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Legends West #2
The Bad Lands
Ambientato sul finire dell’Ottocento, "Bad Lands" è la storia di Andrew Livingston, banchiere e uomo politico di città, che si trasferisce nelle terre selvagge del Dakota per cominciare una nuova vita dopo la morte della moglie e della figlia. Ma il sogno di una purificazione nella natura si scontra presto con le leggi non scritte degli uomini del posto e con le loro trame per il possesso della terra. Turbato dall’esperienza per lui nuova della violenza, Andrew incrocerà sul suo cammino le vite di altri enigmatici abitanti delle Bad Lands: lo scozzese Lord Machray, ricco proprietario terriero inviso ai vecchi coloni, amante della modernità e degli eccessi; la sfortunata Mary Hardy, figlia di un allevatore tradizionalista, con un’inclinazione per la musica e un animo ribelle; Cora Benbow, tenutaria del bordello di Pyramid City e custode di molti segreti. Mescolando abilmente fatti storici e finzione, Oakley Hall disegna il grande affresco di un’epoca e di un luogo, e restituisce, attraverso le vicende dei suoi personaggi, tutto il fascino e la tumultuosa vitalità del vecchio West.
369 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 12, 1979
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845 people want to read
About the author
Oakley Hall
42 books91 followersOakley Hall also wrote under the nom de plume of O.M. Hall and Jason Manor.
Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
March 17, 2024
Bad Lands
Segunda novela de la trilogía del western que escribió Oakley Hall cada una sobre un tema diferente. Si en la magnífica Warlock el argumento giraba en torno a la figura legendaria del pistolero que es reclamado por el pueblo para pelear contra un grupo de indeseables, en esta ocasión el tema gira en torno a los territorios libres y su ocupación.
A medida que las guerras indias fueron acabando y las diferentes tribus iban siendo recluidas en reservas, el vasto territorio restante quedaba por fin libre y podía ser ocupado por una serie de colonos deseosos de tierras.
Los primeros en llegar podían escoger el sitio para su ganado y rancho pero a medida que se llenaban las tierras, los problemas empezaron.
El protagonista de la historia es un banquero y político de Nueva York que después de perder a su mujer e hija en un trágico accidente decide dejarlo todo y marcharse a las Bad Lands donde podría olvidarse y empezar de nuevo.
En Bad Lands podría elegir su territorio y montar un rancho, así de fácil era en 1883. Pero al mismo tiempo difícil cuando los vecinos tenían su ganado pastando libres por las tierras.
Es en este momento crucial cuando Andrew Livingston llega a las Bad Lands con la intención de hacer su rancho y comprar un montón de ganado. No es bienvenido, por supuesto, es un problema para los demás acostumbrados a dejar el ganado libre además de sumarse al problema de las alambradas que uno de los rancheros ya está colocando.
Una vez en situación, el escritor utiliza al político para ponerlo en medio del conflicto, en un principio amigo de todos, pero sin esconder que el día que tenga que escoger bando está cerca.
Lleno de grandes personajes que no parecen del lugar como el escocés Lord Machray, que es el primero en poner alambradas, el autor reproduce el conflicto de esa época, algo ya irrepetible, y reflexiona a través de sus personajes sobre la justicia in situ. En estos grandes territorios no había ley o estaba muy lejos, los rancheros debían impartir lo que ellos consideraban justicia. Y lo que un día parecía justo al día siguiente no lo era tanto, pero ya no tenía remedio.
Algo por debajo de Warlock, Bad Lands es también una gran novela que cuenta lo que fue una época del oeste y lo hace no sólo con pistolas y caballos. Pone en liza una serie de personajes que van creciendo a medida que avanza la historia. Una historia que, por otra parte, está escrita como si hubiese sido real con estos mismos protagonistas.
Segunda novela de la trilogía del western que escribió Oakley Hall cada una sobre un tema diferente. Si en la magnífica Warlock el argumento giraba en torno a la figura legendaria del pistolero que es reclamado por el pueblo para pelear contra un grupo de indeseables, en esta ocasión el tema gira en torno a los territorios libres y su ocupación.
A medida que las guerras indias fueron acabando y las diferentes tribus iban siendo recluidas en reservas, el vasto territorio restante quedaba por fin libre y podía ser ocupado por una serie de colonos deseosos de tierras.
