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Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole, Parker's protagonists extraordinaire are doing what they do best and that is be the coolest cowboys in the west. May he rest in peace and his literary excellence will be missed. Everett and Virgil change all that in the only way they know how, first with reason, then with death.
Parker's gritty characterizations of the two quintessential cowboys who end up in a town called Resolution. As I have mentioned before I am an avid Audio book listener and this book did not disappoint , in part largely due to the sexy narrative voice of Titus Welliver, and if you don't know who he is, go to IMDb and you will be surprised at how many times you have seen him in movies and on Television.Lastly, while I was in the last disc of this book, I saw that the Author Robert B. Robert B.
It's their way. They start out with the bad guy but ultimately as always their conscious guides them to the "good fight." With cool determination and an attitude that death means nothing to them, they conquer a ruthless crime boss who is out to own not only the town, but the surrounding farms as well. He wants to be a land baron as well as the Donald Trump of his day.
Parker had passed away that very day.
Parker novel, and like some of the other readers who've posted reviews here on Amazon, I find the Larry McMurtry comparison more than a little off. It's no wonder that Hitch asks Cole several times if they should just leave for Texas. That said, fans of novel or film adaptation of Parker's "Appaloosa" will enjoy the friendship and violent adventures of Cole and Hitch and the book is certainly not without merits. In fact, while some weapons did fire interchangable ammo, no frontier weapon was chambered in the.45 Caliber pistol cartridge. The book is sparse, written more like a screenplay but with even less scene description. It moves, and it moves fast, but so did most of the L'Amour novels and the western fiction of Elmore Leonard and with a bit more meat and style. "Resolution" was my first Robert B. For instance, in the actual 19th Century West, few gunmen wore tie-down gun rigs and Hitch's description that his rifle fires the same.45 Caliber ammo as his pistol is also incorrect.
I will probably read Parker's "Brimstone" as well. There certainly isn't much worth fighting for in the town of Resolution, and as a result the stakes are never very high.There are some historical misnomers. I only wish an author would approach the Western with the same vigor as Zane Grey, L'Amour or Elmore Leonard. Its an unlikely story, where Cole and Hitch stand in the middle of a bloody feud, between totally unlikeable Saloon Owners and almost as unlikeable Homesteaders. McMurtry's books are filled with rich description, characterization, backstory, and something "epic" in feel that "Resolution" clearly lacks. I should admit that despite some of these flaws, I enjoyed reading this book, and an easy read it was.
The action is quick and brutal, as violent acts often are.Like many westerns, "Resolution" takes place in the mythical non-descript nowhere/somewhere of the 1880s West. We know we should be cheering for the Homesteaders in true "Shane" style, but we never do. Especially considering that few chapters are longer than three pages. Or at least with the kind of passion and quality as McMurtry during his pre-Ossana best.
While sitting around drinking hard liquor and beer, the two hired guns deal with the bad guy while taking care of an annoying women and ride off into the sunset at the end.ResolutionA man thats close to being the best in the West at shooting people gets hired to be the only semblance of law and order in a brand new town located in the middle of nowhere. Last year a co-worker gave Appaloosa to me to read. It wasnt the best book that I had read, but it still kept me interested enough to continue the series, mostly because Hitch and Cole are great characters.By the time I finished this book, I was wondering what was so strange about this book, and than it hit me. Theres a guy who is terrorizing people, buying up the land and trying to take control over the entire town for his own personal gain. If it wasnt for the fact that this book was unoriginal, I would have given it a higher rating. I had just read Appaloosa again but with a slightly tweaked plot with locations and characters having essentially different names.
The guy thats the actual best at shooting people shows up, gets "hired" to help deal with the bad guy and eventually does, but only after sitting around and drinking hard liquor and beer. I was going on a trip to Denver later that day, so I figured I would add it to my pile of books to read and read it on the long drive up there. While defending annoying women from drunken idiots, he also deals with a bad guy that is terrorizing people, buying up land and trying to control the entire town for his own personal gain. In fact, it almost has the same description on the book jacket as well.This is my third Parker novel so I cant comment as to whether he likes to recycle plots (although according to most people, he does) but its just irritating to know that instead of coming up with something original, he simply made a few minor changes and passed it off as an entirely new book. Just compare the plot-lines from Appaloosa and Resolution and youll see what Im talking about:AppaloosaTwo men that are the best in the West at shooting people get hired to bring order to a town in the middle of nowhere. Bad Guy #2 shows up, does the exact same thing as bad guy #1, gets taken care of (after a few drinks of course) and the two heroes ride off into the sunset at the end.It was the same book, but nontheless, still a light and somewhat enjoyable read.
If your interested, pick up the paperback but only if you enjoyed the first book in the series.
First of all I love the way Parker writes and how he can whittle down his characters lines to the bare minimum and still do such a terrific job of telling a captivating story.Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch met up again in this one and their antics are as good as ever. The story is fast moving as always and hard to put down once you start. Great way to lose yourself for a few hours.
Dialogue is lean and clipped and can't compare to McMurtry's tales of the west. The book reviewed this western in comparison to Larry McMurtry's westerns. Mistake. It was an easy fast read but I think I'll stick to his other books rather than venture into his westerns. The plot was fairly easy to follow but didn't leave me thinking about the upcoming western.
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