Dead Man's Walk

Dead Man's Walk is a prequel to the Larry McMurtry's masterwork, Lonesome Dove. Written years after the first book was released, it introduces the unforgettable characters Gus McCrae, the talkative and energetic Texas Ranger and his strong and silent best friend, Woodrow Call as young men, decades before the events depicted in Lonesome Dove. This novel - like many of the McMurtry's books - is about a journey, as the young Rangers join an ill-fated expedition of adventurers who set out to conquer Santa Fe and the Mexican province of New Mexico. For the "green" young Rangers it is a journey of maturation and self-discovery. As they experience all manner of calamities and face abject terror, they discover their qualities and desires and the bonds of friendship that make men risk their lives and die for each other. And, thanks to the mythic character Buffalo Hump, a Comanche chief, there is plenty of death, horrible gruesome deaths. McMurtry does not sugarcoat his American Indians or stint on the bloodletting. The Comanches are seen as omnipotent and invincible and perhaps too imposing an enemy as the white settlers and their soldiers did ultimately vanquish them. Call, McCrae and the rag-tag group of miscreants and adventurers are faced with all manner of obstacles and the arid, seemingly endless Texas plains is a treacherous character in itself, a barren place where men venture at their peril and die badly. One of the great strengths of McMurtry's books is to inculcate a sense of place in the viewer, a feeling of what the desolate places in our country would have felt like to a man on horseback or on foot a century ago. Storms, flash floods, raging rivers and tornados stalk the characters like its implacable, inscrutable native inhabitants. Then, when they reach New Mexico the expedition is defeated by the Mexicans troops who visit their own kind of cruelty on the Texans, one that was inherited from the Spanish. Although the book is populated with fascinating characters, the death that is visited upon them is so bizarre and relentless that it eventually loses its power to shock and becomes routine. The body count is just too exaggerated. However, since millions of readers have discovered Lonesome Dove, many of them will want to learn the back-story of McCrae, Call and the events that shaped their memorable characters.

Lonesome Dove got all the attention and won the Pulitzer Prize - deservedly so - but then McMurtry wrote two prequels and one sequel. Each book could be read and enjoyed separately or out of sequence, but for anyone new to this fine series, why not read them in the proper order? In Lonesome Dove, the two main characters, Gus and Call, are experienced and mature, and their circumstances and the time they live in are relatively safe (from Indians). The two prequels, Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon, are nitty-gritty adventure stories. The Texas Rangers are realistically portrayed in all their inexperience and naivete, fear, courage, sense of determination and adventure. Nothing is held back, and while the violence might be too gruesome for some, it is never gratuitous. I admit that the ending to Dead Man's Walk is almost too fantastic, but I defy anyone not to enjoy it. I disagree with other reviewers; McMurtry had his heart in all four of the books in this series. For a special treat, I would recommend listening to the audio version of these stories.

I am not a big McMurtry fan because of his writing. He switches POV all the time and I have yet to read one of his books that couldn't have benefited cut about 20,000 words or more.

Even with that Dead Man's Walk is a pretty solid read. It's episodic, like the other Gus and Woodrow novels I've read, full of violence and humor and pathos....these are his trademark and he does it pretty well, right down to the surrealistic ending. This is the book that purports to be the first in the series, even though it was written after Lonesome Dove. That's okay, the book is still fun (for the most part) and if you like the characters from the previous novels you will definitely like them here, too, as they begin their work for the Texas Rangers.

Not the best and not the worst I've read from McMurtry, but still memorable...and in a good way. Check it out.

This is the first written story of Gus and Call and it is one of the best McMurtry has written. There were parts of this book that had me rolling in laughter (especially when Gus gets drunk early in the book). The action is great and doesn't let up and it let's us get to know Call and Gus when they were young and dumb and full of....well, you know the saying. In fact, for about a quarter of all of Gus's dialouge he is talking about whores.

It really is refreshing to read the story of Gus and Call when they were young and don't know ANYTHING about tracking, shooting, women, and many other things. In Lonesome Dove these two are older men who have seen it all and done it all. In Dead Man's Walk, we get to read about the beggining of it all.

I am not a big western fan. In fact, Lonesome Dove was the first western I ever read. Imagine my suprise when I cried at twice reading that book and still to this day consider it in my top ten. While this book is no Lonesome Dove, it does not dissapoint and I am confident you will agree.

In McMurty's prequel to Lonesome Dove, we see the young Gus McCrea and Woodrow Call at the beginning of their Rangering days. It is interesting because both characters are clearly the men they will become in Lonesome Dove, yet without the assurance and confidence that carried them so easily through that book's trials. The author does a good job of portraying them as believable youths rather than as copies of their later selves in younger bodies.
This is a roaming tale. There are three trips which encompass the book. The first is a brief and futile foray against the fearsome Comanche Buffalo Hump. The second, a long and futile expedition to capture Spanish Gold in New Mexico that is thwarted by the elements and a Mexican army. The third, a march in captivity through a desolate country that will prove to be a more ruthless enemy than the Indian or the sons of the conquistadors.
I will warn the reader, the ending is a little bizarre and seems out of place with the rest of the book (and the preceding two) -- it really lost the Western feel for me.
This journey is much less purposeful and more fantastic than that portrayed in LD or Streets of Laredo. This tale feels at times a bit forced, with something exciting fitted neatly into every chapter. On the whole however, it is a good yarn that captures a flavorful frontier West before the Civil War. McMurty remains a gifted storey teller who is able to drive the reader through his pages with gifted dialogue and excellent descriptions.
I'm already digging into McMurty's last book of the Lonesome Dove series, Comanche Moon.

