Rating: 
Summary: I'God Woodorow, I'm torn.
Review: The book followed accurately along the rugged frontier lines set down in Lonesome Dove. However, it was laborious at times. That being said, it is a must read if the reader is at all interested in continuing down the dusty path that is the lives of Gus and Call. Without this story, the gap is insurmountable. The new characters introduced and the somewhat tedious adventures tackled are required to define the future shape of the characters that we have become addicted to.
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Summary: Brutal Prequel To Lonesome Dove
Review: The first adventure of Western heroes Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, whose later life story was immortalised in LONESOME DOVE. A very readable novel that reflects the brutally of that time and place, even if it is somewhat unpolitically correct with its use of Indian villains. Apart from the two known characters, the novel is full of strong characters who breath life into this remarkable and entertaining book. Powerful and well worth reading, it is only let down by the rather weak and silly ending which all too obviously sets itself up for further adventures - no problem with that, it's just a shame it had to detract from the power of most of what had gone before.
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Summary: More, and less, of the same
Review: The thing is, the fatalism wears a bit thin when it ends up amounting not even to a hill , but a bowl of beans. There are some vivid scenes; trekking along the top of a ridge full of indians, and the murderous hunting party hanging out and getting drunk at the trading post. It feels as if Mcmurtry is saying something over and over again about life being short. Having bled Call and Macrae dry with the first two books, he appears to barely believe in them anymore, and the epic journey they take is stagey and not a little absurd (gang of rangers burnt to death by a field of grass?) It lacks the surprises of the first two novels, and seems coy with the characterisations. It's fair to assume he didn't expect to get this far, and it's a shame to agree that he didn't.
Rating: 
Summary: THREE THUMBS UP!
Review: The way the leporous woman got rrid of the Indians was worth the whole price of the book. I'll be tarred and feathered by my Texas wife and all ourr friends for saying this, but it did my New Mexico heart good to see a bunch of Texans get what was coming to them! As they say, Poor New Mexico, so far from Heaven and so close to Texas. I'm brave enough to write my name, Luther Butler, e-mail me if you care
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Summary: Grim Prarie Tale
Review: This book in the Lonsesome Dove series in the first, in chronological order. Gus and Call, called 'young pups' by their elders, have joined the Texas Rangers, hoping for some adventure (and for Gus, a little brothel action and card playing). Soon after their expedition begins, they discover they are in way over their heads. The Commanches are, literally, on the warpath, and hate white people (with good reason, considering the way the white men treated them). They are also very smart, very fast, very skilled in riding and fighting, and VERY bloodthirsty. The main Chief, who even the most hardened soldiers are scared of, is Buffalo Hump, and he is introduced in an unforgettable lightning storm on the prarie, in one of the most vivid, terrifying scenes in the entire series (and if you've read the series, you know things can get VERY ugly). The men in charge of the expedition are either crazy, stupid, drunk, have a very short fuse, or all of the above. The trek starts out rather confident, looking forward to the challenges to come, but soon realize they are no match for the Indians. The Commanches set up a variety of clever, deadly, devastating traps, and soon their ranks are halved, then quartered, then...then it gets REALLY ugly.This book was a page-turner, and had all the entertaining characters a reader comes to expect from the series. All of the books treat death as an everyday thing, but I think this is one of the most cold-blooded; do not read if you're sqeamish. There's not just one or two nasty scenes, either, they count many and come fast. This is an entertaining book, one that I couldn't put down, but not especially pleasant. A good read, don't get me wrong, but one that is emotionally gruelling. I guess if you wanted to read the books in chronological order, this would be the one to start. I had planned to do that originally, after I read LD, but have found reading them in the order they were written is actually more satisfying; backstory is filled in, and you get a better perspective. If you loved LD, read this and the other books in the series. If you're just starting out, read LD first; it may be the strongest, but it will give you an idea of just what a treat you're in for. No ccomplaints here-I put the bok down after reading the last page, and promptly walked right over to my new copy of Commanche Moon (I wisely bought them at the same time) and started in. This author was born to write.
