Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz If you come to this book hoping for a rip-snortin’ classic Western, pass it by. What you’re in for is pages and pages of repetitive description and second-hand action. The action sequences was the most frustrating part of the read. Gray would build up to them, then wouldn’t show the action. Instead, he’d have the person who did the action (or sometimes just saw it) come back and tell another character what happened.

There was also too much emphasis on the character of Jane. She just wasn’t strong enough, in my opinion, to be such an important viewpoint character. How’d she hold that land for so long with all the strength of a wet noodle?

It isn’t a horrible book, but it the overkill of description, usually of the landscape, and the handling of action scenes will likely prevent me from ever giving it a second read.

On a side note, it was interesting to read this book during a time when a Mormon is a major player in the presidential election. I kept picturing Mitt Romney in the major Mormon villain roles.

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