OT - Louis L'Amour Novels

[Iron_Marshal]

I just finished reading "The Iron Marshall," by Louis L'Amour, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have not read "Hondo" yet, but I understand it is his best work. Does anyone have a suggestion for future reading? With 120+ novels under his belt it would cost me roughly $500.00 to read all of his novels one at a time.

[J35]

Try your public library, most have some of his works.

good reading-- Jim

[AmBraCol]

"The Walking Drum" - not a western, but thoroughly enjoyable if you like the medieval period.

"To the Far Blue Mountains", "The Daybreakers" and his other "Sackett Family" novels

Really, it's hard to recommend "just one". I've read everything he published prior to his death and some of the stuff his family brought out later. Don't forget "Smoke From This Altar" - his book of poetry. Some pretty good stuff in there.

The first one of his I ever read was "Under The Sweetwater Rim".

As suggested, check out the local library. Also, used book stores and rummage sales are great sources for books. Unfortunately I had to leave my L'amour collection in Brazil when we moved to Colombia. Right now I've only got about five or six of his works.

[Griff]

I've read them all. Even the anthologies published by his family. My personal opinon? Read one, you've read them all. But, don't take that as a negative criticism; for you know what to expect.

Here's my favorite six:

Sacketts
The Sackett Brand
The Lonesome Gods
The Daybreakers
Mojave Crossing
Kiowa Trail

I have about 20 of them in the leather bound "Louis L'Amour Collection" from Bantam Books and a LOT of paperbacks.

[Iron_Marshal]

J35nut,

I donate regularly to the library. When I read Stephen King’s “Dark Towerâ€

[Iron_Marshal]

ABC recommends the following:

The Walking Drum, To the Far Blue Mountains, The Daybreakers, Sackett Family.

Griff recommends the following:

Sacketts, The Sackett Brand, The Lonesome Gods, The Daybreakers, Mojave Crossing, and the, Kiowa Trail.

So, looking for common denominators, I guess I’ll read the Sackett series first.

See, this has worked to my benefit already!

[Iron_Marshal]

BTW, my 17 year old said there are three variations:

1) The farmer/rancher about to lose his place.

2) The "injuns" attacking the town/homestead.

3) The Marshal/Ranger fighting the bad guy.

I still want to read them anyway. But he is pretty insightful for a kid.

[Griff]

BTW, my 17 year old said there are three variations:

1) The farmer/rancher about to lose his place.
a: the farmerette/rancherette about to lose her place.
2) The "injuns" attacking the town/homestead.

3) The Marshal/Ranger fighting the bad guy.
a: the drifter fighting the bad marshall/bully/etc.
I still want to read them anyway. But he is pretty insightful for a kid.

[Kurt]

My Granddad tried to talk me into reading Louis L'Amour's Hondo when I was in High School in the '70's. I thought to myself, "What does a French guy know about the old West?" ( was I stupid or what?)

But I read the book anyway, loved it, and been reading his books ever since. I haven't found a bad one yet, but I'll keep trying if I have to read them all, three or for times each.

[Malamute]

I don't recall the titles (Sacketts Land?), but the ones set around "To The Far Blue Mountains" are good, they are set in the 1600's, when the Sacketts first came to the Americas. Much of the earliest couple is seafaring and ships. The first in this series is set in England, and the leaving. Not really "Westerns",...maybe "Easterns", since they are set in the Appalachians in the 1600's

Bendigo Shafter is good, set in South Pass Wy mainly, and the people that settled it in the 1860's on. A western, but begining with percussion pistols period.

Yondering is a collection of short stories, mostly in seafaring and war settings.

Last of the Breed, a story about an American pilot that ends up in Russia, and getting home. Very good.

Walking Drum. Very Good. Set mostly in the Middle East (as in Persia, not Maryland or Virginia ) .


If you don't want to borrow them from the library, you can likely find many of his books at used book stores for very reasonable prices.

