The Justice Riders

Justice Riders #1

by Chuck Norris, Ken Abraham, Aaron Norris

In 1870s America West, dangerous outlaws pursue devilish dreams of fortune in gold and silver mines, but when men of simple faith venture west to tame the wild frontier, they must bring justice to places that had none. 50,000 first printing.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Westerns, Fiction, Historical, Christian, Civil War, Christian Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 15, 2005

About the author

Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

If you spell Chuck Norris wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Chuck Norris?" It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know a book HAS to be good when it takes four authors to write it. A Christian Western written by Chuck Norris & Co.

I don't know what to say about this book. In ways it makes Left Behind look like High Literature. It's a terrible book on so many levels. Which one to choose to start with? Gosh, I don't know. It's been about three years or so since I read this, so my memory of the details are hazy, but some of the awfulness was so vivid it has stuck with me.

One. This is a sort of historical novel, about the wild West in the time after the Civil War. The Justice Riders are Christians out there fighting the good fight, hunting down bad people. Kind of like bounty hunters for JC or something. I forget the actual details. They are all really tough though. Just like Chuck.

Two. This is a historical novel, in which none of the writers seem to have much grasp on history. There are many historical problems, and weapons exist that couldn't have really existed. It's sort of like those awful 80's commando type movies I watched as a kid. Like Invasion USA, starring Chuck Norris, where he took out a whole army of Cubans in a mall with an uzi strapped to each arm. He kicked serious ass with those guns, of course he shot probably 10,000 bullets to do it and never reloaded or could have since he had guns attached to his hands the whole time. Most of the fighting scenes are like that. Plus there is the high level of Martial Arts these cowboys can do. Matrix style kicks and shit. I'm pretty sure in the old West the cowboys were trained in MMA.

Three. There is the most bizarre set of ethics in play here. There is some weird Christian Morality that is paid lip service to, but then there is an undercurrent of, 'go fuck yourself and die in the most brutal way possible, and we will only say you deserve it if you happen to not be a Christian.' This ethic even goes towards innocent people who happen to not believe in JC. Of course the slew of people the Justice Riders kill because their beliefs say it's ok are all good killings and when one of the Justice Riders die it's as if a pure angel had been plucked from the world unjustly. A father who doesn't believe in Jesus dies in a horrible steamboat accident that the Justice Riders could have saved him from, but they just watch the motherfucker die and think he deserves it. Good ethical lessons.

Four. The writing, it's awful. You think with four people they would have some sense of what sounds good and maybe find an editor, but it doesn't appear so. This begs the question of why so much of what is written in God's service isn't written better? I don't know for a fact, but I'm sure Chuck would say that God inspired him, and maybe even written this book through him in some weird fucking way, if so why doesn't it read better? It's like that emo band in the Why should the Devil Have All the Good Music documentary who claim that they don't write their songs, God writes them through them. I'd imagine an all powerful deity, would write music that isn't derivative of Green Day and Blink-182, but so much worse than either of those not so great to begin with bands. Seriously he's all knowing all powerful, and he can't even out write Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day? Come on people.

That's my memory of this book. I wanted to read the follow up but it came out straight to paper-back, so I couldn't borrow it from the store, and there was no way in heaven I was going to pay money for it.

[Kaitlyn Krispense · Rating 3 out of 5]

After wavering between 3 and 4 stars, I finally settled on 3.5.
I was so excited to start this book; I mean, Chuck Norris! However, there were so many Walker, Texas Ranger/Hayes Cooper vibes in this book that it was really hard for me to connect to, well, anything. Don't get me wrong—the plot line was fabulous, as were the characters (for the most part).

But let's talk about the characters, shall we?

