Comanche Moon

Lonesome Dove #4

by Larry McMurtry

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The second book of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove tetralogy, Comanche Moon takes us once again into the world of the American West.
Texas Rangers August McCrae and Woodrow Call, now in their middle years, continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life -- Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe, and Call with Maggie Tilton, the young whore who loves him.

Two proud but very different men, they enlist with the Ranger troop in pursuit of Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf, the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture.

Assisting the Rangers in their wild chase is the renowned Kickapoo tracker, Famous Shoes.
Comanche Moon closes the twenty-year gap between Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove, following beloved heroes Gus and Call and their comrades in arms -- Deets, Jake Spoon, and Pea Eye Parker -- in their bitter struggle to protect the advancing West frontier against the defiant Comanches, courageously determined to defend their territory and their way of life.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Historical, Audiobook, Classics

716 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Larry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."

Reviews

[Andy Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

In order of publication:

Lonesome Dove (1985) *****
Streets of Laredo (1993) ****
Dead Man's Walk (1995) ****
Comanche Moon (1997) ****

In order of internal chronology:

Dead Man’s Walk (set in 1842, when Gus and Call are 19 years old)
Comanche Moon (set in 1858, when the men are 35 years old)
Lonesome Dove (set in 1878, when the men are 55 years old)
Streets of Laredo (set in 1893, when Call is 70 years old)

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two ways to read the Lonesome Dove series, and they're analogous to the ways you can watch Star Wars. You can start with the first produced, which fall in the middle of the story chronologically, then read/watch to the end of the story, then loop back around and meet back in the middle. That's the way I chose to go. Or you can read/watch from the beginning of the story straight through to the end. (Star Wars: no way! Lonesome Dove: as you can see later on, this is close to the way to go.)

Order by Publication Date
Lonesome Dove (1985)
Streets of Laredo (1993)
Dead Man's Walk (1995)
Comanche Moon (1997)

Chronological Order
Dead Man's Walk
Comanche Moon
Lonesome Dove
Streets of Laredo

So this is the end of the line for me. No more Gus, no more Call. No more Deets or Pea Eye or Buffalo Hump or Blue Duck or any of the other characters with bizarre names.

I say all this because this would certainly be a different review if this was only the second book I read in the series. If I was only halfway through, I'd be pumped up to read the rest of the series. I wouldn't be able to wait to find what other picaresqueties the boys would ramble into.

As it is, though, this was a real let down of a finale. It went out with a whimper rather than a kaboom. Throughout the novel our heroes' plans are constantly foiled. They really didn't do much at all, besides ride out into the desert, either discover that their quest had been resolved by someone else or get so thirsty that they have to return to home base.

It's frustrating as a reader, because I've spent a lot of time with these dudes. I wanted to remember them as heroic, looming figures. This book did not present them as such. And that's probably the point. McMurtry rarely gives the reader what she wants. He stands second only to George RR Martin, slayer of people you love, in being able to create characters that feel real, and then spilling their brains out over the ground at the least expected moment.

McMurtry is also a great writer of Westerns because he knows that the heroes of his books are not truly heroes. Call and Gus are as flawed as anyone I've ever known. While you root for them, McMurtry's always making you keep in the back of your mind that these guys are pretty much taking part in a genocide. Their job is to suppress the "savages". That's not to say that the Indians are the good guys, either, but much of this book, even more than the others, is dedicated to the perspective of the Indian characters.

So it's safe to say that I'm ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, it did not give me the closure I wanted for a series end. On the other, it was a worthy continuation of McMurtry's bloody Western saga.

In light of this, I propose a new reading order for the books. Lonesome Dove is still the obvious starting point. It's the best and if you're only going to read one of them, it has to be this one. Then go back to the chronological beginning and read Dead Man's Walk, then Comanche Moon. Then go to the chronological end and read Streets of Laredo. It's good stuff, and a more fitting endpoint.

My Recommended Reading Order
Lonesome Dove
Dead Man's Walk
Comanche Moon
Streets of Laredo

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comanche Moon is the fourth and final entry in a franchise spun from Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize winning western Lonesome Dove. Published in 1997, a tone of finality is absent due to the story taking place fifteen to twenty years before the events of McMurtry's magnum opus. His protagonists--Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call--are serving in a company of Texas Rangers charged with protecting settlers along the Rio Grande from Mexican bandits and those on the plains from the Comanche Indians. The writing is superlative, while the necessity of the book and its length are self-indulgent, which may be exactly what hungry fans wanted. They get it.

The epic begins with the company cold, tired and dejected, pressing through sleet on the Llano Estacado under the command of Captain Inish Scull, a tough, adventurous Yankee nicknamed Old Nails due to his habit of picking his teeth with a horseshoe nail. In pursuit of the notorious Comanche horse thief Kicking Wolf, the men are instructed to cover the heads of their horses with sacking to keep the eyelids of their mounts from freezing. The taciturn, work dedicated Call is begged for some sacking by his friend Gus, a romantic idler who was too busy in a whore's tent before their dispatch to do much else but put on his pants.

Alerted to the rangers is the Comanche chief Buffalo Hump, a feared warrior whose oldest son was shot and killed by Call in the Brazos River, earning the ranger the name Gun-in-the-Water. The chief's surviving son, a Comanche-Mexican mongrel named Blue Duck, is as fearless as his father, but exercises none of the judgment, as quick to kill a friendly Kiowa as a Texan. Buffalo Hump criticizes his son for bringing him news rather than a scalp and declines to attack the rangers that Kicking Wolf is responsible for agitating. Attempting to bushwhack Gun-in-the-Water himself, Blue Duck is shot twice by Call and barely escapes. The ranger, merely doing his duty, holds little animosity.

