I love a good Louis L'Amour western. He's a good storyteller who creates interesting characters and places them in beautifully illustrated settings. L'Amour's ability to describe the time and place of his novels, and the small details about life in the old west, makes his stories come alive.This book, however, is not a good Louis L'Amour western. Early in his career, L'Amour was commissioned to write his four Hopalong Cassidy stories after the success of the movies. He wrote the books under a pseudonym and they weren't released again under his name until after his death. I have a feeling he wouldn't have appreciated the re-release.Since he had to keep to the movie image of the character, both the bad guy and the horse he borrows are more fully developed characters than Cassidy. Also, the hero does a lot of stupid stuff like shoot guns out of the bad guys hands and then send them off with stern warnings. (You'd never see the Sackett boys doing anything so dumb.) Also about two-thirds of the plot is devoted to tracking rustled cattle, which pales in comparison (to say the least) to some of his much more interesting stories. Mostly, the enjoyment I got out of this book was from sentimentality for the other, better westerns I've enjoyed.I still recommend Louis L'Amour, but check out one of the books from his popular Sackett series or one of his classics like "Hondo."
This is a Hopalong Cassidy novel, one of four L'Amour wrote. He wrote them under a psuedo-name, Tex Burn, and never did acknowledge them as his own. He didn't like them, and now I know why. It has a great plot and wonderful characters (like most of his books), but the publisher made him write them to follow the movies and thus they are full of cowboy movie cliches. He didn't like it, and while I enjoyed the story, found the dialog distracting. 2 stars may be too harsh, but I've come to expect a lot from Louis L'Amour.
What do You think about The Riders Of High Rock (1994)?
After hearing about this author for so long, it's about time I tried one his novels. This novel features Hopalong Cassidy, a little older, but still a top notch tracker and skilled gunfighter. Together with his friend, Red Conners, who has stumbled upon a band of rustlers stealing and moving the cattle into California, they set out to make things right with the world. Red has been discovered by the rustlers and is hunted in the mountains by the rustlers, they have wounded him after he runs out o
—Patrick
