Showing posts with label Elmer Kelton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elmer Kelton. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Friday, November 11, 2016
FFB Review: Hard Trail To Follow by Elmer Kelton
Long time readers of
this blog know that these days I am far slower reading and reviewing. Fortunately,
after twelve years on this blog, there is plenty read. This Friday I display another
repeat review. In this case, I first reviewed Hard Trail To Follow by Elmer Kelton back in November 2008. I
remind you today why you should read it. You should also check out the full
list over at Patti Abbott’s always entertaining blog.
Andy Pickard loves Bethel and there is no doubt about that.
In his late 20's, this former Texas Ranger understands why Bethel won't leave
the family farm and her ill mother. He doesn't understand why Farley Brackett,
his future brother-in-law hates him so much or why he won't help out. Or why he
is constantly on Andy's back about his being held prisoner by the Comanches
when he was a kid or all the other things he harasses him with considering all
the free labor Andy is doing.
Farley is a hard man and unappreciative. After a brief physical skirmish that neither man won, Andy decides to hit the trail and leave it all behind. Bethel isn't leaving and Andy can't put up with Farley anymore. If he stays, there might be another fight and somebody could get seriously killed or hurt. Andy isn't going to put Bethel through that and since she isn't going to leave, all he can do is head out with an unspecified need to do something else with his life. That decision sends him before lone into a confrontation with bank robbers, the death of a friend, and his putting on the badge of the legendary Texas Rangers once more.
It also sets him on the trail of an escaped outlaw across Southeastern and South Central Texas. Times are changing with the Indians on the reservations for years now, land and pastures fenced, and the telegraph spreading the latest news far and wide. Posses still ride and a fugitive can still make good on the escape but the telegraph spreads the news of the manhunt faster than the fugitive can travel. For both any Pickard as well as the fugitive known as Cordell, the chase is a long one full of twists and turns as well as a journey of self awareness as much as anything.
Author Elmer Kelton is considered by many to be the premier writer of western literature. Known for his authentic settings, realistic characters and concise prose he is a winner of Seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America as well as many others. The native Texan, who has authored more then fifty novel, is a legend and an author known to work the shades of gray. His characters wear neither black or white hats, but gray ones of varying shades as they go about their hard struggles in novels that don't romanticize the way it was for most people.
Such is the case here where the lawman and the outlaw could easily be nearly the same man. As the chase wears on, the reader shifts back and forth between both characters as well as a few others, in ways that not only bring the novel to life but illustrate truths that still very much hold true today. Portrayed by many as simpler times, they weren't. They were just different, but contained many of the same struggles that most face today. Author Elmer Kelton illustrates that point along with a few others worth reading in this engaging western.
Hard Trail To Follow
Elmer Kelton
http://www.elmerkelton.net/
Tom Doherty Associates/ A Forge Book
http://www.tor-forge.com/
2007
ISBN#978-0-7653-1522-9
Hardback (also available in paperback, audio, and eBook formats)
287 Pages
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System
Kevin R. Tipple © 2008, 2016
Farley is a hard man and unappreciative. After a brief physical skirmish that neither man won, Andy decides to hit the trail and leave it all behind. Bethel isn't leaving and Andy can't put up with Farley anymore. If he stays, there might be another fight and somebody could get seriously killed or hurt. Andy isn't going to put Bethel through that and since she isn't going to leave, all he can do is head out with an unspecified need to do something else with his life. That decision sends him before lone into a confrontation with bank robbers, the death of a friend, and his putting on the badge of the legendary Texas Rangers once more.
It also sets him on the trail of an escaped outlaw across Southeastern and South Central Texas. Times are changing with the Indians on the reservations for years now, land and pastures fenced, and the telegraph spreading the latest news far and wide. Posses still ride and a fugitive can still make good on the escape but the telegraph spreads the news of the manhunt faster than the fugitive can travel. For both any Pickard as well as the fugitive known as Cordell, the chase is a long one full of twists and turns as well as a journey of self awareness as much as anything.
Author Elmer Kelton is considered by many to be the premier writer of western literature. Known for his authentic settings, realistic characters and concise prose he is a winner of Seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America as well as many others. The native Texan, who has authored more then fifty novel, is a legend and an author known to work the shades of gray. His characters wear neither black or white hats, but gray ones of varying shades as they go about their hard struggles in novels that don't romanticize the way it was for most people.
