Jubal Sackett

The Sacketts #4

by Louis L'Amour

In Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L’Amour’s great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land.

Jubal Sackett’s urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands. He seeks a Natchez exploration party and its leader, Itchakomi. It is she who will rule her people when their aging chief dies, but first she must vanquish her rival, the arrogant warrior Kapata. Sackett’s quest will bring him danger from an implacable enemy . . . and show him a life—and a woman—worth dying for

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Historical, Classics, Action

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1985

About the author

Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known Western fiction works include Last of the Breed, Hondo, Shalako, and the Sackett series. L'Amour also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), and poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. His books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death, almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers".

Reviews

[Mr. Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely started off slower than the other Sackett books, but my goodness, what a great book. Jubal Sackett, the quiet son of Barnabas, is a loner, a dreamer, an explorer. Like his father, he has a love for the land. He is not content to stay in the wild frontier of the Carolinas or even the rugged Tennessee valley. Jubal, virtually half native by upbringing and inclination, wants to see the great mountains that divide this new continent. The tug of the distant frontier, the lure of the unknown, draws him ever westward and across the virgin plains of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.

As Jubal crosses the continent it is impossible to ignore just how vast, how wild North America is. The story takes place in (roughly) the 1630s. America is a vast, unknown place. Jubal can travel for days without seeing a soul. I appreciate the sense of vast emptiness. It is utterly alien to my own experiences and gives me a sense of awe and wonder at how that world must have been. No developments, no roads, no strip malls, only an endless forest or endless plain.

True, there are people in the wilderness - the Cherokee, the Shawnee, the Pawnee, the Comanche and more. And these people lived in some sort of balance with the virgin land, but even in the distant mountains, the French, the English and the Spanish are beginning to have an impact on their world. Scarcity makes things valuable. The native peoples are eager for the trade goods - the good steel needles and axes and knives - that the white men bring. And the horses and firearms too. Change lays over the landscape. And change, Jubal recognizes destroys the life that the natives had led.

All of this wide, empty world is a backdrop to a love story. Jubal is sent on a quest by a Natchez wise man to find and ask Itchakomi, a daughter of the sun, to return to her people. Jubal finds her despite adversity and the two (predictably) fall in love with one another. In fact, the relationship between the two (at times) threatened to ruin the story for me. He loves her, but is too noble to ask her to stay. She loves him, but s too proud to ask him to ask her to stay. (Really?!) Once the two got together the story could flow along naturally.

For some reason I underestimate these stories, but each one has left me with a positive impression. Four out of five stars. Ultimately, I like the story for the sense of scale that the book conveyed. I also appreciated the time period - learning more about a time when America was little more than a vast, sparsely populated wilderness.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this audio version of the book from the library recently to listen to when I was busy with mindless tasks...or just wanted something on when I was "relaxing". I read it many years ago and recalled it as I listened. On the whole I like Louis L'Amour and this is an early title(in the story's time line) of his most "iconic" fictional family the Sacketts.

I've read several reviews of the L'Amour books here and one thing I've seen criticized in them (though not "real" often) is his treatment of the Native Americans in his stories. I don't think it's an accurate (or fair) criticism. He does use the word "Indian" but it was a perfectly acceptable word in the time he wrote and has only recently begun to be considered "politically incorrect". The word was indeed based on an early misconception of where the European explorers were and I know that Native Americans today often prefer that the word not be used to refer to them. Still the novels were written decades ago now and the use of the word in itself was never meant to be derogatory at that time it was acceptable.

L'Amour in his treatment of his characters doesn't treat groups or races as "monolithic". In Non-Indian American (non-Native Americans bore in America), European, Spaniard, or Indian (Native American), etc. peoples each are made up of humans. Therefore in each "group" there are good and bad individuals. He tries to treat each group, each tribe etc. with respect and as equals. Whether he succeeds or not may be up to each reader, but I believe he tried.

This story is good absorbing and interesting with something for most readers of light fiction, there's action, adventure, a romance that tends to dominate the above, all pretty good. So, why the 3 star rating instead of say 4? Because there is an element he writes into this story that (for me) pushes the "over the top" boundary and comes close to being silly. I can go with the best in the suspension of belief and let the story have it's own reality plot device category...but this one has an element that for a frontier novel is just a bit much. It doesn't really hurt the story and only pops up now and again but just came so close to a head shake situation for me that I finally had to admit to myself that I found it a bit silly.

