Badger Boy

Texas Rangers #2

by Elmer Kelton

The Texas Frontier, 1865 The Civil War is over and Texas is reluctantly yielding to the Union soldiers spreading across the state, even into the dangerous Comanche country. David "Rusty" Shannon, proud member of a "ranging company" attempting to protect Texas settlers from Indian depredations, finds that the rangers are being disbanded. He makes his way home to his land on the Red River, hoping to take up the life of a farmer and the hand of the beloved girl he left behind, Geneva Monahan. But Geneva has married in Rusty's long absence and the country is filled with hostiles―not just Indians, but hate-filled Confederates, overbearing Union soldiers, and army renegades. Rusty's youth as a captive of the Comanches returns to haunt him when, in pursuit of Indian raiders, he takes as prisoner Badger Boy, a white child taken from his murdered parents by a Comanche warrior.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical, Audiobook, Historical Fiction

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 3, 2001

About the author

Elmer Kelton (1926-2009) was award-winning author of more than forty novels, including The Time It Never Rained, Other Men’s Horses, Texas Standoff and Hard Trail to Follow. He grew up on a ranch near Crane, Texas, and earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas. His first novel, Hot Iron, was published in 1956. Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His novel The Good Old Boys was made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones. In addition to his novels, Kelton worked as an agricultural journalist for 42 years. He served in the infantry in World War II. He died in 2009.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/elmerk...

Reviews

[Liz Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in Kelton's Texas Rangers series. It's even better than the first (which was excellent). We pick up Rusty Shannon's trail where he left off in the first book (The Buckskin Line).. Because of Kelton's excellent writing, we're already totally invested in Rusty Shannon's story and are on the edges of our seats waiting to see what happens to him.. Great story, great characters! Elmer Kelton sure knows how to write Westerns (I know some argue that Texas Rangers aren't western, those arguments are invalid as far as I'm concerned). I look forward to following Rusty and Andy (Badger Boy) on to the next book in the series!

[Joni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The war is over and the Texas rangers are disbanded. Lead character, Rusty, heads home to try to figure out what he will do next, but once a ranger, always a ranger and he comes to the aid of several people over the course of this story. Unfortunately, the reader is reminded repeatedly of events and outcomes from the first book and I found that really annoying. I'm not deterred, however, on to book three!

[Mary L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Elmer Kelton gives us a great story about early Texas with well drawn characters and lots of action. I am so sorry that he is gone and we won't be getting any new stories from him. What would you do if you were raised to be a Comanche but were really white? Rusty Shannon has a little knowledge of what Badger Boy is going through. How he and Andy (Badger Boy) end up learning of this together is the gist of the story.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Elmer Kelton writes of early Texas with unerring authority. His knowlege of the state's history is complete, draw3n from the lives of real people....
---Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Having written more than forty novels, Elmer Kelton has established himself as one of the grand masters of Western literature. He is blessed with teh ability to bring history to life with such honesty and believabilitiy that the reader himself literally becomes part of the story.
It is Kelton's understanding of human weaknesses and strenghts that makes his writings so captivating. The reader is able to understand both sides of a conflict, thus gaining a quiet empathy with the challenges each character must face."
---The El Paso Scene

"Carefully researched and realistically presented. This picture of 1860s Texas, with its strong people, tells yet another good story about our state and our ancestors".
---Austin American Statesman

The Dallas Morning News calls it......."a powder burner". I think that says it all. It is certainly a cannot-put-it-down pageturner.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading this second book in "The Texas Ranger" series. As usual Elmer Kelton brings you into the time with some great story telling. It had been awhile since I had read the first book "The Buckskin Line", but Kelton is such a good storyteller that it all came back to me reading the second book in the series, as he is so vivid in his story telling. I like the main character Rusty Shannon and the other characters that surround him. They introduce a new character "Badger Boy" who was captured at a young age by Indians, and grew up with the Comanche's, learning their way of life. Rusty Shannon who himself was captured and later rescued by his adoptive white parents, totally understands the situation, and they connect by a matter of circumstances later in the story. Also Rusty reconnects with friends ties after the Civil war and returns to his adoptive parents farm with the disbandment of the Texas Rangers. I love the way Kelton depicts the hard times and you can almost feel their pain. A great story and it continues on, so I can dust off the next book in the series on my book shelf and continue with the saga!

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arguably, books about the texas rangers are probably not really westerns - but given that this is texas immediately before, during, and after the civil war, it does at least fit the idea of the western frontier, complete with the withdraw east during the War years.

Kelton is an excellent writer, and I'm enjoying this series a lot. I'd still recommend The Pumpkin Eaters (a stand-alone novel) first, but I enjoy this series too.

[Shelee Bush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Old West tale, well fleshed out character...love stories of the Texas Rangers back in the day. Heart breaks for Rusty Shannon

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elmer Kelton is a mixed bag for me. He writes well and has solid, historical sensibilities. His characters are interesting, his stories reasonable and believable, and the setting is always solid. But at the same time the worldview and vision of the west he writes is so relentlessly awful, depressing, miserable, and filled with the worst events that its difficult to read at times.

