Rating: 
Summary: KILLER BOOK
Review: You just gotta like how the man writes. What a command of the language! Brilliant. I was many times awed. This was my first book of his and at first I thought that I was taking a chance by ordering it. I'll be checking him out again. Just goes to show, once again, that truth is stranger than fiction. Hanged by their heel tendons with their heads just above the burning coals, their brains bubbling up through their noses with the smell... OUCH! It doesn't get much worse than that though, thankfully.
Rating: 
Summary: An Awe-Inspiring Journey Into Hell
Review: "Whatever exists in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." So speaks the Judge, the diabolical colossus and antagonist in this apocalyptic epic of a youth's journey with mercenaries across the hinterlands of Mexico and the soul. And the reader, immersed in McCarthy's rich and visceral imagery could well put the same words in the mouth of the author, so overpowering and obsessive is his command of our language. BLOOD MERIDIAN surely ranks as McCarthy's greatest achievement thus far and must be rated on par with the great gothic works of Faulkner, Poe and other American masters. So focused and resonant is this portrayal that his other novels, fine as they are, can be viewed as mere vestiges of this one, variations and reworkings that either foretell or recall this, McCarthy's great singular outpouring of his soul.
Rating:
Summary: The West Lost and One
Review: Other reviewers admonish to adapt Blood Meridian to film. This simply could not, and should not be adapted because this book's characters drool blood , and the violence here could not be aptly and fairly depicted on screen. If readers are not satisfied with the imagery ,and therefore crave to actually see this brutality on a screen before them, then McCarthy's vision of man as beast indeed can be verified. Blood Meridian is a partly historical account of the 19th-century westward movement and destruction of America's native people in America and Mexico by the bloodthirsty and goldthirsty and nihilistic Glanton Gang. The depiction of killing has scarcely been so graphic, and yet so alluring: you find yourself reading the horrifying scenes over and over again for their sublime description and almost dreamlike imagery. You have never seen nor imagined true Comanche Indian garb, and here it is. You have never read of a more evil character, and here you may, in Judge Holden. You have never read a novel whose main protagonist you almost forget exists, because of the book's other enticing components. And you have never imagined a sky this blood red, but remember: it was. Blood Meridian is McCarthy's masterpiece, and truly sets him apart as the late 20th Century's master of apocalyptic prose.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: After finishing the book, I sat stunned, drained of the energy required to keep up with McCarthy's prose, yet utterly sated. Not a single word is wasted in this incredible parable. Remarkable, terrifying, profound, and pure.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: This is a marvelous book, brutal and cold, with a bitter wind of universal loathing. Here we have a story of an almost unspeakable evil and the coarse, boorish thugs involved with carrying a reign of terror to the end. Like many of McCarthy's other novels (especially Child of God and Suttree), it is gloriously composed, featuring a writhing prose style, rousing and rhythmic and directly to the point. There is a wonderful, matter-of-factly written dialogue of two of the scalp hunters realizing they are eating tacos made out of cat meat. They can only shrug their shoulders and chow down, starving and with nothing else around for miles. Of all McCarthy's works, this is my favorite, but be forewarned (if, for some reason, things like this bug you): Here is truly one of the most violent novels ever written. Of course, sheer, murderous depravity has never been recorded with such precision and style, the same energy given to McCarthy's celebrated scenic descriptions in The Border Trilogy, repeated for atomizations of an agonizing death and the wounded maraduers creating some sort of apocylpse.
Rating:
Summary: This is NOT John Ford's Old West
Review: What an amazing work by an equally amazing writer. No one whom I've read captures the land and the people who live and travel it like McCarthy. If you liked any of his trilogy for the romance, this book is not for you. If, however, his descriptions of sheer humanity, his absolute gift with words, and his incomparable ability to paint a verbal landscape in any way appeal to you, then this is the book to read. With characters just unusual enough to be both repulsive and fascinating, McCarthy brings to life a West that has never made it to film, but ought to. My hope is that one day a director with the guts to put this tale to film will find the actors and resources to do so. Until then reader, find this book and enjoy some of the best contemporary fiction to be had.
