airthiel's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
hotsake's review against another edition
4.0
3.75/5
There were some pacing issues and it was a bit repetitive but overall this was a fun fast-paced tale. The ending was also a little mean-spirited and unexpected but left me feeling satisfied.
There were some pacing issues and it was a bit repetitive but overall this was a fun fast-paced tale. The ending was also a little mean-spirited and unexpected but left me feeling satisfied.
slimikin's review against another edition
4.0
After reading North to the Rails, I now understand perfectly why Louis L’Amour is so beloved. His portrait of life in the West has such richness, filled with casual, familiar detail about the land---its rivers, stands of timber and scrub, how the cycles of seasons and weather change it. The people populating that land are just as vivid: hard and rough, loyal or treacherous, quick to kindness or cruelty, standing on principles of courage and determination. And the story that takes place in this West has a kind of grandeur. L’Amour doesn’t ignore the dangers, but his hero, Tom Chantry, meets them with spirit, and the obstacles Chantry encounters allow the reader to share his growing understanding of what a frontier, with all its attendant lawlessness, requires of a settler.
birdmanseven's review against another edition
2.0
I find Louis L'Amour to be pretty hit and miss. It could be that sometimes I'm just not right in the mood for his particular style. Borden Chantry is my favorite L'Amour to date, so it was a bit of a letdown that I didn't enjoy this sequel. Tom Chantry's quest to drive cattle just didn't do it for me. The plot felt a little stretched and for me it just never picked up any steam.
We discuss some of our favorite westerns here: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-35-all-the-books-goes-west
We discuss some of our favorite westerns here: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-35-all-the-books-goes-west
angielisle's review
3.0
Tom Chantry, the son of Borden Chantry, starts out with the reputation of a coward with a distaste for guns - a character vastly different from the sort usually presented by L'Amour. L'Amour took a strong stance on guns in this book, with the wild west eroding Tom's idealism in an effort to show why guns are sometimes necessary. This story will appeal to advocates for the Second Amendment, serving as a clear example of how criminals don't bother to pay attention to laws.
The story felt splotchy, as though the seams showed in between the scenes. I know L'Amour didn't enjoy editing but this book, like many of L'Amour's books, contains typos and printing errors that I blame on the publishers. It's a missing (conjunctive) word or the wrong tense of a word in a passage not attempting a vernacular dialect; small things that should've been weeded out long ago because these books have been through multiple printings. The errors don't inhibit understanding of the passage but they are a minor annoyance that momentarily distracts me from the story.
My favorite part of this book is the ending because it exemplifies hubris. I'm not giving away more spoiler than that; I just want to note that the ending of this book has been my favorite from any of the books in either the Sacketts or Talon and Chantry series.
The story felt splotchy, as though the seams showed in between the scenes. I know L'Amour didn't enjoy editing but this book, like many of L'Amour's books, contains typos and printing errors that I blame on the publishers. It's a missing (conjunctive) word or the wrong tense of a word in a passage not attempting a vernacular dialect; small things that should've been weeded out long ago because these books have been through multiple printings. The errors don't inhibit understanding of the passage but they are a minor annoyance that momentarily distracts me from the story.
My favorite part of this book is the ending because it exemplifies hubris. I'm not giving away more spoiler than that; I just want to note that the ending of this book has been my favorite from any of the books in either the Sacketts or Talon and Chantry series.
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