[claybob86]

... My personal opinon? Read one, you've read them all. But, don't take that as a negative criticism; for you know what to expect.

I see your point, but each one has its own twists and turns. I read all of them too, and thoroughly enjoyed each one! I sure don't regret spending the time reading them.

[shooter]

I've read just about all of them.

My favorites are as follows:

1. The Sackett series

2. The Lonesome Gods

3. I think he wrote a few about Hopalong Cassidy. I could be wrong, but they're good books anyway.

4. Anything else by L'amour.

There's one in particular, The Haunted Mesa, that is a little different than his other books. It's out of the norm, but worth the read in my opinion. I enjoyed it.

[Griff]

... My personal opinon? Read one, you've read them all. But, don't take that as a negative criticism; for you know what to expect.

..I sure don't regret spending the time reading them.

And neither have I. And will read any anthologies that come up in the future.

[H_Talon]

Flint is a great one too ...

Talon

[Buffboy]

As someone who has all of the books he wrote, I can tell you there aren't any "bad" ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_L'Amour

This lists the books in order of writing and in order of time in the case of the Sackett novels. The early stuff under the pen name Tex Burns isn't all that good. Don't neglect the short story collections, they are pretty good too.

[Carlsen Highway]

I think someone said there are only really seven stories. (for any form of storytelling) Everything is just variations on those.

I read "Last Of the Breed" as the first LAmour book for me - I was startled to find how well written it was. Now Im looking for others.


(Not Louis L'Amour but has anyone ever read a book called "Triple Cross In Trinidad"?
I read it years and years ago and always remembered it. Never met anyone else who knows it though.)

[H_Talon]

to learn more .. look here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_L%27Amour

the other link didn't work for me ..

Talon

[Hobie]

Great books to read on Charge of Quarters of Staff Duty!

[Rusty]

I think "The Last of the Breed" was the best ever. It was also kind of ironic that it was the last book he wrote.

I also like "the Sackets" but I think they are best when read in order.

[rock-steady]

+1 for Flint. Years ago, I had every book Louis L'Amour had written. I still have them in a box. I need to break them out and re-read 'em. "High Lonesome" is a good one too.

[KCSO]

They are all good.

In 1990 I started buying 1 book a month for my dad. he now has all of the novels in the leather bound books. I went to visit him last week and he has them stacked in the garage. I asked why and he said, "I finished the last one last week, do you know anybody who wants them?"

When i started the books were $12.95 each and the last one was $23.00, they ARE coming home with ME.

[AmBraCol]

Here's a good line up from the link posted up above. The Sackett family series and the Chantry and Talon books as well. I was always fascinated at how L'Amour intertwined the stories of those three families with them running into each other through the centuries. I've not been able to do the research but perhaps my own family has had a similar experience. Men from both sides may have been in the same outfit during the Late Unpleasantness, at least names common to both families over the years are listed in the same CSA outfit from the same area - and they lived just miles apart. Then about a century later (if they were indeed from the same families) their descendants got married and I'm the result. There's a third family that I'm not sure about the history of, but that's also intertwined in recent family history. At any rate, it gives the Sackett, Chantry, Talon stories even greater plausibility to me.

Anyway, here's a good selection to read - and listed in chronological order. IIRC "Borden Chantry" and "Fair Blows The Wind" are close in time to "Sakett's Land" and "To The Far Blue Mountains" - but it's been YEARS since I read them and I no longer have access to them in order to check.

So, here's the list.

Sackett novels

In fictional story order (not the order written).

