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Completely not my thing. I was bored by all the fights, the beat him in a fair fight and he'll be your friend fistfight, all the gun fights, and the women being girls, western men respecting good women. It's so clear this is the template from which Elmer Kelton's stories derive. At least it's rather short, though it didn't seem so while I was getting though it. ( )

One of my favorites by this author. A young gunfighter finds himself hired to manage a huge ranch in the middle of a range war. Interesting characters, plenty of action, fun read. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised by this story by L'Amour first published in 1954 under a pseudonym he used for many of his early works - Jim Mayo. I read a rather in depth introduction to the author in another book I have after I finished this. L'Amour didn't exactly have an easy time of it with his early writing. His huge success came later in life. About the time of this novel John Wayne optioned one of his short stories and expanded it into the film Hondo which helped L'Amour but even still didn't turn him into an "overnight success." This guy worked hard at his writing.

The story 'Utah Blaine' has one of L'Amour's recurring themes - range war - but the characters in here are pretty well done and even when not fleshed out they are defined well enough that keeping track of people was not a problem. If I was an editor I would have a few suggestions to make this better but the basic story here is handled well. Our 'hero' Utah Blaine may be a bit too superhuman, but he isn't superman. He's a good guy who knows the difference between right and wrong and takes on an underdog role to help a rancher being lynched by a rather large number of vigilante neighbors who are jealous of his land.

The west is clearly still wild here. L'Amour is very good at descriptive writing of the landscape. You can picture in your mind's eye the places he describes. There's a touch of romance in the story and more than a few deaths by the end, but I think the end can be described as a happy ending. ( )

Standard L'amour -- gunfights, fistfights, and righting of wrongs. Utah Blaine is a penniless drifter who encounters a hanging party. He manages to rescue the old man being lynching, and learns that the gentleman has been targeted by his fellow ranchers due his ownership of a much-coveted piece of land. Blaine volunteers to act as the rancher's agent/segundo and reclaim the property on his behalf.

As is typical with L'amour, violence ensues. The plot is fairly simple, with all odds against him, Blaine does much riding from here to there, encountering obstacles and fair maidens (both in distress and plotting evil). Of course the side of right triumphs in the end. It's a fast, predictable, and still highly enjoyable read. ( )