Book 2), Comanche Moon (Lonesome Dove Story

While many underground cartoonists of the `60s and `70s focused their stories on counter-cultural issues of the time, writer/artist Jack Jackson headed in the other direction, bringing the stories of early Texas personalities to life. COMANCHE MOON tells the epic story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her famed son, Quanah. Set during the final days of the Comanche, who once roamed from the Kansas Territory to central Texas, it is a fascinating and moving historical portrait.

At age 9, Cynthia Ann, the daughter of Anglo settlers, is kidnapped by Comanches during a raid in 1836. Renamed Naduah, she adapts to their ways, marrying a chief and bearing a son, Quanah. Quanah rises from an uncertain beginning to become a powerful and feared warrior, and the last chief of the Quahadi Comanche. But his most startling transition was yet to come, as he adopted the white man's ways and introduced Native American culture to white society.

Jackson pulls out all the stops for this graphic novel. While I recall studying Quanah Parker and these events in my Texas history class many years ago, it was not presented with this level of detail. This is certainly not your typical read-in-an-hour trade paperback - you actually have to focus, and you may even learn a thing or two if you're not careful. Jackson's historical sources are numerous, events and characters are clearly identified, and maps are abundant. I especially enjoyed his casual presentation of the Comanche's speech, almost as if they were using modern slang. The art is very detailed, at times almost approaching photorealism. Jackson takes great pains to accurately depict historical figures from daguerreotypes. At times, it resembles the early black and white work of his contemporary, Richard Corben.

With all that said, there are certain parts that should appeal to the purely underground comic fan - Jackson's depictions of Quanah's mystic vision, his first experience with peyote, and his death resemble psychedelia straight out of Zap Comics. Great reading, fully educational, and very cool.

I started this series with Dead Man's Walk. I prefer some spare, straightforward, realistic authors that pull no punches and tell it like it is. Books that don't always have happy endings like Cormack McCarthy and Dennis LeHane That book had moments of that so I decided to keep going and picked up Comanche Moon. While reading that I picked up Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne, a non fiction account of much of the same subject material in Comanche Moon, and was able to verify that for the most part, Larry McMurtry got it right.I generally enjoy these accounts of the old west. This book too had it's moments but it then got mired in dramatic interpersonal side stories of the characters lives. Rather than focusing on the war prowess of the Comanches, their horsemanship, their master of the plains, the book dissolved into a soap opera-esque series of side stores of the drama between the characters. Rather than than a non emotional narrative of the salient events, we get soaked with the internal dialog of the characters and their dialog with each other.

While it true that many Texas Rangers had more balls than brains, in this book they come off especially inept and bumbling. We bet bogged down in unrequited love, refusal to acknowledge children, and ridiculous, zany circumstances endured by the characters and the reader. It is family reading, PG, through and through, the book never matching the gritty, violent struggles of the time and the intractable issues of the day.

Opportunities to provide a context to what was going on in the day are missed. I managed to barely finish the book.

