What do you think?
Rate this book
Silvertip
Silvertip
An urge for roaming and a chance meeting with the bandit Bandini put Silvertip on the trail that leads to Haverhill Valley, where he finds more action than he ever bargained for
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
10 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Max Brand
1,828 books136 followersFrederick Schiller Faust (see also Frederick Faust), aka Frank Austin, George Owen Baxter, Walter C. Butler, George Challis, Evin Evan, Evan Evans, Frederick Faust, John Frederick, Frederick Frost, David Manning, Peter Henry Morland, Lee Bolt, Peter Dawson, Martin Dexter, Dennis Lawson, M.B., Hugh Owen, Nicholas Silver
Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.
Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 1, 2012
Wow! I am so happy that I found these books by Max Brand. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, my first one, and I can't wait to read the next one. I haven't read any Westerns before and I now see why they are so liked. I am now a fan. Silvertip is an honest, loveable character. I hope you enjoy jumping into his world as much as I did.
June 29, 2022
On the strength of my first Max Brand book (The Untamed) I quickly read another; Silvertip. I did not find the same eerie atmosphere as in The Untamed, but I did find the same knack for storytelling, the same quality of writing and the same unique approach to the genre. Max Brand western stories seem to be all about the characters emotion and reaction to the situation they face. Max Brand writing style is definitely unique and very high quality for the genre. I was pulled into this story as in the first one by the author's unique approach to storytelling. I can't describe it properly, but once you start reading one of Max Brand Western, you will understand/experience what I mean. The author poetry aspiration really permeates in his storytelling and writing style. A classic western by definition, Silvertip ends up being more than that from the first couple of pages actually. As in The Untamed, Max Brand seems more concern with telling and good story than blowing the reader's mind with high action set pieces. If you have not yet read a Max Brand western, do yourself a favor and start now.
January 1, 2018
What I love about this western is the honor and integrity of the hero, Silvertip. He accidentally takes the life of someone who was young, who had not filled his purpose yet. He can’t undo that, but he can try to finish the young man’s purpose. He sets out to do just that. This is a book I really enjoyed, and I will probably read again someday.
November 16, 2015
Excellent western. Fast paced.
December 1, 2018
I almost quit reading, but I stuck it out to the end.
April 24, 2022
A very quick read - apparently one of the early entries in the Silvertip series. Silvertip finds himself drawn into a feud after accidentally killing someone.
Read
February 6, 2014Because a lot of Prologue Books are (or seem to be) from the post-World War II paperback boom and because I didn't know about Max Brand (1892-1944), I wrongly assumed this was a later work. Once I hit the last page and saw that this book was from 1933, it made a lot more sense. (Though I'm still a little unclear: is this the 1941 book version or the shorter 1933 magazine version?)
Which isn't to say that this is a bad book, only that if we put it into its pulp context, some of the choices here make more sense. For instance, the character of Silvertip is a classic larger-than-life, good-at-everything pulp hero. Good men want to be him (or be friends with him or take him as their son) and women want to be with him. There's no real subtlety about this, as the narrator and lots of secondary characters remark on how amazing he is:
"You'll never see such a man again, so good and so bad and so gentle and cruel and so much of everything that we love."
Once I stopped rolling my eyes at this fantasy figure (Conan in spurs), the story itself is short and action-packed: Silvertip is a wanderer, who accidentally kills a young man thanks to the machinations of his enemy Bandini; trying to make it up, he goes to the Mexican household of the young man and submits himself as proxy son to the old, vengeful Monterey, who has a feud with the corrupt gringo clan, the Drummons. Cue quest: Silvertip has to prove his loyalty and fulfill three tasks for Monterey: to put the Monterey brand on the Drummon's door, on the patriarch's forehead, and over his chest. But unlike the vengeance obsessed people of this valley, who don't value life, Silvertip is still heroic, going back to rescue a friend, recognizing the manliness of a temporary enemy and turning him into a friend, facing the traitor Bandini in single combat, etc.
It's all hokey, mythic fun. (I mean, a three-fold quest is pretty much straight out of fairytales and folklore.)
And while the Monterey daughter falls in love with Silvertip; and while she is occasionally regrettably described as half-American/half-Mexican, there's less cringeworthy moments here than you might expect from a 1930s book. No woman needs to be rescued, no one is threatened with rape, no character is reduced to a racial stereotype (or at least, the larger-than-life attributes are shared by everyone: everyone is passionate).
Which isn't to say that this is a bad book, only that if we put it into its pulp context, some of the choices here make more sense. For instance, the character of Silvertip is a classic larger-than-life, good-at-everything pulp hero. Good men want to be him (or be friends with him or take him as their son) and women want to be with him. There's no real subtlety about this, as the narrator and lots of secondary characters remark on how amazing he is:
"You'll never see such a man again, so good and so bad and so gentle and cruel and so much of everything that we love."
