What do you think?
Rate this book
Earthbreakers
An epic saga of the settling of the West. It is their story of the men and women who crossed a continent to gamble with their destinies in a virgin land.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 15, 2026
About one fifth slow-moving and weak story without surprises, about four fifths inane man-woman babble and shallow thoughts and conversations on "the meaning of it all". At about the one-third mark I considered abandoning - I should have.
March 26, 2023
It is a masterfully written novel set in frontier Oregon. His characters are well developed and believable. There are great descriptions of the physical and emotional trials of the era. Reading the book it is obvious Haycock lived in Oregon and has both a great feel and understanding of the country. I have read numerous books by him and will continue to go through them. My favorite so far has been Canyon Passage.
July 24, 2022
Louis L'Amour may have admired it. I didn't.
May 5, 2026
for reasons that won’t make sense to anyone else, this books gets 5 stars. love you, papa.
March 14, 2017
Excellent characters, excellent setting, plot full of twists and turns.
A lot of things in this book were unexpected. For a book from 1952, it felt surprising current. It had several richly developed female characters, a few great debates about religious belief, some juicy moral questions, et cetera. I enjoyed it thoroughly and felt really invested in every character's fate, which turned out to be far from predictable.
The ending was pretty abrupt, but I felt like it wrapped up enough loose ends to justify shrouding a couple of things in mystery. It set a good trajectory for guessing how the story will proceed and left me wanting to read more.
A lot of things in this book were unexpected. For a book from 1952, it felt surprising current. It had several richly developed female characters, a few great debates about religious belief, some juicy moral questions, et cetera. I enjoyed it thoroughly and felt really invested in every character's fate, which turned out to be far from predictable.
The ending was pretty abrupt, but I felt like it wrapped up enough loose ends to justify shrouding a couple of things in mystery. It set a good trajectory for guessing how the story will proceed and left me wanting to read more.
November 25, 2013
This book is what has been called a 'Modern Western', i.e. about the western settlers and their lives moving forward. This was my first Ernest Haycox and may be his best.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews