Customer Reviews

The Last Trail

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

 

 

This classic western tail of men saving women, while being a great love story is also a wonderful adventure story. A classic cowboy\borderman fights indian to save the helpless beuty, but instead of man saving woman, it is reversed, when Helen saves Jonathan from his own unhappy life. I have loved this book since the first day my mother placed it in my hands to read, and although the original has a few lapses in storyline, they kill someone twice, the basic story structure is enjoyable. Having read this book close to a dozen times, I can recommend that every person who has never given westerns a try read this one.

Description from the book back cover:

In this classic tale of the American West, rugged borderman Jonathan Zane opens his heart to love while he searches for a traitor who has been revealing settlement secrets to hostile Indians.

The Last Trail concludes the Ohio River Trilogy, set in the Fort Henry territory during the American Revolution. Betty Zane and her brother Colonel Ebenezer Zane are among the characters in The Last Trail. Older and wiser now, they share their wisdom and experience with a younger generation.

Got this for free from the Kindle store. Never read a Zane Grey novel before and wanted to give him a try. Great book. I'll definitely try some other books by this author.

Zane Grey continues to be one of my favorite writers. His stories are descriptive, alive with adjectives and detail, and the narrative makes his tales come alive. This story is the third book in his Ohio Valley trilogy, and of course, has outlaws and marauding Indians who kidnapped a woman from Fort Henry. Although his dialogue is filled with idioms and slang, it is still interesting and faithful to the words of the day. A good read - I liked it.

Unfortunately this edition suffers from poor quality. A complete page is missing (p. 24 left blank) and several pages have a smaller font size than intended. I would hesitate buying another book from this source.

I am not into westerns, and had never read one, but had heard of Zane Grey and thought I would give it a try (it was a free download, so if I didn't like it, I lose nothing anyway). I did end up liking it. I didn't love it, but I think if I read a couple more it would grow on me. I would say for someone who doesn't like Westerns, this would still be an enjoyable read, because its not all gun-slinging, tobacco spitting & horse riding. And I like the old fashioned language used, books today just aren't written the same.

I initially thought this was going to be a fictional shoot 'em up story of the Old West. Turns out it was more of a historical, fictional, romance shoot 'em up. The historical context was educational and appears to have been based on real characters who inhabited Fort Henry in the late 1700s. At that time the fort was in a very remote part of the country, and even though the Revolutionary War was taking place "in the east", the Fort and its inhabitants were living lives independent of the struggle against the redcoats. The author at times lapses into an overly detailed horticultural description of the trees and bushes which gets a little tedious, but this is more than compensated for by his accurate, pulse-quickening descriptions of the bordermen and their hand-to-hand struggles with the redmen and the outlaws. For a good historical description of Fort Henry, I recommend a review of: [...](Looks like Amazon won't allow a URL in reviews - sorry! But check out the historical description of Fort Henry on the West Virginia historical web site)
All in all a very engaging book with very minor flaws.

Always been a Zane Grey fan. Remember the first time I read Riders of the Purple Sage. Grey is an American icon and I like how this collection reflects the diversity of his storytelling abilities. Highly recommended.

I am, and always have been, a fan of the western genre. I'm not sure if it is a result of my upbringing (grew up in Colorado in the 50's) or a hand me down from my father who always wanted to be a cowboy.

That said, you don't have to be a rabid consumer of westerns to appreciate Zane Grey or this fantastic novel. Sure it has all the excitement of your standard page turner, but it also manages to develop the characters (all of them) to a degree that goes beyond the typical pulp fare that is usually associated with westerns (unfairly so, I would add). Zane Grey manages to flesh out the hero and his love interest in a way that makes them come alive, especially through the use of colorful colloquial language that feels like it could be authentic.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a solid read that goes beyond a simple adventure story, but still delivers on excitement.