Like me, you may enjoy reading Dead Man's Walk because it places you in the desert of west Texas with this rag tag bunch of wanna-be rangers and their friends, trying to keep body and soul together, with no friendly outposts for hundreds of miles. You are subject to all that the wilderness has in store.

The Indians are smart and ruthless, knowing how to survive in the dry desert. But the rangers are as reckless as a bunch of Americans taming the world; they're prone to mistakes that can be quite funny. Then at some point, you realize that each mistake and stroke of misfortune adds up to an outcome from which there is no turning back.

By the end of the book, I knew there was too much violence in it for me. A lot of it unnecessary. The worst is when the rangers think they had found a friend in a Spanish commando and instead they are destined to be the evening's entertainment. My favorite character is killed off.

As a consolation, or to make things even crazier, McMurty treats us to a dramatic and tragically funny scene at the end, in which a grand, leperous woman helps the rangers fend off an old Indian chief enemy by placing the fear of "the gods" in him.

Fiction often seems written with the lucrative movie contract in mind these days. I would caution you on this book, desert "non-survival" dominated by obligatory violence.

This book is more than an adventure, it's a teaser for the the more imagenative people, this book is full of love for harsh people and harsh landscapes, but as usual when McMurtry's dips his pen in blood, sweat and surprisingly few tears he keeps control of this universe with dark corners full of characters, that we don't know but immediately recognize. And the basics are of all times, friendship, often no rewards after exhausting performances on the llano's and in whorehouses and the bizarre, oh the bizarre, that is the ever present scenery of his books and this one in particuliar. McMurtry covers his tracks in a masterly way and pulls your legs and brains through his unique style; many pages to introduce you to a situation or person, that will vanish all of a sudden. A disproportional economy of writing that leaves you bewilderd but thankfull after re-reading. From all his books, this one for me is the best, a true gritty-nitty novel full of values that slowly disappeares from the planes that we all ride on

I read this book a second time recently, partly because I was not sure if I had read it in the past. The first two thirds is wonderful with the introduction of the characters and the harrowing situations that they find themselves in. I'm puzzled how this book is suppose to reveal how the characters of Gus and Woodrow are created, since they make it through alive mostly on just plain luck. They both certainly get enough experience to fear nothing in the future, but where do they become the fierce fighters that we meet in Lonesome dove? Another book between the two is sorely lacking. The last third of the book is impossible to read a second time. By this point I had long realized that I had read the book before, and remembered how it became a series of weird, gory events. Lonesome dove's is such a better book because it is coherent, and build upon a theme and enriches it. Even though Gus loses his life at the end in an unpredictable encounter, it still fits within the context of his life up to that point. The other themes of this series have nothing to do with the luck of a bean lottery. In Lonesome dove you feel that Gus and Cal are who they are because of their lives experiences that they themselves had influence over. It is out of context to have them survive due to a lucky draw of a colored bean. I got up to that point the second time around and returned the tapes. The first time through despite the above, I was spellbound and shocked by the gore. But you can't read that a second time around and get anything of substance out of the experience.

Written after LONESOME DOVE but actually a prequel to it, this is about Gus and Call when they were young men and members of the Texas Rangers. They are quickly disillusioned by the incompetent leadership of Col. Caleb Cobb; they also come up against some pretty rough Comanches and tough Mexican soldiers. Worst of all, they have to walk across the Jornado del Muerto, an immense desert region, which they just barely survive. It contains all the things that made LONESOME DOVE great, except for the variety of outlandish characters that peopled that novel. If you like McMurtry's writing style, his fascination with the grotesque, his depiction of people as just blundering along at times, his lack of shyness in describing violent events - and all of it swathed in a Twainian understated humor - you should enjoy this book very much. Not as good as LONESOME DOVE (nothing is), but a major achievement for McMurtry.

The author did a great job in this prequal to Lonesome Dove. His descriptions of a young Gus, who loves whores, gambling and isn't especially hard working; and, how Corporal Call is an introvert, analyzing and studying the inadequacies of their mil leaders. Action-action-action and very poor leadership are the curse of Gus and Call as they are young men learning about the rough west. This is a very enjoyable read and Larry McMurtry remains one of my favorite authors.

Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk, the original perquel to Lonesome Dove, features that book's main characters when they were just youngsters and had first joined the Texas Rangers. Like Lonesome Dove, it is a big book with a lot of characters and a lot of action, but it differs significantly in that there is very little humor and the character's stories don't mesh into any coherent plot line or ultimate resolution. It is in essence a picaresque novel that kind of wanders around - as do the characters in the story. While Call and Gus are shown to have the beginnings of the personalities that would endear them to Lonesome Dove readers, they are also shown as having little depth and no experience. They really are clueless. And pitted against the merciless indians they face it is a miracle that they survive. Of course they have to for the sake of the story but it isn't any talent or savvy on their own part that makes survival possible.
Despite its limitations, this is still a very interesting book. The action is quite satisfying even if the characters are not.

Call and McRae are two of the toughest characters the West has known when they git all growed up in Lonesome Dove. I expected their early adventures to chronicle how the skills of these young Neo-Rangers were honed at the hand of some sage Indian fighter or famous scout. WRON, WRONG, WRONG! The only reason those two lived through this book is that it is a prequel to Lonesome Dove and they have to be alive for that. In Dead Man's Walk they start out green - they go from one life threatening screw-up to the next, only surviving by luck, plot manipulation and literary necessity. And, the end up green.