Los primeros en llegar podían escoger el sitio para su ganado y rancho pero a medida que se llenaban las tierras, los problemas empezaron.
El protagonista de la historia es un banquero y político de Nueva York que después de perder a su mujer e hija en un trágico accidente decide dejarlo todo y marcharse a las Bad Lands donde podría olvidarse y empezar de nuevo.
En Bad Lands podría elegir su territorio y montar un rancho, así de fácil era en 1883. Pero al mismo tiempo difícil cuando los vecinos tenían su ganado pastando libres por las tierras.
Es en este momento crucial cuando Andrew Livingston llega a las Bad Lands con la intención de hacer su rancho y comprar un montón de ganado. No es bienvenido, por supuesto, es un problema para los demás acostumbrados a dejar el ganado libre además de sumarse al problema de las alambradas que uno de los rancheros ya está colocando.
Una vez en situación, el escritor utiliza al político para ponerlo en medio del conflicto, en un principio amigo de todos, pero sin esconder que el día que tenga que escoger bando está cerca.
Lleno de grandes personajes que no parecen del lugar como el escocés Lord Machray, que es el primero en poner alambradas, el autor reproduce el conflicto de esa época, algo ya irrepetible, y reflexiona a través de sus personajes sobre la justicia in situ. En estos grandes territorios no había ley o estaba muy lejos, los rancheros debían impartir lo que ellos consideraban justicia. Y lo que un día parecía justo al día siguiente no lo era tanto, pero ya no tenía remedio.
Algo por debajo de Warlock, Bad Lands es también una gran novela que cuenta lo que fue una época del oeste y lo hace no sólo con pistolas y caballos. Pone en liza una serie de personajes que van creciendo a medida que avanza la historia. Una historia que, por otra parte, está escrita como si hubiese sido real con estos mismos protagonistas.
August 10, 2016
The Band Lands is the second installment of Oakley Hall’s “Legends West” series. The first is the cult classic, Warlock, which was published in 1958. That story is Hall’s reimagining of the events leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral. It’s an often surreal novel that often reads to me like a play or a movie, but it’s also one rooted in considerable historical fact and details. Hall seems to be saying all along that Truth is Weird (which is probably why Thomas Pynchon loved it so much) and slippery.
The Bad Lands was published in 1978. I have no idea whether Hall originally intended to make a “series” of these unrelated novels (there is a third, Apache, which I have yet to read). What is similar, however, with Warlock, is a reimagining of a major event in the history of the American West, the Johnson County War. If you are unfamiliar with that event, it involved the “invasion” of Johnson County, Wyoming, by a band of “regulators” who were basically hit men for the Stock Owner’s Association. Michael Cimino would make an undeservedly infamous movie called Heaven’s Gate about that war. (Note: I recently watching the newly released Critereon version of Heaven’s Gate, complete with a cleaned up audio track (absolutely essential) and restored footage, and found it to be one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen.)
The timing of Hall’s book is interesting in that Heaven’s Gate would come out in 1980. Evidently, according to a footnote somewhere in Final Cut (a history of the making of the movie), Hall submitted The Bad Lands to United Artists – I suppose as a potential script. There was some legal wrangling, which seemed to evaporate after the movie bombed. Was Hall trolling for a shot at writing the script? Who knows?
The story, absent that connection, stands on its own. It’s not Warlock, but it’s pretty darned good. On surface, it's standard stuff. A well off widower from New York, Andrew Livingston, goes West to flee his sorrow. He likes the West and the Cowboy life and decides to become a rancher. His decision comes at a time when ranching is falling apart as a life. Competing ranches (one of which is headed by a colorful poetry spouting Scottish Lord), fencing in of the land, and an influx of settlers are all rapidly changing the landscape. Hall takes all of these common elements and goes deeper with dark speculations on the nature of existence, truth, and justice. There are good guys and there are bad guys, but in Hall's novel both will spend time in a gray zone where certainties are hard to grasp. The coming "war" will scramble things even more, as characters find themselves switching allegiances due to forces that are often, but not always, beyond their control.
For those movie buffs out there, is an excellent piece from the New York Times on the restoration of Heaven's Gate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/mov...