Of course to state it would constitute a spoiler, so I will only mention what below a spoiler warning.

Still, good book and if you're a fan of novels about frontier America, the Sacketts, or L'Amour himself, don't miss it over this one small point. It's not that big a deal, and the story is still good.








*********** Spoiler Below Line ************






It was just the Buffalo.... If you've read the book you know that Jubal befriends a Buffalo that ends up following him around like a dog or something (this of course is Big Medicine with the Native Americans). It just got to be a bit much for me... A bison isn't a pet, a man was killed by one just a few months ago in a zoo when he got too close. In the book Jubal trains it to stay out of the corn field...come on.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Not nearly as interesting as the previous entries.

[Kate Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

So it was that in the last hour of darkness I went down the mountain through the laurel sticks, crossed a small stream, and skirted a meadow to come to the trace I sought.

Nearly one hundred years before De Soto had come this way, his marchings and his cruelties leaving no more mark than the stirring of leaves as he passed. A few old Indians had vague recollections of De Soto, but they merely shrugged at our questions. We who wandered this land knew this was no "new world". The term was merely a conceit in the minds of those who had not known of it before.

When someone says "western" to me, I immediately think of Louis L'Amour. He's an above-average writer in a genre I have to admit I don't know well - but to me, that underlines his appeal.

Louis L'Amour has a consistent style, and Jubal Sackett, like the rest of the Sackett series, is written in first person, and with a depth of understanding of the character which for me makes it an engrossing read.

Jubal Sackett is a young man heading west in the mid 17th century, and the book is a tale of his adventures. I am in no position, from my present day living-room, to comment on the likely authenticity of Jubal's experience, but what I can say is that Louis L'Amour makes me believe each and every one, and read "on the edge of my seat" at times. All of it told in the matter-of-fact, story-telling prose that for me makes L'Amour's writing an endless delight.

Jubal Sackett is a Western, and adventure and a romance, with also a touch of the paranormal. I'm a great fan of all L'Amour's writing; I love the Sackett series best of all; and of all the Sackett books, this one (which is one of L'Amour's 4 longer novels) is my favorite.

If you're a Sackett aficionado, this book would come fourth in the series, but it's not necessary to read all, or even any, of the other Sackett novels to enjoy Jubal Sackett.

It's a perfect bedtime book, a lovely way to spend the long summer evenings :)

[H.S.J. Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been so long since I read this, I know I couldn't possibly leave a review, but I remember I loved it, and the wilder, untamed Northwest.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this is by far my favorite Sackett book so far!!! The entire thing was about surviving in the wilderness, living off the land, and defending yourself with a few weapons and your wits. I gobbled it up.

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one, too, though not quite as much as the last. Which is odd, now I think on it. I liked Jubal much more than Kin, and his story is nearly as strong. I think I didn't connect very well with Jubal's goals, though, and his "dream" of going ever further west and seeing things no other white man had seen didn't really thrill me much. Which is a shame, because Itchakomi is by far my favorite heroine so far, too (though I found the chapter from her perspective a bit jarring).

Again, we see L'Amour's strong egalitarian streak and his willingness to attribute all the best virtues across racial divides, even while acknowledging the (sometimes vast) cultural differences that lead to inevitable conflict.

Anyway, this little Sackett experiment is progressing well, and I look forward to reading the next, even if it is part of a honking big mashup of four books together...

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I haven’t even come close to reading all of L’Amour’s works but I have read enough to feel comfortable in saying that this is one of his better ones. Jubal is a worthy heir to Barnabas (even paired up, Kin-Ring and Yance couldn’t really manage this in The Warrior’s Path) and the author’s confident and spare prose is evident from the first page. The descriptions of nature and Jubal’s thoughtful insight on both frontier life and his own nature were wonderfully rendered and never got boring. The characters were likable (especially Jubal’s intelligent and capable Kickapoo buddy Keokotah, his mysterious and brave lady love Itchakomi and his lovable pet buffalo Paisano) and the plot moved along quickly with lots of adventure and conflict of the man vs. nature and man vs. man varieties. This book will probably not blow your mind or have you rushing to recommend it to others, but it was a solid story through and through and had a likable and interesting protagonist, and that’s really all I want from a L’Amour novel.

[JBradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stopped in at the VA Medical Center a couple days ago to update my prescriptions and looked over the collection of pocketbooks on the swap table in the waiting room while waiting to be processed, and I found a bunch of paperback books by Louis L’Amour. They were old pocketbooks, which is only natural, because I have been reading Louis L’Amour’s novels since I was a teenager. I grabbed one that I did not recognize as having read before, with a reason for taking it mostly being because of the picture on the cover, and I soon found myself immersed in the book with just as much excitement as in the old days. Some of my friends have recently been talking about a television show they saw about the men who made America; the men they are talking about were the tyrannical businessmen who built fortunes on the backs of the downtrodden laborers, but I would much rather wish I could’ve been someone like Jubal Sackett, who clearly is a representative of the people who really made America.

Jubal Sackett at the start of this book was a very young man, perhaps even a late teenager. His father, Barnabas Sackett, an English yeoman who came here on one of the very early colony ships and then went back to fetch his wife, has sent Jubal off on his life’s journey with the charge to find new lands of the family to the west — not the wild West of most westerns but the unclaimed wilderness of Tennessee in the late 15th century. Jubal starts off by discovering that there is an Indian hunting him; after a brief skirmish he convinces the Indian, a Kickapoo named Keokotah, into accompanying him on his journey. They subsequently come across a small band of Natchez Indians, whose leader asks Jubal to look for a another party of their tribe — more specifically to look for the Sun princess who is leading that group on an exploratory search for new lands further to the west and to tell her that the Sun chief is dying, which means that she must cut short her search and come back to replace that chief. Jubal agrees to do this, but the way becomes very difficult, as he has to do battle with a jealous lover of the princes, with more parties of other Indian tribes, and with all the inherent dangers of the untamed wilderness. He goes through horrendous experiences, not the least of which is being attacked by a starving mountain lion just after he has broken a leg, not to mention the rigors of having to spend the winter in a frozen mountain valley while facing three separate groups of enemies — and while taking on the responsibility of providing for the Natchez band and its beautiful princess.

As it happens, this is only one of several novels about different numbers of the Sackett family, and I do not recall having read any of the others. The particulars benefit of having read this one is the insight it gives into what it was like to live in those times and what it was like for the white settlers interacting with the different Indian tribes. I cannot know without doing further research whether the portrayal of Indian personality that L’Amour gives here is accurate, but I am willing to take it at face value until I know otherwise. Given that, it is almost a wonder that the early settlers were able to survive! For those reasons alone I give the novel four stars, which is one above my general ranking of fiction novels. Louis L’Amour wrote 105 novels during his lifetime, and I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them that I have read so far. His language may seem slightly stilted nowadays, but I have to think that is because he was portraying the way people talked and thought at the end of the 15th century. His heroes usually are larger-than-life, but they are true heroes for all their faults, and he provides marvelous descriptions of a world and a way of life that no longer exists.

[Colette]

The Sackett novels are my favorite of all L'Amour's books. I love the names he gives them, for one thing: Kin-Ring, Yance, Parmalee, Echo, Regal, Falcon, Galloway, Jublain, etc. Can you get more amazing than that? (He does gift the Talon and Chantry clans with some pretty cool names, too.)
Another thing I love about Louis L'Amour books is that although they are fiction, there is also much non-fiction always intertwined in the story. In "The Ferguson Rifle," for example, Ronan Chantry meets Patrick Ferguson, designer of the titular rifle, who later died at the Revolutionary War battle of King's Mountain.
Reading "good old Louis" (as my grandpa called him) also introduces one to various books and folk songs. "Brennan on the Moor" comes to mind. If it's mentioned once in the body of Louis L'Amour's work it's mentioned a dozen times. I read about it so many times that I finally looked it up and learned it. His characters are often found reading great works of literature, such as Plutarch and Blackstone.
And perhaps best of all, Mr. L'Amour never wrote about a place unless it actually existed, be it a spring, a well, or a river; a hill, a valley, a mountain, or a canyon. That is truly amazing, and highly educational!
I realize that this is not a review of "Jubal," but rather a ramble pertaining to anything that pops into my mind. As for Jubal: read it (or really any Louis novel) and you're bound to learn something!

