More Tales of the Wild West (Leisure Western) [Mass Market Paperback]

Max Brand (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (March 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843956798
• ISBN-13: 978-0843956795
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,287,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Collection! The Last Story Alone Is Worth The Price Of Admission!!, March 5, 2006

By 

Andrew Salmon (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: More Tales of the Wild West (Leisure Western) (Mass Market Paperback)

This latest collection of Max Brand stories differs from the usual issues from Leisure books as it is made up of shorter stories and not the standard trio of novellas or a full-length novel.

The collection also features an introduction by William F. Nolan, a Brand scholar. These intros are always a treat because they highlight various aspects of Brand's incredible career during the pulp years. Priceless stuff.

Like the other great Max Brand titles in this line, this collection showcases Brand's (Frederick Faust's) extraordinary talents as a writer. His knack for crafting stories featuring animals is well represented here with two offerings: A LCUKY DOG which kicks off the collection and BLONDY. Both these tales feature dogs and their owners and, though moving, never descend into cornball. INVERNESS does the same as it is a horse story packed with action and crisp dialogue.

CRAZY RHYTHM is a powerful tale of social injustice as its hero, Jimmy Geary returns to his hometown from prison (where he has served his time for a self-defence killing) only to be shunned by the townspeople. This riveting tale is almost painful to read as we see doors slammed in Geary's face until his only escape appears to be a life of crime. Great stuff!

DEATH IN ALKALI FLAT is a Sleeper story. You'll be hardpressed to find desert scenes more arid than the one in this tale. Your throat will go dry and you'll start to sweat as you follow Sleeper into the desert on the trail of two outlaws looking for treasure.

The collection saves the best for last with A FIRST BLOODING. This story is pulled from Brand's famous, unifnished Civil War novel -- a work he hoped would be his first step towards "serious" fiction as he put it. The novel was put aside when Brand joined the army only to be killed in a German attack in Italy. This self-contained story is from that longer work and it is an unforgetable story of the horrors of war. Brand's writing here IS elevated and any fan of Brand will know that this means a great deal since the style of the majority of what he wrote was composed in an elvated style. The story is packed with details, showing the amount of Brand's research into this novel he worked on for years. This last piece alone is worth the price of the book.

Taken as a whole, this is a fine collection by one of the great writers of the last century and features restored material from Brand's own files along with background material -- sort of like bonus features on DVDs.

It's not luck or marketing that millions of readers enjoy Brand's tales 70-80 years after he wrote them and 60 years after his tragic death in battle. If you've not tried this master in the past, this is as good a place as any to start.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A First Blooding", April 29, 2009

By 

Craig Clarke "Living After Midnight: Hard and... (New England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: More Tales of the Wild West (Leisure Western) (Mass Market Paperback)

"A First Blooding" is not technically a short story; it's a 14-page excerpt pulled by Brand biographer William F. Nolan from Brand's unfinished Civil War novel, Wycherley (as yet still unpublished, since only 200 of its planned 600 pages were completed before the author's death). As one who has enjoyed all the Max Brand I've read to date, I leapt right into it.

"A First Blooding" consists of two connected vignettes wherein Yankee Lieutenant Allan Loring kills his first Rebel soldier then hears another executed. These two events are chronicled separately, and Brand seems to take two different approaches with them.

It doesn't feel much like a full story, but it is a very welcome look at the more serious writing Brand was doing before his death. In fact, the scene between Christopher Hodge and Major Acton was so effective the first time through that I went back immediately and read it again to see if I could discern how it was done.

This excerpt certainly whets the appetite for more of Wycherley, and I, for one, would like to see it printed, however incomplete, as a testament to its author's continued ambition. (A master of the pulps, Faust deeply wanted to be taken seriously.) I'm as big a fan of his cowboy and Indian tales as anyone, but an author of Brand's stature should be appreciated for all facets of his career, and more writing like "A First Blooding" could help improve that.