storyteller and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Donner excursion; heart rending as it was.
Wonderful details of the people caught on that horrific situation.
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- Kim A Shewel
- 2022-12-31
Gripping
I couldn’t stop listening. This story is absolutely riveting. Told very vividly, emotionally and thoroughly.
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- Matthew M.
- 2023-11-20
Loved it
I was worried it would be a bit of a slog based on the voice of the narrator but I loved it. A harrowing story brought to life
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- Langer MD
- 2021-08-05
Immersive and Affecting
This chronicle has been described as "harrowing".. and that's accurate. Daniel James Brown chooses not to stick solely to names, dates, and actions - but informs his exploration of a famous tragedy by establishing the world around the Donner Party. His meticulous research into 1840s American life (and dedication to follow in the very footsteps of the victims) yields a strikingly true-to-life atmosphere - readers feel almost as if they were there. It leads to gut-punch contemplation and a solid - and sobering - understanding of the horrors that happened to these unfortunate people.
The prose is professional, the timeline is logically linear, and Brown largely avoids the temptation to fashion hypothetical dialogue. He does a masterful job setting the stage, describing the events per survivor testimony, and allowing his readers to draw conclusions.
Michael Pritchard turns in a reading performance best described as "competent". Yes, other reviewers are correct. His tone, cadence, and pacing are notably off, but I found his diction clear and his delivery never boring. Speeding playback to 1.15X corrected for the deficiencies in the performance.
One reviewer humorously described his reading as "with a Cowboy voice", however.
Haha.
But that observation is on-target..
Pritchard's delivery of Tom Clancy's action-heavy technothriller 'Rainbow Six' is nearly perfect, for example. One wonders why HarperAudio selected a genre-specific Pritchard for this project.
Miscast narration reduces the overall rating for 'The Indifferent Stars Above'. The paper iteration of the book is indisputably a 9.5/10 effort, but this audiobook version merits 7.5 stars out of 10.
(It's still worth a Credit)
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- Amazon Customer
- 2022-06-01
Good book, inconsistent narration.
The story is fantastic. The detail in which he describes the terrible journey is incredible.
But the narration has moments where it sounds different. It’s almost as if different paragraphs were recorded in separate sittings with different engineers and then spliced together.
The narrator’s tone and cadence doesn’t change, but the quality of the audio oscillates.
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