Rating: 
Summary: Tales of the Beast told with awesome beauty
Review: While this book contains some of the most powerful writing of the 20th century, the book isn't for everyone. I've steered several of my 'frail' friends away from it, not everyone should be exposed to some of the scenes in here. But for those with the nerve to read it, this is as good as it gets. One of my 2 favorite books of all time (the other being 'Blood Sport' by Robert F. Jones). I won't try to add much to the details and descriptions other reviewers have listed here, but I will point you to the source material. Look for 'My Confession:Memoirs of a Rogue' by Samuel Chamberlain. Until I read 'My Confession', I didn't think there could be anything like 'Blood Meridian' anywhere in literature. There's no comparing the writing, McCarthy is simply the master in top form when he wrote Blood Meridian. On the other hand, Chamberlain lived thru the actual events described in both books, and adds some true to life details that fans of McCarthy's work may want to sift thru. I was shocked to find that The Judge is not a fictional character. In fact, McCarthy didn't take many liberties describing him. How could such a beast have escaped the scrutiny of history? Where did he go, what became of him? Is he still out there, drawing artifacts and then tossing both the drawing and artifact into the flames, dancing the fandango or playing the violin, roasting innocent passersby over a small fire?
Rating: 
Summary: A rough ride through a bloody desert
Review: I read Blood Meridian after having finished the Border Trilogy, which was probably a mistake. In the Border Trilogy, McCarthy is all about nuanced characters. All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain are modern cowboy stories: raw, vivid, visceral, without gratuitous bloodletting.Blood Meridian, while a fascinating book, betrays the true quality of McCarthy's inspired prose. He pours so much blood on his characters, while smashing their heads in and killing babies and drowning puppies etc., that we are quickly desensitized and expect any of the characters to die soon enough, or be maimed, or slaughter a family of pilgrims, and are almost happy when they do so. The world that McCarthy describes is horrid, awful, a place no one would ever want to go. The chances of survival slim. But still, there's something appealing about the Kid, the teenage Tennessean who roams the west, often with the Judge, in my eyes a nod to Conrad's madman in Heart of Darkness, or Apocalypse Now for the modern generation. The Kid comes from a bad family, not Jerry Springer bad, but better-get-out-before-you're-killed bad. He rides through the west with the Judge, a sinister character, the devil on earth. The Judge's army needs him to survive, but why they want to live in that existence is anyone's guess. The ending of Blood Meridian is as fine and as frightening as you'll find in literature. Stephen King, not even close. A truly chilling book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, not great.
Review: I came to this book like most of you, through the praises of Harold Bloom. Alright, I'm going to dissent with most opinions on this book. Is it good? Yes, in a way, it's good. Is it great? No. Frankly, this was a tiresome book for me. Ninty percent of the book deals with ever increasingly clever descriptions of things ... the desert, the sky, the mountains, men. It just goes on and on. There is precious little dialogue and none of it particularly clever. The men spit more than they speak. If you compare Blood Meridian with most of the trash at your local bookstore than yes, it's a good book; its author writes well. If, however, you compare it to great classics that we don't have time to read anyway ... it's probably not worth the effort unless you're a real Western fan. If you're looking for great literature, buckle down with Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dante and Cervantes. Once you're done with the classics you can come back to Blood Meridian if you really want to. Blood Meridian is like a graphic silent movie, if you're looking for more, you'll need to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: I can't believe...
Review: ... that I'd managed to live to be almost 40 before I read this novel. Now I have to spend the next 40 years telling others to read it. I've avoided Westerns the way I've avoided Harlequin Romances, Andy Garcia Films, and the Ice-Capades. However, calling this book a Western is kind of like calling Moby Dick a boating guide. True, all the stock and traditional of the typical Western are here (The silent loner, the gunfighter, the Indians), but they've been de-romanticized - forced to be viewed under the microscope of reality. The protagonist speaks very little throughout the book. Not because he's the strong silent type, but because he has nothing to say. The other characters (The Judge, Toadvine, Tobin, etc.) are a fascinating mixture of cruelty and humanity. McCarthy even manages to avoid the PC temptation to depict the Indians as noble savages. The real power of this book lays it its sense of realism. McCarthy can describe a cantina down to the tiniest speck of dust, a mountain down to a single rock, and a gunshot wound down to the smallest drop of blood. Also, there are lines of dialog that you just can't shake: The Judge: The freedom of birds is offensive to me. If I had my way, I'd see them all in a zoo.