Call had fought the Comanche as hard as any ranger, and yet, when he looked down at them through Captain Scull's glass, saw the women scraping hides and the young men racing their ponies, he felt the same contradictory itch of admiration he had felt the first time he had fought against Buffalo Hump. They were deadly, merciless killers, but they were also the last free Indians on the southern plains. When the last of them had been killed, or their freedom taken from them, their power broken, the plains around him would be a different place. It would be a safer place, or course, but a flavor would have been taken out of it--the flavor of wildness. Of course, it would be a blessing for the settlers, but the settlers weren't the whole story--not quite.

The troop break off their pursuit of Kicking Wolf and head south, where Scull entertains the notion of finding his other adversary: Ahumado, the barbarous Mexican bandit known as the Black Vaquero, who once shot and wounded the captain's magnificent steed Hector. When Kicking Wolf sneaks up on the rangers and steals Hector, Scull promotes Gus and Call to co-captain and instructs them to take the troop home. Scull takes off on foot with their eccentric Kickapoo scout Famous Shoes on a foolhardy adventure to retrieve his horse. Kicking Wolf, meanwhile, decides to deliver his trophy south of the border as a gift to the Black Vaquero in a test of his courage.

In Austin, Gus reunites with his sweetheart, sharp tongued shopkeeper Clara Forsythe, only to learn that her days of waiting on him have ended with her decision to marry a horse trader from North Dakota. Call has a woman, a whore named Maggie Tilton who is carrying his child, but the captain resists all overtures to settle down or even pay Maggie much attention. Captain Scull's rich and flagrant wife Inez takes a break from devouring any able-bodied man in sight to complain to the governor that her husband has abandoned her. Captains McCrae and Call are given orders to go in search of their captain, acquiring one-thousand head of cattle in a ransom to the Black Vaquero.

Joining the expedition is Pea Eye Parker (a scarecrow who Call once rescued from starvation and has become the company's farrier), Joshua Deets (an escaped slave promoted from company cook to tracker) and Jake Spoon (a teenage fop much cozier around women and cards than rangering). Their journey takes them into a border encampment called Lonesome Dove whose potential for variety prove more tempting to Gus than locating their wayward captain. Call feels that rangering offers variety: freezing on the plains and getting scalped by Comanches one week, sweltering in Mexico and getting shot by bandits the next. Besides, there's work left to do.

"Buffalo Hump's held the plains ever since we've been rangers," Call pointed out. "We've never whipped him. And Ahumado's held the border--we've never whipped him either. We can't protect the plains or the border either--that's poor work in my book."

"Woodrow, you're the worst I've ever known for criticizing yourself," Gus said. "We've never rangered with more than a dozen men at a time. Nobody could whip Buffalo Hump or Ahumado with a dozen men."

Call knew that was true, but it didn't change his feeling. The Texas Rangers were supposed to protect settlers on the frontier, but they hadn't. The recent massacres were evidence enough that they weren't succeeding on their job.

"You ought to give up and open a store, if you feel that low about it," Augustus suggested. "There's a need for a store, now that the Forsythes are dead. You could marry Mag while you're at it and be comfortable."

"I don't want to run a store or marry either," Call said. "I'd just like to feel that I'm worth the money I'm paid."

"No, what you want is to take a big scalp," Gus said. "Buffalo Hump's or Ahumado's. That's what you want. Me, I'd take the scalp too, but I don't figure it would change much."

"If you kill the jefe it might change something," Call argued.

"No, because somebody else just as mean will soon come along," Gus said.

"Well, we rarely agree," Call said.

"No, but let's go to Mexico anyway," Augustus said. "I'm restless. Let's just saddle up and go tonight. There's a fine moon. Without the boys to slow us down we could make forty miles by morning."

Call felt tempted. He and Augustus at least knew one another's competencies. They would probably fare better alone.

One hundred pages into Comanche Moon, Larry McMurtry became one of my favorite authors. His ability to introduce characters quickly and invest me in them emotionally is bar none. My favorite is a tie between Maggie Tilton, the Austin harlot stoic in the face of not only a Comanche attack, but neglect by the only man she'll ever love, and Famous Shoes, the wily Kickapoo who is the only man on the llano respected by both Buffalo Hump and McCrae & Call. In addition to the wonderful characters, McMurtry's dialogue is like slipping into the banter between old friends while his prose achieves illuminates the bygone world of the American frontier with both wit and introspection.

"What are you doing here?" Buffalo Hump asked, when Famous Shoes walked up. "Your white friends were here but now they have gone south."

"Your son made me come," Famous Shoes replied. "He came with these other boys and made me come. I was on the Canadian, eating a duck. I would not have bothered you if these boys had let me alone. They said you might want to torture me for awhile."

Buffalo Hump was amused. The Kickapoo was an eccentric person who was apt to turn up anywhere on the llano on some outlandish errand that no other Indian would bother about. The man would walk a thousand miles to listen to a certain bird whose call he might want to mimic. Most people thought Famous Shoes was crazy, but Buffalo Hump didn't. Though a Kickapoo, the man had respect for the old ways. He behaved like the old ones behaved; the old ones, too, would go to any lengths to learn some useful fact about the animals or the birds. They would figure that someone might need to know those facts; they themselves might not need to, but their children might, or their grandchildren might.

If spending more time with compelling characters and magnificent prose is justification for itself, then Comanche Moon does that. The novel has an episodic, wandering quality to it, with the author like a tourist in Westworld who just isn't ready to leave the resort yet and wants to cowboy a bit more. The longer the novel goes on, and it goes on for 716 pages, the lack of strong narrative becomes more problematic and I even started skipping through paragraphs once the Mexican adventure was settled. Epic-itis is a bug that afflicts this series and I kept wondering whether a novel that was more focused on story would've had a greater impact on me.

Lonesome Dove cast a long shadow over television, where all four novels were adapted (by Larry McMurtry, or McMurtry & Diana Ossana) and new casts utilized for the characters at different ages. Comanche Moon became a CBS mini-series in 2008 with Steve Zahn as Gus, Karl Urban as Call, Linda Cardellini as Clara Forsythe, Elizabeth Banks as Maggie Tilton, Val Kilmer as Inish Scull, Rachel Griffiths as Inez Scull, Wes Studi as Buffalo Hump and Adam Beach as Blue Duck. Lonesome Dove has made its case for being as mesmerizing a universe for some book and movie lovers as Middle Earth is to others.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is with sadness that I close the last book in the Lonesome Dove series as it will be difficult to say good-bye once more to Texas Rangers, Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae. The previous books, Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, and Dead Man’s Walk filled out the saga of Woodrow Call, Gus McCrae, Pea Eye, Clara, Deets, Newt, Jake Spoon and Blue Duck. Comanche Moon captures much of the magic of Lonesome Dove beginning shortly before the Civil War when Texas was still a struggling territory and the Comanches, although weakening in their numbers and power, were still a force to be dealt with.

In Comanche Moon Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae are young Texas Rangers on the trail of Kicking Wolf, a Comanche who has been leading raids against white settlers. They are led by Inish Scull, an eccentric captain with a flair for literature and the Greek language. However, after Kicking Wolf steals Scull’s beloved war horse, the captain takes out on foot leaving his rangers in a lurch. Scull is eventually captured by Ahumado, the Black Vaquero who has been terrorizing northern Mexico and southern Texas stealing horses and cattle as well as kidnapping and torturing people he has captured. In the aftermath Call and McCrae are promoted to captain and charged by the governor to find Scull and pay a ransom of 1000 head of cattle to Ahumado. It is while attempting to put together a herd of cattle, that the rangers first come across Lonesome Dove, a couple of run-down adobe buildings and a saloon housed in a tent and run by a French couple with champagne and crystal glasses.

One of the highlights of Comanche Moon is glimpses of the Comanche camps, namely that of Buffalo Hump as he leads a massive raid against Austin while the rangers are absent. Blue Duck, his son, also has a prominent role in the book. It is also in this book that one is enlightened about the early relationship between Gus and Clara as well as Woodrow and Maggie, and her son, Newt. This final book in the Lonesome Dove saga is a fitting end, a magical piece of the early American West told as only Larry McMurtry can do.

“Whites and Mexicans both—but particularly Mexicans—had come to fear the fall, when the great yellow harvest moon shone. Along the old war trail the moon of the fall was called the ‘Comanche moon’; for longer than anyone could remember it had been under the generous light of the fall moon that the Comanches had struck deep into Mexico, to kill and loot and bring back captives.”

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

My reading of this book coincided with the buildup and actual occurrence and aftermath of Tropical Storm Debby. Not much wind to worry about, but it sat on top of our area for days and dumped massive amounts of water on us. It rained and rained and rained, then rained some more. My part of town did not flood, but roads were closed and going out and about was not an option. Just thanking my lucky stars that I love to read and was reading this 700 pager; it kept me entertained and happy to be riding again with Call and Gus, fighting commanches and keeping up with some favorite characters from Lonesome Dove.

The interesting thing about reading this one was that the setting was about 15 years before the events in Lonesome Dove, so I got the backstory of Gus and Clara, Maggie the whore and Call, and little Newt; their son, but never acknowledged by Call. Deets and Pea Eye and Jake were all young, new to the Rangers. There were plenty of Cheyenne to fight in Texas, which kept them all busy, plenty of liquor to drink to keep Gus happy and one particularly nasty Mexican bandit to deal with as well. It was nice to read about all this without worrying that a favorite character might be killed, since they all turned up in Lonesome Dove later. McMurtry wrote Lonesome Dove first, then went back and filled in the blanks with this book and two others. Reading backwards went well for me here, so I'm sure I'll get to Dead Man's Walk soon, as that takes us even further back to when Call and Gus first joined the Texas Rangers as 19 year olds.

McMurtry uses these men to paint a picture of the West as it was in the mid-1800's, not forgetting to show us the ways and lives of the Indian warriors they were fighting, in this case mainly the Cheyenne. The great chief Buffalo Hump was a respected fighter who we got to know here, whose exiled half-breed son Blue Duck shows up in an important way in Lonesome Dove.

Was this novel as good as Lonesome Dove? No, but since GR won't let me give that one the 10 stars it deserves, this also gets a 5 star from me. It kept me involved during a 5 day rain event so that has to count for something. And can any book that has Gus McCrae as a main character be bad? Not hardly.

Note to self: Stock up on more over 500 page books for the next "weather event", because we all know they are coming!

[Edward Gwynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love Larry McMurty's writing. Phenomenal book.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Comanche Moon, Larry McMurtry has a deep sense of his characters and what they might do at any given moment. This often leads to scenes that ring true for the characters, but don't advance the narrative, or, indeed, subvert the narrative drive. This sprawling novel is not one of plot. It is one of detail, and character-driven meandering.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final book McMurtry wrote in the Lonesome Dove series, coming 2nd in the chronology (Dead Man's Walk -> Comanche Moon -> Lonesome Dove -> Streets of Laredo.)
In Comanche Moon, we seem to be about a decade beyond the events in Dead Man's Walk with Gus and Call both Captains in the Texas Rangers running missions into the llano and in Mexico against new bad guy Ahumado "The Black Vaquero" and old bad guys Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf and Blue Duck. I felt this one started out strong and sort of petered out at the end. It felt as if he had a few plot points he needed to cover, but wasn't sure how to stretch his story and his character arcs to cover them. I did enjoy the episodes with Ahumado, the new character Inish Scull (although I was disappointed at his small cameo at the end), and the character Famous Shoes. Gus and Call are, well, Gus and Call and it was nice to meet Maggie as she turned out to be a fully fleshed-out character. It was also interesting that some of the harsh realities of frontier life (such as Indian raids and the rejection by surviving husbands of their raped wives) are depicted with unflinching realism. It was also interesting to see the Civil War as viewed from Texas with both protagonists avoiding to take sides.
I gave this one four stars because of the strong first half of the book, but it falls short of Lonesome Dove by a longshot while being an improvement over Dead Man's Walk. Now onto Streets of Laredo.

