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Audiobook5 hours
Utah Blaine
Written by Louis L'Amour
Narrated by Craig Klein
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Colonel Utah Blaine, held captive by the Army of the Revolution, broke out of jail and headed north from Mexico with nothing but the clothes on his back. Then he found new trouble struggling at the end of a noose-and stepped in just in time to save the life of a Texas rancher. The would-be executioners were the rancher's own men, looking to steal his land.
Now Utah has a unique proposition: Have the wealthy Texan play dead, introduce himself as the spread's new foreman, and take care of the outlaws one by one. The wage to fight another man's war? A hundred a month plus expenses. The cost of falling in love while he earns that wage? It wasn't exactly part of the original agreement, but Utah will soon find out-unless the bad guys get to him first.
Now Utah has a unique proposition: Have the wealthy Texan play dead, introduce himself as the spread's new foreman, and take care of the outlaws one by one. The wage to fight another man's war? A hundred a month plus expenses. The cost of falling in love while he earns that wage? It wasn't exactly part of the original agreement, but Utah will soon find out-unless the bad guys get to him first.
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Reviews for Utah Blaine
Rating: 3.9121621162162166 out of 5 stars
4/5
74 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was pleasantly surprised by this story by L'Amour first published in 1954 under a pseudonym he used for many of his early works - Jim Mayo. I read a rather in depth introduction to the author in another book I have after I finished this. L'Amour didn't exactly have an easy time of it with his early writing. His huge success came later in life. About the time of this novel John Wayne optioned one of his short stories and exapanded it into the film Hondo which helped L'Amour but even still didn't turn him into an "overnight success." This guy worked hard at his writing.The story 'Utah Blaine' has one of L'Amour's recurring themes - range war - but the characters in here are pretty well done and even when not fleshed out they are defined well enough that keeping track of people was not a problem. If I was an editor I would have a few suggestions to make this better but the basic story here is handled well. Our 'hero' Utah Blaine may be a bit too superhuman, but he isn't superman. He's a good guy who knows the difference between right and wrong and takes on an underdog role to help a rancher being lynched by a rather large number of vigilante neighbors who are jealous of his land. The west is clearly still wild here. L'Amour is very good at descriptive writing of the landscape. You can picture in your mind's eye the places he describes. There's a touch of romance in the story and more than a few deaths by the end, but I think the end can be described as a happy ending.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As expected, this story is very typical Louis L'Amour. It's his standard formula of the Good Guy whipping the Bad Guys from Hell to Highwater, while coming out on top and getting the girl. However, L'Amour makes some really bad writing decisions, such as having too many names that are similar (Rip Coker and Rink Whitter, Otten and Ortmann, Tom Kelsey and Dan Timm). It gets challenging to keep all the names separate when they are very similar on page, and there are so many of them.
Utah Blaine is a double gun wielding cowboy who witnesses the near hanging of Joe Neal, and saves the man's neck. Then Blaine convinces Neal that Blaine should run Neal's very wealthy range, and Blaine convinces Neal to stay out of the picture. Turns out, everyone wants a piece of that range, and they'll do anything, including killing for it, to grab a piece.
The rest fits together as you would expect. A 3-way grab for land between hungry ranchers turns into a turf war, and Blaine ends up on top. One large problem with this book, is the fact that L'Amour sends Blaine all over the country in just about every chapter. Ranchers, cowboys, posses, everyone- is going everywhere. It gets really quite challenging to remember who is where while reading about someone different.
It's a good story, as are the rest of his westerns, but it's nothing to get excited about. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book had the right combination of action narration and was not rushed consequently easily rated five stars.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Completely not my thing. I was bored by all the fights, the beat him in a fair fight and he'll be your friend fistfight, all the gun fights, and the women being girls, western men respecting good women. It's so clear this is the template from which Elmer Kelton's stories derive. At least it's rather short, though it didn't seem so while I was getting though it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of my favorites by this author. A young gunfighter finds himself hired to manage a huge ranch in the middle of a range war. Interesting characters, plenty of action, fun read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Standard L'amour -- gunfights, fistfights, and righting of wrongs. Utah Blaine is a penniless drifter who encounters a hanging party. He manages to rescue the old man being lynching, and learns that the gentleman has been targeted by his fellow ranchers due his ownership of a much-coveted piece of land. Blaine volunteers to act as the rancher's agent/segundo and reclaim the property on his behalf. As is typical with L'amour, violence ensues. The plot is fairly simple, with all odds against him, Blaine does much riding from here to there, encountering obstacles and fair maidens (both in distress and plotting evil). Of course the side of right triumphs in the end. It's a fast, predictable, and still highly enjoyable read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Utah Blaine is a gunfighter who stops a hanging and then goes on to stop a guy's range from being acquired by greedy men. Second time reading it was not as much fun as the first.