How many books, where this is is the fourth in a series, retain this much quality? Especially for books that are this long (over 700 pages). After reading the first three, I had been hoping for a book in the series that showed Gus and Call in their prime. While it does have a few themes that I wish Larry McMurtry would not dwell on so much, I was very satisfied with the novel.
The first negative I have is McMurtry's obsession with torture. I'm currently reading a non-fiction book called "Trail of Tears", which tells of the fall of the Cherokee nation. "Trail of Tears" does indeed confirm that violence and torture were indeed big parts of Indian society. And they probably had their share of sadists to took what was common sport to them, and stretched it to extremes. It's just that McMurtry has used this theme a lot of times before, and I wish he had gone in another direction.
And it's not the huge amount of death that takes place here as much as it points to the futility of life that McMurtry portrays. For all the adventure of "Lonesome Dove", we find out in "Streets of Laredo" that the whole cattle operation turns out to be a bust. And in "Streets of Laredo", for all that Call did to protect people in his life, it's later years were spent in virtual poverty. I would have liked to have seen at least once in the series where they do something great that gets proper historical recognition.
That aside, even though the book is 700 pages, one realizes while reading it that once it's done, there will probably be no more Gus and Call. Yes, I've read of the historical innacuracies, and how the timelines of the book are not quite in sync. I'll leave these worries to the pickier of the readers, and concentrate on the chemistry between the characters. McMurtry captured lightening in a bottle when he wrote "Lonesome Dove", and we readers can be greatful he took it to the lengths he did.
In this novel, we get to see how the characters from "Lonesome Dove" got to where they were at the start of "Dove". While the coordination of the stories should have been tighter, it did take a lot of work to tell a story where you basically know who's going to live or die while making it interesting. We get to know where Pea, Deets, and Spoon fit in the mix from the beginning. For this I thank Mr. McMutry, and which there were someway to fit in a fifth story. As this will probably not happen, read this one slowly to enjoy it.
I put this one a close third in the series. Of course, "Lonesome Dove" is first, but I really liked how he portrayed Call as an old man in "Streets of Laredo" I would put this one right behind "Street", with "Dead Men Walking" taking a distance fourth.
I would have liked to have seen at least once in the series

I think McMurtry's Lonesome Dove books are hands down the best western books out there today. It's because of this series that the western genre has become so exciting for me to read. His discription of life in Texas in the mid 1800's is so descriptive, I can close my eyes and envision the places he writes about.

First I read Lonesome Dove about ten years ago. Since then I haven't really read many westerns and have stayed primarily in the sci-fi\fantasy genre, but at the book store a couple weeks back I picked up Dead Man's Walk, the first story of Gus and Call. I bought it because I remembered how much I loved Lonesome Dove. I remembered laughing, crying and sitting there awestruck at how good a book it was. While Dead Man's Walk was not as good as LD, I still though it deserved five stars. It brought me right back to the world of LD. I also laughed out loud several times at the antics of Gus and I really loved that Mr. McMurtry put more humour in this book. After reading that I found out there were a couple of more books in the Lonesome Dove series, Streets of Laredo and Comanche Moon. I immediatley ran out and got Moon and Laredo.

Moon was next in the series and I thought it perfectly showed how Gus and Call become the men in Lonesome Dove. This book wasn't as humorous as parts of LD and Walk as it had a more somber tone and much more death than the other two. Maybe it's because this is the final book McMurtry said he is going to write in the LD saga but that tone of finality is there. Especially with Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf I thought.

I recommend this book and this series to anyone who likes westerns, love stories, grand adventures, great action, funny and poignant dialouge and another trip into the lives of Call and McCrae. Five out of five stars

If you were hooked on Lonesome Dove, you must read this book.

In my opinion, Lonesome Dove is about the best western ever written. And CM, while decidedly a lesser book, will still be very enjoyable.

I liked CM because of the Comanche portrayal, both as smart fighters, but as people also, the evolution of Gus and Captain Call as Rangers, failure of Captain Call at fatherhood, description of the Texas plains and its natural as well as Indian perils, horses, guns, strategy, sorrow at the loss of fellow Rangers, and even beloved horses. Newt's early life and loss of his mother, Comanche attack on Austin, and so much more.