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahh... Jubal Sackett. If only we had some leaders around now with his wisdom, integrity & fighting spirit.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great adventure. Jubal goes West and finds a new life. Indian fights, Spanish goodies and baddies, a love interest and even a panther fight. I enjoyed this story with its philosophical reflections and pondering of who came before and where had they gone as well as the pure adventure.

[Stan Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that this one really surprised me. I've never been a L'Amour fan, to be honest (though my mom's dad had read, I think, every last one of his novels), but I think I could get into L'Amour easily if I tried.

Normally, I wouldn't have enjoyed a book written like this: there was a high level of repetition, some plot resolutions that seemed just a bit too easy (and that were, by and large, foregone conclusions), and some bald foreshadowing that could easily have killed off any suspense before it got going.

But I have to say that it was a plain old good story. I think that's where L'Amour wins, here, is that it was so enjoyable despite literary issues that I would otherwise have gotten hung up on. I wasn't just continuing the book "just to finish" the way I have with some, but because I actually came to enjoy the characters more than I would have expected, and wanted to follow their path.

The story is told in the first-person, and perhaps that could explain the repetition: the story itself would be a function of the narrator's personality and paradigms. If nothing else, Jubal Sackett is a very careful, meticulous man who works hard for what he gets, and despite the fact that I felt that some of the conflict resolutions were a bit too easy or contrived, I never had the sense that they were overly fake, or undeserved.

What really hooked me on this one is that it's a good "coming of age" tale. Sackett starts out as a young, single guy consumed with an inexplicable sense of wanderlust. Before the book is over, he's (accidentally) become a respected tribal chief of a mixed bunch. As it says on the dust jacket, he "finds and land and a woman worth dying for," and Sackett himself, at one point, speaks of "one dream slipping away, and another one being born."

I guess I can relate to that, having myself transitioned from carefree bachelor to father of a growing family (working on child #6 at present). While I didn't have to give up quite as many dreams as Sackett did, I still had to make the usual adjustments.

Sackett's sense of responsibility, his pragmatism, and his senses of honour and duty really endeared this character to me as a role model of sorts. While I don't expect to ever be a "backwoods ninja" the way he was, I still prefer to picture myself as progressive, responsible, and dependable, as he was.

The other characters in the book went through their own transformations as they also moved from being individuals of considerable skill or importance into being operational parts of a greater whole. It's the necessary move from individualism into being one who contributes to a greater society, and I think it's something we're rapidly losing in the 21st century.

In any case, this wasn't the best-written or most compelling book I've ever read, but it was certainly very enjoyable as I read it, and it has definitely left a good aftertaste with me.

I'd recommend this book.

[*Stani* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jubal Sackett is a long book, but worth the time.

By now you’d know that Louis L’Amour tends to repeat himself a bit and recaps previous events from earlier books with a detail, but those parts are easy to be skimmed over if you read them recently or are a good re-fresher if you need to recall earlier events.

Jubal is the youngest of the Sackett boys. As a self described loner and a perpetual seeker and traveler, he doesn’t want to settle down, marry or have children.

But a chance meeting with an old Indian in the woods changes the course of his life forever. The old wise man asks Jubal to find a princess of his tribe, who went away to seek a new and safer land for her tribe.

Jubal is honored and with a help of his Native American friend from another tribe, he sets out to find the princess and bring her back to her people.

But as with every story there are challenges, setbacks, dangers and misadventures along the way. From a broken leg to wild animals, harsh winter weather, Spanish conquistadors, enemy tribes the quest won’t be an easy one.

And as with every Louis L’Amour book, I got to learn quite a few things about nature, survival during a winter on the frontier, customs, traditions and skills required to survive in the nature.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It had a lot of the usual traits like his repetitive explanations of...well...just about everything. Trust me, if you missed it once, it was repeated many, many times. The other thing that was a little far-fetched was the basis of the novel. Jubal Sackett is off hunting, exploring, and minding his own business. Then he meets some Indians who ask him to go on a mission to find some of their tribesmen who went off exploring and ask them to come home. What? Who asks that of strangers?

But I liked the characters of Jubal and Ichtakomi. We watch them work together, even though there's a culture clash. It was my first book where we went through a winter with the characters and I thought it was good. However, L'Amour doesn't talk about feelings as much as hunting. We hear in detail about Jubal out hunting a deer, but we never hear from anyone going "deer, again?"

