Louis L'Amour said that the West was no place for the frightened or the mean. It was a ''big country needing big men and women to live in it.'' The two stories in this collection (Big Country, Volume 1)provide a good sample of the kinds of people he had in mind. In Ride, You Tonto Raiders Matt Sabre is a young and experienced gunfighter. When he shoots a man who forces him to draw, to his surprise, the man on his deathbed gives him $5,000 and begs him to take the money to his wife who is alone defending the family ranch in the Mogollons. A combination of guilt, regret, and wanting to do the right thing leads Matt Sabre to make that ride. In War Party a boy on the brink of manhood, a resourceful frontier woman who has beauty as well as fortitude, and a strong male character who is single and hence marriageable come together in this powerful, romantic, and strangely compelling vision of the American West. As Stefan Rudnicki narrates Ride, You Tonto Raiders , about a gunfighter who promises to help the widow of a man he shot, and War Party , about an encounter with the Sioux, he captures L'Amour's romantic picture of the men and women who settled the West. Rudnicki's deep, commanding voice perfectly captures the tough edge of men who consider a three-to-one fight even. It also maintains the calm steadiness of those strong men. Louis L'Amour's stories have the cliches that listeners would expect, but his characterizations, attention to detail, and well-placed surprises make his writing continue to resonate after half a century. --AudioFile LOUIS L'AMOUR (1908-1988) was the most decorated author in the history of American letters. In 1982 he was the first American author ever to be awarded a Special National Gold Medal by the United States Congress for lifetime literary achievement, and in 1984 President Reagan awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the nation. His Western stories are loved the world over. Stefan Rudnickis deep voice quickly settles listeners into these two stories. His matter-of-fact narration of the first, Ride, You Tonto Warriors, introduces us to Matt Sabre, a tough yet honorable gunfighter who kills a man in a fair fight and then agrees to deliver money to the mans wife. In the second, War Party, Rudnicki creates a drawling Western voice for the first-person story of a boy forced into manhood once his father dies. Rudnicki captures both the boys character and LAmours love for the wide-open West. Rudnicki does well capturing LAmours rough-and-tumble males, though the odd falsetto-like tones of his women take a little getting used to. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine Used Book in Good Condition