Larry McMurtry is one of the best known American novelists alive, mostly on the strength of Lonsome Dove and Terms of Endearment. Lonesome Dove especially was well-recieved and made into a very good miniseries, back when they made good ones. Since, McMurtry has written a sequel to Lonesome Dove, and two prequels, of which this is the second. It attempts to follow the characters through the period ca. about 1850 up through the late 1860's. There isn't a coherent plot, instead the characters roam around for 750 pages, with much dialog and amusement, the occasional gunfight, and some gruesome torture.
There are some characters who haven't been seen before, or who weren't in Lonesome Dove, anyway, and they provide some amusement. One, Inish Scull, is Gus and Call's captain in the rangers at the start of the book. He's a weird, strange character, and frankly should have been dropped two thirds of the way through the book when he returns to New England, or alternatively reintroduced to the plot somehow. His wife is even more outrageous than he is, and somehow is so annoying you're almost hoping the Indians get her and inflict some of McMurtry's patented unpleasantness upon her.
That being said, there's not much of a plot here, and there are conflicts with other books (notably Lonesome Dove itself). There's also the issue of history, and historical detail. It's as if McMurtry doesn't care, or doesn't know, and his publisher is uninterested too. So one character sings a song before it was written, another has a gun that hasn't been invented yet. The Civil War is almost an afterthought to the story. Frankly, Gus and Call would have been a lot more interesting if they'd gone east to fight in the war (many Texas Rangers did) and wound up at Pea Ridge or something. *That* would have been interesting. Instead, they act like the war didn't happen, almost, and no one else pays it much attention either. The one Northern-born ranger stays with his troop and rangers on, without much mention of his dilemma.
I've enjoyed many of McMurtry's books, and I enjoyed the characters here, but the plot was very thin. I can only recommend this book to those who already know they enjoy McMurtry, and are aware of what they're getting into.

This is kind of a mixed bag and if you view the Pulitzer Prize winning "Lonesome Dove" as sacrosanct, you'll probably want to avoid it. But if you just want to spend a little more time with Gus, Call, Deets, Jake Spoon, Blue Duck and my favorite character, the Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes, then prepare to kick back for a while.

"Comanche Moon" has two things working against it right off the bat. First of all, it falls chronologically between two better known novels and it's straight-jacketed by the fact that we already know very well what happens to most of the characters. That limits the ability of what McMurtry can do and while it makes, say, Jake Spoon's boyhood actions more poignant because we know where he eventually ends up, it also means that when Blue Duck wades in to fight a duel to the death with a sworn enemy, we know what *won't* happen, because we know Blue's fate, too.

Plus, it extends one of my least favorite aspects of "Lonesome Dove" (Call's tedious and inexplicable disavowal of Maggie and Newt) and since we already know he never claims her as a wife or Newt as a son, a boring issue becomes even more frustrating.

The other problem is that the novel is broken into three parts, or "books." The first establishes Call and Gus in their 30s, patrolling the llano under Capt. Inish Scull and becoming captains themselves. The second covers the Comanches' raid to the sea and Scull's bloody battle of wills with Ahumado, the Black Vaquero. And the third closes the gap and points the way to the opening of "Lonesome Dove."

The reason this is a problem is that Scull's "Book II" struggle against Ahumado is the most interesting part of the story and because of this "Book III" feels like it arrives in the wake of a blown load. McMurtry skims through the Civil War and the rangers' approach to middle age, and as much as I like the characters, it feels a bit anticlimactic.

Nevertheless, it's a worthy entry to the series (and, if McMurtry is still in the mood to write about any of these characters, I seriously would love to see a book solely devoted to Scull or Mr. Shoes). After I finished "Lonesome Dove," I was still in the mindset of these books and plunged right into "Comanche." By the time I finished "Comanche," I realized I'd absorbed over 1600 pages of this material -- no wonder McMurtry sometimes loses track of where Clara is when or how Maggie lived before she died. Sixteen hundred pages and I have half a mind to start on into re-reading "Streets of Laredo."

There's just something fascinating to me about McMurtry's matter-of-fact prose and his plain-phrased approach to the country, violence, sex, horse maintenance, Native Americans (who are presented with respect but without faux-varnish) and just the day-to-day process of living in the 1800's and getting yourself from point A to point B in an age before accurate maps, cell phones, interstates and cruise control.