All that kept me turning the pages was the library due date and the hope that it might get better. I have not given up hope on Ole Larry Mac. This book leaves the lads several years and considerable experience short of the beginning of Lonesome Dove. I'm sure a couple of million dollars advance will produce part two of their early adventures

The novel begins with Matilda Roberts, the Great Western, the most memorable character of the book. So far, so good, but its stories lack the richness and scope for the kinds of details and involvements McMurty excels at. It is simply too thin and too concentrated, too unrelenting in the main journey story. In the end the excape of the five is pure coincidence. McMurty wanted to cash in of the success of Lonesome Dove and in making a beginning he failed to develop a story that does them justice. There is no good reason to read this book aside from the reader's interest if LD

After the amazing Lonesome Dove and the rather good sequel, Streets of Laredo, McMurtry hits us with a book that simply doesn't make the grade. It reeks of his editor saying, "You have got to write another book this year, why don't you use those two rangers again?". The book starts quite well, with some gritty scenes but quickly goes downhill from there, ending with one of the most ridiculously contrived endings I have ever had the misfortune to read. Not even, McMurtry's often brilliant style can save this book. Symptoms of the book being rushed are everywhere (e.g. Saying that McCrae is Scottish when in Lonesome Dove they comment on Call's Scottish roots).
All in all, a total disappointment.

Having read the first two books in the Lonesome Dove series (both of which come chronologically after this one), I knew the main characters would survive. This is, however, no more of a hindrance to enjoying this book than it is in any saturday serial movie. The joy is in seeing how the author can get the heroes out of the mess they're in. For the vast majority of the novel, McMurtry delivers saturday afternoon thrills, while still showing just how these young characters evolve into the ones we're all familiar with from Lonesome Dove. Unfortunately, after the Mexican prison scene, the novel comes to a precipitous and ludicruous ending. It is as if McMurty simply got tired or bored with the project and decided just to end the book the fastest way he could Not even a yarn should be tied up this quickly.

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite stories, novel and mini-series. The characters, from the leads to throwaways, are rich, fascinating, full of quirks and flaws, and always fully-realized. I went into this book with high expectations. I wasn't wholly disappointed, but I found Dead Man's Walk lacking when directly compared to the great Lonesome Dove. It's a good book in its own right, though - gripping, darkly humorous, disturbing, and sad.

McMurty is a masterful writer. He excels in sharp dialogue, vivid character development, and paints as scene as well as any author I've come across. He struck gold in creating his two most famous characters, Gus and Call. With Dead Man's Walk, though, I will say that it helps to have read Lonesome Dove first, as he spends more time here fleshing out secondary characters, like Matilda (my favorite) and Bigfoot and Caleb Cobb. To this end, I actually think he short-changes Gus quite bit. Without all the background we received on the character in Lonesome Dove, I don't believe I'd have liked Gus as much, just based on his representation here. Oddly, he's thinly drawn and almost one dimensional, not the Gus I know. Call on the other hand is never less than fascinating to me. McMurty does an excellent job of showing the reader how the young man here will grow into the hard, reserved, principled man who leads the cattle herd north to Montana later in life.

Dead Man's Walk doesn't have the epic scope of Lonesome Dove, but that's not a put off. I found the story engrossing all the way through. Sometimes it was fun just to listen to the characters talk. McMurty really showcases just how difficult and brutal life would've been back then. I wouldn't suggest this book to the faint of heart, but to anyone who's looking for a compelling read or just wants to spend some time with old friends, Dead Man's Walk is well worth your time.

This book strikes me as closer in tone to Lonesome Dove than McMurtrey's earlier sequel, Streets of Laredo. There is alot of violence and gore, but alot of humor too. We see Call and McCrae meet and join the Rangers together and follow their first, hapless adventures through Southern Texas and Mexico.
It is nice to see Gus McCrae alive again after Woodrow Call had to ride alone through Streets of Laredo. Of course, this book is not nearly the work of Art that Lonesome Dove was, but if you are following the series, you wont want to miss this installment.

I had great exspectations for this book but ended up skipping pages to try and find Some real action. It was a great disappointment. Too much time spent on the whores and long periods of inaction and stupidity of most of the main players left me in limbo. I thought it would be about the adventures of Gus and Call in the ranger days before Lonesome Dove, but was only one long drawn out event. Don't exspect a lot and you will not be disappointed as I was. Long walks across the desert with people dying all the time is not my idea of a action book.

I feel like McMurty must have gotten so much slack for the awful, pointless, should never have been written Streets of Laredo, that he wrote Dead Man's Walk in revenge. You want more Indians? You want more violence? You want Gus and Call together? You want them to be more like their stereotypes from LD? You got it all. (Could Gus have talked about whores more??)

Overall, I really enjoyed Dead Man's Walk. Yes, it was over the top. Yes it was gory and violent. But it was so exciting that I couldn't put it down.

Until....I got to Part IV. Nothing in this part makes sense. The torture gets unnecessarily graphic, the descrpitions of violating women (and young girls!) is totally uncalled for. And the ending? I don't even know what to say about that. There are so many other directions this book could have gone. I feel like McMurty gave up on the story and just wanted it all to be over. (And by that time, I did too.)

But the first 3/4 of the book make up for the strange, out of place conclusion, in my opinion. I reccommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the more adventurous parts of Lonesome Dove.

The author did a great job in this prequal to Lonesome Dove. His descriptions of a young Gus, who loves whores, gambling and isn't especially hard working; and, how Corporal Call is an introvert, analyzing and studying the inadequacies of their mil leaders. Action-action-action and very poor leadership are the curse of Gus and Call as they are young men learning about the rough west. This is a very enjoyable read and Larry McMurtry remains one of my favorite authors.

Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk, the original perquel to Lonesome Dove, features that book's main characters when they were just youngsters and had first joined the Texas Rangers. Like Lonesome Dove, it is a big book with a lot of characters and a lot of action, but it differs significantly in that there is very little humor and the character's stories don't mesh into any coherent plot line or ultimate resolution. It is in essence a picaresque novel that kind of wanders around - as do the characters in the story. While Call and Gus are shown to have the beginnings of the personalities that would endear them to Lonesome Dove readers, they are also shown as having little depth and no experience. They really are clueless. And pitted against the merciless indians they face it is a miracle that they survive. Of course they have to for the sake of the story but it isn't any talent or savvy on their own part that makes survival possible.
Despite its limitations, this is still a very interesting book. The action is quite satisfying even if the characters are not.

Call and McRae are two of the toughest characters the West has known when they git all growed up in Lonesome Dove. I expected their early adventures to chronicle how the skills of these young Neo-Rangers were honed at the hand of some sage Indian fighter or famous scout. WRON, WRONG, WRONG! The only reason those two lived through this book is that it is a prequel to Lonesome Dove and they have to be alive for that. In Dead Man's Walk they start out green - they go from one life threatening screw-up to the next, only surviving by luck, plot manipulation and literary necessity. And, the end up green.

All that kept me turning the pages was the library due date and the hope that it might get better. I have not given up hope on Ole Larry Mac. This book leaves the lads several years and considerable experience short of the beginning of Lonesome Dove. I'm sure a couple of million dollars advance will produce part two of their early adventures

The novel begins with Matilda Roberts, the Great Western, the most memorable character of the book. So far, so good, but its stories lack the richness and scope for the kinds of details and involvements McMurty excels at. It is simply too thin and too concentrated, too unrelenting in the main journey story. In the end the excape of the five is pure coincidence. McMurty wanted to cash in of the success of Lonesome Dove and in making a beginning he failed to develop a story that does them justice. There is no good reason to read this book aside from the reader's interest if LD

After the amazing Lonesome Dove and the rather good sequel, Streets of Laredo, McMurtry hits us with a book that simply doesn't make the grade. It reeks of his editor saying, "You have got to write another book this year, why don't you use those two rangers again?". The book starts quite well, with some gritty scenes but quickly goes downhill from there, ending with one of the most ridiculously contrived endings I have ever had the misfortune to read. Not even, McMurtry's often brilliant style can save this book. Symptoms of the book being rushed are everywhere (e.g. Saying that McCrae is Scottish when in Lonesome Dove they comment on Call's Scottish roots).
All in all, a total disappointment.

Having read the first two books in the Lonesome Dove series (both of which come chronologically after this one), I knew the main characters would survive. This is, however, no more of a hindrance to enjoying this book than it is in any saturday serial movie. The joy is in seeing how the author can get the heroes out of the mess they're in. For the vast majority of the novel, McMurtry delivers saturday afternoon thrills, while still showing just how these young characters evolve into the ones we're all familiar with from Lonesome Dove. Unfortunately, after the Mexican prison scene, the novel comes to a precipitous and ludicruous ending. It is as if McMurty simply got tired or bored with the project and decided just to end the book the fastest way he could Not even a yarn should be tied up this quickly.

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite stories, novel and mini-series. The characters, from the leads to throwaways, are rich, fascinating, full of quirks and flaws, and always fully-realized. I went into this book with high expectations. I wasn't wholly disappointed, but I found Dead Man's Walk lacking when directly compared to the great Lonesome Dove. It's a good book in its own right, though - gripping, darkly humorous, disturbing, and sad.

McMurty is a masterful writer. He excels in sharp dialogue, vivid character development, and paints as scene as well as any author I've come across. He struck gold in creating his two most famous characters, Gus and Call. With Dead Man's Walk, though, I will say that it helps to have read Lonesome Dove first, as he spends more time here fleshing out secondary characters, like Matilda (my favorite) and Bigfoot and Caleb Cobb. To this end, I actually think he short-changes Gus quite bit. Without all the background we received on the character in Lonesome Dove, I don't believe I'd have liked Gus as much, just based on his representation here. Oddly, he's thinly drawn and almost one dimensional, not the Gus I know. Call on the other hand is never less than fascinating to me. McMurty does an excellent job of showing the reader how the young man here will grow into the hard, reserved, principled man who leads the cattle herd north to Montana later in life.

Dead Man's Walk doesn't have the epic scope of Lonesome Dove, but that's not a put off. I found the story engrossing all the way through. Sometimes it was fun just to listen to the characters talk. McMurty really showcases just how difficult and brutal life would've been back then. I wouldn't suggest this book to the faint of heart, but to anyone who's looking for a compelling read or just wants to spend some time with old friends, Dead Man's Walk is well worth your time.

This book strikes me as closer in tone to Lonesome Dove than McMurtrey's earlier sequel, Streets of Laredo. There is alot of violence and gore, but alot of humor too. We see Call and McCrae meet and join the Rangers together and follow their first, hapless adventures through Southern Texas and Mexico.
It is nice to see Gus McCrae alive again after Woodrow Call had to ride alone through Streets of Laredo. Of course, this book is not nearly the work of Art that Lonesome Dove was, but if you are following the series, you wont want to miss this installment.

I had great exspectations for this book but ended up skipping pages to try and find Some real action. It was a great disappointment. Too much time spent on the whores and long periods of inaction and stupidity of most of the main players left me in limbo. I thought it would be about the adventures of Gus and Call in the ranger days before Lonesome Dove, but was only one long drawn out event. Don't exspect a lot and you will not be disappointed as I was. Long walks across the desert with people dying all the time is not my idea of a action book.

I feel like McMurty must have gotten so much slack for the awful, pointless, should never have been written Streets of Laredo, that he wrote Dead Man's Walk in revenge. You want more Indians? You want more violence? You want Gus and Call together? You want them to be more like their stereotypes from LD? You got it all. (Could Gus have talked about whores more??)