And its not like the west didn't have these events, life was often hard. But that's not all life was back then, and that seems to get lost in his stories. You only get one side of things, just like some old westerns showed only the brighter, happier side with singing cowboys and not-so-bad bad guys.

This story is about a Texas Ranger just as the Civil War ends and the Rangers are disbanded. The Union reconstruction take over of Texas has begun and everyone is trying to find their way. There are the beginning stirrings of what will eventually become the KKK and the Comanche (among other tribes) are still active and fighting for their way of life.

Set against this is the life of a young boy taken in the previous book (The Buckskin Line) who has been living with Comanche for years.

I really like the idea of a storyline following the Texas Rangers as an organization through story form but I don't know as I will keep reading the series because it not only moves so slowly but is packed with continual misery.

[David Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Improved slightly upon its predecessor —The Buckskin Line— which is a decent stand alone novel in and of itself.

The Rusty Shannon saga continues here with swift action, historical accuracy and solid character development. This isn’t the Great American Novel. The writing is solid genre-fiction. Unlike with some of his other works, Kelton seemed content in this Ranger series to just spin some straightforward yarns without offering up a little more for the discerning reader.

While not literary masterpieces (with the exception of “The Time it Never Rained”), Kelton’s stories excel at dramatizing the lives of ordinary heroes. To quote ‘The Oklahoman”; “Elmer Kelton’s Westerns are not filled with larger-than-life gunfighters who can shoot Spurs off a Cowboy’s horse at a hundred yards. They are filled with the kind of characters that no doubt made up the West ... They are ordinary people with ordinary problems, but Kelton makes us care about them.”

Kelton doesn’t romanticize the West or even personify the land as a secondary character like many Western writers. This may be off-putting to those who enjoy Westerns for their ability to conjure a sense of place. That being said, Kelton’s capacity to create drama generally makes up for this.

I drew the line at reading only the first three novels in this series. For me personally, I began losing interest. The saga was not sufficiently ‘sweeping’ in its scope to justify 9 novels.

[Clara Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elmer Kelton sure know how to spin a tale that holds the readers attention. This story takes place as the War Between the States end. This is about the time my paternal grandfather came to Texas. I remember listening to my grandfather talk about what his father experienced when he first came to Texas. Granddad was born in 1876. I truly enjoyed both Kelton and Grandad's stories of Texas. There was a similar flavor to the stories.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#2 in the Texas Rangers series. 2001 series entry by author Elmer Kelton. 1865, as the Civil War draws to a close and the government of Texas dissolves into chaos, Badger Boy, who has suffered a broken leg, is captured in a Comanche raid to steal horses from the scattered farms of white settlers. Rusty Shannon, a Texas Ranger until the North won the war, takes Badger Boy in to heal and discovers that he is a white boy captured by the Comanches as a toddler.

[Rand Al Thor- son of the Two Rivers · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Home might be the broad and mysterious high plains of Texas, the land known as Comanchería, where the wild bands still roamed free”

Beautifully written, this book follows the journey of a Texas Ranger right after the end of the Civil War and the chaos that followed. The book leaves a lot of questions unanswered regarding the future of Rusty, Josie and Andy. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

What made this so bad for me was the fact that I had just read the book following this one and expected it to be GREAT like that which followed . Not sure if I would have liked it if I read this one first. More likely, I would not have given the second one a chance. So it is good I read them out of order. The second one , I gave 5 stars.

[Candace Simar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this series out of order, but enjoyed it so much that I hope to read it again in order. Elmer Kelton is a master story teller, and I admired the way he wound together the history of early Texas, the early days of the Texas Rangers, the Civil War, the Comanche wars, the carpet baggers, and the children stolen by the Indians and returned from captivity. Wonderful reading.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, a fast read ... and I am currently in a mood to read about other times since I am so disappointed in the present politics in our country. I enjoyed this one more than the first in the series but I think it is because I was already familiar with the characters. If you like reading about frontier days, you will like this one.

[Timothy Roark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series (Texas Rangers) and the characters. I have found myself invested in the well being of Rusty and his friends. Such a good story of doing right for no other reason than it's the right thing to do. Rusty is fiercely loyal to his friends and guided by integrity.

[John Bond · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Western I have ever read. Pretty good story and kept a good pace.

[Nathan Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the series and better than the first one. Looking forward to more.

[Abraham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure Gold. Ready for book 3.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

historical fiction

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

audio Jonathan Davis becomes the characters

[Phil Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent series

[Paulette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the TX Ranger series. Life in TX during and after the Civil War...unimaginable.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good story set during the civil war period.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a page-turning series!