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Just go due south to the Rio Grande and turn left. You’ll eventually come to Lonesome Dove.”


Though the final book of Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove series, chronologically Comanche Moon immediately precedes Lonesome Dove. It sets up the backstories of the relationships in that initial book, both the romantic entanglements of our heroes Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae, as well as their friendships. It follows the pair from the mission where they were initially made captains in the Texas Rangers, through their original discovery of the tiny settlement of Lonesome Dove, and on into what is implied to be their last days as Rangers.

Yet Comanche Moon is far more than that. It is an epic of the final years of the wild Texas frontier. McMurtry allows us to see it from multiple angles, not just Gus and Woodrow’s. He shows us what it looked like for the women they left behind (Clara and Maggie), how it was experienced by the Indians (Famous Shoes, Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf, and Blue Duck), and even puts us inside the head of a pathologically sadistic border bandit who seems more legend than man (Ahumado). Together, these character, their perspectives and stories take up more of the book than do Call and McCrea.

Comanche Moon isn’t short on action, from daring Comanche horse raids, seemingly senseless and suicidal acts of valor, murderous bandito cruelty, and a massive, full scale Comanche raid. It’s also full of lusty bawdiness (mostly thanks to the hot tempered Inez Scull) and a plethora of humor, thanks to Gus, the eccentric Captain Inish Scull, and the ignorance and naïveté of several of the Rangers. Yet for all the action, there’s an overwhelming sense of futility. The Rangers repeatedly ride out on missions that accomplish nothing or next to nothing, while even in their fiercest actions the Indians are keenly aware that their’s is a rearguard fight in a war already lost.

The true brilliance of this book is its memorable characters who pull you in to their perspectives, capture your imagination, and make you fully identify with them as you read, even though their world view may be diametrically opposed to that of the characters you were following in the previous chapter. Though they may feel legendary (Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf), or ridiculously eccentric (Inish and Inez Scull), and whether they be tracker, Ranger, or lovelorn whore, McMurtry brings out their essential humanity, captures your sympathies, and makes you believe them real.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
The second chronologically in the Lonesome Dove series, but the last one to be written.
“See this page of paper? It’s blank,” Scull said. “That, sir, is the most frightening battlefield in the world: the blank page. I mean to fill this paper with decent sentences, sir—this page and hundreds like it. Let me tell you, Colonel, it’s harder than fighting Lee. Why, it’s harder than fighting Napoleon. It requires unremitting attention,”
“I suppose she's just dying of living--that's the one infection that strikes us all down, sooner or later.”
This is better than the first in the series. Mc Murtry does build characters well and like Martin in Game of Thrones, has no compunction in killing them off if he needs to. Call and McCrae although present throughout are not the standout characters (Inish Scull manages that). However the ongoing relationship between them is interesting. McMurtry indicates it is straight from Don Quixote; the juxtaposition between the visionary and the practical.
Beatriz Fernandez, in a PhD looking at masculinity in McMurtry and James Welch’s portrayal of the West makes the following rather interesting comment about Call’s character:
“He is the epitome of the Westerner, a Christian by birth who has adopted Christian aesthetics but has rejected Christian religion: an Indian by choice who unconsciously imitates the former’s pose and character but rejects Native American pantheism and the belief in the individual as part of a wider totality. Lack of spiritual and emotional anchors inevitably lead the Westerner to his death.”
The timeline covers the 1850s and 1860s, though it is a little fuzzy. The time period covers the expansion led by settlers and encroachment onto Indian lands; the decline and death of a way of life and the struggles and conflict that surround it.
But what of the representation of the Comanche. How far have we come since John Wayne said the following?
"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Indians], if that's what you're asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
Was there any moving on from the colonial framing of Indian savagery? McMurtry does try to focus on spirituality and connection to the land and its animals. There is some subtlety in the character of Buffalo Hump, much less in Blue Duck, but it could be argued that he was taking on some of the characteristics of the settlers. There is, I feel a sense that the Native American is either homicidal or spiritual with not much in between. It may be an improvement on John Wayne as quoted above, but the portrayal made me uneasy and made me wonder whether there are any other narratives from a Native American source.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

If a reader wishes to read the Lonesome Dove series in chronological order:

1.Dead Man's Walk (1995)
2.Comanche Moon (1997)
3.Lonesome Dove (1985)
4.Streets of Laredo (1993)

I read the series in publishing order. I'm sorry I did since the anticipation of what would happen quite disappeared during my reading of 'Comanche Moon', the last book for me. If one reads in chronological order, readers watch the two main characters, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, change from callow and inexperienced young men into seasoned and tough Texas Rangers and beyond, into old age. But that doesn't mean I am sad about reading the novels in a more mixed up timeline at all. Instead, I am sad there are no more than four books in this series. Every character in the books is fascinating, and many are based on real life people of the time. But whether the books' characters are invented or composites or real individuals of historical repute, they are all awesome and memorable.

'Lonesome Dove' won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In my opinion, it completely deserved to win. The other three novels are small moons accompanying the huge shining star of 'Lonesome Dove', but that said, every book has broken my heart by the last page. 'Comanche Moon' is no exception. Each novel depicts the end of some aspect of the wildness of the American West. It is not hyperbolic to say the overall arc of this series is about the death of the Wild West as it was in the mid-19th-century America.