-Ezra Justice. Cordell Walker all over again. While I appreciated the admiration and respect his men had for him, he was . . . well, for lack off a better phrase, too perfect. He was constantly considerate, constantly made right decisions, and somehow he was never really injured? Actually none of his men were, except O'Banyon?? Really?? Even when the steamer exploded and over a thousand people died, with another thousand seriously injured, and only about a hundred people able to walk away unscathed, none of the Justice Riders were injured?? And yeah, just so much WTR stuff in there that, in my humble opinion, just really retracted from the story. But, I mean, if you've never seen the show, you might enjoy it more.
-Shaun O'Banyon. He was the typical Irishman, loved to fight, but he was also tenderhearted, which I loved. Though I totally saw his death coming. Ugh. Well-written scene, but still. Either the good guys were never injured beyond a bruise or a scratch or they died. And only one of them died.
-All the rest of the Justice Riders: Fabulous, but yet too perfect. I mean, they had minor flaws because Justice, as the leader, had to be the most perfect, but still. The Hawkins twins were epic, though.

All the emotions, y'all. There were . . . none? Okay, yeah, there was emotion. But I couldn't feel it. It was like it was more told than shown. Anger, yeah. Sadness, yeah. But it was basically only in the form of "we're gonna get so-and-so back for what he did" and "tears mingled with the river." Blood boiling, revenge, and a little crying.

One thing I did appreciate, though, was Nate's faith. It was there from the beginning and all the way to the end, and his faith in turn helped Ezra's grow. There was a good amount of praying, which I also appreciated, and I really appreciated the lack of language this book contained: zero.

So yeah. Kinda ridiculously hard to relate to the characters, but the plot was good and kept me reading, and I look forward to reading the next book!

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads a lot like an episode of Walker Texas Ranger. The dialogue is a bit stilted and the exposition is clunky, but quite entertaining none the less.

Justice Riders follows Ezra Justice and a hand selected band of men assigned to "special tasks" by General Sherman at the end of the Civil War. These men are assigned to harrass confederate troops to buy time for the North, escort troops freed from Andersonville(Civil War POW camp in the South) to the St. Louis, and then to a special, more personal mission.

While I did enjoy the read, I felt the Christian message was dealt with a roundhouse kick. I appreciate the message Chuck Norris is trying to convey, but it really should melt into the story a bit better. I have the sequel and will rate that one in a week or so...after I've read it.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt an unshakeable compulsion to read a novel by Chuck Norris. So far so good. Actually it was pretty bad even for a Kung Fu master. Reading this book felt like recieving multiple roundhouse kicks to the head.

[Bri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I despise this book. Unfortunately I cannot stop reading books halfway through, so I was forced to finish this piece of crap excuse for literature. I don't recommend this book to anyone.

[Behnam Riahi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The following review has been copied from http://behnamriahi.tumblr.com

The Justice Riders, written by Chuck Norris, Ken Abraham, Aaron Norris, and Tim Grayem and published by Broadman & Holman Publishers is a third-person action-adventure, western, Christian novel written primarily from the point of view of Captain Ezra Justice, Union soldier during the Civil War. When General Sherman wants to bring a quick end to the war, he calls upon Ezra Justice, a man who lives up to his name, to put together a team of covert-ops specialists, to become known as The Justice Riders. When these men lose one of their own at the tail-end of the war, they must get his body back home—only the Sultana, the riverboat they take passage on, provides bad omens because of poor maintenance and worse yet, Justice’s arch-nemesis, Mordecai Slate, waits for them at their former comrade’s home. With ingenuity and God on their side, only the Justice Riders can complete this final task to put their friend to rest.

So this is a joke, right? No, really—my best friend since I was sixteen years old bought this for me as a joke. I don’t believe at any point he actually expected me to read this fine work of modern American literature, but since I lost the book I actually meant to read, I figured I’d give it a shot. So how do I put this nicely? I could say that if you read this book and enjoy it, it must have been the first book you’ve ever read in your life. I could even say that this book undermines the value of the paper it’s printed on. I think the best way to describe it, however, is that it’s the worst book I’ve read since Twilight. But before I go further, if you happen to be reading this, Chuck Norris, I only pray that you spare me, instead of round-house kicking me into your crumby story.

