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Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:With more than 120 titles still in print, Louis L'Amour is recognized the world over as one of the most prolific and popular American authors in history. Though he met with phenomenal success in every genre he tried, the form that put him on the map was the short story. Now this great writer�??The Wall Street Journal recently compared with Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson�??will receive his due as a great storyteller. This volume kicks off a series that will, when complete, anthologize all of L'Amour�??s short fiction, volume by handsome volume. Here, in Volume One, is a treasure-trove of 35 frontier tales for his millions of fans and for those who have yet to discover L'Amour�??s thrilling prose�??and his vital role in capturing the spirit of the Old West for gener… (more)
User reviews
Mr. L'Amour's characters are engaging: the frontier women are strong and the outlaws are sensitive. His historical settings of deserts, frontier towns and mining shacks are memorable. And his plots are fun, suspenseful and unforgettable.
I couldn't put it
The stories I did like were That Man from Bitter Sands, From the Listening Hills, Trap of Gold (my favorite in this book), The Lonesome Gods, The Skull and the Arrow, Caprock Rancher, Dead-End Drift, The Defense of Sentinel (a tie for my favorite), War Party, Duffy's Man, The Strong Shall Live, To Make a Stand, One for the Pot, and Home is the Hunter. I found these easy to read, entertaining, liked the central characters, and felt these stories were the least overwritten.
The author does seem to have a problem with cutting the fat away from his stories especially the longer form tales such as Rustler Roundup. I really do not like getting bogged down in unnecessary prose or details that serve no real purpose in a story. This is a common problem amongst the pulp writers as they were paid by the word. Probably the main reason the Big Three of pulp and weird fiction were not so successful in their lifetimes as other less skilled but more prolific scribes. But that is neither here nor there.
I am glad I read this book if not all of the stories in it. I would recommend this book if you like Old West pulp stories especially if you can pick the book up for a song.