Many reviewers in this section have already echoed my dominant feelings about this book...disappointment. I picked up this book with more anticipation than I did with either Streets of Laredo or Dead Man's Walk. I thought that, since it was the direct prequel to Lonesome Dove, we'd find the same perfect combination of characters, action, drama and unpredictability that we did in the sequel. I was only partially right. McMurtry is a master at drawing and developing characters. Although he was tired of Gus and Woodrow by this point, he still held true to their characters. He also gave us some very dramatic moments in character interaction. The scenes between Call and Maggie are powerful and heart breaking in their subtlety, more so than the scenes between Gus and Clara. A particularly beautiful scene takes place between Deets and Pea Eye, when Pea tries to tell Deets that he can call him by his first name. This is McMurtry drama at its best. We can also see more deeply into the character of Jake Spoon and find more sympathy for him when we read again of his fate years later. Still, if McMurtry does justice to his main characters, he does even more justice to the Indians of the story. Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf and Famous Shoes are all vivid characters than earn our respect, even if we fear them. We even learn more of Blue Duck, although I always felt he was most effective as the terrifying, shadowy figure that plagued Gus and Call in Lonesome Dove. Not all of the characters are worthy. Inish and Inez Scull are shallow and add little to the book. Unfortunately, the unpredictable nature of McMurtry's writing takes a negative turn in this book. There is no action where there should be and much of the drama in this book is anticlimactic. We aren't given one good blood-and-guts battle between the Rangers and the Indians. Some might mark this as realism, but I don't look for stark realism when I read fiction. Lonesome Dove was brilliant because it gave us all of the things that make an epic story, including good action scenes. Gus and Call are at the height of their Indian-fighting powers in Comanche Moon and the reader would expect at least one good clash between opposing forces. Sadly, we find none of this in the story. Ultimately, Comanche Moon is worth reading for those who are big fans of the characters, but it's a drag in the end.

I read Lonesome Dove years ago and haven't quite finished reading Comanche Moon. I am struck by the cruel violence in Comanche Moon to the point where I even had trouble reading the part about Blue Duck and the bear. I imagine there were/are people in the world who are like that and like the Black Mexican, but I find it disturbing to read about them and their actions in such detail. Luckily those episodes are interspersed with the activities of the other characters enough to temper the violence and keep me reading to see what's going to happen to the characters next.

"Comanche Moon" is described as the final volume of the "Lonesome Dove" saga although chronologically it is the second of the four novels, taking place between "Dead Man's Walk" and "Lonesome Dove". Readers of the other volumes in series will encounter familiar names here: Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae, of course, but also Jake Spoon and Pea Eye Parker and Deets of "Dove", Long Bill Coleman and Buffalo Hump of "Walk", Famous Shoes and Charlie Goodnight of "Streets of Laredo" and others. As has become increasingly evident in his novels, McMurtry is not concerned with presenting a story of the West correct in all the minor historical details. For example, in "Comanche Moon" we find one character armed with a Winchester rifle 10 years before that weapon's introduction. Instead, his aim appears to be to create a story of about four parts gritty realism and one part romantic myth - and in "Comanche Moon" he achieves success. The novel abounds with characters more extravagant, larger-than-life personalities, yet these people are true to the story McMurtry is telling. Captain Inish Scull of the Texas Rangers and his wife, Inez, and the "Black Vaquero" Ahumado are unlikely to have had close real-life models, but in "Comanche Moon" they are forceful, fascinating figures. As is usual, McMurtry's characters are driven by their own obsessions. If I might sum up the theme of this novel, and much else of McMurtry's fiction, I would say that it would be "times change, people don't" - and not just "people" in the larger sense, but people as individuals, holding true to their own particular, narrow view of how they should live their lives. Characters like Woodrow Call and Inish Scull and Buffalo Hump are admirable because of their great integrity, no matter what destruction they seed while pursuing their individual visions of what is right. In "Comanche Moon", McMurtry's Indian characters - the Comanche Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf and the Kickapoo Famous Shoes - are perhaps more finely drawn than in any of the other Lonesome Dove books. They are not merely white men wearing paint and feathers. They live and die by their own logic, as alien as that system of belief may seem to a late Twentieth Century reader. Although any judgment must be subjective, I would rate "Comanche Moon" as at least the equal of "Streets of Laredo" and better than "Dead Man's Walk", although not so high as the magnificent "Lonesome Dove". I know that part of my enjoyment of the novel is my familiarity with several of the major characters, and my advice to any reader new to the "Lonesome Dove" saga would be to read the books in their order of publication rather than their chronological order of internal dates.