Such is the case here where the lawman and the outlaw could easily be nearly the same man. As the chase wears on, the reader shifts back and forth between both characters as well as a few others, in ways that not only bring the novel to life but illustrate truths that still very much hold true today. Portrayed by many as simpler times, they weren't. They were just different, but contained many of the same struggles that most face today. Author Elmer Kelton illustrates that point along with a few others worth reading in this engaging western.
Hard Trail To Follow
Elmer Kelton
http://www.elmerkelton.net/
Tom Doherty Associates/ A Forge Book
http://www.tor-forge.com/
2007
ISBN#978-0-7653-1522-9
Hardback (also available in paperback, audio, and eBook formats)
287 Pages
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System
Kevin R. Tipple © 2008, 2016
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Senior News Column--January
For some time now I have been writing a monthly book review column for the Senior News newspaper. The Senior News is aimed to the over 50 crowd with news relevant to seniors regarding various issues, humor pieces, and my review column among other things. The newspaper is a giveaway at doctor offices, stores, etc. and can be received by via a paid subscription.
My column every month focuses on books of interest to the Texas audience. Therefore books selected for the column, fiction or non-fiction, are written by Texas residents, feature Texans in some way, or would have some other connection to the Texas based readership. At least two books are covered each month in the short space I am given.
Below is/was my January column with the addition here of the relevant book covers……
Texas Standoff: A Novel Of The Texas Rangers
Elmer Kelton
Tom Doherty Associates, LLC (Forge)
ISBN# 978-0765364777
Paperback
288 Pages
$6.99
Recently released in paperback form, this book is the ninth and final installment of the Texas Ranger series. Newly married Texas Ranger Andy Pickard is thinking that it is about time to leave the Rangers and settle down. The bean counters are getting worse down in Austin, his wife Bethel is urging him to quit and making it hard for him to leave when he has to, and this latest mission, chasing a lowly chicken thief, is not worthy of his talents. If that is not bad enough, the sergeant is sending Logan Daggett with him. Pickard knows Daggett by reputation only and that reputation is not a good one.
Not only do the two Texas Rangers find their chicken thief, they also find a lot more trouble with some of it their own making. A blood feud between the patriarchs of the McIntosh and Teal families, the desire by some to start fencing the range land and the ominous presence of the “regulators” are just some of the issues that Pickard and Daggett, who rarely see eye to eye, must confront in this very good 288 page novel.
EUROSTORM
Payne Harrison
Variance Publishing
ISBN#978-1-935142-14-0
Hardback
326 Pages (book includes six page ad preview of The Emperor’s Tomb by Steve Berry
$25.95
Also now available in e-book form for the Kindle, Texas author Payne Harrison (author of the bestseller Storming Intrepid and others) is back with a weak thriller featuring a clichéd plot in EUROSTORM. At its heart, the book is about a lethal substance being sent by the British government to France on the Eurostar train. Unfortunately, the train is captured by terrorists and it is up to an elite group of French commandos to take back the train and its contents.
Fortunately the commandoes, as are all those on the side of right defending the planet, are amazingly strong, sexy and can perform at a super human level doing amazing feats of strength—or die. The same is true of the evil doers. The reason why all of this is happening is simply amazing and a plot device that should have been buried long ago.
As compared to the numerous books the author has done before, EUROSTORM is a serious disappointment. On its own, the novel is average at best and a disappointment in terms of overwriting, sense of pace, clichéd characters, clichéd plot and other issues. That is a crying shame as the novel could have been so much better.
Texas Standoff came via the library and EUROSTORM was supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Reviewing: "Hard Trail To Follow" by Elmer Kelton
Andy Pickard loves Bethel and there is no doubt about that. In his late 20's, this former Texas Ranger understands why Bethel won't leave the family farm and her ill mother. He doesn't understand why Farley Brackett, his future brother-in-law hates him so much or why he won't help out. Or why he is constantly on Andy's back about his being held prisoner by the Comanches when he was a kid or all the other things he harasses him with considering all the free labor Andy is doing.
