Colonel Utah Blaine, held captive by the Army of the Revolution, broke out of jail and headed north from Mexico with nothing but the clothes on his...
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reviews
Jan 13, 2012
Kurt
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I picked this up as research, not because I had any direct interest in L'Amour's writings. And while I don't think I'll be going back to this particular well, I'm glad to have sampled it. This is pure pulp. The hero is incredible (that is to say, not credible), the villains are unwaveringly malicious. It's all a bunch of posturing and bluster interrupted by gunfighting. It never looks to the larger world or tries to find truth or meaning. It's the most mindless of entertainment.
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But whe More...
Sep 10, 2011
Cate
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I really liked the characters of the story, especially Utah--he's the well-known rugged cowboy character, with a keen sense of honor and justice, and real respect for a woman who can take care of herself. Every character is fleshed out very well in the story, from the big lug with respect for a good fighter, to the outlaw with carnal desires. My only complaint was that there were a few too many names to keep track of. I read this book over a week or so between classes, and I had to occasional
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Jan 29, 2009
Megan
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I just tagged this one randomly because I remember particularly like this one. I've read most of his books and they are VERY light reading. (I can blitz through a L'Amour novel in about 1 1/2 hours and I'm not a fast reader.) I'll just say that all his books have a distinct charm about them, in large part because of his respect for nature ("you have to live with the desert, not against it"), old-fashioned sense of manliness and justice, and belief in the power of the individual to b
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Jan 23, 2011
Aimee
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When my book club decided to read Louis L'Amour, I decided on this in memory of my grandparents. My grandma was a huge fan and her husband, Blaine, was a rancher who lived in Utah his whole life. Of course, this book is about a gunman named Utah Blaine and is set in Arizona, but it has a good message of good fighting greed and evil and the importance of having government and law enforcement. It's a quick and easy read after you get past the lingo (unless you read westerns often). I would have li
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Mar 13, 2011
Kristen
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Louis L'amour is like comfort food in a book for me. I grew up reading his books and they are predictable--the good guy always wins, but not till he's been shot and gotten the girl. I love them though I tend to skip over the fist fight scenes. You can be assured that someone in his books will always be riding a zebra dun or a line backed dun and you always want to be "one to ride the river with"
Aug 03, 2011
Loved this western. The ending was a little bit hard to buy into. One man is shot eleven times and recovers. The hero takes three shots in the book from a professional gunslinger and recovers. But it was still a great western. One of L'Amour's better ones.
Sep 03, 2010
Mike
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The only L'Amour I have read as I try to learn about pulp writers. Novel plot; decent writing. It fails the, "Does the world need this book?" test. Good enough to try L'Amour again someday, though 4.5 years have passed since I read it and someday is still remote.
Sep 30, 2011
Chris
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Awesome. Not allot of character growth, but still fun to see a idealistically awesome hero fight the odds. Also, it was especially fun reading outloud in a coutry accent with my girlfriend - good times!
Mar 19, 2010
Dean
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Typical Louis L'Amour book. Which means I really liked it. Can't beat the stereotypical good guy who bucks the odds, beats up the bigger man, outdraws the bad guys, and gets the beautiful woman.
Aug 13, 2009
Utah Blaine is a gunfighter/cattleman that resolves a cattle/land war almost singlehandedly. A very good book.
Feb 25, 2009
Dave
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Being from Utah, I was a little disappointed that more Utah Stuff didn't happen in the book
Mar 05, 2011
Travis
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I liked it quite a bit. It took me a while to read because I could only read a couple minutes at a time waiting for my daughter to get off school. It follows the "legendary Utah Blaine" in ihs fight against a town full of killers who are after a large ranch property. At fisrt it seemed odd, the idea of a rancher almost handing over his ranch to a complete stranger. But as absurd as it sounds it paved the for a good book.
Aug 12, 2008
Lance
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I read about 40 Louis L'Amour books when I was young, during my "Western" phase, just after I'd exhausted all the Zane Grey that was available to me at the time and, like the Zane Grey books, it would be impossible for me to remember them all.
L'Amour was a much better writer than Grey in my opinion. I read this one because of the title and was disappointed that it wasn't set in Utah! This book is basically a range war, like so much of the Western genre.
L'Amour was a much better writer than Grey in my opinion. I read this one because of the title and was disappointed that it wasn't set in Utah! This book is basically a range war, like so much of the Western genre.
Aug 18, 2008
Katie
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I found this book in a dusty box in my parent's basement and started reading it only because I had nothing else. I decided that I'd read it since I was moving to Utah and that was in the title. In the end, I entirely enjoyed the book. I've read a few Louis L'amour but it's been a while. Utah Blaine is an action packed western about range wars and love. All these years and I didn't realize my dad was reading romances.
Jan 20, 2012
Karen
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This was my very first peek into this well beloved world of Louis L'Amour, and I was pleasantly surprised. While it was exactly what I anticipated...a very tough cowboy, alluring to the females, overcoming all sorts of obstacles, etc etc...the story and the action kept me reading and involved more than I'd thought I'd be. OK, I read it in one day. But it was a short one. Looks like I'll be back for more.
Apr 07, 2008
Rusty
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If you like stories about good guys who kick butt and get the girl and the bad guys who get it in the end, read Louis L'amour. He also has a knack for describing scenery, and every canyon, spring, etc. he mentions truly exists. He was a great authority on the American Wild West which is not quite how Hollywood often portrays it.
May 04, 2010
Dakota
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Really enjoyed this book. When I had read it I had just finished some heavy reading, so this was a fun and very light pallet cleanser indefinitely. Predictable? Of course. Worth reading? Every minute of the book.
May 30, 2008
Joanna
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I haven't read anything from Louis L'Amour that wasn't great. Action pact western, where the good guy always wins and gets the girl. And the man has sold over 300 million copies of his books, he's defiantly reading at least once.
Feb 27, 2008
Jake
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This book is typical of Louis L'Amour. I've read many of them, and this one is my absolute favorite: through the characters, the experiences, and the story itself.
Dec 17, 2009
Edward
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On a backpacking trip in the Carpathains, we read this aloud over breakfast and dinner to boost morale in the face of hailstorms and soaked socks.
Aug 16, 2007
Dave
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Love this book. A L'Amour classic. An aging, weathered hero, against the odds yet undaunting.