The Bad Lands was published in 1978. I have no idea whether Hall originally intended to make a “series” of these unrelated novels (there is a third, Apache, which I have yet to read). What is similar, however, with Warlock, is a reimagining of a major event in the history of the American West, the Johnson County War. If you are unfamiliar with that event, it involved the “invasion” of Johnson County, Wyoming, by a band of “regulators” who were basically hit men for the Stock Owner’s Association. Michael Cimino would make an undeservedly infamous movie called Heaven’s Gate about that war. (Note: I recently watching the newly released Critereon version of Heaven’s Gate, complete with a cleaned up audio track (absolutely essential) and restored footage, and found it to be one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen.)
The timing of Hall’s book is interesting in that Heaven’s Gate would come out in 1980. Evidently, according to a footnote somewhere in Final Cut (a history of the making of the movie), Hall submitted The Bad Lands to United Artists – I suppose as a potential script. There was some legal wrangling, which seemed to evaporate after the movie bombed. Was Hall trolling for a shot at writing the script? Who knows?
The story, absent that connection, stands on its own. It’s not Warlock, but it’s pretty darned good. On surface, it's standard stuff. A well off widower from New York, Andrew Livingston, goes West to flee his sorrow. He likes the West and the Cowboy life and decides to become a rancher. His decision comes at a time when ranching is falling apart as a life. Competing ranches (one of which is headed by a colorful poetry spouting Scottish Lord), fencing in of the land, and an influx of settlers are all rapidly changing the landscape. Hall takes all of these common elements and goes deeper with dark speculations on the nature of existence, truth, and justice. There are good guys and there are bad guys, but in Hall's novel both will spend time in a gray zone where certainties are hard to grasp. The coming "war" will scramble things even more, as characters find themselves switching allegiances due to forces that are often, but not always, beyond their control.
For those movie buffs out there, is an excellent piece from the New York Times on the restoration of Heaven's Gate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/mov...
September 10, 2022
A good old-fashioned Western, based loosely on a range war in late 19th century South Dakota. The review to read is by Larry McMurtry back in 1978:
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/14/ar...
Excerpt:
"The novelist who attempts to deal with the conflicts that developed in the West around the time when the open range was closing must reconcile himself to certain lack of originality of plot. The cattle barons hated the small ranchers, not to mention nesters and sheepherders, and, throughout the West, old‐timers resented newcomers, particularly if the newcomers had more capital than they did. Because many of the newcomers were from England or Scotland, or even Germany and France, they sometimes came not only with substantial backing, but also with their own ideas about how things should be done.
“The Bad Lands” is set in the early 1880's, when the old established ranchers in Wyoming and the Dakotas were feeling more and more encroached upon, not only by rich Easterners and Scots but also by small ranchers moving north from Texas. The pressure resulted in what is known as the Johnson County Cattle War. Under pretense of stopping rustlers, the local cattlemen's association brought in a small army of gunmen to eradicate the small ranchers. Luckily, the small ranchers got wind of the scheme and outmaneuvered and eventually arrested their foes. ..."
I liked it too, about 3.5+ stars worth, rounded up. I would compare it to a middling McMurtry western of that period: readable and pretty good, with some very nice bits. Thanks to the University of Chicago Press for the free ebook copy!
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/14/ar...
Excerpt:
"The novelist who attempts to deal with the conflicts that developed in the West around the time when the open range was closing must reconcile himself to certain lack of originality of plot. The cattle barons hated the small ranchers, not to mention nesters and sheepherders, and, throughout the West, old‐timers resented newcomers, particularly if the newcomers had more capital than they did. Because many of the newcomers were from England or Scotland, or even Germany and France, they sometimes came not only with substantial backing, but also with their own ideas about how things should be done.
“The Bad Lands” is set in the early 1880's, when the old established ranchers in Wyoming and the Dakotas were feeling more and more encroached upon, not only by rich Easterners and Scots but also by small ranchers moving north from Texas. The pressure resulted in what is known as the Johnson County Cattle War. Under pretense of stopping rustlers, the local cattlemen's association brought in a small army of gunmen to eradicate the small ranchers. Luckily, the small ranchers got wind of the scheme and outmaneuvered and eventually arrested their foes. ..."
I liked it too, about 3.5+ stars worth, rounded up. I would compare it to a middling McMurtry western of that period: readable and pretty good, with some very nice bits. Thanks to the University of Chicago Press for the free ebook copy!
