Started: Oct. 23
Finished: Oct. 26
Notes: Having just finished a non-fiction book about Spaghetti Westerns, I find myself in the mood for some Western fiction. Thus I turn to the master, Louis L'Amour. Actually, though I've read a half dozen or so of his Westerns and a handful of this other fiction, I've never been all that big a fan of L'Amours, though I do consider his autobiographical Education of A Wandering Man to be among my favorite books. In fairness to L'Amour, I've never been much of a fan of Western fiction, though I do love the movie genre. Something about Western fiction often feels fake to me, full of a machismo and bravado that just doesn't ring true. But that's just me. Still, every so often I give L'Amour another chance to win me over.
Mini review: A former army officer who has become a mercenary is hired by a company to drive some squatters off land in New Mexico, but the mercenary begins to wonder if he is on the wrong side. There's plenty of action here and not a lot of depth, so that made this novel a fun and easy read, making me somewhat re-evaluate my earlier thoughts on L'Amour's fiction. Also, this book definitely made me think of Gunsmoke and other older Western TV shows from the '50s and '60s. I only had two problems with this book: 1.) There were too many characters to keep track of, in my opinion, and 2.) There were potential actions scenes which were not portrayed but told to the reader "off screen," though this might have been because of limitations the original publisher set for this book and might not be the author's fault. Either way, this was still a pretty good read, and Western fans could do worse.
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