The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had the same problem with this The Lonesome Gods that I’ve had with all of Louis L’Amour’s fiction. All of his lead characters are supermen and they know it. He rhapsodizes about their abilities without ever showing how they got those abilities (other than educating themselves in various vague ways).

This is the story of Johannes Verne. His mother is dead when the story starts. He sees his father killed. His grandfather leaves Johannes to die in the California desert, but instead Johannes becomes one with the desert. Later he moves to Los Angeles, where he falls in love while various and sundry bad guys plot to kill him. Blah blah blah, he saves the girl and kills the bad guys.

L’Amour uses his position of writing in the late 20th century to “predict” things that would happen in Los Angeles after the time of the story, which I found rather annoying. He also repeats himself quite a bit, emphasizing whatever point he’s trying to make.

This review sounds pretty negative. The Lonesome Gods isn’t a bad book. It’s probably even my favorite by L’Amour. It is definitely an epic adventure and was worth the read, but it was the third L’Amour novel I’ve read this year and I’ll be taking a break from his style for a while.

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