Overall, I really enjoyed Dead Man's Walk. Yes, it was over the top. Yes it was gory and violent. But it was so exciting that I couldn't put it down.

Until....I got to Part IV. Nothing in this part makes sense. The torture gets unnecessarily graphic, the descrpitions of violating women (and young girls!) is totally uncalled for. And the ending? I don't even know what to say about that. There are so many other directions this book could have gone. I feel like McMurty gave up on the story and just wanted it all to be over. (And by that time, I did too.)

But the first 3/4 of the book make up for the strange, out of place conclusion, in my opinion. I reccommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the more adventurous parts of Lonesome Dove.

"Now except for the two young rangers, his whole troop was drunk, the result of an incautious foray into Mexican territory the day before". This quote explains the troops readiness for being real rangers. Dead Man's Walk, by Larry McMurtry was written to give a realistic view of what explorers of the western frontiers could have encountered. The main characters of the book Gus and Call are great characters for their parts. The location where the story takes place creates great imagery in the readers mind. McMurtry used informal language to show the characters way of living. All these things tie together to make this a great book.
This book focuses on a troop of rangers, especially the protagonist Gus and Call, through out their journey to explore the western frontier. Along the way they encounter many hazards, such as cyclones, natural obstacles, and Indians. The antagonist in the story is a Comanche Indian named Buffalo Hump. These conflicts keep the story interesting and fun to read.
The setting in this novel varies from the desert plains to small rural towns. All of the places the troop comes to are realistic and make the story seem real. At one point in the novel the troops comes to the side of a big hill and has to fend off while trying to keep their horses from running off. Realistic scenes like this show up all throughout the book to enhance the storyline.
McMurtry puts a wide variety of characters in the book to describe the differences in a troops personality. Gus is a young man who is driven mainly by sex. This keeps him thinking all throughout the novel. Call is a more mature young man who tries to think of consequences before his actions. The greatest feared character is without a doubt Buffalo Hump. He keeps the troop aware throughout the book. The troop continuously talks of how to kill themselves if captured by him. The main aspects of these characters give them a certain place in the story.
The main goal of the troops in the story is to make it to California. The reason they joined the Rangers is because it was a cheaper and more sure way to get there. The unsurity of going with the Rangers was the battles and other hardships along the way. If the troops can make it to California, they hope to strike it rich off of all the gold there.
The type of language used in this book made it easy to understand the way of life the different Rangers had. Some of them were from up North and the way he talked represented that. Some of the other characters in the book had an accent that sounded like they came from the back of the backwoods. Some of them could turn three words into one and still make sense. Throughout, the mostly informal language in his book allows the reader to understand the mindset and background of the characters.
To sum it up, this book had many good elements in it. It definitely shows an example of the ways people lived and thought back then. For somebody who likes westerns, or action books, this would be a great book for them. After fighting many battles the ultimate battle comes up with Buffalo Hump. To find out how this awesome story ends, read Dead Man's Walk, by Larry McMurtry.

The four books of the "Lonesome Dove" saga are burdened by the unavoidable comparison of every book to "LD." Not fair. Dead Man's walk, as a stand alone story is a good one. It gets a little overburdened in the last by including the more far fetched inclusion of the English characters. It is still a good read.
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This book falls short of Lonesome Dove standards and seems to have been written in a hurry. Brutality and gore are used wantonly to create sensationalism and to the point that the story lacks reality. In spite of all that, it grabs the readers attention and keeps you looking ahead to see what is going to happen next. It is worthwhile.SocksMarty's MomMister MartyMarty's Town

Hi, it's me again, that annoying 14 year old obsessed with LD. I have just read DMW, and I think it was fabulous. Unfortunately, Im extremely biased. I love Gus and Call so much that the book could be terrible and I would love it. Luckily,m this book is just plain great. The characters are expertly set up, and you can see how their experiences made them who they are in LD. I particularly love to see what made Call so silent, with such a serious, determined nature. If I hadn't read LD and SOL, maybe I wouldn't like it as much, but come on: who wouldn't want to read a book as brilliant, touching, and heartwrenchingly funny and sad as LD?

Woodrow Call and Agustus McCrae are very young men, just embarking on their adventures as Texas Rangers when this book takes place. I have to admit it was rather a disappointment. "Lonesome Dove" is a masterpiece and, in a way, I think McMurty should have left it at that. He uses the central characters from "Lonesome Dove" in "Dead Man's Walk", and, especially in regard to Woodrow Call, it just doen't ring true. I just can't see Captain Call of LD as the same Woodrow Call in DMW, particularly when it comes to his relationship with Maggie. Captain Call was a solitary individual,emotionally remote. I don't see this struggle in DMW, or any reason for him to turn inward later in life and to deny his son. The ending of the book seems rather abrubt and far-fetched. If you can separate the idea that these are the same characters from LD, you may enjoy the book on that level. As westerns go, it is an okay read.

Not a good book! Lots of shooting and blood. (Unless you like cowboy/Indian books) I wouldn't recommend this book.
The kindle version has no table of contents. I didn't know how many chapters or parts there was in the book.

I read this before reading Lonesome Dove so I could not compare it at the time. Nevertheless this novel kept me reading breathlessly to the end. Full of raw spirit, realistic descriptions, and free of moral pretensions. Like many of McMurty's work the open endings need to be there. Like life itself, a by the end of the book you know the story just continues - there can be no simple, convenient conclusions. A perfect prequel to Lonesome Dove.

I don't think a person necessarily has to read serial books in order. I saw the movie and then read Laredo and can see myself reading Comanche Moon later. These books stand on their own but I now feel like I really know these two men and the way their world was in the west.