May 27, 2014
Though I read them out of order, The Bad Lands, which Oakley Hall labeled the second in his “Western Legends” trilogy, completes my loving embrace of this portion of his work. Each of the books reworks a western myth, turns it inside out and upside down, and in the telling gives us a profound depth of understanding into our history and our assumptions. In Warlock, it was the O.K. Corral. In Apaches, it was the Lincoln County Wars and Billy the Kid. In The Bad lands, Andrew Livingston is a stand-in for Theodore Roosevelt, a tenderfoot from New York who comes west to try his hand at the life of ranching and herding cows, the romance of which life has intrigued him for lo these many. I don’t know much about Roosevelt’s adventures in the Dakotas except that he invested sizable chunks of cash and that they influenced his politics and his attitudes toward life, but Hall wouldn’t ever provide a one-for-one relationship between between the characters and events in his novels and in real life. He’s not that easy.
Livingston finds himself in the midst of a classic (cliche?) conflict between cattle barons and settlers. Between those who would fence the range and those who would keep it open. Between those who would prevail by their own rude justice and those who strive for conventional ideas of law and order. Between raw brutality and at least a pretense of humanity.
Hall, as usual, challenges the assumptions that popular literature and films bring to these kind feuds and gives us a cast of characters and a series of actions in which no one is free of either virtue or blame. As for the winners when all is said and done, as Livingston puts it, maybe there are no winners. Maybe there’s just history. Certainly, the statue that towers over everyone at the end of the book represents a man of gargantuan vices, though they tend to be sins of the flesh rather than those of the spirit. He may not be the kind of character we’d like to think bequeaths his heroic legend to our towns and our myths. Yet, of course, we honor and revere many such.
It may not be Dante, but it sure isn’t your conventional oater, folks. You can’t just plough your action-packed way through Oakley Hall. You have some thinking to do. And your thoughts may not guide you to pleasant conclusions.
But the reading pleasure is unsurpassed.
Livingston finds himself in the midst of a classic (cliche?) conflict between cattle barons and settlers. Between those who would fence the range and those who would keep it open. Between those who would prevail by their own rude justice and those who strive for conventional ideas of law and order. Between raw brutality and at least a pretense of humanity.
Hall, as usual, challenges the assumptions that popular literature and films bring to these kind feuds and gives us a cast of characters and a series of actions in which no one is free of either virtue or blame. As for the winners when all is said and done, as Livingston puts it, maybe there are no winners. Maybe there’s just history. Certainly, the statue that towers over everyone at the end of the book represents a man of gargantuan vices, though they tend to be sins of the flesh rather than those of the spirit. He may not be the kind of character we’d like to think bequeaths his heroic legend to our towns and our myths. Yet, of course, we honor and revere many such.
It may not be Dante, but it sure isn’t your conventional oater, folks. You can’t just plough your action-packed way through Oakley Hall. You have some thinking to do. And your thoughts may not guide you to pleasant conclusions.
But the reading pleasure is unsurpassed.
January 29, 2025
Ma anche 4,5 va’. Che potrebbero pure sedimentare in 5.
Parte meno bene di warlock, con un ritmo più altalenante e alcune cose messe un po’ lì e (almeno per me, lettrice del 2025) poco comprensibili. Ma poi va su col botto.
Qui i personaggi sono veramente ben definiti, soprattutto quelli femminili. Cora è strepitosa, Mary molto interessante, Lady Machray abbondantemente oltre le aspettative: ed è quello che mi era mancato un po’ in Warlock.
Tema preponderante è sempre l’essere umano e la impossibile distinzione netta tra bene e male: è questa riflessione è in qualche modo ancora più esplicita. C’è anche tanta tanta violenza qui, descritta benissimo: tant’è che alcune scene praticamente di guerra ti tengono incollatə alla pagina.
Spero tanto arrivi in Italia anche il terzo capitolo della trilogia.
Parte meno bene di warlock, con un ritmo più altalenante e alcune cose messe un po’ lì e (almeno per me, lettrice del 2025) poco comprensibili. Ma poi va su col botto.
Qui i personaggi sono veramente ben definiti, soprattutto quelli femminili. Cora è strepitosa, Mary molto interessante, Lady Machray abbondantemente oltre le aspettative: ed è quello che mi era mancato un po’ in Warlock.
