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The Walking Drum

4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 · rating details · 3,154 ratings · 352 reviews

Here is an historic adventure of extraordinary power waiting to sweep you away to exotic lands as one of the most popular writers of our time conquers new storytelling worlds. Louis L'Amour has been best known for his ability to capture the spirit and drama of the authentic American West. Now he guides his readers to an even more distant frontier -- the enthralling lands o...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published April 1st 1985 by Bantam (first published May 1st 1984)

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Jul 26, 2011 Carrie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-old

I was pretty amused by the main character's attitude throughout the book. He was so full of himself it was hard to believe he made so many friends in the story. I was impressed by all the historical information squeezed in every nook and cranny, but felt it took a little away from the story. I wanted to know a little more about the characters brought in & out. *spoiler alert* the escape sequence at the end...really? it was that easy to escape a fortress in the mountains? and there will be no...more

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Sep 26, 2009 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book annoyed me. It was just barely good enough to keep reading. I usually like historical novels, but this one missed the mark. The main character goes off to find his father, and falls in love along the way. Ought to be a decent enough book. It might have been, if he'd had that as a plot line and stuck to it. But he didn't. The main character keeps taking detours, all of which involve separate subplots where he conquers some other beautiful woman's heart and acquires some other sort of di...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Larry Blaylock rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had thought of L'Amour as only a Western writer and thought this to be a book about the American Indian. Very suprised that the action took place in Europe and the Middle East. Very interesting book and I would recommend it for anyone who might reject it on the bases of L'Amour's stereotyped westerns. Of coarse, any hard core L'mour fan will read it anyway.

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Feb 16, 2009 Gina rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was really fun to read. The swashbuckling, womanizing, philosophizing adventurer Kerbouchard trapses around 11th century Europe, alternating between escaping death at the hands of half a dozen armed guards and bedding beautiful, exotic women. He also strikes revenge on the man who murdered his mother by throwing his dead body into the cesspool that is the mythological Druid opening to the underworld precisely as lightening strikes. And every single adventure is that over the top. It's...more

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May 01, 2013 Nicolas rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Walking Drum by L'Amour is an incredible book! It is definitely near the top of my list in books. He starts the book out fast and keeps the pace going throughout, never leaving a moment of reading dull! Any lover of historical fiction, adventure, or just looking for a good read would definitely find this book one to keep on their shelf!

The story follows Mathurin Kerbouchard, the son of the famous corsair Jean Kerbouchard. The book has none of the traditional slow set-up often seen within boo...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

The Walking Drum is a fast-paced, fun novel. The witty banter, swashbuckling scenes, and rapid progression from frying pan to fire to the next worse predicament were enjoyable, if not a bit over-the-top.

What I enjoyed most of this book were the lessons about self-education, purpose, and history.

The protagonist feels an insatiable hunger for knowledge. He seeks to expand this knowledge through books, interactions with others, and experience. Like true scholars, he frequently laments how little he...more The Walking Drum is a fast-paced, fun novel. The witty banter, swashbuckling scenes, and rapid progression from frying pan to fire to the next worse predicament were enjoyable, if not a bit over-the-top.

What I enjoyed most of this book were the lessons about self-education, purpose, and history.

The protagonist feels an insatiable hunger for knowledge. He seeks to expand this knowledge through books, interactions with others, and experience. Like true scholars, he frequently laments how little he knows, while those around him wonder at his immense repertoire of wisdom and ability. As the saying goes: The more you know, the more you realize you know nothing. Still... the knowledge he has frequently gains him the upper hand in conversation and perilous situations.

Too often education is talked of as a service or good to be provided to the masses. It is a misconception that we can give another person knowledge. All true learning happens when the student applies himself and makes the sacrifice to learn. This happens best when the student has a driving purpose.

L'Amour indicates (through more than one villain) that the desire for knowledge without the willingness make the requisite effort to learn demonstrates poor character. Conversely, those in the story who understand their purpose willingly pursue the means, no matter the cost.

The final point I wish to address in this review is the attitude toward history. L'Amour says it best in the Author's Note at the end of the book:

Unhappily, history as presented in our schools virtually ignores two thirds of the world, confining itself to limited areas around the Mediterranean, to western Europe, and North America. Of China, India, and the Moslem world almost nothing is said, yet their contribution to our civilization was enormous, and they are now powers with which we must deal both today and tomorrow, and which it would be well for us to understand.

He typed those words in the 1980's, and they may be truer today than when he wrote them.

I went on to type a soap-box abusing rant about American ethnocentrism that was better off deleted.

