Customer Reviews

The Burning Hills

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE BURNING HILLS was released in August, 1956, after both HONDO and GUNS OF THE TIMBERLANDS and offers excellent example of the early western writings of Louis L'Amour. Yet, for me, the book remains one of the better novels Mr. L'Amour wrote.

The main protagonist, Trace Jordan, a horse trapper has been forced to kill a man. Suffering an incapacitating wound and hunted by a posse including an able tracker, Trace Jordan requires the essential help and care of the woman named Maria Cristina. She is a wonderful central female character, one as untamed as any in western literature, and one of the better ones Louis L'Amour ever brought to life.

Another strong character in this book is Jacob Lantz, a "Dutch-Indian" tracker who could and did trail renegade Apaches successfully. A man who truly enjoyed his work very much, and his professionalism equaled his enjoyment. Jacob was the son of a Dutch trader, his mother a Ute squaw, and it was stated Lantz tracked with his "mind as well as his senses". Trace Jordan is both a wounded and trapped man and only the mercy of Maria Christina can help save him--for Jacob Lantz certainly means not to.

A movie based on this book was later made too but as usual it fell far short of reaching the drama and tension present in Louis L'Amour's written novel. Should you enjoy Louis L'Amour books, especially early L'Amour books, consider this short book as it will offer a few hours of solid reading. And after this one you only have 110 or so books of his left to read!

Though Louis L'Amour died in June, 1988, he left us many worthy books to read and re-read. Grab one pardner while they are yet available.

Semper Fi.

I'm a big fan of the late Louis L'Amour, one of America's great authors. I've read 21 of his Western novels, dozens of his short stories, 5 non western novels and his first book....poems. One of my favorite authors. All of his works I've read so far are 5 or 4 stars. See my reviews.

The Burning Hills was one of his earlier works and one of the better ones of his I've read. Lots of action and good scenery description.
We see Trace Jordan and his friend having the Mustang horses they found and collected stolen and his friend killed. Trace kills one of the men responsible and a posse comes to kill him. We see them hunting him with an expert tracker. Trace comes across a beautiful Mexican woman that he eventually falls in love with but she is a wildcat and needs tender training and a loving hand.

Eventually after she gives him food and cleans his wound and Trace has time to recuperate a little from being shot, he becomes the hunter of the men hunting him. Lots of gunfighting and survival scenes. I won't say too much and ruin the story for you. Another great Western by INMO one of America's great authors and THE best Western author Louis L'Amour. Rated 5 stars

This book and all those that Louis L'Amour wrote are remarkable. The passionate abandon western films they find quickly fades in light of the writings of this herald the far west. L'Amour is a great author of the classic genre. I have read and reread all his books.

This was one of the L'Amour books that I think is the reason so many people came to love his writing. It's about a strong hero who has a good purpose behind him, and there's romance in it and a LOT of action. But the chapters are so LONG! There are only five chapters in the book, and they go on forever and ever. I can't believe L'Amour would do that. It made the book drag in a few places. I had to keep comparing this book to books by Kirby Jonas, who critics call the New Louis L'AMour. The difference between them is that I could never put Jonas's books down, but I was able to put down Louis L'Amour. I'm glad L'Amour wrote this book, and I can see why they call Kirby Jonas the new Louis L'Amour. But I wish L'Amour had written more in the style of Kirby Jonas. There sure would be a lot more great books to read instead of a lot that were rushed out a little too fast!

I've always liked this particular story by L'Amour because I like Maria Cristina so much. She's a strong woman, proud and independent. Jordan teases her a little, saying that he needs to boss her around a little, but no one is going to boss Maria Cristina unless she lets them! She's different from the usual women in L'Amour's books, too, because she is Mexican, living in the area right around the Mexico/USA border. I loved the side issue of how she and her family were managing to survive in a changing and challenging world. The story is classic L'Amour: Jordan is being pursued by riders from a nearby ranch. Some of them stole the horses he and his partner had caught and were breaking, and killed the partner as well. Jordan catches up with them, finds the ranch owner and some riders and accuses them of stealing his horses and the usual western free-for-all happens. As with all of his books, though, you'll like this one if you like the others. If you don't or you don't like western actions books, you probably won't like this one.

I want to preface this review by saying that Louis L'Amour is my favorite western writer.

Although a great story and in keeping with typical L'Amour characteristics, I was frequently lost as to who was speaking or from what perspective at any given moment. I found myself thinking several times that the writing was that of an amateur rather than that of a master like L'Amour. It was also crazy-short. I read it in one easy afternoon, and then had nothing to do in the evening. Really, my low rating is because of my disappointment in the length of the story, and also the awkwardness of the perspective. Also, I thought the plot was a little underdeveloped for a L'Amour. Basically, skip this one and read a Sackett.

Western literature has an undeniable charm and represents a unique creation in the world. Let me get rid of the radical rejection of Indians as blood craving and war monging individuals with no individuality. Native Americans are rejected into and by such clichés. The land grabbing thieves that the Europeans were are calling wolf when the original landowners start defending their property. But western literature goes a lot farther than that. It shows an essential side of humanity : the desire to go beyond limits, to force the future, to create a new world out of nothing, or out of not much, to curb nature to human needs and projects, and Indians are only part of that nature. It also shows how human feelings are reduced to some basics that can be the foundations of a more complex construction, but that are most of the time the essential part of that construction that never gets off the ground. Humanity living within its basic needs. Love is thus reduced to the need to be needed and the need to be protected along with the need to need and the need to protect. This is simple but essential. We can maybe regret that all the romanticism and the elaborate feelings that love implies are not included in the western recipe but the basic sentiments of need-beneeded and protect-beprotected are an essential human attitude that shows how man and woman can only survive and create the future in difficult situation because that is their destiny. It is this fundamental human destiny to conquer the world and transform it which is essential in western literature. Then what do we do when these values are projected into modern life ? That's a completely different question that requires a lot of thinking and much discussing. Western literature is a central melting pot from which the iron of human endeavor can be produced and refined.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU