Dr. John A. KingIndigenous Australian. 100% Human. Neo-Noir Novelist. Poet. Speaker. Performance coach. More than a Survivor. Terrible Golfer, Awkward Dancer🕺

Hondo by Louis L’Amour — A “Brilliant to Bollocks-O-Meter” Review (Full Brilliant, Full Send)

26 Apr 2026 · 2 min

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1:48

In this solo YouTube review, Dr. John A. King delivers a highly enthusiastic appraisal of Louis L’Amour’s classic Western novel Hondo. He lauds the book’s old‑school Western feel, vivid description, and straightforward plot—“Lone Star beats up bad guy, gets girl”—calling it “candy for the mind” and a “full brilliant, full send” read. King highlights L’Amour’s prodigious output (about 200 novels) and massive commercial success (roughly 300 million copies sold), noting that while he won’t read all of them, Hondo stands out as a must‑read. He stresses the importance for writers to read broadly across genres—history, nonfiction, fantasy, thriller—to improve character development and storytelling. Drawing on his own experience herding sheep and cattle while in college, King explains how the novel’s sensory details (e.g., “saddle wax”) resonated with his personal background, enhancing his appreciation of L’Amour’s descriptive skill. The review concludes with a strong recommendation for viewers to pick up Hondo.

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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 nonfiction, 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 in the Wild West, 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 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.