The Lawless

Kent Family Chronicles, Book 7

By: John Jakes

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 24 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

In a flourishing post-Civil War America, the Kent family seizes good fortune again - until all is suddenly threatened by one woman’s return.

The penultimate volume in John Jakes’s stirring Kent Family Chronicles finds America booming in its postwar prosperity. With this newly secured peace comes an opportunity for the Kent family to reconcile and to thrive, both personally and financially. Gideon Kent takes up his father’s vow to reunite the family, but when he brings his father’s widow back into the fold, the repercussions seem insurmountable.

Against the backdrop of a recovering nation, the Kents face dramatic challenges and unexpected rifts that could leave the family shattered for years to come.This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

©1978 John Jakes (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

A good listen

Personally I like book one the best, but this is a good listen. The entire series is worth the money and the time.

How can anyone not love The Kent’s

I’ve actually read & listened to “The Kent Chronicles” about a year ago when I rented them. I could no longer just have rented, so I purchased the entire 8 series last week, and each day I finish each book, already knowing the story. I adore John Jakes writing and “The Lawless” was no exception. This particular book was one of sadness, anger, forgiveness & bravery. Don’t read just one, you have to read them all, each story is full of facts & fiction, but so wonderfully intertwined. Now I’ll have each audible book & the written...Highly highly recommended 5+⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Lawless

I thoroughly enjoyed this reading/book. I read the W
whole John Jakes series of books back in the late 1970’s and it’s good to come back to them.

The Lawless

Any additional comments?

These comments address The Kent Family Chronicles, the entire series of eight books, in audiobook format. All books are narrated by Marc Vietor. The entire series is approximately 125 hours of listening. Shortest book is 15.5 hours, longest over 26 hours. Vietor does a good job with narration, although the uniqueness of male voices is problematic. Most significant, you’ll have little difficulty determining who-says-what-to-who. Tempo and pacing fine, albeit the narration is a bit slow for my taste, bumped it to 1.25.

The entire series is a broad spectrum history of the United States from just pre-Revolutionary War through the 1890s and a chronicle of the Kent family through this time. Beginning with Phillip through the generations to the children of Gideon, a great-great-grandson. Members of the clan fight in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, are at the Alamo, the California Gold Rush, the Great Chicago Fire, the Johnstown Flood, and much more. The author skillfully intersperses vignettes of imagined and factual history. For example, two of the fictional characters of the series are sheltered for a few days at the home of the Lincolns in rural Kentucky - a baby is part of the family, young Abraham. One of the fictional characters is counseled by Benjamin Franklin. Fiction, Phillip’s childhood friend is Marquis deLafayette, non-fiction: deLafayette’s role in United States and French military. The series is rife with this type of paradigm, but it is not difficult to determine what is true and what is fiction. All the instances that involve the Kents and John Jake’s other fictional characters are products of his imagination. Much of the rest is a fun methodology of conveying historical events.

The stories are very listenable. I found no need to re-wind or fast-forward; no segment boring or irrelevant. Theses books are not ‘love stories’ in the typical sense, albeit familial relationships, the crux of The Kent Family Chronicles, must include love stories, n'est-ce pas? In those areas where a sexual encounter is defined it is relevant to the plot and tastefully written. This does not occur often, but the clan does proliferate :-). A word to the prudish: there are a couple of rapes vividly described.

Very typical of the time written, the 1970s, writing is a bit verbose. Several of these books were adapted for television mini-series, popular at the time.

John Jakes is a terrific historical fiction author, recommended. Enjoy!

Gideon Kent

Any additional comments?

BOOK: (Amazon Summary) In a flourishing post–Civil War America, the Kent family seizes good fortune again—until all is suddenly threatened by one woman’s return.
The penultimate volume in John Jakes’s stirring Kent Family Chronicles finds America booming in its postwar prosperity. With this newly secured peace comes an opportunity for the Kent family to reconcile and to thrive, both personally and financially. Gideon Kent takes up his father’s vow to reunite the family, but when he brings his father’s widow back into the fold, the repercussions seem insurmountable. Against the backdrop of a recovering nation, the Kents face dramatic challenges and unexpected rifts that could leave the family shattered for years to come.

NARRATION: Marc Vietor narrates the entire series which is a plus. I like the consistency of hearing the same voice throughout the story line. The voices are well done, female and male are easily distinguishable.

There's a problem I can't ignore

Any additional comments?

I've held off saying this for quite some time - in the hope that there would be some change. But after 7 volumes in this series and all of North and South, this issue has become too disturbing not to say anything. And having just had yet another example of the problem in this novel I fell like I need to say something. Overall, i really enjoy these books, but John Jakes is clearly a creature of his time, and his time appears to be one in which the idea of homosexuality could only be represented as troubled, perverse, and nasty. Every single time someone who is either homosexual or bisexual appears in his novels they are cruel and vindictive individuals set on destroying the lives of the main characters, and represented as cruel and violent toward anyone unfortunate enough to be the object of their desires. It's an unfortunate distraction from an otherwise entertaining story. Maybe most people aren't disturbed by it, but for me as a gay man I find it unpleasantly disappointing, and it detracts from being able to just relax into the stories being told.

keep the story going. Get this one too.

these Kent Family Conicals are a great listen.
the whole series is worth downloading. get them now!

Gripping

Each book gets better. If I didn’t know better I would think this book was ripped from 2021 and 2022 headlines. History I guess really does repeat itself. Drama at its best. Once again actin, love, travel, and war. Making of America was extremely hard work.