* Sackett’s Land - Barnabas Sackett
* To the Far Blue Mountains - Barnabas Sackett
* The Warrior’s Path - Kin Ring Sackett
* Jubal Sackett - Jubal Sackett, Itchakomi Ishai
* Ride the River - Echo Sackett (Aunt to Orrin, Tyrel, and William Tell Sackett)
* The Daybreakers - Orrin and Tyrel Sackett, Cap Rountree, Tom Sunday
* Lando - Orlando Sackett, the Tinker
* Sackett - William Tell Sackett, Cap Rountree
* Mojave Crossing - William Tell Sackett and Nolan Sackett
* The Sackett Brand - William Tell Sackett, and the whole passel of Sacketts!
* The Skyliners - Flagan and Galloway Sackett
* The Lonely Men - William Tell Sackett
* Mustang Man - Nolan Sackett
* Galloway - Galloway and Flagan Sackett
* Treasure Mountain - William Tell Sackett
* Ride the Dark Trail - Logan Sackett
* Lonely on the Mountain - William Tell, Orrin and Tyrel Sackett

There are also two Sackett-related short stories:

* "The Courting of Griselda" (available in End of the Drive)
* "Booty for a Badman" (available in War Party)

Sacketts are also involved in the plot of 7 other novels:

* Bendigo Schafter (Ethan Sackett)
* Dark Canyon (William Tell Sackett)
* Borden Chantry (Joe Sackett, killed in ambush that B Chantry solves murder)
* Passin' Through (Parmalee Sackett is mentioned as defending a main character in the book)
* Son of a Wanted Man (Tyrel Sackett)
* Catlow (Ben Cowhan marries a cousin of Tyrel Sackett’s wife)
* Man from the Broken Hills (Em Talon a main character in this book was in fact born a Sackett. Mentions William Tell Sackett)

Talon and Chantry novels

* Borden Chantry
* Fair Blows the Wind
* The Ferguson Rifle
* The Man from the Broken Hills (Em Talon a main character in the book was born a Sackett)
* Milo Talon (Is a cousin to the Sacketts through his mother Em Talon)
* North to the Rails
* Over on the Dry Side
* Rivers West


Yes, there are common themes, but each one is well written. And another thing, L'Amour walked and rode over the land he mentions in his novels. He was there, he wrote of springs that are real and "the water sweet". He talked with the old gunfighters and even lived a lot of the life he wrote about. His books "Yondering" and "Education Of A Wandering Man" will give you insight into the man who wrote the books. His non-fiction I've not yet read is as follows:

# Frontier
# The Sackett Companion
# A Trail Of Memories: The Quotations Of Louis L'Amour (compiled by Angelique L'Amour)

[Idiot]

I liked "Hanging Woman Creek," "Comstock Load," "Conagher," and another one I can't remember the title of the best. I've read most of them and there were only a couple I didn't like.

I don't care that they all have the same theme and the hero most always gets the girl; I like the ride. And hey, what's wrong with happy endings anyway?

[wildmanh]

I liked "Hanging Woman Creek," "Comstock Load," "Conagher," and another one I can't remember the title of the best. I've read most of them and there were only a couple I didn't like.

I don't care that they all have the same theme and the hero most always gets the girl; I like the ride. And hey, what's wrong with happy endings anyway?

Ain't nothing wrong with happy endings, I'm all for them. Couple Christmasses ago my mom got me a very old copy of the Sacket Serries. There's 4 hard bound volumes with 15 stories in them. Lots of fun to read. Am planning on getting more of Mr. L'Amours stories.

Heber

[CJM]

I have most of them, my favorite has always been "Reilly's Luck". The Sackett/Chantry/Talon novels are also very good, it's a pity that he didn't have time to finish more of the earlier novels on these families as he planned. One book that is different than most, while still being obviously a L'Amour novel is "The Broken Gun". It is a western set in the early 1960's, but the hero still ends up with the girl after the shootout at the end. The later anthologies published by his family are full of short stories that L'Amour had expanded into his novels, it is sometimes interesting to read the short story, then the full length novel.

[jschance]

I’ve always liked “Last of the Breedâ€

[awp101]

Great books to read on Charge of Quarters of Staff Duty!

My personal preference for Staff Duty entertainment was Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Rifles series but I remember reading The Shadow Riders after watching the TV version with my parents.