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Title: Bull Hunter
Series:
----------
Author: Max Brand
Rating: 3 of
5 Stars
Genre: Western
Pages:
180
Words: 52K
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Synopsis: |
Bull Hunter is a bull of a man and beholden to his uncle and 2 cousins. They took him in when he was orphaned and has spent his life being slow, told that he's slow and being made fun of for his size. One day his uncle comes home busted up from a fight and tells the boys (men, but you know tough old birds always refer to men younger than themselves as boys) that he sure wishes one of them would go after the gunslinger who shot him and kill him.
Bull, always wanting to show how much he loves his family, sets out on foot, through a snow storm, over a mountain, to catch the gunslinger. He chases the man down, while on foot, only to discover that he's been put in jail and is going to be hanged. Nobody but Bull Hunter is going to kill that outlaw, so Bull proves that he is innocent of the crime and then faces off against the gunslinger. Bull realizes that the gunslinger is the kind of man who couldn't have done what his uncle described and they end up becoming friends. The gunslinger is also a bank robber but decides to go on the straight and narrow while teaching Bull how to be a quick draw.
Bull eventually goes his own way because he wants to support himself. He finds out about a wild horse big enough to handle his size and gentles it. This puts him in conflict with another fellow who wants the horse for himself and if he can't have it, nobody can. He hires Bull, pulls shenanigans to get Bull into a gunfight and the gunslinger shows up and watches Bull do his first quickdraw. The gunslinger then supports Bull against a room of gunmen and they ride off into the sunset.
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My Thoughts: |
This story started out in such a way that it reminded me of Flowers for Algernon. Not that Bull is actually stupid, but he's been told it so often and for so long that he believes it and believes that his relatives have his best interest in mind. Thankfully, Bull simply goes higher and higher and there is no descent like in Flowers.
This was the kind of men's adventure story wrapped in a western coat that I wanted. A man doing the right thing and getting the rewards for it. Straight forward honesty overcomes twisted devious deceptivity. While that's not how it is in this fallen world, that's how it should be and I for one enjoy a booster shot of that kind of thinking.
This time around there was no love triangle and in fact Bull doesn't have a romantic interest at all. This is more about him growing into being a man and Brand really stays focused on that. I was just fine with that.
★★★☆☆
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