As I try to think about where to start dismantling this book, I suppose I’ll begin where I think they desperately tried to shine—the book is rife with historical context. Each boat, each bar, each battlefield is given note of its historical value, most of which serves the story in no way whatsoever. It’s clear that they authors (yes, there’s more than one, for some reason) researched this meticulously, but why? Feigning the obvious tell-tale explanation of simply noting the characters are educated, they drop needless information about the most inessential parts of the story in order to force us to believe that this is, in fact, a historical text. Failing to ease us into it, they simply show off their know-how of America in the 1800s as a means of bullying the audience into believing every word they say, but it fails to do so—bogging down an already swamp-like text with so much useless shit that you can literally skip whole chapters and miss almost nothing. It isn’t like Moby Dick, where the lessons and anatomy of the whale expand the setting while examining Ahab and consequentially Ishmael’s fervor to find the white whale—it’s more like reading a text book on irrelevant facts featuring people that aren’t real.

In that same sense, the voice of the story clearly isn’t historical. The speech, when it isn’t suffering from horrendous typographical errors, is fairly modern. For instance, in Light in August, a novel set post-Civil War, Faulkner exposes you to all the idioms and vernacular from that specific era, while the closest Norris and company can come to is, “You’ve got to be … aarraghh! Help!" (p. 207) As a result of losing the voice of the era, the tone can’t be found either. In contrast, here’s something I just wrote right now:

"I can’t imagine what it must have been like to have been caught up in the Civil War, with brothers killing brothers, families torn apart, human viscera and excrement covering the battlefield from people no different than yourself—people who speak like you and look like you, only they’re different because of a single ideal represented by politicians and transcendental forces far bigger than you’ll ever know, killing each other off for something you can’t even really change—it doesn’t matter whether or not he wears blue or gray, I knew him because when my musket chortled smoke and powder, sending a lead sphere cascading through this skull, I saw myself in his eyes as they stared lazily at the gray sky above us, unwavering while becoming enveloped in his soft, posthumous tears."
—Behnam Riahi

Sorry. You don’t get to feel any of that at all with this book. For the two missions that The Justice Riders actually embark on, you pretty much feel like the war is already over and these seven guys were lucky enough to have just fucking missed it. Even in the battle scenes, it reads as if The Expendables might in the form of a western novel—purposeless violence perpetrated by what appear to be experts in murder with no modicum of human element—almost like playing the video game, Halo, and killing aliens without remorse because they aren’t human but monstrous, stupid invaders. Fuck that they might have families too—it’s mother fuckin’ war and we, the Christian north, will prevail. At least that’s the message I fucking got from it.

But it’s not as if the human element isn’t there at all—it is, but fairly glossed over. The most human moment is when their friend dies, though he stays long enough to give his last words, explain his final wishes, and for everyone to share encouragement with him before even saying goodbye. Motherfucker died on the battlefield and they damn-near had an hour with him, but hey—that’s okay. Because every time they recall his death or his life to someone who wasn’t present, including his wife, the authors use exposition to blow over it instead of getting any real, human reaction to the pain, or ridiculousness, of the moment. In fact, when one woman, Anna Harvey, watches her husband and newborn child die after leaping overboard from the Sultana, she manages to wake up the next day just in time to flirt with Captain Ezra Justice—but that’s okay too, because they all agreed as a group that under God’s loving eye, they can do whatever the fuck they want, pretty much. Of course, it’s not as if they can’t sit around and lament about the past—four times, four-fucking-times, Nate, Ezra’s best friend, explains the story of how he and Ezra became best friends, fortunate to do so because God wished it. Are you fucking kidding me—you can’t tell your dead friend’s wife what a fucking travesty his death was, but you can tell the story of two men, one black and one white, becoming best friends against the odds four-mother-fucking-times. Shit. The first time Ezra tells that story, he happens to mention how Nate got picked on all the time as a little kid—a story that he tells to his new comrades. Sorry, but I just don’t believe that—of course, the next time I introduce a new friend to my crew, I’ll try telling them about how my new friend was a fucking loser in grade school and we’ll see how that goes over. Jesus, where the fuck were you on that one.

