Customer Reviews

Monument Rock

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

 

 

This newest collection of stories written by Louis L"Amour brings back several favorite characters such as "Kilkenny" and the "Cactus Kid". I really enjoyed the stories and the nostalgia they brought to my mind of the wild west and how life used to be.

As the editor (Beau L'Amour, Louis' son) mentions, this collection of stories was unpublished in Louis L'Amour's lifetime. He further mentions that the stories "rounds up the stragglers in the Kilkenny, Bowdrie and Cactus Kid series.". He also mentions that Louis might have once planned to build a series around the Utah Blaine character. With the collection also containing the final Blaine and Talon stories.

For those not having this book at hand, the contents of its stories are as follows:

A Man Named Utah (Utah Blaine)

Battle at Burnt Camp (Cactus Kid)

Ironwood Station (Shawn Talon)

Here Ends the Trail (Race Mallin)

Strawhouse Trail (Chick Bowdrie)

The Man from the Dead Hills (Joe Billy Rock)

Monument Rock (Lance Kilkenny)

While all the stories are suitably enjoyable, some do stand out better than others, my favorites of the group are those having Utah Blaine, Chick Bowdrie, and Lance Kilkenny, as main characters closely followed by Ironwood Station featuring Shawn Talon.

If you are anything like me a story or two a night will finish the 244 page book in only a few nights. Many of Louis L'Amour's stories are better than this collection, had he lived longer we might not ever have seen these stories from the bottom of a close closet in print, however it is interesting to read what Louis had prepared in the mid-1950s for the 'pulp' magazines that died before he could find a publisher. At least one of the stories may have been directed toward the original, classic Saturday Evening Post magazine.

For a few hour's read these stories will entertain most Louis L'Amour fans and western readers in general.

Semper Fi.

Louis L'amour shows the reader interesting glimpses of the old west in this collection of short stories. Some of his well-known characters are placed in stories that keep you interested until the end. He has the talent of creating realistic scenarios that aren't always decided by gunplay and death. He shows the reader portions of the everyday life in the old west in a way that subtly reinforces the integrity of the people who really shaped this country. This is the way the west was truly won.

I'm a huge fan of the late Louis L'Amour, one of America's greatest authors and the only author to receive both the Presidential Medal and the Congressional Gold Medal. I've read at least 20 of his novels, dozens and dozens of his short stories, 5 non Western novels and his first book of poems.

In Monument Rock we have 7 great short stories and the novel Monument Rock. We see some of the great characters in his other works like Utah Blane, ultra quick gun, fist fighter Kilkenny, and Ranger Chick Bowdrie and more. Those who have never heard about these characters are in for a real treat. Other know what 'm talking about. Lots of cowboy action, horses, double crossing, outlaws trying to steal ranches, bank robberies, gun fighting, fist fighting, saving beautiful woman and much more.

L'Amour was a master of scenery description and character development.We see the many travels of his characters into the beautiful and dangerous wilderness.

Slowly I'm building our Louis L'Amour collection to add to our family library. So far everything I've read if L'Amour is 5 stars with a few 4 stars. L'Amour wrote "I'd like to be remembered as a great storyteller". He sure was and one of America's greatest authors. Monument Rock rated 5 stars.

Reading Louis L'Amour (as I do serveral times per book) is already participating with him on horseback crossing the Great Plains. We feel the "chewing grass accent" Texas and live in 19th century full of beautiful pages of epic. A beautiful collection of stories.

If you like westerns than you will like this book. It is a western about a girl named Lona who has lived on a ranch with a man she asumed was her father. One night a strange man shows up just outside the boundry of the ranch. Everyone knows him as the "Black Rider". He knows who Lona's real father is. I reccomend this book because it makes you curious.