[Jonny Longballs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis L’amour writes novels that are cliche and predictable, where the hero always get his way and his girl. You can practically predict how every single one of them is going to begin and end. Each story is barely separable from the next, and his style of writing remains stagnant throughout each of his 105 works.

AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE EVERY SINGLE FUCKING BIT OF IT.

This was my favorite in the Sackett series thus far, and one of the most memorable of Mr. L’amour’s novels. This book is a very loud reminder that Louis at his prime is hard to beat.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why the men in my family enjoyed the writing of L'Amour. First one I've read. The history was interesting, with enough action, plot, romance, and moral characters that you cared about to keep reading. I found the spelling of the Indian names interesting, and the way the tribes made alliances, merged, learned about horses. Quick, fun read.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I started reading the Sackett series, I thought of Louis L'Amour as a western author. And indeed he is, but he is so much more than that. I've not been a big reader of westerns, and my main knowledge of L'Amour's Sackett series came from watching movies rather than reading books. But all that has changed - for the better!

L'Amour certainly deserves his title as one of America's greatest storytellers. He not only makes the history of America readable and exciting, but his style is such that it pulls you into the story and you can't wait to hear more. Passages such as this: "I had not eaten when the others had. There was too little food as it was, and I was strong enough to survive. When I looked up at the mountains there was black rock, perhaps wet from melting snow, and a lone golden eagle swinging on wide wings against the sky and the snow. A thin waterfall, thin from here at least, perhaps forty feet wide where it was, fell from rocky shelf to rocky shelf, mostly melting snow. By late spring, it would be only a trickle. Now the mountain was stark and beautiful, a place for no man or animal, just for the clouds and eagles."

The first two books in the series tell the story of Barnabas Sackett, the founder of the Sackett family in L'Amour's tale. He leaves England and settles along the coast of America, in the area of the Carolinas in the very early days of our country. His sons Kin and Yance, in the third book of the series, move further inland, into the Blue Ridge Mountains. But they are always aware of the push of settlers to come, and they send Jubal ahead to scout a place further west where they can go if necessary.

Jubal is the youngest son and has always been the different one. He has always had a call to go beyond the Blue Ridge and see what lies on the other side. Stories he has heard from Indians and trappers fill him with a yearning to see the plains and the high mountains that lie further to the west. This is Jubal's story - filled with adventures, new friends and bitter enemies, and the challenges of learning to live in a beautiful but unforgiving land.

[Micah Unice · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second L’Amour. So good. This is as nuanced as any literary classic I’ve read. I’m not sure why I always thought of him as low grade. I guess because I grew up seeing his books in gas stations and supermarkets, and he was something of a mascot for the genre my dad fetishized. It was hard for me to relate.

Joke’s on me, because this was a gorgeous read. Not only is it harrowingly vivid, it’s pretty progressive. Jubal’s relationship with Itchakomi, the Natchee princess who drives the main plotline, is not at all what I would expect from a western. She is a powerful leader of her tribe, and he considers her his superior. She fights alongside him and her own warriors. She has complete autonomy. I wish that kind of female representation was more common of the genre. This is no Dances With Wolves white savior bullshit either. Jubal reveres the Natchee and Kickapoo ways of life, but he doesn’t appropriate them. They save themselves in alliance. Were this ever adapted to a movie, he would probably be depicted as a stereotypical virtuous settler. But there’s no such pomp here.

So yeah, I loved it and will be reading more Sackett sagas. My dad is over the moon that I’m enjoying these. That’s some motivation. 😌

[Stifynsemons · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.8 stars, I liked it, but probably won't read again.

Jubal Sackett is Barnabas' son, with wanderlust. Set in the early 1600s, Jubal, following his dad's wishes, heads over the Appalachians into Tennessee and randomly stumbles into a quest for an Indian tribe who respects his late father. And heads to the Sangre de Cristos in Colorado.

There are interesting details, but good men are good, bad men are bad, and nothing is complex. And Louis L'Amour through this series has been pushing the idea that many men have explored and wandered far beyond what has been recorded throughout history. But it seems a bit far fetched at times.

Nonetheless, the story solves interesting problems and is well told, so it's not a bad read.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

While all of L'Amour's novels are good, not all are great. This isn't great. When L'Amour is actually telling the story, it's quite fine. But when he "preaches" it kills the pace. Remember that scene in Pocahontas where the Indian girl starts singing about the harmony of nature? Jubal and Komi (Indian girl) have a philosophical discourse on the nature of Change that goes on for pages. Seriously, they do.

