The Frontier Stories
September 15, 2007
After making a quick detour in volume4 for LAmours nonwestern adventure stories, volume5 falls right back into the staggeringly prolific authors strongest suit. The bottomless well of LAmours mastery of the genre isevident here, as even five thick volumesof his stories dont suffer much drop-off in quality.LAmour is well loved for heroes who never shirk a challenge or a well-defined moral structure, but hischampion trait is the swift, punchy action that punctuates almost every page.Although his more memorable serial characters have already been featured, this volume closes with six stories starring a low-level LAmour repeater, the dapper and diminutiveCactus Kid. While far from the authors finest creations, these stories still exemplify what readers are looking for when they go for traditional westerns: swift guns, easy charm, and a pretty lady in the end. Essential purchasesfor casual western collections as well as for completists; go ahead and plan on buying volume6 if and when it comes out, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)