Dr. John A. King reviews Louis L'Amour's Hondo as a straightforward cowboy novel with a lone hero, bad guy, and girl. L'Amour sold roughly 300 million copies across 200 novels. King argues writers should read outside their genre to sharpen character work, and praises the book's sensory details like saddle-wax smell.
So another brilliant book review for you, and this time Louis L'Ami. Hondo, brilliant to bollicometer, and it is a full brilliant. Love this book. Here's why: it's old school. Here's why: he wrote 200 of them. Here's why: they sold 300 million. So as writers, we should always be reading, and we shouldn't Never get stuck in a particular genre. If you write fantasy, some of the best things you can ever do is read history. You write history and non-fiction, some of the best things you can do as far as learning character development, how to portray someone, is writing, reading fiction, thriller, fantasy, etc. So as a writer, this book was actually, was really entertaining. Candy for the mind. Big brute. Lone star beats up bad guy, gets girl. Just bloody relax. That's how it's going to go. It's like cowboy noir, and I really actually enjoyed it. Now, I want you to— I want to take you to task. If you think you're too big and too sophisticated, then what you're going to do is miss out on some of the best description I've, I've read, period. I'm an old— I used to herd sheep and cattle, For a living, putting myself through college. I could smell saddle wax reading this thing. I could smell what it was like being out there in out the outback running sheep and cattle. This guy does a phenomenal job. Now I've got a couple more I'm going to read of his just because I want to. Would I read all 200? Probably not. There you go. Louis L'Amour, Hondo. One of the first books that he wrote. Full brilliant. Full send. Get you some.