The important thing is that we expand our minds and our understanding of other cultures and their contributions to science, religion, philosophy, etc. I don't claim that this book is fully correct or wholly important to this discussion, but it effectively invites the reader to consider the valuable lessons and contributions made throughout history that have been censored (whether intentionally or not)from our curricula.

Still kinda soap-boxy... sorry.

I recommend this book. I read it for a book club, and the opportunity to discuss it with others excites me.(less)

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May 09, 2012 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-ya

Adventures of a medieval Breton (?) who sets out to rescue his corsair father from captivity---a journey that cuts quite a swathe through the female population while taking him through Western and Eastern Europe, Muslim Spain, to Kiev, Constantinople and Alamut...and further yet to India in planned-but-never-written sequels. Though the author knows how to pace and tell an eventful tale, this late work is stuffed with bald and interminable, lecture-y info dumps about medieval history, culture, li...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Checkman rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Nobody

Shelves: historical-fiction, a-disappointment, adventure

As a kid I read many a Louis L'Amour western. I liked them and I could read them in a matter of few hours. Lots of fun and some history thrown in for good measure.

Okay so lets move ahead some thirty years. I picked up The Walking Drum out of curiosity. I like history and I always enjoy the occassional historical novel. But this thing was terrible. The hero is a superman. He's smarter, wittier, better read, stronger, more skilled with a blade, has a better horse, can outfight everyone, has more...more

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Apr 13, 2012 John McDonell rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great tale that I first read as a teenager in the eighties and have read several times since. I was enthralled with this story and how well the character Kerbouchard was written. His zest for life and unwavering confidence was a little over the top but L'Amour gave him a few low points that grounded him a bit. The story takes place in the 12th century in Europe and you follow Kerbouchard through lots of regions as a young teenager looking for his father. I won't say anymore about the plot, but...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Jenifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't really know what to expect when I started this except that I had been told that it wasn't "a western". I think this is the first L'Amour book that I have ever read. My grandpa had hundreds of his books around, and I wish he were here so that I could ask him how he liked this one.

I, myself enjoyed it quite a bit. After the first couple of chapters I fell into the formulaic rhythm of the plot; our young hero-for-the-ages Kerbouchard runs into fortune and misfortune, and adventure after ad...more

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Nov 28, 2009 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really like Louis L'Amour. At least, I did before I read this. Love his Westerns, his short stories, and especially loved The Lonesome Gods. This one teaches some really good things...like learning for the sake of learning and having a good memory and gleaning everything you can from a situation to learn from it. Basically, to learn from books and your life and to always desire to learn. I can totally agree with that. But the main character was not very likable to me. He would just as soon "op...more

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Sep 25, 2009 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, historical

This was the second L'Amour novel I've read, the first being The Haunted Mesa nearly a decade ago, and I have gained an enormous new respect for the author. Known primarily for his Westerns, L'Amour tackles an entirely different venue with this story that sweeps across all of Northern Europe, the Eurasian Steppes, and on down through Constantinople all the way to Persia and beyond, near the end of the 12th Century. The geography involved is as thorough and accurate as any of Mr. L'Amour's depict...more This was the second L'Amour novel I've read, the first being The Haunted Mesa nearly a decade ago, and I have gained an enormous new respect for the author. Known primarily for his Westerns, L'Amour tackles an entirely different venue with this story that sweeps across all of Northern Europe, the Eurasian Steppes, and on down through Constantinople all the way to Persia and beyond, near the end of the 12th Century. The geography involved is as thorough and accurate as any of Mr. L'Amour's depictions of the American Southwest, and is even displayed as a map on the pages before the first chapter, in much the same fashion used by modern fantasy writers to show the details of their imagined kingdoms. In addition to the landscape, the customs, languages, and even styles of dress of the time are remarkably well-detailed and represented; also, as I'm learning should be expected in a L'Amour novel, the very names and likenesses of Emperors, nobles, and high-class individuals of the period are expertly brought into use. As a student of histories, having earned a double Bachelor's in Archaeology and Classical Civilizations, and routinely indulging my lifelong interest in Medieval times, I must admit to being humbled - Louis Dearborn L'Amour, a man who received no schooling past the age of 15 and no formal training in research, could have put my own abilities to shame.