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Summary: Dead Man's Walk is poking in the corners of your imagination
Review: This book is more than an adventure, it's a teaser for the the more imagenative people, this book is full of love for harsh people and harsh landscapes, but as usual when McMurtry's dips his pen in blood, sweat and surprisingly few tears he keeps control of this universe with dark corners full of characters, that we don't know but immediately recognize. And the basics are of all times, friendship, often no rewards after exhausting performances on the llano's and in whorehouses and the bizarre, oh the bizarre, that is the ever present scenery of his books and this one in particuliar. McMurtry covers his tracks in a masterly way and pulls your legs and brains through his unique style; many pages to introduce you to a situation or person, that will vanish all of a sudden. A disproportional economy of writing that leaves you bewilderd but thankfull after re-reading. From all his books, this one for me is the best, a true gritty-nitty novel full of values that slowly disappeares from the planes that we all ride on
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Summary: Walking with Gus and Woodrow
Review: This book strikes me as closer in tone to Lonesome Dove than McMurtrey's earlier sequel, Streets of Laredo. There is alot of violence and gore, but alot of humor too. We see Call and McCrae meet and join the Rangers together and follow their first, hapless adventures through Southern Texas and Mexico. It is nice to see Gus McCrae alive again after Woodrow Call had to ride alone through Streets of Laredo. Of course, this book is not nearly the work of Art that Lonesome Dove was, but if you are following the series, you wont want to miss this installment.
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Summary: Larry rocks but...
Review: This book was a disappointment after Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo. The characters just weren't that engaging.
Rating: 
Summary: A Respectable "Prequel" to the Great LONESOME DOVE
Review: This is a harsh tale of the earliest partnership between Woodrow Call and Gus MaCrae, the marvelously heroic anti-heroes of LONESOME DOVE. In this tale the two, as young men, stumble into the early Texas Rangers, drawn by the naive love of adventure which rangering promises the two youths. But they soon find that they and the rangers they lucklessly attach themselves to are no match for the harsh country they confront. The Commanches and the Apaches are harder and smarter in the ways of the wilds and the Mexicans are more numerous and better prepared. The Texans are bunglers, led by charlatans and self-interested adventurers. Worst of all, none of them, from the lowliest ranger, to the officers, to the whores who trail along behind them, know what they are letting themselves in for. It is a hellish passage which they undertake, rife with the sudden violence and grotesqueries which characterize McMurtry's vision of the west. There is the oversized whore, Mattie, who alternately mothers and fornicates with the young rangers she finds around her; the simpering easterner who has set himself up as an officer in the rangers; the pirate turned soldier of fortune who leads his troop of adventurers into country he neither understands nor is prepared to encounter; the sudden lightning storms and tornadoes; the misshapen Commanche war-chief who hunts the white men like buffalo; the deadly Apache who culls the white herd in the night through a long and arduous desert death march; the overly proud Mexican army officer whose life, in the end, depends on the goodwill of his remaining captives; the old mountain man and the scout who travels with him; the brain damaged quarter master whose luck it is to live while other, more complete men must die. All of these rush blindly toward that strange fate which awaits them in the end and which will overwhelm those who will survive, in a moment of surrealistic beauty and dread which somehow wipes away the harshness and suffering which have gone before. In the end, MacCrae, the carefree instinctive man of action, and Call, the careful and thoughtful planner, are forced to see that they, as they have been, callow and inexperienced youths, are no match for the country and the people they have found in it. But, unlike most of their comrades, they miraculously survive their trek. And are changed and enlarged by it. Country bumpkins and veritable greenhorns at the outset, they are fast on the way to becoming the tough rangers we will meet once more, in the books which tell of their subsequent adventures, by the end of this tale. This one does not quite rise to the resonant strains of its precursor LONESOME DOVE, but it is a fitting prequel. We get to see how the country and the experiences of a harsh youth began to form the two men whose tale this ultimately is. And if there is not much plot here, there is a vividness in the description and the dialogue that make you feel like you are there with these men. True, the tale is so grotesque as to seem almost unreal. But McMurtry's writing is sharp and evocative and fresh so that, despite a certain predictability in the events, you want to stay with the characters, to experience this harsh and nightmarish world along with them. Not up to LONESOME DOVE. But that was a hard act to follow.
Rating:
Summary: -
Review: This is my first McMurtry, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After readding the slight disappointments of the other reviewers though, I'm eager to begin Dove...
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