The best, of course, being the first book in this series, "Lonesome Dove". I'm not sure whether McMurtry ever intended to write more books featuring Gus McCrae & Woodrow Call, but I'm certainly glad he did. And it's only fitting, somehow, that the book that says on its cover, "the final volume of the Lonesome Dove story", be almost as good as the first.
We learn about some of the things that Gus and Woodrow referred to in that first book. We learn something about why Jake is the way he is in that first book. And we also learn a lot about Newt and his future relationships with the rangers. There's a lot more, but it would take a lot more than a thousand words to mention everything.
I do have some problems with this book - not with McMurtry's writing, but with the way the publisher laid it out. First of all, check out the back cover - Gus McCrae's first name is Augustus, NOT August. And check out the spelling of some of the words in the book. I didn't think McMurtry was British or Canadian; I don't remember "behavior" being spelled in the British manner in "Lonesome Dove", but here it's spelled "behaviour" consistently - and other words follow suit. The publishers better go over the next edition of this book very carefully so they can avoid these kinds of mistakes.

I would actually give this audio review 3.5 stars, and don't want to be misunderstood for even that low rating compared to the quality of the book. This is for the audio version Comanche Moon. Frank Muller is the narrator and honestly, I was disappointed in the reading. After listening to the wonderful Will Patton ACTING the book Dead Man's Walk, it took hours to get used to Muller's fast and slow reading. He starts like speed demon, then finally for the most part gets it to a normal pace. There isn't much difference in the character voices.

The story itself is excellent and furthers the Lonesome Dove backstory. It is pretty brutal in it's discussion of torture. If it were a big screen movie, it would be rated NC-17, at least. But, by the end of the book, I viewed even the most brutal characters in a different light.

If you are a Lonesome Dove fan this is not to be missed (at least in print).

This books takes place over many years, which is something that I wish it had not done. As a result, there is so much that is packed into this book that it feels somewhat forced and extremely far removed from the earlier parts of the story.

While I enjoyed it, I didn't love it. I did like seeing Deets and Pea Eye and even Jake Spoon again, but not much was added to their characters. Pea Eye is as simple as ever, Deets still has a heart of gold and Jake Spoon is lazier than he is helpful.

Maggie was actually the best character, and one that I felt the most sorry for. Gus pines for Clara, who eventually leaves to marry someone else, but Maggie's dilemma with Call is ongoing, constant and unescapable. Once she becomes pregnant, their relationship withers and she is forced to live as best she can with thoughts of what may have been. As Newt grows up a little during the course of the story, Maggie takes what joy she can from that before becoming sick and dying. It's a tragic tale, and one that I thought was compelling and believable.

On the other hand, Call and Gus never seem to deserve the legendary status that people give them in Lonesome Dove. They are elevated on the whim of a superior to become captains in the Texas Rangers toward the beginning of the book. While they seem able, most of their missions are complete failures. They never capture or kill who they are supposed to be hunting, and toward the end of the book appear to be about to give up being Rangers. The one successful mission they do have, that of getting back a superior who had been captured, is really a failure in most ways. They wind up saving the superior only because the villains holding him have left him for dead.

Call and Gus are very human characters, and I enjoy their flaws, but I thought that their almost awe-inspiring status in Lonesome Dove (a later book chronologically) would have been based on more than their ability to simply stay alive. As difficult as the frontier life is portrayed in this book, Call and Gus just seem to be survivors, not necessarily Rangers who always got their outlaw.

The two heroes do not bring in or apprehend a single major nemesis, even though those antagonists have been built up since Dead Man's Walk. While some may consider that realistic, I found it to be somewhat of a letdown. Still, if you've read the other books, it's worth reading this.

Comanche Moon, the prequel to Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove, finishes McMurty's Western series on an excellent note. In this, he recovers from "Dead Man's Walk," which I rated a good book, but not on a par with the others in his four book classic of the American West.
Here are Woodrow Call and Agustus McCrae, two Texas Rangers, becoming the personalities they will inhabit in Lonesome Dove (the first book of the series, though the third in time). These two start out as veteran Rangers, having earned their spurs during the hard years portrayed in "Dead Man's Walk."
Adventure and luck make them co-captains of the Rangers. This book starts with their expedition under the ever fascinating Captain Inish Scull. When Scull's wanderlust gets the best of him, he departs his ranger force in the middle of Indian Country, giving field promotions to Call and Gus.
This book focus on wonderful characters: Bufalo Hump, Kicking Wolf and Famous Shoes - two Comanche and a Kickapoo indian; Captain Scull and his ever amorous wife Inez; the women in our protagonists lives - Maggie the kindly prostitute and Carla the only human being able to corral McCrae's practiced insolence; Ahumado, the tortuous Mayan who has raised human suffering to a wicked art form. Also, several of the characters who provide wonderful support in Lonesome Dove arrive: Pea Eye, Deets, Jake Spoon and Blue Duck.
This book ranges over multiple plot lines as the author shifts focus form person to person. McMurty develops the indian characters to a high degree in this book -- they are interesting and sympathetic beings with histories, fears, weaknesses and beliefs -- just like the cowboys and sherrifs who populate the rest of the book.
"Comanche Moon" is an epic tale that never tires or bores. It is wide ranging and covers about twenty years in three major divisionis (or "books" as the author refers to them). Something interesting happens frequently, but there are chapters that develop characters or just take the story a little further with nary an arrow, shot, death or narrow escape (differnt from "Dead Man's Walk," which almost had a serial quality in the relentless action or cliff hanger appearing dutifully at the end of each chapter).
This book excites but also paints a great character sketch of McMutry's West as it exists in his Texas. A great work of literature and a great read.

I am a big McMurtry fan and was very excited to see this published. But, I was a little more than disappointed. I guess "Lonesome Dove" is a tough act to follow. With this novel, McMurtry tries to set the action for "Lonesome Dove". But, there are still many questions that are not answered. Such as, why is Call always so stoic and literal. Why is he this way? There is no section on how Call felt after he learned of Maggie's death. Since a great deal is spent on their relationship, or lack thereof, it would have added a few more pages but, heh, at 750 + what's a few more? The "rangering" sections are still top form. I particularly loved the sections on the Indians and their relationship to the gods and the earth. Buffalo Hump's characterization is probably the best in the novel. McMurtry does set up Blue Duck as one mean SOB. I had trouble putting it down but was not compelled to feel I had to read it in one sitting. But, a big thanks must go out to McMurtry for bringing these wonderful characters back into our world again.

Comanche Moon is a good book. Maybe I should begin by getting that statement off my chest. It draws many of the characters from Lonesome Dove together and the stories McMurtry places them in are generally worthy of their greatness. But there were very discernable problems with this book beyond the flaws in the long story that made it the weakest volume of the Lonesome Dove series. What kept frustrating me was how the continuity was wrong. By this I mean facts that should have meshed instead contradicted one another between the various books in this quartet. That is just about unforgivable. I hate when authors do that because it weakens the reality of the novel and reveals it as "just a book". I could go on and say some more things here that are critical but the fact is, I did like Comanche Moon and was glad to spend time with those I got to know in the immeasurably superior Lonesome Dove. Read this for what it is and don't expect a return to Lonesome Dove's perfection.

