Wear a Fast Gun

by John Jakes

A western story.

Genres: Westerns

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

John William Jakes, the author of more than a dozen novels, is regarded as one of today’s most distinguished writers of historical fiction. His work includes the highly acclaimed Kent Family Chronicles series and the North and South Trilogy. Jakes’s commitment to historical accuracy and evocative storytelling earned him the title of “the godfather of historical novelists” from the Los Angeles Times and led to a streak of sixteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Jakes has received several awards for his work and is a member of the Authors Guild and the PEN American Center. He and his wife, Rachel, live on the west coast of Florida.

Also writes under pseudonyms Jay Scotland, Alan Payne, Rachel Ann Payne, Robert Hart Davis, Darius John Granger, John Lee Gray. Has ghost written as William Ard.

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 1995 by Sunset Productions
Performed by John Dhyani
Running time: about 3 hours.

Note: I assume that this book was abridged. It's original length in paperback was 182 pages and 3 hours would not normally cover that many pages.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s John Jakes ruled the paperback historical fiction market with series like North and South trilogy and his Kent Family Chronicles. Wear a Fast Gun was written in 1956 and is a pretty typical western. A new sheriff named Reb Fallon has come to the town of Longhorn. Longhorn is a dangerous place and Reb Fallon is a hard man so it seem to be a perfect fit.

Fallon sets out right away to confront the random violence associated with the saloons and also with a gang of cattle rustlers that hide behind hoods. Along the way he makes a lot of enemies, a few friends and encounters a possible love interest.

The story itself is neither bad nor good - like I said before, it is a pretty typical western. But, the reader is another story altogether. Almost all of his voices sound like they are stereotypes of characters who should appear in a Western. The voice work sounds like it would be better suited for a humorous car dealer radio ad or a cartoon than for an audiobook. Every character is over the top. There is the old miner guy, the rich swaggering rancher, the little guy who is game for anything and then there's the matter of the bad falsetto for every female character. It was so bad it was almost funny.

Anyway, the so-so story and the bad reading make for a rating fo 2 stars out of 5.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old Ace double from 1957:

WEAR A FAST GUN - John Hakes

Eli "Reb" Fallon was the new Sheriff of Longhorn. The town had buried three Sheriffs in the past year. Reb was in town only an hour before he killed a man. Part of his duties as Sheriff was patrolling the saloons. He was giving them new orders, no booze to the really drunk late. It was at the last and biggest where he ran into trouble.

The Rocking L drank there and they had a reputation. One challenged Reb and when he drew, he learned he wasn't fast enough.

Also a gang of outlaws called the night riders had been conducting rustling operations, not meeting a lot of resistance. The rumor was that it was the Rocking L crew and Mace Coldfield, the owner of the big saloon was the real boss.

Reb was out to prove it.

THE FRIENDLESS ONE - Ray Hogan

Jim Ryan had only been in town for six months. he'd bought a small ranch intending to forget his violent past. But when he gets framed for the murder of an old rancher and everyone, even the old man's daughter, believed he did it, he decides to leave it all behind.

But that was before the one man who'd remained his friend, Frank Sears, was murdered, shot in the back and that was hung on him as well.

Now he was going after the real culprit, Hugh Baldwin, a rancher that wanted it all. He intended to clear his name before he left the country and get the man ultimately responsible for the murders.