Desert Oracle, Ken Layne
Desert Oracle, Ken Layne
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Desert Oracle
Volume 1: Strange True Tales from the American Southwest

Author: Ken Layne

Narrator: Ken Layne

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/30/2022


Synopsis

This program is read by the author, Ken Layne, host of the Desert Oracle radio show. It includes an exclusive first listen to a story from Desert Oracle: Volume 2.

The cult-y field guide to the strange and intriguing secrets of the Mojave—its myths and legends, outcasts and oddballs, flora, fauna, and UFOs—becomes the definitive, oracular book of the desert.

For the past five years, Desert Oracle has existed as a quasi-mythical, quarterly periodical available to the very determined only by subscription or at the odd desert-town gas station or the occasional hipster boutique, its canary-yellow-covered, forty-four-page issues handed from one curious desert zealot to the next, word spreading faster than the printers could keep up with. It became a radio show, a podcast, a live performance. Now, for the first time—and including both classic and new, never-before-seen revelations—Desert Oracle is available as an audiobook.

Straight out of Joshua Tree, California, Desert Oracle is “The Voice of the Desert”: a field guide to the strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros, out there in the sand. Desert Oracle is your companion at a roadside diner, around a campfire, in your tent or cabin (or high-rise apartment or suburban living room) as the wind and the coyotes howl outside at night.

From journal entries of long-deceased adventurers to stray railroad ad copy, and musings on everything from desert flora, rumored cryptid sightings, and other paranormal phenomena, Ken Layne's Desert Oracle collects the weird and the wonderful of the American Southwest into a single, essential volume.

A Macmillan Audio production from MCD Books.

About Ken Layne

Ken Layne is the creator of Desert Oracle, the cult-favorite periodical and radio show, and author of the bestselling Desert Oracle Vol. 1 from MCD Books.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Patrick on December 30, 2020

Weird things still happen in the world. Pulled from the weekly radio show and periodical, "the Voice of the Desert" fills this book with strange curiosities from the American southwest. Joshua Tree, Yucca Man, Area 51, Edward Abbey, Scientology, Marty Robbins, and everything in between make up the p......more

Goodreads review by Contrary on June 21, 2021

I am now utterly curious about the desert- well the Mohave anyway. So many crazy and unexpected things have happened here. Linked in ways I hadn’t even comprehended. Yucca Man, Charlie Manson and his Cult, Aleister Crowley, L Ron Hubbard, U-FOs- Einsenhowers mysterious night and people just plain va......more

Goodreads review by Leta on March 20, 2021

Perfect mix of desert history, myths, and culture.......more

Goodreads review by Jagger on December 17, 2023

The final chapter of this book poetically describes "transmissions" as everything from messages from god to aliens to radio signals - the way we internalize information that is shared with or sent to us. The desert captivates me, and I love creative retellings of myths and history, so this one meant......more

Goodreads review by Cooper on August 20, 2023

Not exactly “true tales” that the back cover describes. Some good short stories and then a lot of UFO sightings. Some stories really stretch to be related to the desert. Good for quick easy reading.......more


Quotes

“UFOs, doomed hikers, William Burroughs, singing sand dunes, Elvis, ghosts, roadrunners and rattlesnakes – the Desert Oracle packs a lot of weird, dark matter between its bright yellow covers.” Dominic Rushe, The Guardian

“[Desert Oracle serves] as a field guide to a seemingly barren place that is paradoxically full of life and legends. [Layne] leads us into the Mojave Wilderness, a vast area containing gophers, coyotes, Yucca Man, a hermit ballerina, mysterious cacti, 10-foot-tall warriors, space aliens, and more.” Blaise Zerega, Alta Magazine

“Anyone contemplating a trip to the arid Southwest or wanting to learn more about the area and its natural history should pick up this collection of varied anecdotes.” Diana Hartle, Library Journal

“If you’re a fan of UFOs and insane heat, this is your book.”—Kirkus Reviews

“With his succinct, descriptive, narrative-driven prose, Layne creates a fascinating homage to the beauty of an often unforgiving landscape.” —Publishers Weekly

“The desert is a powerful cocktail of breathtaking beauty, brutality, and mystery. Layne serves it straight-up in this collection of essays dedicated to his cherished, arid homeland . . . [Desert Oracle] is a soulful love letter to the rugged landscape of the American Southwest. Layne implores readers to preserve and protect the enigmatic and wild desert. Reading this book is like swapping tales around the campfire under a star-filled sky.”—Michelle Ross, Booklist