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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Westerns
Logan Cates knew the many ways the Arizona desert could kill a man. He had ridden the sunblasted dunes, tracked the Apache over barren lava beds, sheltered in the dry washes of this forbidding land. Above all, he knew a man needed water to survive. Cates rode to Papago Wells a few miles ahead of an Apache war party led by the vicious Churupati. There he met a dozen desert wanderers whom chance had led to the only water between Yuma and hell. There they came under siege by the Indians. And there they would make their stand--with little hope of living beyond the next day and only a hard man named Logan Cates to show them how to conquer their true enemy: fear.
Oakley Hall's legendary "Warlock" revisits and reworks the
traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny,
hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality.
First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era,
Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of
modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American
fiction.
"Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880's is, in ways, our national
Camelot: a never-never land where American virtues are embodied in
the Earps, and the opposite evils in the Clanton gang; where the
confrontation at the OK Corral takes on some of the dry purity of
the Arthurian joust. Oakley Hall, in his very fine novel Warlock
has restored to the myth of Tombstone its full, mortal, blooded
humanity. Wyatt Earp is transmogrified into a gunfighter named
Blaisdell who . . . is summoned to the embattled town of Warlock by
a committee of nervous citizens expressly to be a hero, but finds
that he cannot, at last, live up to his image; that there is a flaw
not only in him, but also, we feel, in the entire set of
assumptions that have allowed the image to exist. . . . Before the
agonized epic of Warlock is over with--the rebellion of the
proto-Wobblies working in the mines, the struggling for political
control of the area, the gunfighting, mob violence, the personal
crises of those in power--the collective awareness that is Warlock
must face its own inescapable Horror: that what is called society,
with its law and order, is as frail, as precarious, as flesh and
can be snuffed out and assimilated back into the desert as easily
as a corpse can. It is the deep sensitivity to abysses that makes
"Warlock" one of ourbest American novels. For we are a nation that
can, many of us, toss with all aplomb our candy wrapper into the
Grand Canyon itself, snap a color shot and drive away; and we need
voices like Oakley Hall's to remind us how far that piece of paper,
still fluttering brightly behind us, has to fall." --Thomas Pynchon
In the classic western movie The Searchers Jeffrey Hunter plays a
young man with a mission in his heart and a chip on his shoulder.
The character might well have been modeled on eighteen-year-old Lee
Thompson, a trail-hand on a mission of his own--to save his dad,
Diehard Thompson, the aging sheriff of Wolf River, Montana.
Old Diehard's lost control of his town, and it seems every outcast
and outlaw west of the Mississippi is on the prowl in Wolf River.
Now Lee's come all the way from Texas to stand up for his father, a
man who hasn't seen him since he was a boy and who doesn't know him
from Adam.
Lee's plan is a dangerous one-mix in with the desperadoes and risk
death at their hand Under the Diehard Brand. But sometimes, the
only way to restore the rule of law is to break it.
Most of the Westerns published in the all-fiction magazines of the
first half of the twentieth century were written by authors more
familiar with the streets of New York than the cattle trails of
Texas. Hubbard bucked the trend, and in the process changed the
face of the Western adventure. He grew up in a time and a place
where the Old West, though fading, still lived. His unique
knowledge of the frontier, of its ways and its people, made him an
authentic voice of this unique American experience.
Also includes the Western adventures, Hoss Tamer, in which a circus
horse trainer turned bronco buster has to figure a way to tame a
gang of outlaws, and The Ghost Town Gun Ghost, the story of an old
prospector who seems to have lost his wits; but is he crazy . . .
or crazy like a fox?
"
"Rife with action and adventure and laced with melodramatic
undertones." "--Library Journal
The Lonely Men
Tell Sackett had been lured into the Apache's mountain stronghold by the icy beauty of his brother's wife. He didn't go alone. John J. Battles, Spanish Murphy and the half-breed Tampico rode beside him. Each was driven by his past to test his speed and cunning against an enemy who could smell a white man a mile away-and then shoot his eyes out at a dead gallop. It was a contest few men could enter-and fewer still could hope to win.
The Sacketts
They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the spirit and adventure of the American frontier. The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wilderness with their dreams and their courage. From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places and a fierce independence.
The Sacketts always stood tall and, true to their strong family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds. Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting history adventure, and read a s a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.
Drawn to the Arizona territory by tales of an Apache war party led
by a she-wolf, frontier newspaperman Kepler senses that his past
has come back to haunt him. Hidden behind an overturned stagecoach
with frightened Buffalo Soldiers and the woman he loves, Kepler
fears not the Apaches who ambushed them, but that it will be wolves
who rush in to slash and kill. Is he safe from the creature he
battled in the Colorado mountains? In a town called Vengeance,
Kepler finds new battles to fight, including facing down the most
ruthless gunman in the southwest. Will an alliance with a once
enemy keep him safe? In a war fought on the fringes of reality,
will fire and silver bullets be enough?
RAZED FROM CHILDHOOD
No child should have to witness what twelve year old Cord Malone
saw the day his parents were murdered and his home burned to the
ground. Rescued from the blaze by his Uncle Jesse, the terrible
image still haunts him, as does the name of the man
responsible..."Eli Creed."
Jesse had tried to track the man down, only to lose Creed's trail.
But Cord never gave up. He just waited out his young years before
setting out on a trail long gone cold to satisfy the need for
revenge that still burns inside him.
The spirit of Christmas is contagious and overwhelming in this
charming and unpredictable holiday tale. Orphaned at thirteen, the
poorly paid, patched-clothed cowhand Stubby Pringle is now nearing
twenty as he looks forward to whooping it up at the schoolhouse in
the valley for the Christmas dance. His box of chocolates is tucked
into his saddlebag for the gal who "appeals to him most and seems
most susceptible." But this Christmas Eve Stubby finds that the
magic of the season may have something different in store for him.
In true Schaefer fashion, Stubby Pringle delights readers and fills
our hearts with the magic and spirit of Christmas.
He came out of Malpais, the terrible volcanic badlands where nothing can live, riding a giant red stallion no other man could put a hand to. His boots were polished, his speech was gentle, but his guns were quick and smooth as silk. He shot first and talked later.
This sweeping tale captures the essence of Texas on a staggering scale as it chronicles the life and times of cattleman Jordan "Bick" Benedict, his naive young society wife, Leslie, and three generations of land-rich sons. A sensational story of power, love, cattle barons, and oil tycoons, Giant was the basis of the classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.
One of the great sagas of our time, the chronicle of the Sackett family is perhaps the crowning achievement of one of our greatest storytellers. In Lando, Louis L'Amour has created an unforgettable portrait of a unique hero.
A man never to count out....
For six long years Orlando Sackett survived the horrors of a brutal Mexican prison. He survived by using his skills as a boxer and by making three vows.
The first was to exact revenge on the hired killers who framed him. The second was to return to his father. And the third was to find Gin Locklear.
But the world has changed a lot since Lando left it. His father is missing. The woman he loves is married. And the killers want him dead. Hardened physically and emotionally, Lando must begin an epic journey to resolve his past, even if it costs him his life.
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