Aside from that, a good read.

[Thebarrys10 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such adventure in a clean, frontier story about a man setting out to explore the West when just native Americans inhabited the land. He finds much, much more than the West/he finds ripple to help and friendships. He finds love and he finds himself. Plus he leaves everyplace and everyone better for touching shoulders with him. Now to read more LAmour books!

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the hero hears about a girl and says (loose paraphrase), "Not my type," you pretty much know where the story's going from there. While I enjoyed the romance, the "Hey, let's build altars for our wives' foreign gods! That'll be great!" theme makes me want to headdesk.

[Hunter McTague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expanding further into the west! Another great story filled with American history and adventure.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoying this series. Although the ending is a little weird on this one.

[C.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites by L'Amour, partly because it features Native Americans and partly because it's an adventure tale. I also enjoyed the romance and the way L'Amour describes surviving the winter.

[Jacque · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Jubal was my favorite of the Sackett brothers. I love that he headed west and the beautiful descriptions of the country he was exploring made me feel like I was there. Jubal probably shouldn’t have survived all that was thrown at him, definitely felt a little fake, but a good adventure nonetheless.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is striking, but in this particular book I found a great deal of understanding of views of history that have not been particularly well understood that show a lengthy and early European presence in the New World [1]. I must admit I did not expect to see Louis L'Amour being such a student of history, but on a certain level it makes a lot of sense. The author, after all, spent a career writing an impossibly prolific cycle of novels, most of which related to issues of settling the West by European peoples and exploring the interactions between those peoples and with the previous inhabitants and with the land itself. With that sort of task set out before him, that sort of quest, it is little to be wondered if he read widely and deeply in history and had a view of history that was a bit out of the mainstream. It is all the more remarkable that he was able to make his novels well informed without making them pedantic, and that shows a sort of skill that is to be greatly appreciated, even if his writing is far more accessible than my own. Accessibility is by no means a bad thing, after all.

At nearly 400 pages, about twice as long as the previous book by the author I had read [2], but that did not make for a read that was boring or unpleasant at all. On the contrary, although the novel was somewhat complex, it was a deeply interesting story with a worthwhile hero, namely one Jubal Sackett, a thoughtful backcountry man known for his bravery and his wilderness skill, called upon to bring back a wayward Natchee princess who serves as the novel's McGuffin, sought after by everyone, and a woman of considerable intellect as well as passion and beauty and bravery. Again, as is likely to be fairly common in the author's novels, the characters are somewhat round and there are plenty of mishaps but a well-earned happy ending, and the novels themselves show the importance of knowing how to serve and how to appreciate and respect other people. It is, in short, the sort of novel that many would appreciate, whether they regard it as possible that an early American like Jubal would have been able to travel from the Appalachians to the Rockies, from the rivers of the east to the arid deserts of the Southwest, all during the course of the late 17th century.

What we see in this particular novel is something worth pondering. L'Amour is no simpleton when it comes to complex characterization and a complex portrayal of the political and social context of his time. Jubal Sackett is a hero not because of his strength alone, but because of his respect and his compassion and his willingness to learn from and teach others. This is not a world where Europeans or Native Americans are viewed as one side being good and the other being evil, both both sides are viewed as being complex and riven with divisions, and fully human, full of their own worth but also their own shortcomings. This richness in diversity as well as the author's skill in portraying vivid scenes full of tension, and even a surprisingly touching portrayal of the princess' own interest in Jubal, showing a bit of multiple pov to vary the perspective, which in general is seen from the third person limited perspective surrounding the main protagonist make for a great novel. In addition, the author's nuanced way of looking at Jubal and his Kickapoo associate and the Natchee princess as outsiders in their own way in a hostile world full of greedy and exploitative people marks the author as someone whose moral compass is considerably more complicated than people assume Westerns to be, and something well worth reading and appreciating even now.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...

[2] http://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/...

[William Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book long it tells about some of tribes of the native Americans and how the early sellers live

Louis l'amour it does not get better than that . A great story teller And western writer 😀😀😀 . . .

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember my dad reading this to me as a kid. I've forgotten so much. Excellent adventure. Ended on a high note.