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Open the cover of this book and step in to 1865-era Texas. The Civil War
is days away from being over, and anyone susceptible to even a modicum of
common sense knows it. Common sense doesn't seem to have infected
Confederate leaders, however. Throughout most of the war, they've left
members of the Texas Rangers alone to protect the settlers from Indians.
But that immunity from conscription is ending as Confederate leaders enter
their last paroxysm-writhing and gasping in their death throes. They've
determined that Texas Rangers can indeed be conscripted, and that creates
a unique problem for Rusty Shannon. Rusty had been kidnapped by Comanches
when he was small, and he was recaptured by whites a short time later. He
was raised by adoptive parents who instilled in him some anti-slavery
pro-union ideas. So being part of the Confederate army simply isn't an
option. He lights out for places unknown, but is forced to return when he
sees a Comanche raiding party. He ultimately escapes conscription, and
the war ends. But now, the ordeal of putting a ravaged sate back together
begins. Rusty returns to his farm, miraculously preserved and operated
for him by friends of his parents, and begins to embark on a new life
there. One of his neighbors, a bitter white man facing imminent death,
freed a faithful slave and then promptly gave him complete ownership of
the ranch, which created no small stir among the other white settlers, who
were highly displeased to have a black man as a property owner in their
midst. It's up to Rusty to protect the man and help him run his farm.

As the book progresses, Rusty and his companions capture a young white boy
who had been taken by the Comanches years earlier. The boy was completely
won over to the Comanche ways, including the speaking of their language.
Naturally, this brings back a flood of memories for Rusty Shannon, and he
determines to return the boy to the tribe.

Here's what I'm not getting across to you, and it frankly frustrates me
that I'm failing so spectacularly at this. Kelton's books aren't just
more westerns that most of us could live without quite happily. L'Amour
is probably the better western writer, but not by much. You see, if
L'Amour's style is sometimes more vivid, Kelton's complexity of plot and
thoughtful construction of the book is pre-eminent. There is always irony
here that reaches out and just bangs on you until it sucks the literary
breath out of you sometimes. Here we have Rusty Shannon, a guy who was
rescued by white settlers and adopted into a loving, kind family who gave
him the foundation he needed to be a highly successful adult and a young
white boy who wants nothing to do with white men and their ways, and it's
Rusty, ironically enough, who must return him home. Kelton is so skilled
that he shows you all the complexities of such an encounter-the warring
emotions within Rusty-all of it, but he doesn't have to write a syllable
about that. Even a casual reader will pick it up, and if you think a bit
about what you've read, you will see the complexity of the nonverbal
tapestry Kelton creates so masterfully.

There is some profanity here, but there are no sexual descriptions that
would put off even the most careful among us. This is a relatively short
book, and Kelton's economic use of words lets him tell you more than he
might if he had chosen to write a larger book, interestingly enough.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Book Review #97
Badger Boy, Elmer Kelton (western)

I've said in my two prior Kelton reviews that I don't like his stuff very much, but the local library has all of his Texas Rangers series available and I'm in the mood for a western now, so I went ahead and picked up the next one in the series. "Badger Boy" takes place in 1865 and finds a frontier farming settlement in Texas dealing with the end of the Civil War as soldiers and Rangers return home to pick up the pieces and navigate their new situation.

The Ranger in the first book ("The Buckskin Line," review #49) returns and has a backstory that works well in this one. We meet Badger Boy, a white teen who was adopted by Comanches like the Ranger had been but he is still with the Indians and considers himself one. This leads to a lot of good dialogue and moral gymnastics as the two reconcile their similarities, differences, and responsibilities when they finally meet late in the story. There are a few other storylines, well-paced and probably intended to influence further novels in the series, and they are all interesting, too.

Verdict: A smart western, easy to read, preachy at times as Kelton does, some eyerolling moments that are actually earned, and just a really fun western. Loved this one.

Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[Joseph Dorris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I read by Elmer Kelton. I have a strong interest in Native American culture and history. I had no idea how Kelton would treat the subject and no knowledge of the author. Since this novel, I have read most of Kelton’s 40-some books. None disappointed me. The characters are strong and believable and most importantly for me—human. At the same time, he weaves them into the history of the time. I did want to have more insight into the Native American customs and culture; however, and for me, the life of a main character, Andy Pickard, raised as a Comanche was treated somewhat lightly. Of course the main story is of the Texas Rangers.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good, but not near as good as the last Elmer Kelton book I read. It was slow and there was also quite a bit of language - PG/cowboy type and a lot of the 'N' word, the story takes place at the end of the civil war.

I did have a few favorite quotes though:

'He carried a Colt revolver on his hip. A bottle of whiskey and a Bible in his saddlebags. He was accomplished in using all three.'

'Rights don't matter when the devil's at work.'

'Some who call themselves God's children have notions they didn't learn about in church.'

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great look at the atmosphere in Texas at the end of the civil war. Most Texans went for the confederacy but Rusty avoided it by becoming a ranger. The basics are: While gone from home for better than a year Rusty's girlfriend married another man. A young white boy by the name of Andy had been abducted by the Comanches and was growing up with them until circumstances threw him together with Rusty and caused a real conflict for him as to whether he wanted to be an Indian or a White Man. You must read the book to find out ...