THE RANCH

The Ranch is the first of Danielle Steel's many novels to be tackled by Recorded Books. Unfortunately, the results are not up to this company's usual excellent standards. Much of the fault lies with the material--the writing is banal and repetitive; the plot about three college friends who meet later in life at a dude ranch in Wyoming seems destined for a TV miniseries. If ever an audiobook cried out for abridging, this is it. As this is primarily a woman's story, the choice of a male narrator seems odd. Ron McLarty does a decent job of reading but makes no attempt to change voices for the various characters. Sometimes it's unclear whose trite thoughts he's expressing. A four-cassette abridgment is also read by McLarty. In this case, less text can only be an improvement. J.G. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]