Western Novels

[F250 28623]

If anyone is a fan of the Western genre please provide some recommendations. I've read the Lonesome Dove series a couple of times and these are my favorite to date but there are still a lot books out there I haven't read. If there are any other similar series out there worth reading please let me know.

I've read most of Elmore Leonard's westerns which I would recommend. I've also read Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Trails and Rainbow Trail as I've been told they are a must read if you appreciate the genre. I also read Cormac McCarthy's works but those really are not my cup of tea. The Crossing felt like someone in a deep depression wrote it while tripping on acid after getting lost in Mexico.

Never picked up a Louis L'Amour book because they seem to give off a romance novel vibe. Anyone read these?

[atomheartbevo 89304]

Louis L’Amour books are great, but not nearly as violent, and not nearly as romantic as say The Trailsman, Longarm, or Slocum. 

Seriously, read the L’Amour books. Read he Sackett series if you want a starting point, and start chronologically:

 https://www.fictiondb.com/author/louis-lamour~series~sacketts~7893.htm

if you only want to try one novel: The Daybreakers. 

Edited April 12, 2018 by atomheartbevo

[F250 28623]

Thanks, I think I'll try out The Daybreakers first and read the series if I get hooked.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Lots of LL are formulaic no doubt, but so are lots of westerns. Due in large part to LL churning out pulp “a stranger rides in town” stories for a generation.

I used to grab a couple used titles before going offshore in the years before reliable internet.

[atomheartbevo 89304]

3 minutes ago, F250 said:

Thanks, I think I'll try out The Daybreakers first and read the series if I get hooked.

Bonus: Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott, in their prime, played two of the brothers in the TV adaptation.  And Glenn Ford, Ben Johnson, and Slim Pickens had supporting roles. 

The Sackett series were (as a youngster), and still are, some of my favorite books.  If you like Daybreakers, the series starts in 1600  in England,  and goes up through the 1600s and 1700s in the colonies, and moves on to the 1800s in the West.

[miguelito 11169]

J. Frank Dobie wrote some good books, mostly anthologies about a particular subject (Longhorns, Rattlesnakes, Injuns, etc).  They might take you where you want to go.

[Guest Lobo]

Not really my thing, but I like the Robert Parker westerns and the guy who took over for him, Robert Knott.  Wrote the screenplay to "Appaloosa" as well.

[Damor 1231]

Someone on the old board recommended Elmer Kelton.  I really liked The Good Old Boys, and plan on reading some more of his in the future.

True Grit, if you haven't read it.

I loved McCarthy, but I recognize he's polarizing.  You implied you'd read other stuff, but I found All the Pretty Horses much less out there than the other books in the Border Trilogy.  I think Blood Meridian is incredible, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of human entrails and effluvium tea.

[atomheartbevo 89304]

18 hours ago, Llano Estacado said:

Lots of LL are formulaic no doubt, but so are lots of westerns. Due in large part to LL churning out pulp “a stranger rides in town” stories for a generation.

I used to grab a couple used titles before going offshore in the years before reliable internet.

I don't find myself going back to most of LL's other novels outside of the Sackets, but I think the thing that kept me coming back to those I have reread multiple times is that LL did a lot of historical, technical, and geographical research.  The extensive notes he took when walking/riding/driving over the areas covered in his novels were an interesting read in and of themselves, and The Sackett Companion, which was basically most of his research notes for the Sackett novels (all 10 generations of Sacketts) was worth a read as well.  

[Bat Guano 359]

Yeah, I discovered L'Amour late, just a couple of years ago. He knows how to spin a tale, and as noted above the research he puts in is worth the read as well. I can't read them back-to-back, because the formula becomes too obvious, but as a diversion/escapism they're pretty good.

[atomheartbevo 89304]

Now that I'm on laptop, I'd toss in a few other authors:

H. A. Derosso - The Gun Trail.  Dark as shit.  Just dark.  No humor, no real heroes at all.  It's like Unforgiven in book form as far as tone.  .44 is another good one.

Glendon Swarthout - The Shootist (yes, the John Wayne Shootist).

A. B. Guthrie - The Way West and The Big Sky - better than their movie versions, but the movies were good (and these two books form what amounts to the basis of a series).

Frederick Manfred - several good books, McMurtry actually scripted one of them as a miniseries.

Ed Gorman - Ghost Town. Some are calling his stuff "Western Noir", but I've only read Ghost Town.  His stuff apparently doesn't have happy endings.

[noharleyyet 2832]

On 4/12/2018 at 3:27 PM, Lobo said:

Not really my thing, but I like the Robert Parker westerns and the guy who took over for him, Robert Knott.  Wrote the screenplay to "Appaloosa" as well.

Parker's Hitch & Cole are very readable protagonists...the series works are worth the effort.

[noharleyyet 2832]

On 4/12/2018 at 3:38 PM, Damor said:

Someone on the old board recommended Elmer Kelton.  I really liked The Good Old Boys, and plan on reading some more of his in the future.

True Grit, if you haven't read it.

