Reviews

The Burning Hills by Louis L'Amour

ldstan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.75

topdragon's review against another edition

4.0

This is the 72nd Louis L'Amour book I've read. Wow, I can't believe I just typed that. I started when I was about 12 and have just kept on reading them. They serve as good fillers when you need a quick read between weightier efforts.

This one represents what L'Amour does best: a lone wounded man in deep trouble, shot and having to survive with his wounds, no water, bad guys hunting him, and the ever present threat of Indians. But this one was also a bit different from most L'Amour novels in that our hero actually spends a fair amount of time pursuing a woman. Usually women play minor roles or else are the main character. But the romance is usually left to the imagination after the novel ends.

I'd rank this one in the top 10% of the L'Amour novels I've read so far.

charlotteb06's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.5

nickdleblanc's review against another edition

2.0

I've never read L'Amour and mostly snobbily dismissed him as a shitty mass-market writer of Westerns. I only picked up this book after reading that Rudy Wurlitzer wrote a piece in the 1970s about how Louis L'Amour's first two pages of a novel were a masterpiece. In his words, they were "almost always about a man riding through the vast phenomena of open Western space. A rider, riding, without intention, into emptiness, with no beginning, no end or assigned direction. Off the map. East equal to West or South or North, the rising sun usually behind, the setting sun in front, leaving civilization behind, riding always within the mysterious rhythms of unannounced form and emptiness. The open range, silent and spacious, the rider never having a particular name or identity or defined boundaries, inside or outside." This book is definitely an example of this. But after those two pages, it continues a long downhill turn in quality. There is a healthy dose of misogyny in this book, but not in the self-aware sort-of funny way you see in some pulp work. It's more Romantic and that somehow makes it worse. As if his shitty opinions and characterizations of women are somehow righteous or progressive. L'Amour definitely loves southern landscapes and does a wonderful job describing them, and has some good ideas about plotting and scenes. It's easy to see why he is a widely adapted author. I have a feeling that the things I liked about this novel are more because I have a fondness for Westerns than a fondness for the book. I'm glad this was a short one. If it was much longer, I probably wouldn't have liked it and my 2/5 stars would be much closer to a 1/5 stars. I will say though, it did make me want to adapt the story into a screenplay and correct all of the issues I had with it, so maybe there's something to be said about that.
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tl;dr--A very average Western story with a few good scenes and some distracting romanticized misogyny. There's better Westerns out there, but if you've never read L'Amour and want to say you did, I'm sure this isn't a bad place to start. It's a quick read.

quoththegirl's review against another edition

3.0

I breezed through this L’Amour as a dusty, danger-filled, light-hearted excursion before tackling something more challenging. Grim westerns are my comfort food, evidently.

matt_gwynn's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

kwood's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

raehink's review against another edition

2.0

Trace Jordan, aided by a Hispanic halfbreed, runs from a bunch of ranchers who are out to avenge their dead leader.