It’s a good thing this book has four authors though, because it would have been a shame for four literary minds to read a book and miss a typo. Oh, but you missed fucking several. Even character names are misspelled, the two that I noted being Bonesteel, whom is supposed to be an actual fucking person that inspired the book, being typoed as Bonestill and, this one’s the best, Whitecloud, an Indian shaman, being called Whitehead in a chapter. In addition to that, punctuation is a mess—for some reason, “alright," is considered an actual word to these guys, though I beg to fucking differ—furthermore, I can’t imagine why people in the Civil War would use such a modern turn-of-phrase so often. But typos aside, how did they manage to all read the book and not edit the obvious implications of Karate out. I know, I know—it’s Chuck fucking Norris, whatever. But there are points where Ezra Justice, who is from the 1800s and lives in the 1800s and never met an Asian person in his whole goddamn life, uses chops and round-house kicks to defeat his enemies when in hand-to-hand combat. What the holy fuck is that even about. Could you have at least tried, for just one second, to consider a more reasonable fighting style for him to have, or maybe even given him a back story that might make him learn karate?

The worst part of the novel is the theme. The novel is loosely centered (somewhere between random time shifts and Nate telling the story of how he and Ezra became best friends) around the plot of The Justice Riders returning to their dead friend’s body back to his home. What do we learn at the end? Well, Ezra fixes his relationship with Jesus. That’s it. The big profound moment at the end of this novel is Ezra finally letting God into his heart to guide him onward. The god who took your friend, right Ezra? Jesus, I’m sorry and I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but you survived the end of the civil war and some other lousy adventures and the only truth you come to know as a result of it is Jesus? I suppose we could’ve skipped the whole novel and sent Ezra to a church with a convincing preacher for an afternoon and we would’ve come to the same conclusion. At least in Twilight, the girl gets the boy in the end or something—but to come away from everything and only find Jesus? The worst part is, Ezra and his crew are far from scrupulous. Sure, they’ll save anyone in need, but they slaughter without any thought or respect for almost anyone. After all, it’s only confederate soldiers they’re fighting, but they’re blowing them the fuck up with home-made grenades and shit. It isn’t as if you’re fighting fairly on the battlefield, you’re just looking to kill as many people as you can. There’s one point where Ezra wipes a bloody knife on a random dude’s shirt to get information out of him—not a confederate soldier mind you, just some random fucking dude in a bar. But it’s okay, because that’s only 30 pages before Ezra patches everything up with Jesus. Fucking aye.

Sorry to shit on you, Chuck Norris, but your book is a piece of shit and it’s pieces of shit like this that remind us when our work sucks, so I guess even shit has its purpose. Still, if you happen to be reading this, I dare you to come kick me into the fucking Civil War, because at the very least, maybe one of us will have learned something as a result of it. If you’re looking for a novel with mindless action, Christian values, and devoid of real literary value, this is the book you’ve been waiting for: The Justice Riders.

[Brittany Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well… I can’t say I DIDN’T enjoy this book, but it was more painful than enjoyable. The writing isn’t my style and the characters were very shallow. The story didn’t grab my attention or emotion.

Overall the book was too preachy. Even as a Christian, I felt faith was an agenda rather than a naturally flowing element of the book.

This book does remind me a lot of Chuck Norris and his movies, and I did appreciate how the authors included factual history. But I finished this book simply to finish it.

[Randy Tramp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading history. Justice Riders, history in action, kept my attention. (at times.)

It takes place as the Civil War ends and the Old West begins. Ezra Justice, commissioned by General Sherman, forms a secret band of cavaliers who will help end the war.

The book can be described as a narration of historical events, sprinkled in by fiction events.

[Jean Salvas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a refreshing read, with a touch of Christianity. A feel good book with historical background. I read a lot of westerns especially Louis L'Amour, who frequently brings in God and the Bible as well. Remember in those days there were a lot of families who had the Bible in their homes and on their voyages out west. We omit a lot of this type of goodness.

[Holderofthemt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a decent historical fiction book set during the time towards the end of the civil war.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good,fast read. I was surprised and pleased by the Christian content.

[Brittany Hopkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a good book. It’s written by one of my favorite actors. I just couldn’t get interested into the story.

[Marsha Whitfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really my type of book but read because Chuck Norris one of the authors. Was a good story once I started reading it. Sad though because of civil war deaths.

[Dennis O'Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read- I thought the story line was good and enjoyed all the characters

[Kit★]

Chuck Norris? Wrote a Western? Like... how can I not give this a try!? Chuck... Norris... Found at Library Friends shop, just couldn't not get it, lol.

[Lynn Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. Wonder how much is based on fact

[Sara Herceg]

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[Emily-Jane Orford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm! I really don't know what to say. There was a plot here, somewhere, I think, towards the middle of the book. The first half was very rambly and time shifts were incoherent and confusing. The story has potential, there is some really good description and the action is certainly up to Norris's standard, but the plot needs work. Also, the main character is Ezra Justice. Sometimes he's called Ezra and sometimes Justice and sometimes both in the same sentence. It took a while to realize that Ezra and Justice were one and the same. It would be better if the author stuck to one of his names in the text, while using the appropriate name in dialogue passages. A different read. Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford, award-winning author of "The Whistling Bishop".

[Noah McClintock · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Chuck Norris but he is not a good writer. I have seen and own almost every movie he has made. Then I got this book as a present along with the sequel. I started reading it and I've already decided that this is one of the worst books I have ever read.

The plot is bad. The characters are one dimensional. The writing is awful. It's boring. Everything that could be wrong about a book is in this book. Now, I am a big Chuck Norris fan and as a Chuck Norris fan I say do not read this at all.

There is nothing at all about this book that can be called good. I got rid of this book almost immediately after I read it. I used the money to buy some Chuck Norris movies to take my mind off of this book.

[Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rather than use the form of the novel to fill in exposition through backstory or inner monologues, everything is said out loud, leading the reader to assume that, wounded in battle, the Justice Riders collectively suffer from short-term memory loss, and only the constant repetition of their past exploits keeps their memories alive. And as much as I admire the moxie of a novel that actually contains the utterance, “You’ve got to be…aarraghh! Help!” I must cry foul on the literary merit of The Justice Riders as a whole.

Read the entire review here.

[Lisa Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 1 of the Justice Riders. A western. About couple of Civil War soilders trying to get back to their homes, after the war that change the nation. Great book I could not put it down I waited for about a year to read the 2nd book, when I found it inside a christan book store. Great for Anyone, Use caution however there is little bit of violence for those young readers

[Mark Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A multi-racial elite force is trying to tie up loose ends after the Civil War. The action scenes are great, but the characters and overall plot are just okay.

Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.

[Ladonna Mielke · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this one was interesting... I liked the history with the Civil War, but the storyline drug in the middle. It got better towards the end, but predictable. The characters were OK, I liked some and others were just there. I do think some of my students would like it, since they seem to like anything that involves Chuck!

[Eric Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly, a great read. As some have said, maybe simple or cheesy; but thoughtful, character challenging and sadly of an era gone to minds today. Heroic and believable as part of actual American history - though a fiction story.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good fiction if you like the western/civil war genre. Also contains great references to the power of Christ's forgiveness.

[Garo]

I like westerns, so I enjoyed the storyline. It was action packed while delivering the salvation story of Jesus Christ.

[Karyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually better than I expected. A little cheezy, as you can just envision Chuck Norris as Capt. Justice. All in all, I enjoyed it, a pretty good Civil War story with many actual facts.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chuck Norris...enough said :)

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me a very enjoyable story - fast paced with a win for good over evil... Good old fashioned western...

[Robert Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild Wild western story with morale and just great old fashion story telling.
Great flow of reading. Couldn't ask for time well spent with an entertaining book.