The Last of the Plainsmen ★★☆☆½

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Title: The Last of the Plainsmen
Series: ----------
Author: Zane Grey
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Western
Pages: 237
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Grey “chronicles” a time he supposedly had with a man named Jones, a hunter and trapper who tried to trap the animals he hunted so he could domesticate them, whether they were mountain lions or wild ox. Anything but bears.

My Thoughts:

This was very much a Man VS Nature story that happened to take place out West (in the United States) and wasn't what I think of when I think “Western”. There isn't a single showdown with pistols, no bare knuckle fights, no Indians trying to scalp anyone, no scheming cardsharps, no damsel in distress, no wily saloon keeper with a hidden shotgun behind the bar. None of that.

This is just a boys adventure story about a man who has a lust for trapping animals and domesticating them. The main story was about Grey and Jones and the group Jones had gathered, trying to catch some mountain lions. During that hunt (which lasted several months if not longer) Jones tells stories about himself hunting other animals. Wild stallions, some sort of Indian ox that they considered sacred, bison, etc. There was a lot of adverse Nature conditions which provides most of the tension of the story.

This was not a “bad” book, but once again, Grey doesn't give me what I was expecting in a Western and as such, I am done reading him. Maybe next year I'll try Max Brand? I'd like to keep some Westerns in my reading rotation, but I am not willing to sift through L'Amour's standalones.

★★☆☆½