Larry McMurtry, true to form, mows down some of his most interesting characters with the most gruesome fates while keeping his central characters alive--often by sheer luck rather than by any skill or virtue of their own. He is far less attached to his characters than his readers (that would be you and I) do. His ill-fated Ranger expeditions teach Woodrow Call the value of planning and training, but Call and McRae both owe their survival ultimately to the drawing of a white bean in a high stakes lottery and the (rather miraculous) vocal skill of a leprous British widow.
That lottery may be a summation of the author's view of life. Skill aids; circumstrance rules. Everyone loves Gus, but Call is the one who truly understands. Very entertaining--but a bit disapointing in its rather mystical final chapters. I don't mind the premise, but I would have liked the two rangers to have been less miraculously saved. I was also put off a little by Danny Deck's disappearance at the end of "All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers"--same type of thing here.

I have read 10 westerns by Larry McMurtry and all have the rich of the west and most true to life that I have encountered. In reading "Lonesome Dove" first, I have always wondered where Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call were from and, if any, of their early years. As true, as in the best, "Lonesome Dove", I have enjoyed the early saga of Gus and Woodrow; the lives they shared and that of being the early law as Texas Rangers. The raw courage of early lawmen were shown in their continuing to settle parts of the open range and the Westward movement. Their encounters of Buffalo Hump to Blue Duck only shows the courage to hunt and bring to order the lawless. In continued reading of Gus and Woodrow, and their meetings of Clara and Maggie, Woodrow fathering Newt, and Gus to never find out of his daughter, Augustina. In comparison to other Western wrighters, none can hold up to the interest and riviting adventures, as portrayed by Larry McMurtry, in that of Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call. "Deadman's Walk" can only get 5 Stars, as that is the top of the chart!

This was a good story. After reading Lonesome Dove, it was interesting to read about some of the background that led up to it.
I really enjoyed this story. The only thing that might have made it any better would be if I didn't know that Gus and Call had to survive the Walk because they were in Lonesome Dove.
While this is still not in the same class as Lonesome Dove, it was definitely worth reading.

While this is a story that has its moments, somehow it isn't up to the standard one expects of Larry McMurtry. I get the impression that this was one he thought he ought to write, rather than being one he wanted to write. The story has too many loose ends, and too many characters that are just there so that they can die before the end of the story - hence the title. Skip this one and go straight to Lonesome Dove.

I'LL TAKE ALL I CAN GET OF OUR LONESOME DOVE MEN, CALL AND GUS. NOTHING CAN TOP LONESOME DOVE, I'M SURE WE'D ALL AGREE, BUT DEAD MAN'S WALK IS PRETTY DARN GOOD, TOO. I ENJOYED EVERY WORD AND DIDN'T WANT IT TO END, BUT THE END (WITH THE LEPEROUS WOMAN AND THE SNAKE AND SINGING AND ALL) HAD ME THINKING "GOOD GRIEF..LARRY SURELY COULD'VE COME UP WITH SOMETHING BETTER THAN THIS", BUT THEN AGAIN WEIRD STUFF HAS BEEN KNOWN TO HAPPEN! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, MR. MCMURTRY, CAN WE HAVE A TALE OF GUS AND CALL BETWEEN THE DEAD MAN'S WALK AND LONESOME DOVE YEARS????!!!

This book may not have been as great as Lonesome Dove, but it was just about as entertaining. From beginning to end, i was totally enraptured. Regardless of some contrived episodes, the Indians and Rangers were fascinating. Perhaps my 5-star rating is overblown due to my inexperience reading Westerns (it's only my 2nd, after Lonesome Dove). But it was a great read. I loved every minute of it.

If all of the miserable experiences of DEAD MAN'S WALK are to be believed, then young Gus and Call missed their calling. If indeed these two nineteen-year-old greenhorn Rangers survived the never-ending onslaught of bloodthirsty Indians and the harsh environment of the Old West--while seasoned and battle-tested men all around them drop like flies--then they should have abruptly left law enforcement and become priests.
Total suspension of credibility is the theme of this book, culminating in the improbable, laugh-out-loud climactic scene, when an English lady suffering from leprosy strips naked and wraps a boa constrictor around her shoulders and rides a white horse through a band of savage Comanches. (See what I mean?)
McMurtry is a master storyteller, and LONESOME DOVE is as good as it gets, but this prequel misses the mark by a country mile.

The thing is, the fatalism wears a bit thin when it ends up amounting not even to a hill , but a bowl of beans. There are some vivid scenes; trekking along the top of a ridge full of indians, and the murderous hunting party hanging out and getting drunk at the trading post. It feels as if Mcmurtry is saying something over and over again about life being short. Having bled Call and Macrae dry with the first two books, he appears to barely believe in them anymore, and the epic journey they take is stagey and not a little absurd (gang of rangers burnt to death by a field of grass?) It lacks the surprises of the first two novels, and seems coy with the characterisations. It's fair to assume he didn't expect to get this far, and it's a shame to agree that he didn't.

I found the first three-fourths of this book fairly captivating, however, at that point it took a really strange turn. Upon arriving in San Lazaro, the story really lost something and these last few chapters of the novel just didn't fit in with the flow of the story. It's almost as if the author got bored and simply let someone else finish the book for him.
A minor problem I had with this book was the way in which insignificant characters were killed off. Gus and Call start off on the main adventure with over 200 people, and the author almost immediately starts widdling down the party to a managable level. Near the end, the ways in which people die becomes less and less believable. And when you consider the odds of both Gus and Call surviving when hundreds around them die, it's pretty unrealistic.
The majority of the book is quite good. I would have given this 4 or 4.5 stars if a more palatable ending could have been conceived.