Rating:
Summary: Yippity Yippity Yip!
Review: Goo-ga-ly, goo-ga-ly, goo
Rating: 
Summary: Blood Meridian
Review: Mostly a riveting; spellbinding novel until the last few chapters. Like the other McCarthy titles "All the Pretty Horses", etc. he accomplishes a feel for the desert Southwest like no other author I have read. He does that by painting a graphicly accurate word picture of the area. In addition, through the eyes of the Kid, he makes the reader feel, not just read, the era in which the story is set. I came away drained from the intensity. However, I feel that the philosophical journeys into which the judge wanders are too lengthy and too esoteric. If you want a philosophical discussion, go to a text book. Not only would some, if not most, disagree with the Judge's view of life, it in no way enhanced the story. If you are looking for another "Ox Bow Incident" you will be extremely disappointed. While the philosophical mindset of Ox Bow was more visceral and real, Blood Meridian was much more off the chart and contrived. In addition, McCarthy's use of the Spanish language, was over used. This book is written in English for English speaking readers. An occasional use of a foreign language should be used in moderation and never to convey critical aspects of the story. McCarthy has not accomplished that knack yet, in any of his novels that I have read.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, exhilarating literature.
Review: In Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy has singlehandedly destroyed all of our stereotypes of the Wild West. John Wayne and his jingoistic flag waving would have no place here. Neither would the ecologicaly friendly, noble natives of Dances With Wolves. Almost every character in this novel is a ruthless killer or a hapless victim. The setting of Blood Meridian is a violent purgatory where white man and red revel in monstrous acts of barbarism. Human life is worth only the price an Indian scalp will bring in Mexico, or the glory a white scalp will bring to a warrior. What is most frightening of all is that it is based on true events. This is probably the most accurate fictional depiction of life in the west of the late 1840s that we have seen to date. Read John Sepich's Notes On Blood Meridian and see for yourself. Blood Meridian is not a book for all readers. It is certainly the most masculine novel I have ever read. Women and sensitive male readers will probably revile it, and it is a truly brutal story, but I have to admit reading this novel with great excitement. I could not put it down. I have read it 3 times in the last 5 years. I guess that this story forces each of us to look into their own "heart of darkness", and admit that there is something deep in the human soul that thrills to primal savagery. Peckinpah fans will love it. All in all, the beautiful language, the vivid descriptions, the vicarious violence and the colorful characters make Blood Meridian an unforgettable reading experience... If you've got the guts. A couple of points of interest. I have seen an item on the internet saying Tommy Lee Jones is working on a movie adaption of Blood Meridian, in which he will star and direct. I do not know if this is just a rumor, or if anyone can do Blood Meridian justice now that Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone are dead, but I am still hoping it is true. (Mr. Jones, if you ever read this, may I suggest the band 16 Horsepower for the musical score.) Also, for those of you who wonder about the character of Judge Holden, here is a quote from a Texas State Historical Association website on Samuel Chamberlain, the man whose memoir, My Confession, inspired McCarthy to write Blood Meridian: "In fact, many people who are skeptical of Sam's account believe that Judge Holden was a character that Sam inserted into his story as an afterthought because he needed a villain that would outweigh even the evil Glanton. Some people think that Judge Holden was modeled after one of the Harvard geologists named Nathaniel Southgate Chaler because Sam after the Mexican War lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was familiar with many Harvard professors."
Rating:
Summary: What is History....
Review: Mccarthy, through a grotesque and often brutal narrative, presents the reader with a view of history that many Americans would like to forget: i.e.the systematic slaughter of Native Americans and the destruction of their culture in late 19th century America.Through the insidious character of the Judge, Mccarthy weaves a Nietzchean portrait of power and ideology twisted into the service of sadistic pleasure and personal gain, hiding behind the acceptable facade of service to one's country. This terrifying vision of the past, requires the reader to reasses their understanding of America, and how it came into being. Although this book contains many violent scenes of the most grotesque and graphic type, McCarthy uses them contrast the hypocritical relationship of war and violence which all too often are sanitized and stripped of the graphic details, allowing the human cost to be conveinently ignored and forgotten.
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