Toadvine: That would be one Hell of a zoo. Toadvine on the cruel Mexican guard: My biggest fear is that some evil might befall him. I pray to God, daily, to watch over him. There's no way that I'm going to do justice to this wonderful / disturbing / thought-provoking / nightmarish work in a short review. Just buy it. Hurry! Now, if only someone would write a dark and disturbing Harlequin Romance.
Rating:
Summary: McCormack¿s unique style once again captivates ...
Review: McCormack's unique style of writing once again captivates in Blood Meridian, with sculpted landscapes, mesmerising dialogues, and portrayals of violence that are disturbingly perceptive. Spinning a web between two disparate characters, the youthful Kid and the diabolical Judge, one is swept away on a most disturbing journey of the deepest senses. As several of his books, the mythology of the wild west is given a twist, unravelling the spin that has formed our perception of this part of American history, exposing it as it really was. The savage events that dominated the growth of the new nation are bared in chilling detail, uncomfortably lyrical in a language as of song. But it strikes an even deeper core, timeless beyond the historical time frame of the western expansion in America, equally relevant today as in any other time, relevant far beyond the geography of America's west. The elements of human nature are exposed as the quest for power and its abomination into brutality culminates in the peaks of violence - the meridians of blood. McCormack's writing, singular and unique as no other, as full of emotion as it is sparse in punctuation, stimulating and illuminating in clarity of thought, effortlessly breaking the mould of conventional form and grammar, and ultimately striking a chord deep within, that normally is touched only through poetry. And what most would not dare admit, a chord as relevant today as it was in the days of the wild west. My admiration for McCormack's writing, driven both by emotion and intellect, is complete - the man is a true master, this book a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Poetic Genius
Review: This, I must say, is one of the best book I have ever read.I read this two years ago when I was 15 and couldn't believe what a great writer McCarthy was. Since then, McCarthy has become one of my favorite authors. In this book, from the first sentence to the last, you're drawn into it. I liked it so much I asked my daddy get it for me for Christmas. It's a great Western of the journey of a lone kid and the people and things he comes across. For those of you who aren't into (or just don't understand) very descriptive, very meaningful, and very deep writing, then this probably isn't for you. Though, if you are a dreamer with a love for great writing, like me, you'll thoroughly enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the finest books I've read
Review: I'll keep it simple here. McCarthy is a poet - his language is superb. One line from this book I'll never forget, describing the Commanches: '......a legion of horribles'. I've read every book this man has written and I have only one complaint - he hasn't published anything in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: one of my favorites
Review: The only reason I am writing this review is that I was appalled by how obnoxious Derek Lang's review is. I looked at his other reviews and it appears to me as though he has managed to master 5 or 6 fancy words which he uses with revolting frequency, i.e. "coeval, belletristic, adumbrate". He actually refers to himself as a non-elitist intellectual -- all while bashing modern authors, including Mr. McCarthy. He actually calls Cormack pretentious!! Derek - we are not impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book
Review: This is a terrific book - easily one of the best I have read in a long time. It is perhaps similar to "The Sound and the Fury", "The Sheltering Sky", and "Heart of Darkness", but certainly in a class of its own for modern American literature.
Rating:
Summary: A Look at Our Brutal Past
Review: A friend recommended this book to me because I had recently taken a trip to Texas's Big Bend National Park. After I had described my experience and what little history I had picked up in four days, she pointed me toward Cormac McCarthy. This was a wonderful coincidence because being out there had left me with a sense of wonder and many questions about the people and history of the area. For much of the 19th century, West Texas was disputed territory. Though remote and barren, this Native American land was alternately claimed by Mexico, Spain, The United States, and of course Texas. This book is full of bloody battles, with the constant feeling of some great Darwinian process at work. Most novels have fewer characters than this one manages to kill off in the first half. Granted, a novel may not be the best way to learn history, but I get the impression that no one really knows what day-to-day life was like out there. If it was anything like McCarthy's description, it was a brutal, amoral time. I'll warn you: this book has a lot of violence and gore. And there are no good guys, just survivors and corpses.
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