The Empty Land
by Louis L'Amour
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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 show more 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. show less
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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.
An excellent Western! The opening prose is beautiful, and by far the most skilled writing I have seen by L'Amour.
I like almost everything about this- the completely different opening and the sense of history it gives, the boomtown/gold rush town themes, the different characters and different approaches to the world, the gunfights, and the way the stories play out.
I don't like the love-interest switch out, and I find the first woman's sudden change of heart difficult to believe when she was previously ok with employing a former outlaw; the very end of the story is not quite as good, and very familiar, but it mostly works.
I didn't like Matt Coburn at first, but once we actually start to see more of his character and his need to help, I show more liked him better (including how smart he was about every choice he made).
Finally, this edition (mass market) has the most fascinating mini-bio I have read for L'Amour. show less
I like almost everything about this- the completely different opening and the sense of history it gives, the boomtown/gold rush town themes, the different characters and different approaches to the world, the gunfights, and the way the stories play out.
I don't like the love-interest switch out, and I find the first woman's sudden change of heart difficult to believe when she was previously ok with employing a former outlaw; the very end of the story is not quite as good, and very familiar, but it mostly works.
I didn't like Matt Coburn at first, but once we actually start to see more of his character and his need to help, I show more liked him better (including how smart he was about every choice he made).
Finally, this edition (mass market) has the most fascinating mini-bio I have read for L'Amour. show less
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.
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.
It was all I expected in the book which allowed a little escapism during a long airline journey and helped pass the time.
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.
It was all I expected in the book which allowed a little escapism during a long airline journey and helped pass the time.
Another great little western by Americas greatest storyteller.
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Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 22, 1908, Louis L'Amour's adventurous life could have been the subject of one of his novels. Striking out on his own in 1923, at age 15, L'Amour began a peripatetic existence, taking whatever jobs were available, from skinning dead cattle to being a sailor. L'Amour knew early in life that he wanted to be a show more writer, and the experiences of those years serve as background for some of his later fiction. During the 1930s he published short stories and poetry; his career was interrupted by army service in World War II. After the war, L'Amour began writing for western pulp magazines and wrote several books in the Hopalong Cassidy series using the pseudonym Tex Burns. His first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), serves as an example of L'Amour's frontier fiction, for it is an action-packed adventure story containing the themes and motifs that he uses throughout his career. His fascination with history and his belief in the inevitability of manifest destiny are clear. Also present and typical of L'Amour's work are the strong, capable, beautiful heroine who is immediately attracted to the equally capable hero; a clear moral split between good and evil; reflections on the Native Americans, whose land and ways of life are being disrupted; and a happy ending. Although his work is somewhat less violent than that of other western writers, L'Amour's novels all contain their fair share of action, usually in the form of gunfights or fistfights. L'Amour's major contribution to the western genre is his attempt to create, in 40 or more books, the stories of three families whose histories intertwine as the generations advance across the American frontier. The novels of the Irish Chantry, English Sackett, and French Talon families are L'Amour's most ambitious project, and sadly were left unfinished at his death. Although L'Amour did not complete all of the novels, enough of the series exists to demonstrate his vision. L'Amour's strongest attribute is his ability to tell a compelling story; readers do not mind if the story is similar to one they have read before, for in the telling, L'Amour adds enough small twists of plot and detail to make it worth the reader's while. L'Amour fans also enjoy the bits of information he includes about everything from wilderness survival skills to finding the right person to marry. These lessons give readers the sense that they are getting their money's worth, that there is more to a L'Amour novel than sheer escapism. With over 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour must be counted as one of the most influential writers of westerns in this century. He died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988. (Bowker Author Biography) Louis L'Amour, truly America's favorite storyteller, was the first fiction writer ever to receive the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress in honor of his life's work, & was also awarded the Medal of Freedom. There are over 260 million copies of his books in print worldwide. (Publisher Provided) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Empty Land
- Original title
- The Empty Land
- Original publication date
- 1969-01
- Epigraph
- [None]
- 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.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It was a long way to Durango.
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- 682
- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 9
- Rating
- (3.74)
- Languages
- Chinese, English, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 25
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 11
