1.0 out of 5 stars
I gave this to my dad to read and I had to apologize because it was that bad, July 17, 2010
This review is from: Skeleton Lode (Sundown Riders, #6) (Mass Market Paperback)
I bought this book for my dad to read and he brought it back to me and I read it and I had to apologize - this is, without a doubt, the worst Western I have ever read.
What makes it so bad?
When I read a Western, I expect a certain amount of realism. I am not talking about the picky, picky details like the amount of gunpowder grains in a bullet. These are the things I am talking about:
-The book is set in 1857. They constantly refer to the sheriff of Gila County. There was no Gila County in 1857 - it was not formed until the year 1881.
-They refer to the town of Globe. It was a mining town formed in 1878 (as Globe City).
-Uncle Henry (Hoss) has a cabin on Saguaro Lake. Saguaro Lake was not formed until a hydroelectric dam was installed in 1930.
-Characters camp along creekbeds in the mountains during massive thunderstorms. I am not a mountain climber but I do know that you avoid creekbeds due to flash floods.
-The Spanglish (English/Spanish combination used by the Spanish-speaking characters speaking broken English) is pathetic. The Spanish thrown in reads like the individual words were looked up in a pocket dictionary (no one at the publishing house knows a single person that speaks Spanish?). No verb conjugation. Incorrect adjective placement and usage, use of the English "apostrophe s". Plus, I can understand the need for Spanglish when the Mexican characters are speaking English, but why wouldn't they speak to one another in regular Spanish - and Compton could skip the Spanglish all together for those parts?
-The worst feature of the book is its total disregard for time and distance when riding on horseback. The sheriff in Phoenix is constantly popping over to Tortilla Flats. An internet map search tells me that it is more than an hour by car. That would be a long trip on a horse in the desert. But, that's okay, Bowdre, one of the bad guys, takes a 35 mile mule trip one afternoon on his way back from a 12 mile morning walk to the store. Dallas and Arlo (the good guys) are forever traveling around the Superstition Mountains - from one side to the other with no problem and quite quickly, despite the fact that these mountains cover approximately 250 square miles. All of these distances would be believable if the book was set in 1957 and everyone had Jeeps, but with horses? Laughable.
Throw in the repetitive nature of the book and you can why I had to apologize. The main "good guy and girl" characters only have four conversations (1) We loved Uncle Hoss, wasn't he great - too bad he's dead; 2) We love each other and we fully intend to get physical in our relationship, but not quite yet; 3) We hate Gary Davis (the bad guy); 4) Is the gold worth all of this? They have these converstation over and over and over and over.
The bad guys just fight and argue and then one of them shoots another - that is unless their horses and food get stolen (it happens over and over) and they make a 12 mile march to town (in the desert!) and ride back in the same day. Oh - and twice they get stuck in lightning storms that blast dozens of lightning bolts all around them.
Where did everyone get the cash to buy horse after horse and supplies to feed a whole camp full of men? They literally bought every horse and mule in the area for this fiasco.
Please, read anything else by Louis L'amour or Elmer Kelton.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Luck is the Only Luck, April 20, 2003
This review is from: Skeleton Lode (Sundown Riders, #6) (Mass Market Paperback)
For Arlo Wells and Dallas Holt if they did not have bad luck they would not have any luck at all. They are ex-cowpunchers looking for the goose who layed the golden egg. They deliver a wagon load of whiskey to the owner of a saloon, but he dies before he pays them, so they take over the saloon for payment, but it burns down after a bar brawl.
An old friend sends them half a map to a gold mine bonanza and asks them to share it with his nieces. However the girls miserable stepfather has the other half of the map and the girls and he doesn't want to share. The bad luck just continues all the way to the end.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Skeleton Lode, April 6, 2001
This review is from: Skeleton Lode (Sundown Riders, #6) (Mass Market Paperback)
I thought the book had a very good tale. At verious spots in this book one might think that they have it figgured out, all of the sudden another twist pops up, and you are off again. The two mex guides keep you guessing where and when they will pop up, and with who. You have a laid back sheriff, helpfull town folk, many bad guys, good guys ect... What I thought was the clincher was DAVIS, who would of thought he would come out of the caves? more or less the way he did. Then the ending, wow. I have read all but three of the books listed on this site, and I think this one was by far the best. Not to say I did not like the others, I still do.
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