Western life as portrayed in these novels is harsh and deadly for many, yet it is as fascinating as watching a building on fire for those characters who survived its terrors and hardships as well as for us, gentle reader.

The Indian tribes, Mexican and American adventurers - all were drawn to the quiet beauty and challenge of conquering the vast spaces and empty lands of what we know today as Texas and the surrounding llanos and deserts. Those who loved warfare, adventures and lawlessness thrived in these lands - until they didn't. Usually age, disease, accident or a tougher, faster, luckier warrior bested them. Others died from ignorance of living in a land without much water, or because of a lack of knowledge of plants or how to hunt animals. Tracking, shooting, living off of the land and knowing horses was a must. Physical weakness of any kind was a death sentence. But many men and women were strangely attracted to the challenges in surviving these life-and-death dramas. These were not people who contained themselves wholly within the civilized boundaries of social niceties or accepted and usual moral certainties. They couldn't be and live. Some never knew social boundaries of any kind. However, the individual human mind is a strange labyrinth of hopes, desires and dreams as the author Larry McMurtry vividly reveals through his characters. A lot of outcomes are not predictable when people are permitted to live off the leash as Westerners could.

The toughest American Rangers, ranchers and settlers killed off even tougher Indians and Mexicans, and vice versa, while at the same time acquiring the experience and necessary knowledge of how to survive there in the western territories. The mapping of unexplored lands and the building of primitive small towns inevitably reduced the dangers for less violent and less adaptable eastern folks, who began to invade the Wild West in large numbers. This was the end of the West which author Larry McMurtry brings into breathing reality in these novels. It was both a wonderful and terrible era. However, civilization and its mores was standing by and eager to move in.

I am going to miss Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, Texas Rangers extraordinaire, in more ways than I can say. Somehow author Larry McMurtry has made these two characters and all of their friends and enemies, particularly the fierce and terrible Comanche, be as dear to me as the beats of my heart.

[Christopher Febles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae return in another soulful adventure. They’re grizzled veterans of the Texas Rangers now, in the “middle years.” Their main job is to fend off attacks from the raiding Comanches. But one day, the Governor asks them to locate Inish Scull, their errant Captain who goes off into the Mexican jungles to find…his horse.



But that’s just one of the many capers on which Call and Gus find themselves. They also waver around love and loss, raise up new Rangers, seek out bands of robbing renegades, and talk about their own existence, in their own Western way.

Yes, indeed: it’s Western fare at its finest. Plenty of gunfights, raids, and long, LONG trips to the barren llano. Some wild happenings as well with Scull, and we get a lot more perspective from the Comanches and Kickapoo themselves. For whatever reason, the balance that tilts toward third-person description (and away from dialogue) seems to work. I was deeply vested in what each character was thinking. That said, the dialogue is realistic and snappy.

Also, there’s a plot, but it’s a wandering one. Finding Scull, as I mentioned, is just one direction it takes, and it’s hard to say when it’s actually completed. In fact, I think it’s the point that Call and McCrae go on long voyages risking their lives but sometimes don’t achieve the objective. I found a little existential, Waiting for Godot quality about that.

Loved the contrast between Call and McCrae, too. The classic achiever/slacker, straight arrow/bent arrow, yin/yang trope. I really like them a lot.

I also loved the deep look into the actions, sights, and even thoughts of the Native American characters. I was astounded by the detail and depth. In fact, the closing of the frontier seems to loom by the end of the novel. And we know what Buffalo Hump (a real person!) and Kicking Wolf and others thought about it. Also, as you might expect, an incredible look at the West as it no longer exists. Brilliant! McMurtry REALLY did his homework!

Speaking of homework, one trigger warning I might have is torture. Good Lord, it was gruesome. Especially at the hands of Ahumado the “Black Vaquero”: yeesh! Might be enough for some of you to turn back, so approach carefully. Also, treatment of women: poor. That said, he makes for strong characters in Maggie, Clara, and in a funny way, Inez Scull. Of course, it was the time in history, and McMurtry doesn’t hold back in presenting these elements: I suppose it would detract from the accuracy.

This is the Western, pards. I reckon it’s worth a gander.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 2nd chronologically and the last published of the Lonsome Dove series. An epic in its own right, picking up the story for Gus and Call, now seasoned Rangers, it also acts as the precursor to Lonsome Dove, introducing the supporting characters that will continue on into the next book and providing more depth to their pasts. It also provides more of an even handed balance of the native Americans - while still casting them as brutal killers, it at least tries to humanise them to some degree. Long, brutal and elegiac.

[Carol Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given that this book is the final volume in the LONESOME DOVE series, (the last one written, but second in the series time line) I was surprised at just how enjoyable and poignant it really was. Where to begin?

Buffalo Hump, Buffalo Hump, Buffalo Hump! This magnificent warrior is not only a devastating action hero in dozens of scorching battle scenes, he's also a tragic hero worthy of Shakespeare.

Just like Shakespeare's kings, the last great Comanche chief is surrounded by legend and mystery. Like Richard III, he has a humped back which is both sinister and a sign of supernatural powers. Eerie prophecies surround him. Just as Macbeth can never be defeated till Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane, Buffalo Hump can only be killed when his mighty hump is pierced.

And just like Gloucester in KING LEAR, Buffalo Hump's doom is spelled out in the form of a bastard son -- the result of a sinful past he can never escape. Or as Blue Duck puts it at the end, "the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make means to plague us."

The Comanche side of the story was worth the price of the book alone. The father-son conflict between Buffalo Hump and his son Blue Duck is literally Shakespearean, with enormous intensity and passion. As the son of a Mexican woman Buffalo Hump brutally raped, Blue Duck is a symbol of tragic retribution, and the destruction he brings on Buffalo Hump is chilling and inevitable.

But Blue Duck is more than just a bad son like Edmund in KING LEAR. He is also a symbol of change. As hateful as he can be, Blue Duck does what no other Comanche warrior in this series does. He sees the destruction of his people as an opportunity rather than a catastrophe. Instead of refusing to adapt and giving in to suicidal despair, (like his father, and Three Birds, and Idahi) Blue Duck actually adjusts to changing conditions. He fights better with pistols and rifles than with the bow or the lance, and he leads an army of white drifters rather than native warriors. Blue Duck's story is almost frighteningly intense. He grows from a boastful adolescent to a proven warrior to a terrifying menace, losing his humanity by such small degrees that he isn't even aware of it.

On the other hand, the story of the Texans is not told so well. Captain Scull and his sexy wife Inez are both annoying cartoon characters in the book, and McMurtry dances around the issue of slavery without ever confronting it directly. Making Inez Scull crazy and vicious is a way of subverting the myth of the angelic southern belle without really challenging it. And it also takes all the guilt off of Gus and Jake for their whoring around, as if somehow her vileness cancels out theirs. I didn't buy it. A lot. But I was rooting for Buffalo Hump and Blue Duck anyway, along with their friends Idahi, Three Birds, and Kicking Wolf.

Those guys are the heart of COMANCHE MOON. And that's the way it should be!

[Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

the long rough story of the Comanche

This is a long book. About as long as Lonesome Dove. There are many plots and subplots, but it basically begins with the Comanche free and proud and able to terrorize whoever they wish to terrorize. By the end of the book the day of the free Comanche has come to an end and their era is over.

McMurtry is an accomplished writer and the main river of his tale of the Comanche tribe in the 1850s and 60s flows powerfully forward despite its many tributaries (the other plots). I only wish I had not had to wade through reams of pages about torture and Comanche trying to devise new and vicious ways of causing more pain to humans and animals. It was enough to talk about this once not a dozen times. Less is more. I know he has done his research and the cruelty was the way it was, but it did not need to be spelled out in lurid detail over and over again.

A strong story yet it’s an exhausting story too. Chronologically, this is the second book in the quartet about Woodrow Call and Gus McRae. The next is the famous Lonesome Dove itself.

This novel can be read by some, but not by all.

[Fred Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

One reviewer commented that a lover of westerns would only need to read one series: The Lonesome Dove novels consisting of Dead Man’s Walk, Comanche Moon, Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo. All written by Larry McMurtry. I totally agree. Be prepared to sit on the edge of your seat, laugh and cry.

[Alexw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the prequal to Lonesome Dove where the immortal literary characters of young Woodrow & Gus are still filled with the devil may care attitude. That attitude radically changes when they get a battlefield promotion to Captains & have to look out for the welfare of their fellow Texas Rangers, which leads to their grizzled wily attitudes in the later Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove.
Throw in the backgrounds of Blue Duck, Deets, Newt & Jake Spoon for a thoroughly engrossing read.
Would have preferred about 60 pages less of the horrific torture of one Ranger.

[Ms.pegasus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The full moon was a harbinger of death to the settlers on the Texas frontier – the Comanche welcomed it's light to guide their fearsome nighttime raids. This is a book about death – the contemplation of endings rather than beginnings. McMurtry, in this prequel to LONESOME DOVE, seizes the opportunity to present a historical context, rather than merely a backstory, to his Pulitzer Prize winning story of Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae. He peoples it with a host of memorable characters: Capt. Inish Scull of the Austin Texas Rangers, the Kickapoo scout Famous Shoes, the sly and silent horse thief Kicking Wolf, the great Comanche war chief Buffalo Hump, and his vicious son Blue Duck. The story begins in the 1850's. It straddles a mere 2 decades – a generation that sees the extermination of the southern buffalo herds, the last struggle of the Comanche to push back the demarcation line of white settlers, the collapse of traditional culture after decimation from smallpox and cholera in the previous decade, and finally, the realization that a way of life has come to an end. As befitting its significance, McMurtry spreads his story across three books with multiple plot lines: Scull's pursuit of one final adventure seeking out the sadistic Ahumado; Buffalo Hump's final assault on white settlements; and Blue Duck's vengeful violence.

We look back on the period with mixed feelings today. The West is symbolic of American courage and self-reliance, but also of genocide on a massive scale. It's difficult to imagine what kinds of people sought lives on the frontier. It's difficult to imagine life in a warrior culture such as the Comanche, or a life so completely dependent on chance. McMurtry skillfully imbues his characters with the emotions and temperament consistent with the violence and haphazard outcomes of the period, but permits them to speak and think in unique voices. I particularly loved the musings of Famous Shoes. Guiding Call and McCrae in their pursuit of Blue Duck, he encounters an ominous white owl – not characteristic of that part of the country. “Famous Shoes realized then, when he heard Captain McCrae's casual and cheerful tone, that it was as he had always believed, which was that it was no use talking to white men about serious things.”(p.741). The real courage of these characters is to be found in the attitude of unflinching acceptance of reality. In Capt. Call that attitude solidifies in a stoicism so deep it enables his survival. By silencing his inner emotions, he is able to channel his senses to the most subtle signals of impending danger. In Buffalo Hump it is the understanding that the buffalo herds will never return. Even Maggie understands: “There was no changing men – not much, anyway; mainly men stayed the way they were, no matter what women did.” (p.241)

McMurtry mines his wealth of historical knowledge effectively. The prophet Worm reveals an unsettling dream to his traveling companion Buffalo Hump: Thousands of squealing horses – they are squealing because they are being killed. It is a premonition of a sombre event. In 1874 over a thousand Comanche horses were captured and slaughtered in the battle of Palo Duro Canyon at Ranald MacKenzie's command. His reasoning was that the Commanche would steal the horses back, so he had them killed. McMurtry is a disciplined writer. Despite the violence and sadness, he never lapses into sentimentality.

