Distant Land

The Brannocks #4

by Matt Braun

They were family, Clint Brannock, manhunter and man killer. Elizabeth Brannock, passionate idealist and courageous freedom fighter. Lon Brannock, icy gambler and lightning gunman, proud of the Indian strain in his blood. Jennifer Brannock, determined to win respect as a doctor, yet wondering if she could find happiness as a woman. Hank Brannock, a teenager at the crossroads between the law and the lawless.Ties of blood bound them together--but in a New Mexico territory aflame with violence....where two kinds of people, and two ways of life, moved toward savage showdown....unbending Brannock pride and iron Brannock will threatened to rip them apart.

Genres: Westerns

314 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

About the author

Matt Braun is an author of fifty-six books, most of which are in the Western genre and has over 40 million copies in print.

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 4th and, I believe, final book in a loose series that details the life and times of the fictional Brannock family in the western US during the 1870's-1890's. Many websites, including Matt Braun's own site don't list these books as a series but since they all involve the Brannock family, that's the way I look at them.

Originally there were three Brannock brothers but by the time this novel begins, there is only one left alive. Many other second generation Brannocks join him in this 4th book and each of them have their individual back stories and motivations. While Mr Braun does a good job of interweaving their stories, he does fall back on a number of tired western clichéd situations and cardboard supporting characters here. The novel reads a bit like a soap opera and while there is an ending, it certainly leaves open the possibility of more novels to come, especially since many of the younger Brannocks still have unfinished story lines. However, I don't think that will ever happen since all four books were written in the mid to late 1980's.

I do appreciate the author's inclusion of historical personages as characters in his books. I think he gets the facts and dates correct even if sometimes manipulating their personalities to address the needs of the particular novel he is writing at the time. Case in point: the second book in this series, Windward West, includes the historical character of William Jackson Palmer, Civil War general, hero and railroad entrepreneur. He is also the founder of my home town of Colorado Springs, Colorado so I expect I know a lot more about him than the typical Matt Braun reader might. Braun presents him as a largely incompetent spoiled power-hungry man. It works for that novel and allows the protagonist, Virgil Brannock to have a proper evil dude to go up against in his own railroad venture...it's just not accurate according to all of the research I have done into the man myself. Knowing that going into a piece of historical fiction...well, I can live with it, but it does make me wonder about all of the other historical figures that are included in his novels.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

It turns out that one family - with some spunky women - solved ALL the problems of the settling of the west.