Sure, nothing can rival Lonesome Dove or Terms Of Endearment, yet, anyway. But this book is so smooth. An easy read that gives you a good feel for what got Call & McCrea started. I loved it, and would love to see some more tales of our two heroes in their younger years! Thanks Larry, a good escape! I'll pass it on.

Lonesome Dove is one of the best books I've ever read but Dead's Man Walk can't hold a candle to it. The Rangers are portrayed as bumbling idiots who are captured or ambushed as easily as picking up a baby. I especially didn't like the ending. I thought Call and Gus would have it out with Buffalo Hump but not to be (I won't spoil the ending). It's still a good read but it's no Lonesome Dove or Streets of Laredo (an excellent read!!). If you find it at a garage sale or thrift store for a cheap price then by all means pick it up.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel "Dead Man's Walk." This being my introduction to McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series. I think any fan of the wild west would find Mr. McMurtry's ability to create vividly wild characters, an unforgettable tail. Briefly what strikes me the most is how well I could create from the author an attachment to all of these wonderful characters. This was worth the purchase and I can't wait to get started on "Comanche Moon. "

This is the first episode in the lives of Call and Gus. It was intended to tell those who loved Lonesome Doves how the duo met, and what forged their friendship. That was the intent. What happens in this book, though, is that you exposed too much effort to explain things we already know from previously published books. There are just too many attempts to explain things that just popped up in the Lonesome Dove. I mean all that was missing was some attempt to include Laurie's parents. Well written, but very boring and tedious at points.

It's interesting to see how the characters started out and I'll be reading Comanche Moon soon, but I didn't feel this novel had the brilliance of Lonesome Dove. Still, McMurtry is fun reading and I enjoyed the story once I got into it.

Exciting, interesting and great read setting the tone for the characters and personalities of two young Texas rangers who will become our friends as we follow them as maturing adults in later books. Realistic adventures and gripping moments!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Four

i bought this book as i was turning the last few pages of lonesome dove hungry for more stories of gus and mcrae. i was sorely disappointed, this was just plain awful. mcmurtry's writing style changed, so much that i'm convinced he didn't write it. maybe he came up with the story but this wasn't the pulitzer prize winning prose we enjoyed in _ld_. gus and mcrae were wimpy characters, rarely shaping their own world, trudging through a storyline of doom only to end in a scene that made me literally throw the book across the room. i wouldn't read this unless you are totally desperate for another ld novel, or want to say that you `read every ld book' published.

Have you ever read any books by Larry Mcmurtry? He has writen a lot of books and one of them is Dead Mans Walk. This book takes place in Texas in the 1800s. The main characters are Call and Gus. They sign up for the service and have many adventures through hot desert missing death time after time. This book is very good and I recmonid it because it is adventrus.

The first adventure of Western heroes Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, whose later life story was immortalised in LONESOME DOVE. A very readable novel that reflects the brutally of that time and place, even if it is somewhat unpolitically correct with its use of Indian villains. Apart from the two known characters, the novel is full of strong characters who breath life into this remarkable and entertaining book. Powerful and well worth reading, it is only let down by the rather weak and silly ending which all too obviously sets itself up for further adventures - no problem with that, it's just a shame it had to detract from the power of most of what had gone before.

I don't know why this prequel neede to be written. Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F Call are not very interesting or even heroic or likable young men starting out with the Texas rangers. But how interesting can young immature men be? I frankly find no budding signs of the Gus' appealing charisma he has as a mature man in Lonesome Dove. In Dead Man's Walk he is a superficial, promiscuous, drunken waistrel. What would his beloved Clara see in him? For that matter why does the bossy and sarcastic Clara deserve such adoration. Very unlikeable character. Call is dull as a stick and only comes alive when his later famous violent temper is provoked by an incometent commanding officer. I can understand the desire to know some background of these beloved characters from LD and the story in its gory details of military incompetence, Comanche and Apache torture, mutilation and mass slaughter moves along at a good clip until an abrupt, bizarre and most ridiculous ending. It is as if McMurtry suddenly ran out of good ideas or didn't know how to end the novel. I don't think this book paints a very appealing picture of its two main characters and if this were the first book of the LD series I think it would have been a discouraging start. LD is a true classic and masterpiece that deserved its Pulitzer. The other books written after it could not hold a candle to it and I don't think are really necessary to read

another great addition to the Lonesome Dove saga...tells the story before Lonesome Dove. Gus and Call's adventures never lack for action and amusement. A must read for the Lonesome Dove fan. A quick read compared to the first two

First of all let me say I loved 'Lonesome Dove'. Loved it. Loved the story, loved the characters, and consider it a classic. Regrettably this isn't in the same league. Most of the dialogue is so stupid it insults the intelligence and the characters seemed cartoonish at best. In fact the whole book felt like a comic book. I found myself skimming over pages until I just couldn't take it any more. At page 310 I skipped to the end, an ending which ranks as one of the dumbest endings I've ever encountered in fiction. I gave it two stars because I did get 300 pages in before calling it quits.

Although not nearly as good as Lonesome Dove I would recommend this book to any fan of LD. Chronologically the first book in the series, Dead Man's Walk, tells of Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call's first adventures as Texas Rangers. I could not stop turning the page of this book and was finished in just a few days. If you enjoyed Lonesome Dove and are still craving stories about Gus and Call then definitely give Dead Man's Walk a spin.

Like many others, I read Dead Man's Walk after I read Lonesome Dove. I picked up Dead Man's Walk to read about Gus & Call as young men. The story itself was interesting, but the character development was definitely lacking. I was disappointed that they were so one dimensional, Gus is always scheming for a poke and Call never lets his hair down. If this were my introduction to the series, I would not have read the next book - Comanche Moon.