Regardless of the historical accuracy and other technical aspects of the novel, as a reader and lover of stories I was thoroughly entertained by The Walking Drum's hero, Mathurin Kerbouchard, and his adventures and endeavors. L'Amour's work exhibits that rarest of talents in an author, to present great amounts of detail and create a realistic, believable world, while simultaneously keeping the story moving at a very engaging pace. I found myself routinely intending to put down the book and take care of other things, only to continue turning the page and launching into the next chapter. Perhaps the only flaw encountered was the occasional confusion of perception: L'Amour described his own work as more in keeping with oral tradition and intended to be read aloud, likening it to stories told by traveling bards; however, this particular piece is written in the first person. The result is a feeling within the reader that you are more often experiencing Kerbouchard's trials and successes through his own eyes, but occasionally being jerked out of time to view events from the modern perspective, looking back. Still, this being the single qualm I had with the novel, and the transitions being well smoothed-over, it hardly comes close to spoiling a highly enjoyable read of an absolutely stupendous book.

The Walking Drum should be on the reading list of any fan of historical fiction, any enthusiast of Crusade-era Europe, anyone who enjoys a thrilling adventure story, and, well, just about anyone else who can read.(less)

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Nov 15, 2009 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Mar 20, 2011 John Onoda rated it 4 of 5 stars

I could barely remember this book, which I first read over 20 years ago, so I recently reread it. And liked it a lot. Louis L'Amour's strengths and weaknesses as an author are on display, while the story is set around the Mediterranean during the time of the Crusades, instead of America's Old West.

What I liked about the book was it's hero, Kerbouchard. Like the best L'Amour protagonists, he is a seeker of knowledge and skills. The author's belief in constant self-improvement as the key to succes...more

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May 02, 2013 Brenda rated it 5 of 5 stars

“The Walking Drum” is a historical novel set in 12th century Europe and the Middle East. Mathurin Kerbouchard, the main character, learns that his mother has been murdered in Brittany and that his father is now forced into servitude somewhere east of Baghdad and south of Tehran. Young Kerbouchard begins a long journey in search of revenge for his mother’s death and his missing father.
Knowing his mother was murdered by Baron de Tournemine, Mathurin immediately looks for a way to temporarily esca...more “The Walking Drum” is a historical novel set in 12th century Europe and the Middle East. Mathurin Kerbouchard, the main character, learns that his mother has been murdered in Brittany and that his father is now forced into servitude somewhere east of Baghdad and south of Tehran. Young Kerbouchard begins a long journey in search of revenge for his mother’s death and his missing father.
Knowing his mother was murdered by Baron de Tournemine, Mathurin immediately looks for a way to temporarily escape Brittany, so that his life won’t be taken as well. While escaping, he’s captured by Walter and his crew, and is forced to serve as a galley slave for a few months. However, with time, he attains the position of pilot, frees a captured Moorish girl, Aziza, and her companion, then frees his fellow slaves and with their help sells his captors into slavery and escapes to Cádiz in Moorish Spain, where he looks for news of his father.
Mathurin travels to Córdoba, where he becomes a scholar, but his scholarship is interrupted when he becomes involved in political intrigue surrounding Aziza and is imprisoned by Prince Ahmed. Scheduled to be executed, Mathurin escapes eastward to the hills outside the city. Mathurin returns to Córdoba and, aided by a woman he chances upon named Safia, he takes a job as a translator. However, the intrigue in which she is involved threatens their lives, and they must flee the city. Safia, known to have various connections, tells him that his father may be alive but was sold as a slave in the east.
Leaving Spain, the two join a merchant caravan, trading and fighting off thieves as they travel through Europe. When they reach Brittany, they attack the castle of Baron de Tournemine, and Mathurin personally kills him, avenging his mother.
As the caravan continues its travels, Safia has learned that Mathurin's father is at Alamut, the fortress of the Old Man of the Mountain (Assassin), but warns that going there is dangerous. They leave the caravan and go to Paris. Safia remains there, but Mathurin must go on and seek his father.
Before leaving Paris, Mathurin talks with a group of students but offends a teacher, then needing to flee for his life. While fleeing, he encounters the Comtesse de Malcrais, escaping marriage to Count Robert. They meet up with the caravans again at Provins, which are traveling to Kiev to trade their woolen cloaks and other goods for furs.
As they journey, they encounter hostile Petchenegs. A protracted battle ensues, by the end of which most of the caravan merchants are killed, but Suzanne may have escaped in a small boat, and Mathurin, wounded, hides in the brush and, barely surviving, nurses himself back to health and travels to Byzantium by land.
In the marketplace of Constantinople, Mathurin then takes to copying from memory books that he copied in Córdoba. Contacting Safia's informant, he learns that his father is indeed at Alamut, but that he attempted to escape and may be dead. Nevertheless, he is determined to go and find out. Going to an armorer who maintains a room for exercising with weapons, he meets some of the Emperor's guard and drops hints to one of them of the books he is copying, so that the emperor will hear of him. Invited to meet the emperor, Mathurin offers him advice and a book and tells the Emperor of his desire to rescue his father from Alamut.
Two weeks later, the emperor supplies Mathurin with a sword, three horses he had lost when the caravan was taken, and gold. Mathurin also hears news that Suzanne has returned safely to her castle and strengthened its defenses with survivors from the caravan.
Mathurin travels by boat across the Black Sea to Trebizond, changing his identity to ibn-Ibrahim, a Muslim physician and scholar. He finds Khatib, and old friend from Córdoba, who tells him rumors that his father is being treated terribly by a powerful newcomer to Alamut named al-Zawila.
Leaving Tabriz, Mathurin and Khatib travel to Qazvin, where he receives gifts and an invitation to visit Alamut. Before he leaves for Alamut, Mathurin meets the princess Sundari, from Anhilwara, and, learning that she is being forced into marriage, promises, if he escapes Alamut alive, to come to Hind and rescue her from this fate.
Arriving in Alamut, Mathurin is admitted but immediately taken captive. Many days later, he’s brought to a surgical room, being told that he has been brought to Alamut on an errand of mercy to save a slave's life, by making him a eunuch. The slave is his father. Pretending to cooperate, Mathurin covertly cuts his father's bonds with a scalpel then, spilling boiling water on some of the guards, draws his sword and engages the remaining guards. Other soldiers break into the room, and Mathurin and his father escape down the corridor and through an aqueduct into the hidden valley.