We join Augustus and Call just before they become captains in the Texas Rangers. They are following Captain Innes Scull a crazed scholar of Greece who is soon to become a student of the eyelid—why? Because he leaves the Rangers and walks with Kickapoo guide Famous Shoes into Mexico to face off with Ahumado, a crook infamous for his use of torture, and Ahumado takes Scull hostage and skins away his eyelids so that his brain will get fried in the sun.
You have to know going in that if you are a Lonesome Dove fan, this book just won't be as good. Interestingly, it was written last, but it is chronologically the second in the four-book series. There's nothing tight about this book. It skips past long stretches of time. We see Call's relationship with gold-hearted prostitute Maggie, who just doesn't push him hard enough. One problem I had with this book is that it didn't make it as plausible that Call is ignorant of the fact that Newt is his son. Also, the relationship between Call and Jake Spoon are frostier than you'd think from the way they re-unite in Lonesome Dove, and Pea Eye seems much more racially tolerant than he is described in LD. Perhaps these represent the older McMurtry's greater knowledge of human nature—that's how William Faulkner excused the inconsistencies in his late novel The Mansion with the novels that came before it.
Where this book strikes out on its own is in the way it spends time with the Native American characters, particularly the Cherokees Buffalo Hump, a great chief, Kicking Wolf, a horse thief, and Blue Duck, Buffalo Hump's son, who becomes the scourge of Lonesome Dove. It's very cool to watch him come into his own—like it should have been watching Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader. When it comes to the prequel games, Larry McMurtry doesn't make any of George Lucas' mistakes. Ideally, I think, you should read the series in order: Dead Man's Walk, this book, Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo. It should just hit the spot that way.

Larry McMurtry's mission in Comanche Moon seems to have been to fill in the last space in the complete Lonesome Dove saga. This leads to a problem; if there are a lot of loose ends to tie up, the process may distract the reader from any continuous story thread.
Part of the difficulty is that the timeline doesn't work well. Woodrow and Gus, based very, very loosely on Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, had a self-contained logic of existence in the marvelous first volume, but it was slightly out of kilter with history. Set in 1876 (I base this on the comment ". . . like they just done to Custer"), a backstory had to stretch a long way and stay consistent.
Starting with the Dead Man's Walk (which actually happened, vaguely as recounted -- not Sam Houston's most inspired idea) was a natural, but it left a whole life to be filled in, sometimes with ellisions covering years when nothing much happened.
But McMurtry is, as always, the master of villainy. The impenetrably -- and pointlessly -- cruel Ahumado is the perfect foe for Inish Scull, and the most absorbing part of the story for me was their silent contest.
I think McMurtry knew he needed to write Comanche Moon, if only to complete the cycle. But I think Woodrow Call was speaking for the author in the novel's last line.

It's been a long time since I've read a book that I got so wrapped up in, that I hated to finish it. "Commanche Moon" was like that for me. Following the middle years of Gus, Call, Deets, Newt and quite a few more characters first brought to life in "Lonesome Dove" was a nice refreshing change for me. I don't want to go into too much detail regarding the story, feel free to browse several other reveiws posted here that are more than happy to spell out spoilers that are better off discovered while reading, but suffice it to say, if you are a fan of the other books in this series, you won't be disappointed with "Commanche Moon". All of the things fans love about these books are once again present here; rich characters, excellent action, some romance, comedy....everything you could want. I can't wait to go back and read the series in chronological order now. Highly recommended.