Once I stopped rolling my eyes at this fantasy figure (Conan in spurs), the story itself is short and action-packed: Silvertip is a wanderer, who accidentally kills a young man thanks to the machinations of his enemy Bandini; trying to make it up, he goes to the Mexican household of the young man and submits himself as proxy son to the old, vengeful Monterey, who has a feud with the corrupt gringo clan, the Drummons. Cue quest: Silvertip has to prove his loyalty and fulfill three tasks for Monterey: to put the Monterey brand on the Drummon's door, on the patriarch's forehead, and over his chest. But unlike the vengeance obsessed people of this valley, who don't value life, Silvertip is still heroic, going back to rescue a friend, recognizing the manliness of a temporary enemy and turning him into a friend, facing the traitor Bandini in single combat, etc.
It's all hokey, mythic fun. (I mean, a three-fold quest is pretty much straight out of fairytales and folklore.)
And while the Monterey daughter falls in love with Silvertip; and while she is occasionally regrettably described as half-American/half-Mexican, there's less cringeworthy moments here than you might expect from a 1930s book. No woman needs to be rescued, no one is threatened with rape, no character is reduced to a racial stereotype (or at least, the larger-than-life attributes are shared by everyone: everyone is passionate).
August 22, 2012
I feel bad giving this a 2-star, but really, those people who think romances are dramatic and over-the-top should read a few Westerns.
Silvertip kills an innocent man because he mistakes him for his arch enemy. To make up for it, he goes to the dead man's home and promised to "fulfill his future" or some such thing. Which he does, fairly simply, really. Of course, there is a beautiful girl, whom he leaves behind when he rides into the sunset because he doesn't deserve to have a happy life.
Beautiful descriptions, and very romantically (in the oldest sense of the word) written. But I almost giggled in very inappropriate places.
Silvertip kills an innocent man because he mistakes him for his arch enemy. To make up for it, he goes to the dead man's home and promised to "fulfill his future" or some such thing. Which he does, fairly simply, really. Of course, there is a beautiful girl, whom he leaves behind when he rides into the sunset because he doesn't deserve to have a happy life.
Beautiful descriptions, and very romantically (in the oldest sense of the word) written. But I almost giggled in very inappropriate places.
August 19, 2012
I haven't read a Max Brand novel since I was a teenager. I saw this one for free on Kindle and decided it wouldn't hurt to refresh myself with one of Brand's popular characters. Silvertip is the archetype cowboy hero. He's a mysterious loner and a wanderer. In this novel, he accidentally kills the son of a Mexican cattle baron. Silvertip makes a vow to the dead man to fulfill the man's mission in life. That mission turns out to be helping the cattle baron save his ranch and defeat a brutal rival who is slowly crushing the cattle baron.
It's a fun story that moves along well. I enjoyed it, though I still like Louis L'Amour westerns better.
It's a fun story that moves along well. I enjoyed it, though I still like Louis L'Amour westerns better.
November 18, 2012
A western novel about revenge and fulfilling a quest. The story line was fine, though the sentence structure was a bit simplistic at times. It was very convenient that there was a blood feud going on so that he could fulfill the quest of the young man he killed. And it was a bit off-putting that Silvertip allowed himself to be led into an obvious trap. This is the only western I've ever read by Max Brand, but I doubt I'll seek out any more. Louis Lamour is more my style.
The eBook was formatted OK. There were a couple of obvious spelling/punctuation errors that made it through the OCR and editing.
The eBook was formatted OK. There were a couple of obvious spelling/punctuation errors that made it through the OCR and editing.
August 23, 2012
This is my first western by Max Brand. I am used to the writing style of L'Amour and for some reason this Brand novel just didn't do it for me. Not that it was a bad story, just wasn't what I am used to in a western.
September 6, 2012
Pretty good, quick read. The hero is clearly a hero who was born under a wandering star. Very western in its story line and fun to read. Some predictability here as well as other books but interesting enough to read through to the end. I might read others by this author.
Read
October 29, 2008W Bra
February 22, 2013
Silvertip accidentally shoots a young man who is wearing an outlaws cape. Bandini set the young man and Silvertip vows to grack him down after finding the young man's family.
April 7, 2017
Not bad western novel.
August 4, 2015
started a bit slow. but moved onto.damn exciting western. I have read very few books by max brand. this was probably the best so far
May 6, 2016
read SOMETIME in 2001
Want to read
October 6, 2018Synopsis: Silvertip had meant to kill the cold-hearted Bandini, but a kid wearing Bandini's cape got it instead.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews