My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Review: Hot Spur

Hot Spur Hot Spur by Philip McCormac
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: **

A Short, Almost Typical Western

I really do like westerns … both there seems to be at least two types. I prefer the wholesome stories of Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour and Max Brand as opposed to the course, gritty (almost adult themed) where there seems to be a need to highlight the darker side of human misconduct to emphasize just how evil the bad guys are. While not completely in the later camp, this story trends in that direction and was less enjoyable as a result. The story is on the shorter side, and we follow Harry Grant in what appears at first blush to be a hallmark style love triangle that was pretty clumsy all things considered. Still, some of the typical western tropes are there and it would have scored a little better except for the narration, which was told in an halting manner that adds an unnatural feel to often awkward dialog despite very good tone and timber (with good character differentiation). At only 3.5 hours, the action does move along nicely though and it was nice predictable enough to have in the background while I was working.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#HotSpur #FreeAudiobkFacebkGrp

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.