Customer Reviews

BLACK STALLION LEGEND (The Black Stallion Series / By Walter Farley)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had written Walter Farley before this book was released. He wrote me back and told me he was working on it. (I still have the letter.) This story was a difficult one for Mr. Farley to write, as the character of Pam was modelled after his own daughter Pam who was killed in a car crash in Europe in the late 1960's. It is a harsh awakening for Alec, who loses his love; the one bright spot in his darkening world. Business pressures, the physical strain on his body, and the need to take a break from horse racing were all taking their toll on Alec. With the death of Pam, Alec's world collapsed, and he headed west. Just when things seemed like they couldn't get worse, a meteor strikes the earth. What should have been a calamatous event becomes a new beginning for Alec,Henry,the Black, and Hopeful Farm. I found the book interesting, although not as good as THE BLACK STALLION AND THE GIRL, the one Black Stallion book that has overshadowed all others,in my opinion.

Farley took a chance with this book and, unlike others, it rocked my world. It took me a couple tries to finally understand what happened at the end of the book, and that is the only detraction I have! Alec's pain is raw and movingly depicted in this book. I didn't think Walter Farley had that kind of cathartic writing ability at all, but he really pulled it off. The reader can follow poor Alec through the pain of loss and then come to terms with it as he does. Farley did it! This book is a must read if you want to end the series right. Read it.

This last in the famous series about a young boy and his beloved racehorse is deeper and much more "adult-like" in nature than the books that preceeded it. It shows Alex (the young boy from the begining of the series) as an adult faced with trememdous issues and obstacles. I remember when I first read this book as a teenager I cried at the beginning and I cried again at the end, but for totally different and contrasting reasons. Even though I loved the beginning books, which are much more innocent and happy in their nature, I ended up loving this one the best because not only did it bring about a heart warming conclusion to a classic series, but the writing, in and of its own in this particular book, is expert.

I read this book as a teenager and it made me cry and depressed me for days. I read it again ten years later, when I went through my old books to see which ones I wanted to keep and which ones I didn't for my kids. My opinion is still the same as it was then: "What a lousy end to a great series!".
In my opinion, the last really good book in the series was "The Black Stallion Mystery". But they were still really good books and definately readable. At "The Black Stallion's Ghost" they started going out of what I would call kid-friendly reading.
The main problems I saw with the book (and some of these, particularly the first, is present in "The Black Stallion and the Girl":

1. Old people are stupid, cranky, bigoted and unable to really understand anything if they don't agree with today's feminist, modernist "values". The less you believe in absolute morality, the more moral you are- although this is much more of an issue in the previous book, it still contaiminates this one too. It's particularly depressing because the books had been very good at showing good adult-teen/young adult interactions. The way the portrayal of Henry and Alec's parents: at best impotent to do as much as even seek out Alec when he disappears, clearly in a horrible mental state; at worst the cause of it, particularly by Henry's borderline verbally abusive treatment of Alec at the beginning of the book when he fails to meet a weight limitation and then again after the race. The friendship of Alec and Henry that was so crucial to the series until it began to break down in "The Black Stallion Challenged" and was pretty much demolished in "The Black Stallion and the Girl" gets its death-knell here, despite the paste-up job attempted at the end. (For a better "reunion", check out "The Black Stallion Revolts")

2. I don't know enough about Native American culture in the South to say how accurate the portrayal is in this book, but it was both demeaning and too idealistic. The liberal idea of "Native Americans as 'spiritually superior'" on one hand; on the other they were described in a way that left one with images of poverty stricken, dark eyed hungry children and watery eyed barely dressed old men staring at you from the side of the roadway, trying to hawk corn and drums.

3. Alec's reaction to Pam's death is almost a complete psychotic breakdown. It is skillfully (not surprising given the background), agonizingly and breathlessly described. It is also totally not appropriate for kids. It's not even light reading for adults! I don't think most children under teens are prepared to deal with that level of emotion and that graphic of a description of it; and even teens should be given the chance to discuss it or process it in some way. Also, some of the other events described are questionable taste and/or content (I could have lived without so much description of vomiting, for example, and picturing a grown man crawling around the desert pretending he is a horse, driven mad with grief, was almost unbelievable and just felt wrong)

4. The apocalyptic stuff, as other reviews mentioned, seemed forced and unbelievable.

My advice to readers of the Black Stallion getting to the end of the series? Stop at "The Black Stallion Challenged" and tell yourself that Walter Farley didn't write any more books about the adult Black. You'll be much happier.