I am a huge fan of this series. Probably was drawn to the book more just because of geography. Having grown up on the Texas South Plains and Panhandle, I could imagine the scenery that was described in the book. Though Woodrow and Gus were more lucky than skilled rangers, I thought this was a humble beginning for the two great characters.

The book followed accurately along the rugged frontier lines set down in Lonesome Dove. However, it was laborious at times. That being said, it is a must read if the reader is at all interested in continuing down the dusty path that is the lives of Gus and Call. Without this story, the gap is insurmountable. The new characters introduced and the somewhat tedious adventures tackled are required to define the future shape of the characters that we have become addicted to.

"Dead Man's Walk" was my introduction to Pulitzer-Prize winning hack, Larry McMurtry's fiction. A book written in the "what happens next" style of schlocky fiction, much like the Hardy Boys series, like the latter, it is nonetheless hard to put down. Taken for what it's worth, it's a real page-turner that reads easily, makes little, if any, demands on the reader, and provides the same kind of cheap thrills as a Grade B horror movie, or a well-put-together haunted house in an amusement park. There is much more substantial western fiction out there, written by writers with a surer hand, but this book packs its considerable weight in cheap thrills, and offers, as is often said about other western hacks, Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, a ripping good (if often lamely predictable) yarn.

I am reading this book now and am in Part IV. I really enjoy it b/c it keeps my attention (something a lot of books don't do for me). The encounters of Gus and Call are fitting, and this is a good story about their years before they take on LONESOME DOVE, probably the best example of western writing yet to date.

I started the Lonesome Dove series in the middle of the summer with Dead Man's Walk. I have to say, this was the best series I've ever read, and each book is fantastic. I think Dead Man's Walk was my favorite, but only by a slim margin. I don't read westerns and I'm not particularly interested in the frontier, but these books brought the era to life for me. I strongly recommend reading them -- in order -- from start to finish.

The first Western I've probably ever read (I don't think Little House on the Prairie counts). It was pretty good; I liked the characters. I might read more of the Lonesome Dove series if I come across them.

Depressing at times, but in the end very uplifting. One of McMurtry's best, but I will always compare his books to the greatest book I've ever read, Lonesome Dove, and this prequel doesn't quite get there. You will find it hard to put this book down,though, and the ending is one of the most memorable endings imaginable.

I went into this book hoping that it would be as good as Lonesome Dove. To my horror, I found it too simple, boring, and all-in-all mediocre. The book did not delve into the character's emotions and had many useless characters: example: Gomez. A must read for fans, but not as good, don't expet much.

I saw the Lonesome Dove mini series and read the book, so when I discovered the other novels in the saga, I had to read them. I wasn't disappointed. In fact I have neglected house, yard and grandchildren because I simply could not stop reading. Now on to Comanche Moon!

Outstanding!! Do not trust any review less than five stares! The entire Lonesome
Dove series must be read. Anything less is just shameful. As you can tell by now I can't spell but I sure as hell have an eye for tallent & entertainment.

This is required reading for those that enjoyed Lonesome Dove. Chronologically, it is the first book in the four book Lonesome Dove series featuring the lives of Texas Rangers Call and McCrae. The other three books in the Lonesome Dove series are Comanche Moon, Streets of Laredo, and Lonesome Dove.

This book falls short of Lonesome Dove standards and seems to have been written in a hurry. Brutality and gore are used wantonly to create sensationalism and to the point that the story lacks reality. In spite of all that, it grabs the readers attention and keeps you looking ahead to see what is going to happen next. It is worthwhile.SocksMarty's MomMister MartyMarty's Town

Wow... this is one of the most ridiculous story I've ever read. The first 7/8 of the book were plain silly and totally unbelievable. How many times does the author repeat the "Gus is afraid of bears" contrivance? The last 1/8 of the book was...bizarre. Rescuing an English aristocrat in a leper colony...and then the sick details of Indian torture.

By far, .......the MOST depressing book I've ever read! Couldn't there have been at least one or two good things to happen? Maybe I should have read Lonesome Dove first. Well, . . . I'm working on it now.

I am a fan of McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. I was so entranced by the quality of the first book, that I sought out the sequels. Streets of Laredo, still had the old blush. By this time, Dead Man's Walk, McMurtry is quite worn out. His book spends no time on character but only on action, action that is contrived, unworthy of the qualities that earned his Pulitzer Prize.

One scrape follows after another, and they miraculously survive, only because the author knows they must, to be alive for Lonesome Dove. McMurtry uses every magician's trick. Even though the situations are deadlier, they are not more interesting. Perhaps the most disapointing is the white bean black bean contrivance. Call even refuses to murder Salazar, the man who whipped him with a cat of nine tails 100 times. He miraculously lives, but his vengeance doesn't. He who vowed to get even. why not? They must live so they may be turned over to Larouche! So they can face a firing squad, so they may be rescued by a leper lady. Nope, the sensitive reader who requires motivation, will soon tire of the relentless action.

I finished this book only because I had started it and somehow expected it to improve down the line. After reading "Lonesome Dove" I had expected a read at least approaching that of the original of the series. What a disappointment. The writing is almost amateurish. I do not believe L.M. wrote this book, but he obviously put his name on it. Buy at your own risk!

Lonesome Dove was a fantastic novel, but this prequel is not even close to the same league. McMurtry must have been depressed when he wrote it, because the entire book is very gloomy, and nothing good ever seems to happen to the main characters. This book and Comanche Moon should really be one book, since there is really no conclusion to this book. Neither one of them is a worthy prequel to Lonesome Dove.