I loved McCarthy, but I recognize he's polarizing.  You implied you'd read other stuff, but I found All the Pretty Horses much less out there than the other books in the Border Trilogy.  I think Blood Meridian is incredible, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of human entrails and effluvium tea.

CM's Suttree and Child of God might be even more gruesome ....think Faulkner on acid.

Edited April 16, 2018 by noharleyyet

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4965]

My favorite LL book has always been Comstock Lode. Its longer and not quite as formulaic as many of his other works, but it's still a LL western.

[atomheartbevo 89304]

8 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

My favorite LL book has always been Comstock Lode. Its longer and not quite as formulaic as many of his other works, but it's still a LL western.

One of my other favorites was not one of his traditional books either  

set in the 80s about a Native American USAF pilot who was shot down in Siberia. 

Edited April 22, 2018 by atomheartbevo

[FWD 297]

Seconding All the Pretty Horses, much more approachable than Blood Meridian. 

[Kennythetiger 9325]

Annie Proulx has a book titled Close Range:  Wyoming Stories that I've enjoyed.  It's a collection of short stories set in modern-day Wyoming.  

[Mack Tripper 693]

Finalist for this year's Pulitzer and PEN/Faulkner awards. 

[Gil Bang 25843]

The Longmire series by Craig Johnson are terrific modern westerns

[SilasCoade 2620]

On 4/22/2018 at 10:49 AM, atomheartbevo said:

One of my other favorites was not one of his traditional books either  

set in the 80s about a Native American USAF pilot who was shot down in Siberia. 

The walking drum for me. As for the LL Westerns Comstock lode is great. More colonial than Western but To The Far Blue Mountains and Jubal Sackett are too five for me.

[Ten Bears 2475]

I have found several good western books by reading the credits of movies where they list what the movie was based on.  Three of the better ones were:

Little Big Man

Dances with Wolves

The Outlaw Josie Wales

 

Elmer Kelton's The Time it Never Rained was set in 1950's West Texas, but I consider it a western.  Damn good book.  He wrote a bunch of decent pulp Westerns too.

 

 

 

 

[Ten Bears 2475]

Reading Deadwood by Pete Dexter.  Pretty enjoyable. 

[DalTxHornFan 3074]

On 11/19/2018 at 12:38 PM, Ten Bears said:

Elmer Kelton's The Time it Never Rained was set in 1950's West Texas, but I consider it a western.  Damn good book.

This is a great book.  Shades of Ayn Rand set in the 1950's West Texas drought.  Charlie Flagg is not John Galt, but they have some similar traits. 

[salonghorn 204]

As a kid in HS, I loved zane grey. I haven't read any since HS so I probably should go back and visit them. 

[Armybrat 40648]

Not quite of the novel genre, but the stories & legends in J. frank Doobie’s anthology works are fascinating stuff.

[futureman 22382]

15 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Not quite of the novel genre, but the stories & legends in J. frank Doobie’s anthology works are fascinating stuff.

was it he or his brother that wrote china grove?

[mininghorn88 2250]

Louis L’Amour is the go to. I read my first LL book (The Man from Skibereen) when I was in the 6th grade. It has been probably close to 25 years since I last read one of his books. At one point I had all of his books in my collection. He is very descriptive with his locations and geography so there have been folks that have identified the actual settings of some of his books. The Sackett Series is a must.

[Armybrat 40648]

54 minutes ago, futureman said:

was it he or his brother that wrote china grove?

Lol

I really should proofread my scribbling.

[atomheartbevo 89304]

2 hours ago, mininghorn88 said:

Louis L’Amour is the go to. I read my first LL book (The Man from Skibereen) when I was in the 6th grade. It has been probably close to 25 years since I last read one of his books. At one point I had all of his books in my collection. He is very descriptive with his locations and geography so there have been folks that have identified the actual settings of some of his books. The Sackett Series is a must.

A while back, I saw a panel of TV writers talking about shared universes and franchises and how popular they are, and somebody brought up how nobody has done a full-blown Western shared universe, and I kept thinking the Talons/Chantry's/Sacketts were literally a shared Western universe, and all three families referenced each other/intermarried:

 

[Gil Bang 25843]

I'm a big fan of Craig Johnson's "Longmire" series.  Yeah, it became a TV series, and a good one, but the books are terrific. 

I also like CJ Box a lot.  And that's also now a TV series, although on an obscure channel.

Box' main character is a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett. 

Both are "modern" westerns. 

[NoName 16265]

14 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

I also like CJ Box a lot.  And that's also now a TV series, although on an obscure channel.

Box' main character is a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett. 

Both are "modern" westerns. 

CJ Box is great and Joe Pickett is a great character, also woah you aren't kidding about that TV show being on the most obscure channel possible.

Quote

 In 2021, Paramount Television began production of a ten episode television adaption of Box's Joe Pickett novels, featuring actor Michael Dorman as Joe Pickett, to air exclusively on the Spectrum cable television service in the U.S

[Gil Bang 25843]

2 hours ago, NoName said:

CJ Box is great and Joe Pickett is a great character, also woah you aren't kidding about that TV show being on the most obscure channel possible.

I understand that in the TV series, Nate is played by a black actor...which seems weird. 

