The Call of the Wild

Great short stories are tailor-made for audiobooks. They transport you to another time and place, and bring you back in a reasonable amount of time. Such is the case with this classic tale of Buck, the indomitable dog, during the Yukon Gold Rush of 1897-98. Narrator Michael Kramer is a perfect match for London's words in both style and intonation His voice is compact, intense, cool, and utterly absorbing, and he sets a comfortable pace. Sometimes his delivery is choppy, almost abrupt, but that's an advantage in a story that takes place in the wilderness because it keeps us slightly off balance and involved. Kramer is also adept at character accents, from a West Indies dialect to a Western snarl. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 15, 2009
London's classic tale of survival, about a gentle California dog's gradual transformation into a fierce arctic predator, calls for a robust, masculine reading. Because it is told from the dog's point of view, it also demands a narrator who can communicate the nuances of both animal and human emotion. Actor/narrator William Roberts's ("The Fall of the House of Usher") performance amply meets those standards and ranks with the late Frank Muller's reading of this title for Recorded Books as among the best around. Highly recommended. [Audio clip available through www.naxosaudiobooks.com; an alternate abridged edition, read by Garrick Hagon, is also available from Naxos AudioBooks.Ed.]R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.