Customer Reviews

To Tame a Land

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I was just a little boy... My cousin gave me a box set of five Louis L'Amour books and To Tame a Land was the first one I read. It was also the first book I remember reading that was not written for children and it hooked me. Completely.

An epic story with a moral but deadly hero, To Tame a Land tells the story of a boy orphaned on a wagon train headed west. With natural skill and the luck of Raggedy Andy he grows into a gunfighter as fast as John Wesley Hardin, a bronc buster, a gold miner, a card sharp and a cattle driver. The story starts with a sad little boy and ends with man fighting for the woman he loves. Corny Cliches - sure - but this book captures the language and feel of the old west. Scratch that - it DEFINES the old west as we all know it. I re-read the book recently and twenty years later it still works (although it seemed awfully short the second time around...).

Ryan Tyler was a boy when his father got killed by marauding indians and was then left alone, without a father or family. In steps Logan Pollard, a loner and a drifter without ties to anyone or anybody. The moment they meet their lives change forever. To Tame a Land has got to be one of the best books L'Amour wrote. The plot is tight and fast moving and the chapters are woven seemlessly together. The characters are diverse and complicated, while Ryan Tyler's character is tough, hard, and sad all at once. If you are a person who loves action and adventure, then pick this one up. As soon as you open the book, you will be transported to a time where a romance was pure and danger was real. A time when good prevailed against evil and your friends are what stood between you and death. If you have nothing to do on a weekend, or are longing to be transported from the day to day grind of life in the new millenium, then pick this one up amigo, you will not regret the time spent reading this book. So, cinch up your saddle and reload your pistol because you are on your way to a fast paced ride through the west.

This book had one of the best plots of any Louis L'Amour books you'll ever read. Louis L'Amour does a graet job of getting the readers attention and keeping it throughout the book. The author discribes the setting so well, it feels like you are there. My only dislike of this book would be that the author skips around from subject to subject, but it did make the story make sence. I think anyone with a sense of adventure or anyone that likes western books would like this book.

I have read almost all of L'Amour's books and to this day find them very enjoyable to re-read. I have passed these books onto my sons and they too have been spellbound by his great story telling. Some berate his style of writing, however I would much more enjoy this style than of the more current blood and gore of the modern writer.

This story of Rye Tyler is a classic, being on his own from a young age, learning about life the hard way, growing up in the wild country, falling in love and betrayal of a friend.

What more could you ask for!! READ THIS BOOK!!

The book was great! Its exciting and keeps you interested the entire time. You wont be able to put it down. Louis Lamour has done many great books and is my favorite author. This book is my favorite of the ones I've read from him. The story was about a boy named Rye and the trials he faces. Rye starts out as a young boy when his father and mother are killed. Rye lives on his own fro a while and then with a man who taught him how to live and shoot. When Rye moved away from his teacher he stayed and fell in love with a women and her family. After a few small problems and men getting killed Rye eventually leads up to saveing his long lost girlfriend from his old teacher who is holding her hostage in an outlawed city. I highly reccomend this book to anyone.

- "Rye... Know who you killed?"
- "A horse thief."
- "You killed Rice Wheeler, the Panhandle gunman."
- "He should have stayed in the Panhandle."

Ryan Tyler never wanted no trouble, but he never backed down from a fight, either. At age twelve he watched his Pa killed by Indians, and - after getting a measure of payback from them Indians - Rye has fended for himself ever since. Oh, there was a time when this mysterious gent took him under his wing, educated him on the value of books, learned him on the ways to survive the harshness and lawlessness of the West. But, just when Rye had it figured he'd found a home, he killed a man and was forced to leave town. He was only 15 then. He was already building a reputation.

TO TAME A LAND, a book that's over fifty years old, reads like a bullet and I would say that it's one of Louis L'Amour's best, except that he'd written so many addictive, rip-roaring novels, it's a damn chore and a half doing a list of his "best of." Like most of his stuff, this novel is spare and lean and it's like a time travel experience. TO TAME A LAND plants you right there, right next to Rye Tyler in the prairie dust and the trail sweat and the gun fumes. Rye is a dangerous gun fighter but a reluctant one, and his contemplative reserve and his constant striving to better himself, it makes him a really likable protagonist. But it doesn't hurt that he can shuck leather faster than anyone, this marvelous Colorado gun hand, with Plutarch in his saddlebags and that blazing gun in his holster. The book ends with Rye just around 21 years old. It's been a violent coming-of-age.

There's a sprawling feel here, mostly because, up until the final third of the book, Rye never could settle down to one place. Rye Tyler is typical of L'Amour's heroes, a hard and honorable man, fostering a reclusive disposition (but not unfriendly), and one who ever yearned to see what lay beyond that hill and the next. The narrative hones into sharp focus once Rye arrives in the mean mining town of Alta, Utah and becomes its lawman. And one of the best passages in the book involves Rye's cleaning up of Alta, and I won't say how he achieves this, but read the thing and I dare you to tell me that this chapter (Chapter 12) doesn't present one of the most ballssy moments you've ever come upon.

Louis L'Amour preferred to develop his central character with context to his rich, untamed environs and his dealings with the rugged menfolk of the frontier. And detailing the historical time and place, as his characters move thru that era, that's when we find L'Amour's prose at its most poetic and heartfelt. Louis L'Amour absolutely loved the old West. And perhaps because even a rugged man nurses a sentimental core, L'Amour does usually throw in a love interest, no matter that it's always perfunctorily served. Rye comes to fixate on finding his lovely childhood friend, Liza Hetrick, who vanished under suspicious circumstances. Rye's quest eventually leads him to an isolated outlaw's fortress hidden deep within a mighty canyon and to an unexpected confrontation that had me going "Wait... what?!" Yeah, it's that kind of book. It leaves us with Ryan Tyler building on his rep just one last time.

I have to admit this is my first Louis L'Amour book I've read. I remember my dad used to read L'Amour, besides the sports page it's the only thing I ever saw him read. I loved it and read it in two sittings. I just couldn't put it down. It flows so smoothly, almost like he wrote it in one sitting. It's a coming of age story for Ryan Tyler orphaned at the age of twelve after an Indian raid as his family is stranded from the wagon train with a broken wheel. The story never loses your attention. I loved this book and look forward to reading more of L'Amour.

Louis L'Amour has written many good books, and I say this one tops them all! This must have one of the greatest plots ever. If there is not a movie for this one I think there should be.

After seeing his father killed by Indians, and personally killing two in retribution, twelve-year-old Rye Tyler had to grow up fast. Taken in by a mysterious stranger who taught him to way of the West, Rye got good with a gun...very good with a gun, and soon adventures began to come his way. This is the story of Rye Tyler, a good man with a reputation that will never let him rest.

This is another excellent Louis L'Amour Western. It has everything that made the genre great, action and adventure, cattle and Indians, lawmen and outlaws. Rye Tyler is an interesting character, and his adventures make for some excellent reading.

This is an excellent Western, one that really shows you why Louis L'Amour is considered to be the king of the Western!

Rye Tyler is one of L'Amour's most memorable characters, one of his best books and one of my all time favorites. If you like old time western sh!tkickers, this is the book for you !

J.L. McPherson