Tema preponderante è sempre l’essere umano e la impossibile distinzione netta tra bene e male: è questa riflessione è in qualche modo ancora più esplicita. C’è anche tanta tanta violenza qui, descritta benissimo: tant’è che alcune scene praticamente di guerra ti tengono incollatə alla pagina.
Spero tanto arrivi in Italia anche il terzo capitolo della trilogia.
June 8, 2015
Pretty impossible to ever equal the greatness of Warlock, but The Bad Lands ends on a very strong note after slowly building up for most of the story.
June 25, 2025
“Erano tempi più duri, quelli. Ma anche se erano duri, è triste che siano passati.”
La storia ha il suo perché, ma non è del tutto appassionante. Anche nei momenti teoricamente più coinvolgenti, non è stata in grado di trasmettermi quello che avrei voluto.
La storia ha il suo perché, ma non è del tutto appassionante. Anche nei momenti teoricamente più coinvolgenti, non è stata in grado di trasmettermi quello che avrei voluto.
August 15, 2017
Un ricachón de Nueva York se marcha a las duras tierras de Montana huyendo de una tragedia familiar. Allí, en un territorio todavía no convertido en Estado y por lo tanto carente de toda ley que no sea la del más fuerte, se adjudica unas tierras donde pretende criar ganado. Pero los lugareños, que simplemente habían llegado antes, no son gente demasiado agradable o de fiar.
Una galería de personajes curiosos y representativos del viejo oeste americano, y de situaciones no menos representativas, son el soporte sobre el que descansa la historia del neoyorquino que emigra al salvaje oeste. Polvo, revólveres, sudor e intrigas pueblerinas narradas de forma absolutamente magistral.
Una galería de personajes curiosos y representativos del viejo oeste americano, y de situaciones no menos representativas, son el soporte sobre el que descansa la historia del neoyorquino que emigra al salvaje oeste. Polvo, revólveres, sudor e intrigas pueblerinas narradas de forma absolutamente magistral.
August 17, 2022
This is the second Oakley Hall novel I've read (after Warlock), and I find that his books are so different from other historical novels that I can hardly review this one without comparing it with that one. As in Warlock, there is that uncanny sense of rightness to every word the characters speak. The slang is often unfamiliar but somehow seems perfect to the period—I can't understand every word, but then if I were dropped into the 1880s, I wouldn't be able to, either, would I? Once in a while I do understand something, and it's always convincing and period-appropriate. One character exclaims "I'd rather ride through Hell in a celluloid suit," which makes sense when you reflect that before gasoline was a everyday substance, celluloid was about the most flammable thing anybody ever heard of. And it's not just the slang and the idioms. The dialogue, sometimes together with a briefly described physical gesture, has a quietly skillful way of telling you exactly what a character is feeling without the narrator having to spell it out. All the characters, even the minor ones, are extremely vivid.
Unlike Warlock, this isn't an epic, despite its eccentric division into five "books," none of which is long enough or complete enough to qualify as a "book"—my only complaint about the novel. Instead, it's a tragedy in the Greek mode, with all the characters coming together at the end in a life-or-death struggle in which some beautiful things are lost forever. As Warlock's story was based approximately on the gunfight at the OK Corral, The Bad Lands retells the story of the Johnson County War, moving it from Wyoming in 1892 to the Dakotas in 1884. The "War" was a violent conflict between big cattlemen accustomed to unfenced access to a huge range, and farmers and smaller ranchers seeking their own fresh starts on shared federal lands. The novel's hero shares the early life experiences of Theodore Roosevelt, although he's unlike Roosevelt in other respects. The antihero is similarly based on the Marquis de Morès, a French aristocrat turned rancher, although again, his personality is different in many respects, and he's Scottish instead of French.
There is action enough to keep anybody interested, and it's a hell of a story. My own awareness that things would not end well—which is more or less announced in a two-page prologue from the point of view of the hero in old age—led me to a sense of dread as I neared the end, but I was overly sensitive. It's just the tone of the book, amidst the sweat and the gunfights and the colorful figures, is similar to the bleak films of the 1970s (The Last Detail, The Conversation) just as Warlock, with its subtext of labor unrest and law versus vigilanteism, mirrored the common concerns of the 1950s. (The two books were written in those eras.) This book should and will satisfy anybody who's looking for a Western that's also great literature.