Most readers will approach this book after having read LONESOME DOVE. In contrast, it is a more sprawling narrative. Call and McCrae are part of an ensemble of interesting characters, and there is less narrative focus. The implicit comparison was always in the back of my mind. I missed that sense of forward momentum and wonder if anyone has approached this book without having read LONESOME DOVE first.

Gr 1/4/13

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is chronologically the second book and that’s how I’m going through them, even though he seems to have written them in a relatively confusing order (I know Lonesome Dove was the first, but I have no idea what came when after that.) I definitely liked it more than Dead Man’s Walk! I think it has to do with the fact that we get a little more time to settle into the characters and also get a little bit of town living, whereas the first one was just Gus and Call trekking through a violent, harsh wasteland for 400 or whatever pages. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a metric fuckton of walking and dying in the desert this book, but it’s relieved by scenes in Austin and even Lonesome Dove’s first appearance in the series.

I really have no idea what the plot of this one was. It’s more like a few shorter novels about the same characters packed into one big book. Most of it consists of Gus and Call in their time as Texas Rangers patrolling the Comancheria in the pursuit of the same few dudes (Kicking Wolf and the mighty Buffalo Hump and his shithead son Blue Duck, all from Dead Man’s Walk and the new baddie Ahumado.) Joining them are a few familiar characters including Deets, Pea Eye Parker and Long Bill Coleman. This sounds kinda boring on paper but when the characters are as lovingly rendered as these are and when some horribly violent shit could befall anyone at any them it keeps the pages turning...which is necessary with a book with 800 pages.

I should really say that horribly violent shit could befall them or they could perpetrate it. One of the major themes that McMurtry is pushing is the plain hardness of this time and place. On one end of the spectrum you have guys like Ahumado who have personal flayers that do all kinds of horrid shit to people and on the other you have the clear and inarguable good guys Gus and Call, who lead ranger troops that kill women and children. (Okay that part was clearly an accident but it’s not like they noticeably felt bad or gave a shit, they were just like “Whoops, gotta go kill Blue Duck!”) Tragedy is common and a lot of the time not even that big of a deal. As much dramatic stuff happens in these books you could never call it melodrama because it’s everyday life. Speaking of melodrama, I really quickly just wanna give the shoutout to Inish and Inez Scull as the legendary-and-legendarily-dysfunctional power couple of this series.

So I’m finally up to the big one, the original and the legend; Lonesome Dove. Thing is, I kinda just wanna skip to Streets of Laredo because I’ve seen the miniseries with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones probably fifty times. It’d be one thing if it was like three or four hundred pages but that motherfucker looks longer than this one and I already have a billion brick-size historical novels I wanna read. Anyways, I happily recommend this series to people with an interest in old west fiction, but I just gotta warn you to clear your calendars because the pace of these books can be about five miles above glacial at points. You really have to enjoy the setting and the characters and spending time with them.

[Zach Reads Fantasy · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ║ A sweeping tale of the 19th century Texas frontier and a compelling study of some of McMurtry’s most unforgettable characters. Comanche Moon fills the gap between Dead Man’s Walk and Lonesome Dove and cements the Lonesome Dove series as one of the great American epics.

I love seeing Gus and Call in their middle years, hardened but not yet mythic. This journey matters far more than the destination, especially since McMurtry intentionally ends it with a sense of incompleteness to lead straight into Lonesome Dove. The plot does not unfold linearly. Instead, it meanders through the years of these characters’ lives in an episodic way, showing us the brutal realities of the times. It all works beautifully, giving us time inside a remarkable cast of characters filling both major and minor roles. McMurtry’s prose is simple but rich with rhythm and repetition that makes everything feel utterly authentic to the era. The old West here is vicious and bleak, defined by the erosion of basic human dignity and order. The narrative also weaves in events surrounding the American Civil War. It all adds up to a masterclass in epic historical fiction.

Overall, Comanche Moon is a dark, immersive, and deeply human prequel to one of my favorite books. It felt the most similar to Lonesome Dove in style and structure and is almost certainly my second favorite entry in the tetralogy. I’m now finished with McMurtry’s grand saga of the American West and can’t wait to reread it one day.

The Lonesome Dove Saga by Larry McMurtry
Book 1: Lonesome Dove 5/5
Book 2: Streets of Laredo 5/5
Book 3 (prequel): Dead Man's Walk 4/5
Book 4 (prequel): Comanche Moon 5/5

Chronological order: Dead Man's Walk, Comanche Moon, Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo

[Tyler McGaughey · Rating 4 out of 5]

By far the best of the Lonesome Dove sequels, and, for the first 2/3rds, the most purely exciting McMurtry novel I've read. It's a very typical McMurtry book, too, circling in on many of those same themes and character types that pop up in much of his fiction and nonfiction: meaningless, unromantic sex in the arid desolation of Texas; the fundamental inability of many men and women to understand each other, despite each being inherently sensible; the closing, or taming, of the American West; Maggie Tilton, seen here for the first time as a full-bodied character, as a kind of version of The Last Picture Show's Ruth Popper, one hundred years earlier in time. In addition, there are some great supporting characters, particulary the insane East Coast/Old South transplants Inish and Inez (Dolly) Scull; I'd call Inish's storyline, with the on-foot trek to Mexico to retrieve his stolen horse and subsequent crazy-ass survival narrative, the best B-plot in the series.

[Dan Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second in the famed Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove tetralogy. Filled with unforgettable characters and unspeakable actions. The book is a trilogy unto itself, following the Texas Ranger heroes and unlikely friends Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae.

