To Tame a Land
by Louis L'Amour
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Description
Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. Rye Tyler was twelve when his father was killed in an Indian raid. Taken in by a mysterious stranger with a taste for books and an instinct for survival, Rye is schooled in the hard lessons of life in the West. But after killing a man, he is forced to leave his new home. He rides lonely mountain passes and works on dusty cattle drives until he finds a job breaking horses. Then he meets Liza Hetrick, and in her eyes he sees his future. After show more establishing himself as marshal of Alta, he returns, only to discover that Liza has been kidnapped. Tracking her to Robbers’ Roost, Rye is forced to face the man who taught him all he knows about books, guns, and friendship. Two old friends—one woman: Who will walk away? show lessTags
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Member Reviews
3/2/23. Book title and author: To Tame a Land by Louis L’Amour
Why I picked this book up: As a kid, my neighbor Steve, had a leather bound set and I read a couple that I loved. I picked this up to see if L’Amour was consistent.
Thoughts: “To Tame A Land is a fast paced story about a boy named Rye who is forced to grow up after he is orphaned in Indian Territory. He learns to live off the land, hunt, break horses, run cattle, earn respect, and kill when necessary. Problem is, if you're too good with a gun, killers looking to make a name for themselves come for you.
The writing style is full of old west slang and the descriptions of the environments are brief and near perfect. It pulls you into the story. The pivotal scenes of this show more book are well written and the scenes that link them are brief to keep up the pace. Although this book is 154 pages, it's got a bit of everything: friendship, wisdom, action, one liners, and love. It's a great read for anyone who wants a taste of action in the old west.” from Poisoned Blade on Amazon reviewer see below:
Poisoned Blade
Why I finished this read: To tie up the story which ended well.
Stars rating: 5 out I’d 5. He is a great writer, western writer that describes things well, has morals, good characters and fun to read. He was as expected for me. show less
Why I picked this book up: As a kid, my neighbor Steve, had a leather bound set and I read a couple that I loved. I picked this up to see if L’Amour was consistent.
Thoughts: “To Tame A Land is a fast paced story about a boy named Rye who is forced to grow up after he is orphaned in Indian Territory. He learns to live off the land, hunt, break horses, run cattle, earn respect, and kill when necessary. Problem is, if you're too good with a gun, killers looking to make a name for themselves come for you.
The writing style is full of old west slang and the descriptions of the environments are brief and near perfect. It pulls you into the story. The pivotal scenes of this show more book are well written and the scenes that link them are brief to keep up the pace. Although this book is 154 pages, it's got a bit of everything: friendship, wisdom, action, one liners, and love. It's a great read for anyone who wants a taste of action in the old west.” from Poisoned Blade on Amazon reviewer see below:
Poisoned Blade
Why I finished this read: To tie up the story which ended well.
Stars rating: 5 out I’d 5. He is a great writer, western writer that describes things well, has morals, good characters and fun to read. He was as expected for me. show less
Representative and fun coming of age western. This particular novel captures well the youthful mind, and the plot sticks. I loved it as a teenage reader.
Kinda corny with the reluctant gun slinger theme. And a little Horatio Alger thrown in for good measure . And I saw the ending coming a mile away. Yet, some parts were very exciting and pulled me in. It was originally written in 1955 and you get a good sense of why the western as a genre was so popular in the 1950s.
All I can say is wow! This was my first dive into the world of Louis L'Amour books, and I was quite impressed and definitely look forward to reading more! It's clear why L'Amour is the leading author of Western fiction.
While it took me a bit to get into the story, once I did, I couldn't put it down. This short-ish volume packs a lot in! Rye was a very interesting and engaging character and I enjoyed following his story and "seeing the world through his eyes", so to speak. The authentic Old-West setting, marauding bad guys and gun-slinging action that you expect from a Western was all there, in spades. I particularly liked the light touch of romance that further developed Rye's character without going overboard.
All in all, I greatly show more enjoyed To Tame a Land and look forward to reading more L'Amour novels in the future!
CONTENT NOTE: Recommended for ages 16 for violence.As expected from a Western, there is lots of gun-slinging, bad guys, etc, and multiple shootings and deaths. None described overly graphically. show less
While it took me a bit to get into the story, once I did, I couldn't put it down. This short-ish volume packs a lot in! Rye was a very interesting and engaging character and I enjoyed following his story and "seeing the world through his eyes", so to speak. The authentic Old-West setting, marauding bad guys and gun-slinging action that you expect from a Western was all there, in spades. I particularly liked the light touch of romance that further developed Rye's character without going overboard.
All in all, I greatly show more enjoyed To Tame a Land and look forward to reading more L'Amour novels in the future!
CONTENT NOTE: Recommended for ages 16 for violence.
A youth is orphaned after he and his father are abandoned by a wagon train, but is befriended by a gunman. He learns to survive and eventually becomes a gunman himself. Can he escape his reputation and find the girl he loves?
This was actually a pretty good story, worth the reread. I'm rehoming it but would pick it up again in the future.
This was actually a pretty good story, worth the reread. I'm rehoming it but would pick it up again in the future.
I first read this book when I was about 10 years old, and I absolutely loved it. L'Amour's depiction of the west was fascinating to me, populated with heroes, and bad guys, and resolution was always black and white, with the fastest gun (heroes) always winning.
His love for the west always came through, the beauty of this country always depicted in the best light possible. This book doesn't really age very well, but my love for it and the emotions and feelings of a young boy reading it will always make it a favorite of mine.
His love for the west always came through, the beauty of this country always depicted in the best light possible. This book doesn't really age very well, but my love for it and the emotions and feelings of a young boy reading it will always make it a favorite of mine.
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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
- To Tame a Land
- Original publication date
- 1955
- People/Characters
- Ryan Tyler; Ralph Tyler; Big Jack McGarry; Mary Tatum; Logan Pollard; Liza Hetrick (show all 9); Ollie Burdette; Mustang Roberts; Ash Milo
- Epigraph
- [None]
- Dedication
- [None]
- First words
- It was Indian country, and when our wheel busted, none of them would stop.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The guns are hung up, the cows roam fat and lazy, but the old spirit is still there, just as it was when the longhorns came up the trail from Texas, and the boys washed the creeks for gold.
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Statistics
- Members
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- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 13
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French, Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 23
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 16
