Train to Durango: Border Empire 2 [Paperback]

Ralph Compton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998 | Series: Border Empire (Book 2)

Wes Stone, son of The Gunfighter, has pursued his father's murderers, the Sandlin Gang, throughout the Sierra Nevadas. But in his quest for revenge, he has now uncovered their nefarious plan to loot four United States mints. The odds are long and the stakes are high as Stone must hunt down and face a mercenary army guarding a mysterious train, which is already 700 miles ahead of him and headed straight for the Denver mint.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Signet; September edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451192370
• ISBN-13: 978-0451192370
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #335,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Border Empire Saga, July 5, 2000

By 

slim shady - See all my reviews

This review is from: Train to Durango: Border Empire 2 (Paperback)

For those who are die hard westerns fan's this book is sure to keep you turning the page's yet for the newcomer it has all the action you would expect from a Ralph Compton novel, sure to make a western fan for life. The books use of real event's and legend's of the old west is great tool in educating new reader's to " The old west". I am sure that after reading this novel you will add many more of Ralph Compton's masterpieces to your personal library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This train doesn't know where it is!, February 4, 2002

By 

F. Chaffin (West Jordan, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Train to Durango: Border Empire 2 (Paperback)

After having read all the previous Nathan Stone/Wes Stone books, this one fell flat in the end. Perhaps Compton died while writing this one, as it whimpered to an end. For one thing, even though the Durango-Silverton Railroad figures into the story, the writer didn't know his geography or railroad well enough to get the route correct. In reality, the railroad dead ends at Silverton, so it was not possible to get from Silverton directly to Denver or vice-versa. Also, the book's back cover would have you believe that there was some mysterious armored train under the control of the bad guys. Never appeared, never happened. It does not match the story line at all. Perhaps it got mixed up with a different story? Another point is that the geography and travel times mentioned do not make any sense. Yuma, Arizona is only a few minutes horseback ride from the Gulf of California? Some of the story elements got a little unbelievable. A mine chamber with a secret swinging stone door created by only two men? How is it that the three heroes are able to return to Dodge all the way from Yuma, Arizona practically overnight? It was an interesting story until near the end but sadly fell apart on the inconsistencies and story errors related to the railroad and geography. All too often, I recognized sentences and statements lifted from earlier books in the series as if the writer couldn't think of a new way to say it.

3.0 out of 5 stars The saga concludes...finally., December 7, 2011

By 

Daryn Bernard (St Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Train to Durango: Border Empire 2 (Paperback)

I made it a point to hurry up and read this one. After the ending of "Sixguns and Double Eagles" leaving one hanging like the end of "Back to the Future, Part 2", it was the only way to truly finish the story. And now I have. This story left a lot to be desired. First of all, I believe that the author could have cut nearly 50% out of this and the prior book and combined them into one. There is way too much repeating dialog. It is nice that when the author refers back to a prior story in the series that he puts a little footnote to remind us. Unfortunately it seems that these footnotes appear every 3-4 pages. It also starts getting old that the characters have to use an italicised Spanish phrase once a page. Finally, in Compton tradition, he tends to attempt at taking bits of history or geography and wrapping them into the story. In this case he failed miserably with his research of the railroads. The routes seemed all wrong and backwards. The distances between places seemed off. He scaled down the state of Kansas tremendously. K.C. to Ft Leavenworth by horseback in less than an hour? K.C. to Dodge by train in just a couple of hours. And then he ends with Yuma AZ within site of the Gulf of California.

Combining the two stories together, the trio chases the "Golden Dragon" through over 600 pages and then seems to capture the key member in a pretty quick 10 pages. I think the author just got tired of writing and ended the whole thing. Or he just got tired of repeating endless dialog. Either way, I am glad he did because I was getting tired of reading.

It is an ok read. However, if you have not started the Wes Stone portion (beginning with "The Border Empire") of the 6-book series, then maybe leaving Nathan Stone dead in the streets of El Paso may be a good ending point. Otherwise, like I did, you got to see it through just to know how it ends.