Unlike Warlock, this isn't an epic, despite its eccentric division into five "books," none of which is long enough or complete enough to qualify as a "book"—my only complaint about the novel. Instead, it's a tragedy in the Greek mode, with all the characters coming together at the end in a life-or-death struggle in which some beautiful things are lost forever. As Warlock's story was based approximately on the gunfight at the OK Corral, The Bad Lands retells the story of the Johnson County War, moving it from Wyoming in 1892 to the Dakotas in 1884. The "War" was a violent conflict between big cattlemen accustomed to unfenced access to a huge range, and farmers and smaller ranchers seeking their own fresh starts on shared federal lands. The novel's hero shares the early life experiences of Theodore Roosevelt, although he's unlike Roosevelt in other respects. The antihero is similarly based on the Marquis de Morès, a French aristocrat turned rancher, although again, his personality is different in many respects, and he's Scottish instead of French.
There is action enough to keep anybody interested, and it's a hell of a story. My own awareness that things would not end well—which is more or less announced in a two-page prologue from the point of view of the hero in old age—led me to a sense of dread as I neared the end, but I was overly sensitive. It's just the tone of the book, amidst the sweat and the gunfights and the colorful figures, is similar to the bleak films of the 1970s (The Last Detail, The Conversation) just as Warlock, with its subtext of labor unrest and law versus vigilanteism, mirrored the common concerns of the 1950s. (The two books were written in those eras.) This book should and will satisfy anybody who's looking for a Western that's also great literature.
June 27, 2021
This might be my favorite Western. Oakley Hall can sure create amazing characters! Lord Machray had me laughing out loud with his amazing personality and poetry. He is one of my favorite characters in all of literature. Why had I not heard of Oakley Hall before? This book is very deep, very entertaining and I could not put it down. I was so sad when I finished it. I enjoyed Lonesome Dove, but The Badlands, to me, is much better and considers issues much more deeply. In the old west people had to confront their own beliefs about right and wrong and were often challenged to see their own hypocrisy. So relevant to today's world.
January 17, 2025
so oakley, after reading one of his other books warlock, obviously has the chronic condition of i must create too many characters for my story ( `_ゝ´) ʷʰʸ
i am a fan of a ridiculous amount of characters, especially when they are knotty. the only author i can think of at the moment (due to his works popularity) who manages to do it well is mr. martin. he does what few authors are able to do; introduce the main characters with the right pacing and explanation/development. mr. hall seems to have the thought process of needing to tell us everything and introducing a new character smack dab after the other two paragraphs ago, if that. the other issue within the main issue, a sub-issue, is the writing of women. this is really common in older novels but i find it inexcusable even for a period time writing. one could still portray old time views with less... bad characterization and lack of care.
aside from this large issue - oakley hall still manages to write an entertaining story and journey in the bad lands. it far precides warlock which i really wanted to love just for the cool title and cover alone. having been to the bad lands (roughly little under a decade ago now if i am remembering correctly) i found the vivid imagery and setting personally entertaining. i also can't really complain about the length as it is actually multiple (5) books in one, like men's shampoo. multiple generations of characters are used in the story - old and young, fierce and weak. the storyline alone i would say, just for the message, is worth reading. at it's core it is a formidable book.
i am a fan of a ridiculous amount of characters, especially when they are knotty. the only author i can think of at the moment (due to his works popularity) who manages to do it well is mr. martin. he does what few authors are able to do; introduce the main characters with the right pacing and explanation/development. mr. hall seems to have the thought process of needing to tell us everything and introducing a new character smack dab after the other two paragraphs ago, if that. the other issue within the main issue, a sub-issue, is the writing of women. this is really common in older novels but i find it inexcusable even for a period time writing. one could still portray old time views with less... bad characterization and lack of care.
aside from this large issue - oakley hall still manages to write an entertaining story and journey in the bad lands. it far precides warlock which i really wanted to love just for the cool title and cover alone. having been to the bad lands (roughly little under a decade ago now if i am remembering correctly) i found the vivid imagery and setting personally entertaining. i also can't really complain about the length as it is actually multiple (5) books in one, like men's shampoo. multiple generations of characters are used in the story - old and young, fierce and weak. the storyline alone i would say, just for the message, is worth reading. at it's core it is a formidable book.
