Sunshine Rider: The First Vegetarian Western

by Ric Lynden Hardman

The 1881.  The Odessa, Texas.  Seventeen-year-old Wylie Jackson lands a job as assistant cook on what will be his first cattle drive.  Before he departs, Wylie's friend Alice charges him with taking her pet cattalo, Roselle, to her aunt in Enid, Oklahoma.  Alice's father bred a longhorn cow with a buffalo and Roselle was the a gangly, gawky animal trained to count with her hooves and sit on her haunches.

Only days into the drive, a disastrous stampede occurs.  Fearing he was the cause, Wylie abandons the drive and sets off for Enid, riding a stolen horse with Roselle in tow.  Now a wanted man, he lives in constant fear of capture.  Along his journey, he encounters Tim-oo-leh the medicine man, Majul Majul the electric belt salesman, Carl Merkle, infamous thief and killer, and other friendly, dastardly, and suspicious types.  Wylie's story is a Western adventure, a search for self, and a sensitive portrayal of a friendship between a young man and his cattalo.  It is a saga destined to charm man and beast alike.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Young Adult, Book Club

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 9, 1998

About the author

Richards "Ric" Hardman was an author, screenwriter, and Hollywood producer.

Reviews

[Andru]

Runshine Rider by Ric Lynden Hardman is an incredible book that takes readers on a thrilling journey of self-discovery and adventure. The author's descriptive storytelling and well-developed characters make the book a joy to read. The themes of embracing the unknown and finding oneself are well portrayed throughout the story. One of the things that stood out to me the most about this book is the depth and relatability of the characters. The main character Wylie Jackson is responsible to take a cow a long way to deliver it to his friend's aunt. He then comes across different people along his journey. I recommend this book to whoever.

[Colleen]

Cute story, but the writing is uneven. At best, it was funny and touching, but at worst it was completely unrealistic and jumpy.

[Julian]

The premise is that a young boy joins a cattle drive and is forcibly tasked by a friend to protect a buffalo/cow hybrid. Then he randomly becomes a vegetarian for no real reason. Then he ruins his own life because he's dumb.

I have no clue if this book is pro-vegetarian or anti-vegetarian. On one hand, the vegetarians are shown as morally superior while the "carnivores" are sadistic and cruel. On the other hand, all of the vegetarians are idiots with no common sense.

To finish off this train wreck, it has a Darth Vader ending with the main antagonist secretly being the main character's father. Apparently this was foreshadowed but the foreshadowing is really really dumb.

I'm glad I got my copy for free, I wouldn't have paid for it. This book is so bad it's funny.

[ex.libris]

Though a Young Adult book, I was drawn into reading "The First Vegetarian Western" because the book featured recipes, and I am a sucker for a novel that features recipes.

I couldn't finish, however, because the story made little sense from a logical standpoint, I really didn't care all that much about the characters, and the whole attempt seemed confused. I read about two thirds before giving up.

[Michael]

The beginning of my Boston Globe review:

It's tough to imagine a cookbook that brings together such dishes as masoor dal, buffalo gourd mash, and scrambled eggs and brains. But Ric Lynden Hardman has done it in "Sunshine Rider" by making the recipes just one ingredient in his novel, which is also a happily-ever-after saga from the Old West, a satire on modern times, a treatise on vegetarianism, and a coming-of-age yarn.

http://michaelprager.com/Ric-Lynden-H...

[TheSaint]

"Catch a well-fleshed steer, about eight-hundred-pound weight." Thus begins the recipe for Porterhouse Steaks, in Sunshine Rider: The First Vegetarian Western.
Wylie Jackson doesn't start out being a vegetarian, but his job as cook's helper on a cattle drive drives him to it. Wylie's adventures on the cattle trail are very entertaining.

[Nancy]

I enjoyed this a lot. It was funny and silly. Each chapter starts with a recipe (some are very interesting) as the hero starts out as an assistant cook on a cattle drive. Not for younger children. Nothing offensive but they talk about killing animals and certain animal parts.

[Sarah]

This is a silly book that my daughter took out of the give-away pile at school. The tag line is "the first vegetarian western." That says it all!

[Gloria]

Farcical and fun!

[Zina]

I read it because someone said it made them laugh! And, yes, it did.

[Shaundell]

Crazy, funny book! :) With the subtitle being "The First Vegetarian Western" - that says it all. Loved the fact that recipes were included and that Virginia made it for our yearly Christmas party!

[Abby]

A fun summer read! I want to try some of the recipes, too. (Not the brains!)