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Blue Kingdom
Book by Brand, Max
- GenresWesterns
303 pages, Library Binding
First published March 2, 2003
About the author
Max Brand
1,852 books139 followersFrederick Schiller Faust (see also Frederick Faust), aka Frank Austin, George Owen Baxter, Walter C. Butler, George Challis, Evin Evan, Evan Evans, Frederick Faust, John Frederick, Frederick Frost, David Manning, Peter Henry Morland, Lee Bolt, Peter Dawson, Martin Dexter, Dennis Lawson, M.B., Hugh Owen, Nicholas Silver
Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.
Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 28, 2023
Apr 28, 930am ~~ Review asap.
1245pm ~~ Back to my Max Brand project with Blue Kingdom, the story of Carrick Dunmore, described on the back cover as a "horseman, gunman, knife-thrower" with a "serious handicap: laziness".
Well, first of all gunplay and knife throwing take a lot of practice to perfect, so he could not have been too lazy, could he?
Turns out his laziness appears whenever there is manual labor to do. He is not a nine to five kind of person, and also is not the 24/7 type of man ranch work demands. He is sort of a wandering bum, but he has the opportunity to bump himself up a notch or three when he is faced with the chance to ride a rodeo horse that no one has ever ridden. The horse is to be given to whoever can stick on her, and when the owner heard that Carrick was having a grand old time at a saloon a couple of miles from the rodeo grounds, he sends some men to fetch him.
Dunmore is drunk as a skunk, but still with his uncanny ability to juggle knives and throw them with amazing precision. But can he ride? The horse is a killer! If he should fall, would he be too drunk to get away? Who cares? Get him on the horse and let 'er buck!
The rodeo is just the first step in Carrick Dunmore's adventure. What plans does Elizabeth Furneaux have for our hero? Will he agree to them? Or will he need to be tricked into something the way he sometimes tricks others into doing things?
This was a 2005 edition of a story that originally appeared in 1929 in Western Story Magazine and it was very entertaining.
I do have a comment to make about the front cover, though. One of the Brand books I read recently showed a cover of cowboys doing some steer wrestling and there was nothing at all about that subject in the story. I am too lazy to get up and check, but I think this publisher is different than that one, but they did the same thing here.
The cover shows a man in buckskins standing next to a pinto horse out on the plains, with two Indians riding up to attack him, and one arrow already in the ground at his feet. There is absolutely nothing to do with such a scene in the book. The horse that Carrick was going to try to ride was a chestnut roan, not a pinto, and there were no Indians anywhere in the story. Naturally we all do notice the front covers of books, but those readers who expect the cover to match the story would be wondering what the heck happened.
This is a minor detail, but now my radar is on high to see if the rest of my Brand books have similar cover discrepancies. I already am pretty sure the one I started early this morning does: the hero is described as a dandy with the soft hands of a gambler. But the cover shows a rugged horseman riding point for a herd of cattle in a fierce snowstorm. I will be paying attention to see if that scene ever appears, but from what I've read so far, I have my doubts. lol
1245pm ~~ Back to my Max Brand project with Blue Kingdom, the story of Carrick Dunmore, described on the back cover as a "horseman, gunman, knife-thrower" with a "serious handicap: laziness".
Well, first of all gunplay and knife throwing take a lot of practice to perfect, so he could not have been too lazy, could he?
Turns out his laziness appears whenever there is manual labor to do. He is not a nine to five kind of person, and also is not the 24/7 type of man ranch work demands. He is sort of a wandering bum, but he has the opportunity to bump himself up a notch or three when he is faced with the chance to ride a rodeo horse that no one has ever ridden. The horse is to be given to whoever can stick on her, and when the owner heard that Carrick was having a grand old time at a saloon a couple of miles from the rodeo grounds, he sends some men to fetch him.
Dunmore is drunk as a skunk, but still with his uncanny ability to juggle knives and throw them with amazing precision. But can he ride? The horse is a killer! If he should fall, would he be too drunk to get away? Who cares? Get him on the horse and let 'er buck!
The rodeo is just the first step in Carrick Dunmore's adventure. What plans does Elizabeth Furneaux have for our hero? Will he agree to them? Or will he need to be tricked into something the way he sometimes tricks others into doing things?
This was a 2005 edition of a story that originally appeared in 1929 in Western Story Magazine and it was very entertaining.
I do have a comment to make about the front cover, though. One of the Brand books I read recently showed a cover of cowboys doing some steer wrestling and there was nothing at all about that subject in the story. I am too lazy to get up and check, but I think this publisher is different than that one, but they did the same thing here.
The cover shows a man in buckskins standing next to a pinto horse out on the plains, with two Indians riding up to attack him, and one arrow already in the ground at his feet. There is absolutely nothing to do with such a scene in the book. The horse that Carrick was going to try to ride was a chestnut roan, not a pinto, and there were no Indians anywhere in the story. Naturally we all do notice the front covers of books, but those readers who expect the cover to match the story would be wondering what the heck happened.
This is a minor detail, but now my radar is on high to see if the rest of my Brand books have similar cover discrepancies. I already am pretty sure the one I started early this morning does: the hero is described as a dandy with the soft hands of a gambler. But the cover shows a rugged horseman riding point for a herd of cattle in a fierce snowstorm. I will be paying attention to see if that scene ever appears, but from what I've read so far, I have my doubts. lol
March 26, 2020
I love this book, the story line was amazing and easy to follow. I Finnished it in about 6 hours I just couldn't put it down, Max Brand is an amazing author and knows how to bring the old west to life, from great dialog to setting the stage in the minds eye for how everything looked, felt and even smelt, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves the old west and wants to learn a lesson about idolism and trust.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews