Customer Reviews

West of the Tularosas

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This latest release in the string of Louis L'Amour short story westerns from Leisure Books is certain to be a success. The others to date have been BIG MEDICINE, TRAILING WEST, GRUB LINE RIDER, SHOWDOWN TRAIL, A MAN CALLED TRENT, and THE SIXTH SHOTGUN, plus 3 anthologies.

Back in March, 1986, Louis L'Amour and Bantam books were forced to issue two books of short stories due to another publisher's unauthorized release of stories that L'Amour had not yet issued. Those two books from Bantam were entitled RIDING FOR THE BRAND and DUTCHMAN'S FLAT. The stories within this volume just reissued by Leisure Westerns have eight of the stories from RIDING FOR THE BRAND and DUTCHMAN'S FLAT. However, as printed by Leisure these 8 stories remain the way they appeared in Western magazines of the late 1940s and early to mid-1950s without Louis' editing that he did for the two 1986 Bantam books.

The story titles from the newly printed WEST OF THE TULAROSA are listed below. I've also included the 1986 Bantam book in which they appeared, and also the date the stories were published in various western magazines:

Mistakes Can Kill You (Dutchman's Flat) 11/1950
The Man From Battle Flat (Dutchman's Flat) 1/52
The Lion Hunter and the Lady (Dutchman's Flat) 8/51
The One for the Mohave Kid (Dutchman's Flat) 9/54
West Is Where The Heart Is (Riding For The Brand) 4/51
Home In The Valley (Riding For The Brand) 8/49
Fork Your Own Broncs (Riding For The Brand) 5/47
West of The Tularosa (Dutchman's Flat) 3/51

As Louis L'Amour states in the forward to RIDING FOR THE BRAND, "Beginning a writing career is never easy and the stories in this collection were often written when the going was rough.". You can also sense the excitement by Louis as each one of these short stories were accepted for publication. He had worked so hard for so long, and had received many rejection slips. At long last, he knew he was finally getting somewhere, with most of the stories within the newly issued Leisure book collection being good to very good. In some ways this was a writer still honing and maturing style and voice in his chosen field. One thing that may be of interest to some new comers to the short fiction of Louis L'Amour is the Introduction by Jon Tuska for this volume. It offers biographical background information on and about Louis L'Amour.

I have all of Louis L'Amour books in the Bantam Hardcover editions, over 100 in all all stacked on shelves in their saddle brown leather cover with western script gold letters on their bindings. Yet I never seem to tire of reading anything anyone still issues by Louis L'Amour. One of the smaller reasons I like his writing are the names he picked for the people who inhabit his books. Check these few out and maybe you will see what I mean: Loss Degner, Flitch, Bush Leason, Krag Moran, Shorty Grimes, Cat Morgan, Flagg Warneke, Harve Bemis, and Kim Sartain, among many others in this book and all the other books of Louis L'Amour. I've lived many years (66) yet have never run into everyday people with names such as these. I've always found that to be one of many unique facets present in Louis' westerns.

So whether one is an older L'Amour reader such as myself or a brand spanking new one, these stories are certain to entertain. There is much truth in the statement that the west of Louis L'Amour never gets old or outdated. Louis' stories as Bantam Books blurbs used to say "take off like a bullet" but as I say they never get outdated and can be re-read as often as desired without getting stale.

Semper Fi.

There were some good yarns in here. Some felt cut a little short, probably due to their original pulp-bound purpose. A few could (should?) have been expanded to novel-length. It's easy to see why so many readers relate to this author's protagonists--they're young, strong, smart, good-looking and honest to a fault. Oh yeah, and almost always a phenomenal gunfighter, even if they punch cattle for a living. As Jeff Cooper might say, "They Ride (hard), Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth."

My favorite yarn in the batch was the last, the longest, and the one from which the title of this anthology was taken: West of the Tularosa. It's on the complex side for a L'Amour tale, some whodunnit mystery mixed in with the familiar range conflict.

Another enjoyable western is The Curly Wolf by M.R. Kayser.

R.I.P. LL, we miss you.

Henry Brown is the author of post-Civil War adventure tale Radical Times, as well as the military thriller novel Hell and Gone. He is the columns editor at New Pulp Fiction, and does some blogging of his own at the Two-Fisted Blogger.

If you're looking for a dose of the Old West's mythology before it got re-written to include second thoughts and anti-heroes, this is a great collection of stories. No, they aren't particularly realistic. The good guys are really good, the bad guys are pure evil, and the guy in the white hat almost always draws faster than the guy in the black hat.

In other words, when he wrote these magazine pieces, L'Amour was writing within the confines of a well-established genre, and you'll find nothing here to make you think particularly deep thoughts. However, these stories are just great. Well structured, well written, suspenseful, and full of vivid action and great characters. These stories were written to entertain, and that they still do!

A Christmas gift for a son-in-law. We know he likes Westerns and I have read several Louis L'Amour books and know they are authentic Western novels. Thanks.
Don

West of the Tularosa is a collection of Louis L'Amour western short stories from the late forties to early fifties, including the titular novella.

Reading this stories is like curling up with a Gary Cooper or John Wayne western. You'll find good, straight-shooting, two-fisted heroes and dirty, dastardly villains, and a woman. You'll get gunfights and cattle rustlin' and justice at the end of a rope (at least threatened). In short, you'll get the kind of western stories your parents grew up with and loved--the kind you find on the old-movie channels--that defined "the western" in America for several decades...and for many people, still does.

I read the Kindle version and the formatting was fine.

I have never before read a book by Louis L'Amour. I bought this because it was on a daily deal and I am still learning about the Kindle. I liked it! It doesn't take long for you to know who the good guys and the bad guys are and you just know the good guy is going to get the girl but it is good entertainment.

Classic, elegant...and just a joy to read these short vintage writings. Over the course of 45 years I've enjoyed his work off and on...always had time to pick one of his books up and get lost in the adventure between the pages. Nice to remember times like this when writers didn't have to rely on explicit four letter words to construct a story. Enough said. This was a great find on Kindle! 5 stars for sure!

Loved this Kindle e-book. I rarely read westerns as a youngster, and now
thoroughly enjoyed Louis L'AMOUR and such a great writing style. Each Chapter is so completely different and about the right length to read before bedtime each night. It definitely has whetted my appetite to watch carefully when there are quality 99cent specials to download! Keep it up Kindle!

Over the last 35 years, I have read every Louis L'Amour western at least three times, and the Sackett series even more. I had previously read several of the short story compilations published since L'Amour's death and while most of them were good, they were retreads of the Hopalong Cassidy short stories or the short story that was a prelude to many of his novels.

That being said, I approached this new compilation of old L'Amour magazine short stories with a bit of caution and was pleasantly surprised as I had not read them before or, if I had, they didn't come immediately to mind as I read them. Each story appears to follow the typical L'Amour format: a young guy is trying to make his way in the world, there is a protagonist that gets in the way of not only the main character but the townspeople involved, and there is a young woman the main character is attracted to and eventually gets the girl.

In-between you have a lot of nice literature that really makes you feel part of the story - you smell the smoke, feel the tension, and you can visualize the scenes clearly in your mind along with some old-fashioned values of right and wrong. L'Amour was a heck of a writer, and after reading this compilation I'm getting the urge to pull out my paperbacks and start the process again with his novels.

I purchased this Kindle version as part of the Kindle Daily Deal and only paid $1.49 for it which is a heck of a bargain. As I type this review, the Kindle version has increased in price to $5.59 - for L'Amour fans, you will get many times that amount in value, especially as these stories appear "new" as mentioned above.

I love Louis L'Amour stories, especially his short stories and this fit the bill perfectly.