historical fiction, usa,native americans,sf ( )

This is a sort of western/mystery/fantasy thing. A man named Mike Raglan comes to a small southwestern town to look for a friend who has disappeared. His friend's journal indicates that the friend was kidnapped by people from the "Third World," which according to legend is where the Anasazi came from. Sounds kind of interesting, right?

This would have been a much better book if the middle hundred or so pages of it hadn't been the main character constantly philosophizing on what the other world the bad guys come from might be like, what the evil in the third world was, whether or not he should rescue his friends, what the bad guys plans are, who he can trust, etc. Seriously, My thoughts were, "Raglan, just shut up and head through the freaking portal already."

At least it picked up once he got up off his butt and went through. ( )

Explaining what happened to the Anasazi is an interesting concept and adding the fantastical elements made it more interesting still. Unfortunately the book itself wasn’t very interesting. It started out mysterious and kind of spooky but then it settled into a rut. Mike Raglan goes to save a friend from some unknown danger and he has to think about it a lot. He repeats the few facts that he has over and over, along with all his fears and reservations and all the unanswerable questions he has. Everything is repeated so many times and in almost the exact same words until I felt I was stuck in a loop. I think L’Amour wanted to make a point that Mike was just an ordinary man who got scared like the rest of us but did what had to be done anyway. So I understand why L’Amour would have Mike voice his fears and insecurities. Introspection is fine but it just went on too long. There was no new information or new insights and it started to get monotonous. It did pick up in the last 100 pages or so when all of that thinking finally led Mike to a decision and then some actual action. The concept was good and the characters were fine but I think if 100 pages of Mike’s repetitive thoughts were cut out it would have been a better book. ( )

This book was a good mix of western and science fiction as it looked at southwest Native American culture and offered a parallel world explanation on the disappearance of the Anasazi people. I liked the characters and the story, but I sometimes found the plot repetitive, especially Mike's indecision about what he should do. I also would have liked more storyline set in the other world. ( )

One of my most favorite L Amour books. It is a book that I choose to read again and again. ( )