Farley is a hard man and unappreciative. After a brief physical skirmish that neither man won, Andy decides to hit the trail and leave it all behind. Bethel isn't leaving and Andy can't put up with Farley anymore. If he stays, there might be another fight and somebody could get seriously killed or hurt. Andy isn't going to put Bethel through that and since she isn't going to leave, all he can do is head out with an unspecified need to do something else with his life. That decision sends him before lone into a confrontation with bank robbers, the death of a friend, and his putting on the badge of the legendary Texas Rangers once more.
It also sets him on the trail of an escaped outlaw across Southeastern and South Central Texas. Times are changing with the Indians on the reservations for years now, land and pastures fenced, and the telegraph spreading the latest news far and wide. Posses still ride and a fugitive can still make good on the escape but the telegraph spreads the news of the manhunt faster than the fugitive can travel. For both any Pickard as well as the fugitive known as Cordell, the chase is a long one full of twists and turns as well as a journey of self awareness as much as anything.
Author Elmer Kelton is considered by many to be the premier writer of western literature. Known for his authentic settings, realistic characters and concise prose he is a winner of Seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America as well as many others. The native Texan, who has authored more then fifty novel, is a legend and an author known to work the shades of gray. His characters wear neither black or white hats, but gray ones of varying shades as they go about their hard struggles in novels that don't romanticize the way it was for most people.
Such is the case here where the lawman and the outlaw could easily be nearly the same man. As the chase wears on, the reader shifts back and forth between both characters as well as a few others, in ways that not only bring the novel to life but illustrate truths that still very much hold true today. Portrayed by many as simpler times, they weren't. They were just different, but contained many of the same struggles that most face today. Author Elmer Kelton illustrates that point along with a few others worth reading in this engaging western.
Hard Trail To Follow
Elmer Kelton
http://www.elmerkelton.net/
Tom Doherty Associates/ A Forge Book
http://www.tor-forge.com/
2007
ISBN#978-0-7653-1522-9
Hardback
287 Pages
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System
Kevin R. Tipple © 2008
"By The Light Of The Moon"The Carpathian Shadows Volume 2
http://www.booksforabuck.com/sfpages/sf_08/carpathian_shadows2.html
Farley is a hard man and unappreciative. After a brief physical skirmish that neither man won, Andy decides to hit the trail and leave it all behind. Bethel isn't leaving and Andy can't put up with Farley anymore. If he stays, there might be another fight and somebody could get seriously killed or hurt. Andy isn't going to put Bethel through that and since she isn't going to leave, all he can do is head out with an unspecified need to do something else with his life. That decision sends him before lone into a confrontation with bank robbers, the death of a friend, and his putting on the badge of the legendary Texas Rangers once more.
It also sets him on the trail of an escaped outlaw across Southeastern and South Central Texas. Times are changing with the Indians on the reservations for years now, land and pastures fenced, and the telegraph spreading the latest news far and wide. Posses still ride and a fugitive can still make good on the escape but the telegraph spreads the news of the manhunt faster than the fugitive can travel. For both any Pickard as well as the fugitive known as Cordell, the chase is a long one full of twists and turns as well as a journey of self awareness as much as anything.
Author Elmer Kelton is considered by many to be the premier writer of western literature. Known for his authentic settings, realistic characters and concise prose he is a winner of Seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America as well as many others. The native Texan, who has authored more then fifty novel, is a legend and an author known to work the shades of gray. His characters wear neither black or white hats, but gray ones of varying shades as they go about their hard struggles in novels that don't romanticize the way it was for most people.
Such is the case here where the lawman and the outlaw could easily be nearly the same man. As the chase wears on, the reader shifts back and forth between both characters as well as a few others, in ways that not only bring the novel to life but illustrate truths that still very much hold true today. Portrayed by many as simpler times, they weren't. They were just different, but contained many of the same struggles that most face today. Author Elmer Kelton illustrates that point along with a few others worth reading in this engaging western.
Hard Trail To Follow
Elmer Kelton
http://www.elmerkelton.net/
Tom Doherty Associates/ A Forge Book
http://www.tor-forge.com/
2007
ISBN#978-0-7653-1522-9
Hardback
287 Pages
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System
Kevin R. Tipple © 2008
"By The Light Of The Moon"The Carpathian Shadows Volume 2
http://www.booksforabuck.com/sfpages/sf_08/carpathian_shadows2.html
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