Unfortunately, the romantic elements of this novel (which left alone outside of the tetralogy are memorable) suffer from consistency when compared to the third volume of the series (which was the first written).

Still, we are introduced to characters we have loved and hated from the key novel of Lonesome Dove - Deets, Pea Eye, and Jake Spoon, and find out what happens to characters we came to love in the first novel (Dead Man's Walk).

Even without the inconsistency, this novel is an example of how great a writer McMurtry is, at least in character development.

[The Face of Your Father · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undoubtedly (for me) the weakest of the four books in this fantastic series that focuses on man’s loosening grip on the cliffside of a country’s evolution. However, there wasn’t a single point of this 800 epic where I was displeased, amazing flow with unforgettable characters that feel like a hand on your shoulder when guidance is needed. This “conclusion” has more in common with a greeting rather than a salute and I found that to be wonderful and hopeful despite knowing what lies over yonder in a future far too understood.

Side note: amazing new characters, Captain Inish Scull; the captain who quotes Greek philosophy and takes a joy in retelling the tales of Hannibal while on the prowl for thieving horse burglars and Mexican torturers from his past. All while being a literal cuckold at home as his wife chooses his rangers for lovers: all with his knowledge and arguable approval. And Inez Scull; said wife who cares not for public opinion and is down for a poke from any young man with curly hair and a good “pizzle” A mixture of loathed companionship and an implied dance of voyeurism. Good shit.
Overall, it doesn’t have the shift of literary tectonic plates of Lonesome Dove, the crushing finality of Streets of Laredo, or the experimental surrealism of Dead Man’s Walk but goddammit it’s still Gus and Call.

My official ranking:
Lonesome Dove - Five stars
Streets of Laredo - a reevaluated five stars. Made me cry.
Dead Man’s Walk - Four stars Streets
Comanche Moon - Four stars but like a 4b. Just under Dead Man’s.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second best of the series. I'm ready to read lonesome dove again now! I love Gus n Calls adventures, wrestle with what's right and all the people the meet along with way. This installment had a lot from the Comanche characters which really added to the story. While I have no idea the accuracy of the depictions it fits the classic western movie nostalgia

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Same characters, but less skillfully crafted than 'Lonesome Dove'. The story-line is predictable and McMurtry dwells too much on gratuitous violence which at times borders on the sadistic. The last 200 pages were more torturous than McMurtry's two-dimensional Indians and mostly loped ponderously to an ending (or a beginning considering that this is a prequel to 'Lonesome Dove') that all readers could see coming like a thunder-storm across the Great Plains. Also, one wonders if the character of Inez is McMurtry's attempt to write a 'strong' female character. If so, he failed miserably.

[Mike Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every book in this series is great. Lonesome Dove is a cut above, but this one is probably my second favorite of the bunch. It’s got everything you want in a western and fills in all the pieces of the greater story nicely.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comanche Moon is the second book in the "Lonesome Dove" series, and it continues to provide the back story on the lives of Woodrow Call, Augustus McCrae, and several other major characters. I really enjoyed getting to know Call and Gus better, and to see the events that hardened them into the men that shined in the third, and in my opinion, the best book, Lonesome Dove.

Compared to the first book, Dead Man's Walk, I thought Call and Gus were older, more seasoned, and even less fearful of the Comanches. I also thought Gus showed a lot more of his banter that I enjoyed so much in Lonesome Dove. There were numerous scenes that brought a smile to my face and one where I literally laughed out loud!

I ranked the story down one star becuase it felt like the book jumped around too much at times. You would be reading about characters in one place, and the next chapter would have them miles and/or years down the trail. It felt like editors might have cut chapters and cobbled it back together to form a complete story.

Warning! This book included a lot more sexual references, and rape than other books in the series. The scenes with Inez Scull seemed a bit over the top for the "Old West".

[Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

La fine di un'epoca

Divertente ritrovare i rangers Augustus e Call, nonostante qui non abbiano ancora le personalità spiccate degli altri romanzi, personalità che si stanno formando con i fatti della vita, alcuni legati alla sfera personale e altri alla dura legge della frontiera americana.
Compare anche Inish Scull, il capitano dei rangers, personaggio assolutamente singolare, così come la sua 'adorata' moglie ninfomane, che, insieme, ma per motivi differenti, aggiungono manciate di gustosi siparietti.

Devo ammettere che in questo Luna Comanche mi sono ritrovato a sorridere più che negli altri romanzi del ciclo.

Scorrono tra le pagine anche gli anni della Guerra Civile (1861-1865), lo scontro tra il Nord e il Sud, ma è solo un accenno; argomento troppo delicato per inglobarlo tra le storie dei nostri, immagino; peccato.

La lettura ha mantenuto la mia attenzione per i primi 3/4 della storia, poi, una sorta di scollamento generale - un taglia e cuci nelle vicende finali -, l'ha un po' diluita.

[Billcorcoran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lonesome Dove is probably my all time favorite novel. This is one of the prequels and not quite as good but still a terrific read. I think it is the only one of the 4 books that can't be read entirely on it's own so don't start with this book. They were written completely out of order and I think the best way to read them is in the order they were published, starting with Lonesome Dove. McMurtry writes great characters and includes both humor and tragedy to great effect. It starts off a bit slow but is never dull, McMurtry just takes awhile to build up the characters and the situation. I did feel the resolution to some of the conflicts were anti climactic but others played out just about right.

[Luke Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end!

This last installment in the Lonesome Dove series is probably the most exciting book of the four, and though I don’t think it’s quite as good as “Lonesome Dove,” it comes close. The long second act of “Comanche Moon” is special—very unique, exciting, and impressively written. The more minor characters in this story truly shine. Upon finishing this book, I felt like I could go right back to “Lonesome Dove” and just start the series all over again🤠