Pale Rider

by Alan Dean Foster

Pale Rider (LIN) (Linford Western Library) - Thorpe Large Print

Genres: Westerns, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.

Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the movie with Clint Eastwood. There are a few differences, but nothing major, as I recall. It was a fun, relaxing read without any surprises since I'd seen the movie a couple of times before. A good thing to read when you really don't have any capacity to think - almost like watching TV.

[Lee Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly sure the book with the real cover is this one. That one has no ISBN number. Not really a review but most of the book is similar to the movie but Conway on forward. Change happens fast. I'd say I rather liked most of the ending in the movie than the ending in the book. Except the final page. Where Megan still had hope.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent novel which turned into the best Clint Eastwood western movie.

[Andy Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a novelization, I thought it was interesting. I could imagine Eastwood saving the day. It was no John Wayne film but entertaining nevertheless.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read. If you've seen the film there are no surprises or revelations here.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This covers the events of the movie very closely with very few deviations. It’s competently written, but this story is sort of a slow burn anyway until you get to the very end.

[Donald Trump · Rating 2 out of 5]

Low Energy!
** 2 Stars.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story as a group of people are being forced out by the greed of others. A stranger comes to town and brings the people together and gives them the strength to fight they never knew they had.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised by how well this story translated into a book. That is why I chose to read it. I wanted to see how a very simple genre movie would work as a novel. Of course, if it was written badly, it wouldn't have worked, but this one is done very well.

The main reason for this is attention to characters. Yes, the movie is a simple genre movie, but the characters have a real humanity to them. They may not be complicated, but they are believable. Actually, some of the background characters are more fleshed out here than in the movie.
But nothing much is added to the story. I guess the movie has far better characters than I initially thought.

This is the second book by Alan Dean Foster I have read and it was a better experience this time around.
The first book was Splinter of the Mind's Eye which surprised me with how pedestrian and even childish the prose was.
It's much better this time around.
Still, Foster is long-winded. He enjoys diving into pointless distractions too much. One example is a page and a half to the banker who the Preacher gets his gun from. Who cares?

It's a pretty straightforward adaptation of the movie and hence there are no surprises here.
It's an effective little book, that does run out of steam a bit towards the end. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the movie.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to see Alan Dean Foster writer of the Star Wars story should have been writing a western tie-in. I loved the film, the book was enjoyable enough but having seen the film held no real surprises.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 2 out of 5]

142nd - 2011

[Beauregard Shagnasty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid adaptation. Surprised author didn't amp up the supernatural avenging angel aspect; I sure would have!