November 14, 2024
Quicker and easier read than Warlock but every bit as well written.
Warlock dealt with issues of lawlessness in town, Badlands is more about the legal issues on the range around the town. The themes of Warlock were societal, to be sure, but really individual morality was the principle thrust of that book for me. It is approaching how to deal with violence from a micro level.
Badlands takes a more political and macro level approach to the problems of law and order. How does society organise itself to create norms and laws and then how does it enforce same. The town of Pyramid Flats (Like the town of Warlock) is a hundred miles from the territorial law centre in the Dakotas but the problems in this book take place out on the range. Age old issue with free rangers vs squatters with the added wrinkle that one of the cattle barons is actually buying and fencing land which put him on the outs with everyone. This outside is a colourful Scots lord come to show the Americans how to do ranching right. Into this mix comes a well off banker and politician from back east who has recently lost his wife and a child in a boating accident. The banker comes for the adventure but stays to try to make a life.
There's plenty of action and colour to please the casual reader and a lot of food for thought to nourish a more careful perusal.
Warlock dealt with issues of lawlessness in town, Badlands is more about the legal issues on the range around the town. The themes of Warlock were societal, to be sure, but really individual morality was the principle thrust of that book for me. It is approaching how to deal with violence from a micro level.
Badlands takes a more political and macro level approach to the problems of law and order. How does society organise itself to create norms and laws and then how does it enforce same. The town of Pyramid Flats (Like the town of Warlock) is a hundred miles from the territorial law centre in the Dakotas but the problems in this book take place out on the range. Age old issue with free rangers vs squatters with the added wrinkle that one of the cattle barons is actually buying and fencing land which put him on the outs with everyone. This outside is a colourful Scots lord come to show the Americans how to do ranching right. Into this mix comes a well off banker and politician from back east who has recently lost his wife and a child in a boating accident. The banker comes for the adventure but stays to try to make a life.
There's plenty of action and colour to please the casual reader and a lot of food for thought to nourish a more careful perusal.
November 4, 2024
Set in the Bad Lands territory of 1883-4. Hall imagines a young Easterner, Andrew Livingston, on a hunting trip with two wilderness guides in the territory. Livingston, recently widowed, is looking for adventure and on a whim decides to go into cattle ranching in the territory. He quickly learns that although the distances are vast, cattle take up a lot of space and another ranch isn't welcome to those who are already there. As in his other work, Hall is a great storyteller and, more than that, he illuminates the conflict between the hypocrisy of the original settlers seeking to protect their squatters claims against those who come later. The story is enlivened, not to say dominated, by a larger-than-life Englishman who has seized a major piece of land and is developing it. In the absence of law in the wilderness, trouble is brewing....
May 7, 2025
Not as good as Hall's masterpiece, Warlock, but it was still a fun read. The main character, a wealthy New Yorker involved in politics, who loses his wife and daughter then heads out west to clear his mind and start a new life, was clearly inspired by Theodore Roosevelt. The "range war" that takes place in the book was based on conflicts that also really happened, often in the late 1800's.
Hall's writing style is unadorned and there are some cliches in here (the hooker with the heart of gold, etc), but what makes his books fun is he is deconstructing the black and white morality that so often exists in the American western, thanks to many of the most popular books and movies that we have in the genre.
Although this book is listed as #2 in a trilogy Hall wrote, with Warlock being #1, the two books have nothing to do with each other and they can be read as a standalone.
Hall's writing style is unadorned and there are some cliches in here (the hooker with the heart of gold, etc), but what makes his books fun is he is deconstructing the black and white morality that so often exists in the American western, thanks to many of the most popular books and movies that we have in the genre.
Although this book is listed as #2 in a trilogy Hall wrote, with Warlock being #1, the two books have nothing to do with each other and they can be read as a standalone.
June 17, 2022
More than just a Western novel, "The Bad Lands" features explorations of morality, philosophy, human nature — you know, Man Against God, Man Against Man and Man Against Nature — all rolled into a tale that moves from the pastoral to the frenetically violent.
Oh, and there's lots of sex, too.
I felt like I didn't want this novel to end, though the seeds of the conclusion were sown early in the book and built to a pinnacle of tension. The denouement was a little jarring after the adrenaline rush, but the novel was framed effectively with the protagonist's need to try and capture the waning days of the Bad Lands in sketches before it was lost.
