Lots of great frontier philosophy in this one. The backstory is highly developed, with lots of interesting character studies. And of course the Kilkenny-Nita romance is one of L'Amour's most compelling, at least for me.In addition to the great gunfights you'd expect from Kilkenny, The Mountain Valley War features not one, but two epic fistfights. But this book also portrays the peace-loving, hard-working, home-building kind of community that established the West.And that's what makes Kilkenny such a great hero: his desire to live in peace, build a lasting home in the country he loves, with the woman he loves. But his skill with a gun, his sense of justice, and his "weakness" of compassion force him into a lonely life on the edges. But not forever...
"They were men who had always worked with their hands, and were beholden to no man. Not one of them was a gunfighter, but each had used a rifle or a short gun all his life and would have been lost without one or the other.""Jack," Trent said, "when I was fourteen I was a man. Had to be. Well, it looks like your father dying has made you a man, too. "I'm giving you this Sharps. She's an old gun but she shoots straight. I'm not giving this gun to a boy, but to a man, and a man doesn't ever use a gun unless he has to. He never wastes lead shooting carelessly. He shoots only when he has to and when he can see what it is he's shootin' at."
What do You think about The Mountain Valley War (1997)?
Louis L'Amour has become my "most read" author for several reasons. First of all because he has written over 120 books and secondly because they are generally short, easy and entertaing reads. I have finished over thirty of his books which are more books than my other favorite authors have written. This book has a few new twists, but has the standard ingredients of white hat, black hat, pretty girl, reluctant gunfighter and happily everafter. Mr L'Amour's wisdom of the west and his colorful descriptions of people and places makes the difference between other writers of this genre.
—Chuck