This book is really the last of the series, because the Young Black Stallion is kind of like a prequel. Along with The Black Stallion's Ghost, Mystery (my personal fave) and The Young Black Stallion, this book was one of the "weird" ones. (I have heard about the Island Stallion Races being odd too, but I have just ordered that one off Ebay and haven't read it yet. I had the series as a kid and got rid of them and just recently had to buy them all back. haha). The story kind of has nothing to do with horse racing and the fairy tale story that the series started off with. No, Farley's writing style changed a LOT at the end of the series, and this book was really odd. It freaked me out when I read it at the age of 13, and now I am 19 and find it hard to beleive that this book, along with Ghost, Mystery, and Young, was meant for children ages 9-12... it is apocolyptic, confusing, depressing, and gets under your skin. At times, even drug-induced. I wonder why Farley made the book end so horribly?

I've read all the books in the Black Stallion series, and this is the one I happen to like the least. The Black Stallion legend started out OK, but it turned out to be a very depressing, and eventually unnerving book, especially since it was the last one in the series. The preceding book, The Black Stallion and the Girl, was wonderful. Alec and a girl named Pam meet and fall in love, and the book ends on a hopeful note that Pam will someday return to Hopeful farm and marry Alec when she feels that the timing is right. But in this book, Pam gets killed in a car accident in Europe, and Alec has a nervous breakdown from his grief and the stress of the racing business. As a result, he simply ends up taking off across the country with the Black.
The second half of this book reads more like something out of the "Left Behind" series than one of Farley's books, with planet-wide earthquakes and meteor strikes. And the ending wasn't very clear - it left the reader puzzled and bewildered instead of a definite, tidy ending. Alec was on the phone with Henry, telling him where he is and that he and the Black are fine. When Alec feels an earthquake tremor, he asks if Henry is still there and there's no answer. And that's how it all ends. I think Farley should have left a good thing alone with the Black Stallion and the Girl, and not finished off a wonderful series with such a depressing tale.

In this book Alec and the Black take off , after a tragic death that rocks Alec's world. They end up in Arizona, where Alec sets the Black free. Alec stumbles upon an Indian boy who helps him out and tells him of a prophecy. The ending of the world and that a rider on a black horse will come to lead his people to the new world. When the Black returns to Alec the boy thinks Alec and The Black are the ones he mentioned in the prophecy. The boy leaves and Alec and the Black have to find their own way to the Indian village, going though some obstacles to get there

Later on earthquakes strike and Alec questions if the world really is over. At first Alec doesn't care but soon realizes that he must go on, and live his life. He has to stop running from the pain of his loss and live.

The end was a bit odd. The book was good though there were many sad parts Walter Farley did a great job, probably because he was writing from his own lost. This is the last Black stallion book to feature Alec that was written by Walter Farley , as the Young Black Stallion was a prequel

Not one of his best books, as it goes way past melodramatic to downright silly in some parts.

However, being a ghost/UFO-lover and horse lover at the same time I can appreciate the fact that Mr. Farley wasn't afraid of doing something different with a horse story.

Still, if you want supernatural horse stories, pick up "The Black Stallion's Ghost" or "The Island Stallion Races". Or grab a copy of "Horse Fantastic". Much better stories and better writing, IMO.

I've read all the books in the Black Stallion series, and this is the one I happen to like the least. The Black Stallion legend started out OK, but it turned out to be a very depressing, and eventually unnerving book, especially since it was the last one in the series. The preceding book, The Black Stallion and the Girl, was wonderful. Alec and a girl named Pam meet and fall in love, and the book ends on a hopeful note that Pam will someday return to Hopeful farm and marry Alec when she feels that the timing is right. But in this book, Pam gets killed in a car accident in Europe, and Alec has a nervous breakdown from his grief and the stress of the racing business. As a result, he simply ends up taking off across the country with the Black.
The second half of this book reads more like something out of the "Left Behind" series than one of Farley's books, with planet-wide earthquakes and meteor strikes. And the ending wasn't very clear - it left the reader puzzled and bewildered instead of a definite, tidy ending. Alec was on the phone with Henry, telling him where he is and that he and the Black are fine. When Alec feels an earthquake tremor, he asks if Henry is still there and there's no answer. And that's how it all ends. I think Farley should have left a good thing alone with the Black Stallion and the Girl, and not finished off a wonderful series with such a depressing tale.

This was probably one of the worst Black Stallion books, next to the Black Stallion and the Girl. It totally strayed from the usual plots of the series, and the people in it were very interesting in an odd way. Definetely not my favorite.