The Empty Land

by Louis L'Amour

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575	7	41,923	(3.76)	10
Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:For thousands of years the lonely canyon knew only wind and rain, wild animals, and an occasional native hunter. Then a trapper found a chunk of gold, and everything changed overnight. In six days a town called Confusion appeared . . . and on the seventh it could disappear, consumed by the flames of lawlessness and violence. On one side are those who understand only brute force. On the other are men who want law and order but are ready to use a noose to achieve their ends. Between them stand Matt Coburn and Dick Felton: one a hardened realist, the other an idealist trying to dig a fortune from the muddy hillside. Outnumbered and outgunned, Felton and Coburn can't afford to be outmaneuvered. For as the two unlikely allies confront corruption, betrayal, and murder in an attempt to tame a town where the discovery of gold can mean either the fortune of a lifetime or a sentence of death, they realize that any move could be their last.… (more)

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Western

BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |

An interesting premise about a newly formed town turned bad, and what it takes, WHO it takes, to bring law and order to a place of anarchy. The story was uneven at times, but I liked some of the plot twists, and eventually decided it did deserve that extra half star. (

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fuzzi | Sep 25, 2023 |

A pretty standard Western with the usual plot: good guy fights numerous bad guys, outdrawing and shooting many while only receiving minor wounds himself, wins the love of the heroine and the admiration of everyone else and goes merrily on his way.
It was all I expected in the book which allowed a little escapism during a long airline journey and helped pass the time. (

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PaulLoesch | Apr 2, 2022 |

A standard Western from the man who set the standard, but there's something about this story that goes beyond the shoot-em-up plot. The hero, Matt Colburn, must ultimately come to terms with the man he is, rather than the man he wants to be. Matt is a tarnished hero, whose value to the townsfolk lessens the more successful he is in combatting the violence in the town of Confusion. In the end, he can't change the fact that he, too, is a man of violence, and that realization costs him his half-formed dream of a settled future. Thematically, I thought this story went deeper than many, if not most Westerns. (

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TheGalaxyGirl | Sep 24, 2021 |

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Paul-the-well-read | Apr 18, 2020 |

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Canonical title

The Empty Land

Original title

The Empty Land

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1969-01

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Dedication

To My Father......
who know what it meant to wear the badge.

First words

In Europe, Pope Gregory the Great had died, in Ireland the Golden Age of scholarship was at its height, and on the Continent the Merovingian kings ruled much of what is now Germany and France.

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Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:For thousands of years the lonely canyon knew only wind and rain, wild animals, and an occasional native hunter. Then a trapper found a chunk of gold, and everything changed overnight.
In six days a town called Confusion appeared . . . and on the seventh it could disappear, consumed by the flames of lawlessness and violence. On one side are those who understand only brute force. On the other are men who want law and order but are ready to use a noose to achieve their ends. Between them stand Matt Coburn and Dick Felton: one a hardened realist, the other an idealist trying to dig a fortune from the muddy hillside. Outnumbered and outgunned, Felton and Coburn can't afford to be outmaneuvered. For as the two unlikely allies confront corruption, betrayal, and murder in an attempt to tame a town where the discovery of gold can mean either the fortune of a lifetime or a sentence of death, they realize that any move could be their last.

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