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Appaloosa
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - the same old stuff
I like the Spencer books by Mr. Parker, but it seems that the reviewers may not have read his Spencer books. Apaloosa has the same three characters as the Spencer books but they are just shuffled around. Virgil Cole is Hawk and Everett is Spencer. Allie is simply Susan with a slightly altered personality. There isn't much fresh material here, more violence and swearing but that is about it. If you have read one or two Spencer books then you have already read Apaloosa.
Rating:  - Not to quibble, but...
Like many Western novels, this is set in an unspecified somewhere in the west, at an unspecified sometime. It's not easy to figure out the year; there is no mention of the Civil war, so I assume Virgil and Everett were not in it. They seem to be in their 40s, so we might date this in perhaps 1885-1890, but there are still hostile Kiowas around. This is a little sloppy.
Rating:  - If you loved Lonesome Dove, you will love APPALOOSA
APPALOOSA's Marshall Virgil Cole & his deputy Everett Hitch are as great together as Gus McCrae & Woodrow Call Texas Rangers partners in LONESOME DOVE. I loved this book & have recommended it to everyone! Also helps that Robert B Parker is my FAV! I love his Spencer, Jesse Stone & Sunny Randall books too!
Rating: - The Stuff of Old Westerns and Maybe Some New Ones
Clean and tight, this fast-paced yet rather spare tale of two "lawmen", Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, come to the rowdy mining town of Appaloosa to clean out a gang of thugs who have been terrorizing the good citizens, carries the reader all the way.
But its motifs are all fairly ordinary by now: the tough guy gunslinging lawman, the overbearing, arrogant rancher/oppressor, the timid townfolk ready to turn their loyalties on a dime, the slightly dangerous and troublesome gal who tempts the gun hand hero . . . and the plot points were also fairly formulaic, from shootouts to the stealthy capture of the main bad guy, to his breakout and the chase across wild terrain, complete with an Indian war party, that must follow. All the usual stuff, indeed, done quite well to be sure, but nevertheless, one can't escape the sense of having 'been there, seen that.'
The one interesting aspect of the tale lies in the matter of the appaloosa stallion and his herd which appear periodically in the wild country beyond Randall Bragg's ranch, an image to which our heroes are strangely drawn. Both Cole, the cold, calculating killer marshal, and Hitch, his tough, reliable deputy, understand the message of the stallion and his mares but only Hitch grasps it enough to act in the end, when Cole is set to be overtaken by the changing times.
In a surprising, but somewhat rushed denouement, Hitch cuts the gordian knot to save Cole from his own approaching obsolescence in a move that reaffirms the affection the deputy has for his partner and long time friend. The villain, Bragg, never rises above type and its hard to worry overmuch about him and what he might be getting set to do. But as Hitch finally sees, it's Cole who must lose in the end, unable to smell the shift in the winds or alter his path when the predators besetting him are changing theirs.
Parker is a very crisp writer and his narrative style entirely suits this very trim tale of gunmen and Indians and wild horses. But the image of the appaloosa and his mares seemed a might heavy handed by the tale's end and too obvious to have been missed by Cole who, nevertheless, seems unable to fully get the point until the last moment. Or perhaps, as Hitch guesses, he is just unable to change?
This is a solid, and solidly written, western, well suited for those who like the genre and well-written enough for those who enjoy a master's hand at work. If the tale is not large or earth shaking in other ways, well they can't all be.
SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga
Rating:  - Where was Bragg?
Would someone please tell me why this book was even published? Oh - that's right - the author is a bestseller. If a new writer submitted this book the publisher/editors (assuming there are any actual editors) would have asked, "Where is the bad guy? He appears throughout the book, but there is no character development whatsoever. Please read "Lonesome Dove" (see: Blue Duck); also "The Stand" (see: The Walkin' Dude); also "The Possessed (Stavrogin) to learn how to create a truly believable, evil villain. A book like this needs someone we can really hate, and love to see our heroes destroy. Otherwise, this is just a pleasant little book about a male-bonding, not an iconic western worthy of our time." I have a feeling the film will be better. It has great stars; but will it have great character development, especially the character of Bragg? Certainly not, if the book is any proof.
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