Hiding in the garden for a day, they learn of a nearby gate. During the evening they rush the gate and, assisted by a handful of slaves who are present, slay the guards, but the gate is closed on them. Mathurin then lights the fuses of his prepared pipe bombs (which he brought into Alamut), destroying the gate. He and his father escape out and down the side of the mountain. They soon meet Khatib with horses ready and ride off.
At the end of the book, Mathurin’s father rides toward Basra, seeking the sea again. Mathurin then rides toward Hind, to fulfill his promise to Sundari.
I loved this book! I found it had a bit of everything - romance, action, history, suspense, and so much more. L’Amour was very descriptive, making me feel as if I truly lived in the 12th century. It made me aware of the constant struggle for survival and power you would have to face, depending on your position in society. I found it difficult to put the book down, eager to know of the fate of Maturin’s father and his woman friends.
I would highly recommend this book to those who love historical fiction, adventure. They will definitely be intrigued by the various battle scenes and the knowledge L’Amour gives the reader of the 12th century Europe and Middle East. This book was very exciting, factual, adventurous, keeping me on my toes.
(less)

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Jan 17, 2012 Kurt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not my usual choice of fiction, by any means -- and, yes, strange that my first Louis L'Amour novel is about a 12th century Celt searching for his father in Muslim Spain.

This is a "rollicking" adventure tale that takes the reader through myriad historic regions, cities, and strongholds that were central to the greatest cultural developments of the time period -- Cordoba, Paris, Kiev, and Constantinople, to name a few. Along the way, Mathurin Kerbouchard wins over his acquaintances with his awes...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

This book has it all! It's a novel, it's a history lesson, it's a geography lesson! It has over the top dialogue! It has a main character who is a master of everything! He's a master swordsman, physician, historian, alchemist, juggler, tactician, acrobat, merchant, geographer, sailor, philosopher, pirate, and scholar. Could he possibly be a master of women too? Yes! In the span of time covered in the story, which is a little unclear but it seemed to me about three years, he meets six women and f...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just barely started this. I picked it up for couple reasons. One is really shallow and one is less shallow. The less shallow one is that Louis L'Amour is a popular author that I have read very little of. I read "Last of the Breed" and enjoyed it, and I read a couple of his western short stories a long time ago. "Last of the Breed" was great (though the ending left a little too much to the imagination for my liking) and I recall the western shorts were decent as well, but westerns in general do...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Contrary to what I'd expected when I first started reading L'Amour, his books are all fairly different from one another, even his Westerns. This one, however, is the most different of all. It was for that reason that I'd been so looking forward to getting my hands on it. Well, that and its length: if there's one complaint I have to offer about L'Amour in general, its that although his books are always satisfying in the plot department, they lack the heft that I enjoy.

Concerning The Walking Drum...more

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Aug 16, 2010 MnemosynesCall rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was a feast of cultural history research mixed with a hero's journey. L'Amour winds his wealth of information into the story well; I never really felt overwhelmed by extras.

Kerbouchard, the main character in this novel, is glorified beyond belief; even the name itself, apart from all glory won by the main character and his father, is said to have a certain ring to it. He is stronger, faster, smarter, wittier, more cultured, more adept at love and more manly than any normal man - and L'...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Natasha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

This book came highly recommended so maybe my mediocre rating stems from the fact that it did not meet my expectations. The protagonist was rather a flat character--too flawless.