"The Bad Lands" pairs nicely with "Warlock," Oakley's other Western. I just wish he'd given us more.
Oh, and there's lots of sex, too.
I felt like I didn't want this novel to end, though the seeds of the conclusion were sown early in the book and built to a pinnacle of tension. The denouement was a little jarring after the adrenaline rush, but the novel was framed effectively with the protagonist's need to try and capture the waning days of the Bad Lands in sketches before it was lost.
"The Bad Lands" pairs nicely with "Warlock," Oakley's other Western. I just wish he'd given us more.
May 1, 2019
Another great Oakley Hall western. I really enjoyed this tale, set in the Dakota Territory. Our hero is an upstart cattle rancher, and he faces problems from the existing cattle ranchers when he arrives. They are established and they want the resources for themselves. Then, even more ranchers show up and they want resources, too. It's an exercise in how NOT to manage land ownership. The book is generous, very easy to digest. It has plenty to think about and the characters are interesting, perhaps none more so than Machray, the colorful Scotsman. I didn't like it as well as Warlock, but only because Warlock is so great. I will have to read Apaches next.
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September 14, 2019A widowed New Yorker becomes a cattle baron, gets caught up in the range wars. Is it too much to say that a good western is by definition a threnody, a meditation on the death of a 'lawless' land, its absorption and eradication by civilization? No, it isn't. In any event, this is a very good book, by the author of the even slightly more fabulous Warlock, an insightful meta-commentary on the Western which also serves as a delightfully executed example of that genre. A genuinely fabulous epic; it's not quite Lonesome Dove, but it's better than whatever other book you were planning on comparing to Lonesome Dove.
March 1, 2024
I had not heard of this author before, but decided to buy this book from the University of Chicago Press Book Sale. The book is centered in the ND Badlands, which is about a 5 hour drive from my home and the main characters are based on Teddy Roosevelt and his time there, and the Marques de Mores. Despite that, I don't think the plot the real history of this place but incorporates other plots from other places in the West. It is an interesting book and it brings out the place and time (1884) well.
July 7, 2021
It's not Warlock, but that's like faulting a sibling for being a different person. Hardly fair. A quiet beautiful subtle novel that builds America up from its emotions. Intimate and honest. Feels like one of Merle Rideout's photo re-animations in Against the Day. Dusty snapshots of the Badlands, brought to life. 3.75
August 8, 2018
The writing is stellar here, though the plot is a little lighter than I had hoped for after reading WARLOCK. It does have a lot of elements that speak to current issues, but obviously it wasn’t written for that purpose. I want to read WARLOCK again, knowing how excellent it was by comparison.
September 13, 2019
Bad Lands
My 1st Oakley Hall book and it won’t be my last. Very well written but needed a little more of something (suspense, surprise, violence, romance, ?) to earn that 5th star. A good read.
My 1st Oakley Hall book and it won’t be my last. Very well written but needed a little more of something (suspense, surprise, violence, romance, ?) to earn that 5th star. A good read.
December 30, 2024
Historical account of a small cattle town
History of the land disputes created by Washington's ignorant encouragement to fill the center of the U.S.
Brazen adventurers grabbed and abused the land and its inhabitants. Only the toughest survived.
History of the land disputes created by Washington's ignorant encouragement to fill the center of the U.S.
Brazen adventurers grabbed and abused the land and its inhabitants. Only the toughest survived.
July 26, 2020
Lot going on here that was over my head
November 5, 2021
Second volume of a western trilogy by Hall. Warlock is the first. Highly touted by Thomas Pynchon in his college days.
Hall's Ambrose Bierce detective novels are better. And more fun.
Hall's Ambrose Bierce detective novels are better. And more fun.
December 10, 2022
Another masterful western from Oakley Hall. I may have liked this a little more than Warlock
April 12, 2023
Great characters and story. Very enjoyable read. A western from the perspective of the fear of change.
August 7, 2024
So it's not the masterpiece Warlock is. So what. It's pretty darn good.
September 8, 2024
Un fresco de la época.
December 3, 2024
This belongs more in the genre of historical fiction than western. I learned some things about this time period, which is nice, but not really why a person reads genre fiction.
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