Romanowski?  

[NoName 16265]

1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

I understand that in the TV series, Nate is played by a black actor...which seems weird. 

Romanowski?  

yup

https://tvbrittanyf.com/2021/12/13/joe-pickett-mustafa-speaks-interview/

[Gil Bang 25843]

Yeah, that's a little weird, considering that Nate is know for his blonde ponytail, but whatever.  Sometimes these things work well.

Lou Diamond Phillips  wasn't a good fit for the book version of Henry Standing Bear (Standing Bear was a HUGE man), but Phillips was terrific in the role, so I'll reserve judgement. 

[WBT 20376]

I've decided to read Elmore Leonard's novels in order and so I'm working through the early westerns.  They've all been pretty good so far.  It's interesting seeing the typical Leonard dialogue in a different context.  I've read The Bounty Hunters, The Law at Randado, Escape from Five Shadows, and Last Stand at Saber River so far.  Hombre is next.

[Kennythetiger 9325]

On 5/15/2022 at 1:30 PM, atomheartbevo said:

A while back, I saw a panel of TV writers talking about shared universes and franchises and how popular they are, and somebody brought up how nobody has done a full-blown Western shared universe, and I kept thinking the Talons/Chantry's/Sacketts were literally a shared Western universe, and all three families referenced each other/intermarried:

 

Last picture might be from “The Shadow Riders”. 

[WBT 20376]

Hombre was really good.  A fairly straightforward plot but with an interesting, silent, mysterious protagonist.  I'll have to check out the Paul Newman movie now as I've never seen it.

[UncleBuck 6444]

I'm currently on "Comanche Moon," the second book in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" series. It's not bad. 

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Quote

I'm currently on "Comanche Moon," the second book in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" series. It's not bad. 

I read Streets of Laredo a while back. It was fine, but paled in comparison to Lonesome Dove. I have Dead Man's Walk in my TBR pile. I hope it's better. 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Seasick Sailor

[Kennythetiger 9325]

On 7/11/2022 at 11:50 AM, UncleBuck said:

I'm currently on "Comanche Moon," the second book in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" series. It's not bad. 

I ranked it #2 in my favorite of the four. 

[UncleBuck 6444]

43 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

I read Streets of Laredo a while back. It was fine, but paled in comparison to Lonesome Dove. I have Dead Man's Walk in my TBR pile. I hope it's better. 

Can't wait for Lonesome Dove. Decided to read things in chronological order, so that's up next. 

19 minutes ago, Kennythetiger said:

I ranked it #2 in my favorite of the four. 

behind Lonesome Dove, I'm assuming?

What's your ranking?

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

14 minutes ago, UncleBuck said:

Can't wait for Lonesome Dove. Decided to read things in chronological order, so that's up next. 

Have you seen the mini series?

[Kennythetiger 9325]

4,2,1,3. 
Three years ago I flew to San Antonio, rented a car, and drove from Del Rio to the Milk River. Kind of combined the Goodnight/Loving story, Lonesome Dove, and Judge Roy Bean into one long trip. 

[UncleBuck 6444]

23 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Have you seen the mini series?

Nope, that'll come after the books

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Just now, UncleBuck said:

Nope, that'll come after the books

I'm jealous and very curious to get your thoughts on it. I don't know anyone who has read the books in chronological order without having read Lonesome Dove or seen the mini series first. 

[RDCanecutter 26198]

Dunno if it counts as a Western, but when I read Robert Lewis Taylor's Two Roads to Guadalupe as a younger dude, I was dead-set on going to Mexico.

Two brothers from Missouri who get separated in the Mexican War. Very 1960s feel to the writing, which I liked. Out of print but not too hard to find.

 

[F250 28623]

On 7/9/2022 at 10:22 PM, WBT said:

Hombre was really good.  A fairly straightforward plot but with an interesting, silent, mysterious protagonist.  I'll have to check out the Paul Newman movie now as I've never seen it.

Hombre is great and the movie is good too. The final scene was exactly how I imagined it when reading the book which is rare when watching a movie after reading the book.

 

 

[Kennythetiger 9325]

On 7/12/2022 at 6:09 PM, RDCanecutter said:

Dunno if it counts as a Western, but when I read Robert Lewis Taylor's Two Roads to Guadalupe as a younger dude, I was dead-set on going to Mexico.

Two brothers from Missouri who get separated in the Mexican War. Very 1960s feel to the writing, which I liked. Out of print but not too hard to find.

 

 

Did you ever read this one?  

[RDCanecutter 26198]

Not yet.

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

On 5/15/2022 at 6:21 PM, Gil Bang said:

I'm a big fan of Craig Johnson's "Longmire" series.  Yeah, it became a TV series, and a good one, but the books are terrific. 

I also like CJ Box a lot.  And that's also now a TV series, although on an obscure channel.

Box' main character is a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett. 

Both are "modern" westerns. 

Listening to the first Joe Pickett book, Open Season, now. I am enjoying it so far. I started to watch the first episode of the series yesterday, but it became clear about half way through the first episode that it was moving beyond what I have gotten through in the book, and I'd rather get the book version first.