I made an index of the book's gems in the front cover of my copy. I've got listings for knowledge, wisdom, poetry, truth, quest, problem solving, honor, inspiration, reading & thinking. I'll pick a page at random and share what I've underlined:

"There is no cause worth dying for that is not better served by living. ....more

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Oct 04, 2010 Christa rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was the first Louis L'amour book that I read. My dad said that it was his favorite out of all the authors books so that's the one I started with.
I couldn't have picked a better one because now I'm completely hooked and always have at least two of his books in my room,

My favorite thing about this book is that it gives a very different view of the middle ages then you get in most history books.
The difference is that the main character spends most of his time on the outskirts of Europe inste...more

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May 30, 2010 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars

I quite enjoyed this one. In my education as a youth I had to listen to Marty Robbins 8-tracks, travel the remoter regions of the West (to include a summer trip through Death Valley in a '76 Land Cruiser), and read Louis L'Amour westerns. At the time, none of this sat well with me, now they have a certain nostalgia for me. However, I must say I was quite surprised at the quality of this book.

Louis L'Amour is an excellent storyteller if not always the most detailed craftsman in his trade. Here he...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Evan Filby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I'm a big fan of Louis L'Amour, as well as "straight" historical fiction, so this was a natural for me. I was not "disappointed," as some say they were, but I did feel he could have done better. There is plenty of action, and colorful settings ... and it is jam-packed with interesting historical bits. (And I have enough confidence in L'Amour's attention to historical detail to accept most of what I read, although some have apparently questioned a few specifics.) Many -- by no means all -- of L'A...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: young adults, swashbuckling fans, historical fictionists, easy readers

Recommended to Jonathan by: teacher

Shelves: favorites

I read this book for school when I was in the eighth grade. It was a fantastic read at the time, and not just because it was full of escapist adventure and "character growth", but because of the historical aspects. Granted, fiction is never a great place for a history lesson (then again, hardly any history books in schools are, either), but what I remember most about this book was how sophisticated he painted the Arab/Muslim world of that era. That renewed realization (often paid lipservice) tha...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Shyla rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Shyla by: Uncle Chuck

My uncle made me read this after I told him I didn't believe Louis L'Amour wrote anything but American westerns. I was wrong - and I was surprised by this book. I really did think Louis had a different writing voice here. The book was interesting but it's a little weighed down by a bunch of historical facts Louis can't resist throwing in. I didn't love the main character and got a little tired of hearing about all his excellent learning and memory skills. Also, got a little tired of every rich,...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Angie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the 3rd L'Amour book I have read now, and I still do not particularly love his stories. Although I do love L'Amour, because he was a voracious reader, and you tell that he was a great reader in through his books, which I really enjoy. It is just the stories that I find hard to really connect with, maybe because I am girl. :)

Several times during The Walking Drum I was rolling my eyes because the hero was so unrealistic! However, I did like getting a feel for the merchant caravans during...more

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Dec 12, 2011 JoDean rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this book to be at times sappy and inconsistent, but there are some obvious points about a person being responsible for the learning they acquire.

Oh, the ending is terrible!

"Reading without thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think." pg 201-202

"It is a poor sort of man who is content to be spoon-fed knowledge that has been filtered through the canon of religious or political belief, and it is a poor sort of man who will permit...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Hparsley rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any history fans, adventure lovers, Louis L'Amour fans

Shelves: books-i-own

I LOVED this book for many different reasons. I know that many people get annoyed with the protangonist because he can do everything, and do it better than anyone else; I think I did hear some complaints about all the women he had, too... :) For me, however, it just struck me as rather humorous because it seemed that with every adventure in every place/city he would find (and win) the most beautiful woman! And who could resist such a perfectly manly man? He can sword fight, fist fight, sail a bo...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Terri rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: eastridge-book-club

I'd never read a Louis L'Amour book before and honestly I'd never been that interested and now I'm still not. Let me be clear - it wasn't a bad book. There is a ton of good adventure with sword fights, damsels to rescue, etc and I have read books of this style before that I did like. However the story kept getting bogged down with the history. Although the history was fascinating, (I previously knew practically nothing about 10th century Europe), the story seemed to be sacrificed to the history...more

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About Louis L'Amour

Louis L'Amour was an American author. L'Amour's books, primarily Western fiction, remain enormously popular, and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death all 101 of his works were in print (86 novels, 14 short-story collections and one full-length work of nonfiction) and he was considered "one of the world's most popular writers".
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Quotes from The Walking Drum

“Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say , this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.” — 18 people liked it

“Reading without thinking is nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.” — 16 people liked it

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