The adventure continues for, now veteran, Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Augustus (Gus) McCrae on the plains of Texas in the mid-1800's. We follow these two best friends through many adventures and hardships in this second installment of Larry McMurtry's epic Lonesome Dove series.
This book takes place a number of years after Dead Man's Walk left off. At this point Gus and Call are now part of the Ranger troop led by the Infamous Inish Scull. Scull and his troop's sole purpose are to destroy their abhorred enemy: The Comanche Indian and their Great War chief, Buffalo Hump. Both of which are formidable opponents especially the dreaded Buffalo Hump who is known for not only killing incredible amounts of white men but torture as well.
When urgent business calls Captain Scull he (almost haphazardly) assigns Gus and Call to captain of his beloved troop, who then leads their troop to the safety of Austin. This marks the beginning of their new career as captains of the Texas Rangers, a cherished and long sought-after position by many a Texan. But they soon learn it isn't as glamorous as it appears. Between low wages, crooked governors, men and close friends dying, and countless other obstacles Gus and Call start wondering if this is really what they want to do for the rest of their lives and if not what will be the next step for these two men who know nothing but rangering?
Most books over 700 pages can start to feel like a chore and often times make you question if it's worth actually getting to the top of the never-ending mountain. This was not the case for Comanche Moon. At no point did I feel obligated to finish it but rather turned the pages as quickly as if I was looking a word up in the dictionary and was a couple pages away. The characters are extremely well-defined and you are brought to a personal level with nearly a dozen different characters. Some loveable, some likeable, some so venomously evil you couldn't imagine being in the situation where you had to actually face them.
The aforementioned Inish Scull has become one of my favorite literary characters to date. His quick-wittedness and genius will have you laughing and rooting for this complicated man. Especially when he is faced with the most perilous situation one can imagine.
Also we dig much deeper into the lives and heads of our two heroes, along their loves, their pains, their triumphs, and their regrets. Both seem like simple men, neither are.
<DISCONTINUE READING IF YOU DON'T WANT A MAJOR SPOILER>
The point of the book where McMurtry really shine is in the last 50 pages, when he describes the grizzly murder of the now elderly Buffalo Hump by his banished son. I wouldn't have thought possible if the smartest literary minds all told me but McMurtry actually made you sympathize with the aging Indian. Throughout the previous 1000-1100 pages (spanning two different books) he has described this man as such a hated villain and feared individual that his death should be a triumph for the Rangers, but you actually have to hold back a tear. It was that good.
I've yet to read Lonesome Dove and all I hear is that it is such a cornerstone of literary history. If it is actually better than Comanche Moon it must be. Bottom line: read this book. Might be my favorite book ever.

Over a period of several days, while I should have been doing other things, I stole away to a corner or sacrificed hours of sleep to read this book. Like all of McMurtry's books, it opens up new vistas not hinted at previously, in his work or that of others. He has a way of drawing us into the pictures he paints with a delicate balance between the thoughts and feelings of his characters and their words and actions. This book recreates what its characters call "the Comanche way of life", and uses it to set off the world of the Texas Rangers Gus and Call, who were introduced in earlier books in the Lonesome Dove series. Combined with the first three books in the series, this one gives a completely convincing picture of Gus and Call as mythical heroes of the frontier. What the present book adds to their portrayal is their image in the eyes of the Comanche. The book shows that the formidable Comanche warriors not only learned to respect Gus and Call as fighting men, but could even show a little regret at the thought that Gus and Call would some day fade into the sunset along with themselves. Gus and Call (especially Gus) have become in many ways like the Comanche they fight.

Historically accurate biography of Quanah Parker, last Commanche to live free on the LLana Estacata of Texas. Also bio information about his mother Cynthia Ann Parker, a European girl captured and raised by Commanches as their own, later taken back by her white family by force after she had married and had children as a Commanche woman. Lots of information regarding the everyday life of Commanche people. Told in a graphic novel format , the drawing is not particularly beautiful, but the story and accuracy make up for it. My copy is bound in psuedo leather, looks nice. Highly recomended for adults or older adolecents. Especially those who are intellectually curious, who may or may not have trouble with standard written texts.

"Comanche Moon" is much better than "Dead Man's Walk" - the writing is much tighter and more addictive. This novel really develops the key characters to set the stage for "Lonesome Dove". The sub-storylines work well together and create a nice overall theme. I like that you see the changes coming about in this historical period through the eyes of the Rangers, the Comanches, and other characters. Taken in sequence, this elevates the characters from "Dead Man's Walk" to a much higher level. Highly recommnended as a read (and the movie follows the book pretty well).

Thank you, Mr.McMurtry, for another fantastic installment to the Lonesome Dove series...I sure hope another is already in the works (one to fill in between Commanche Moon and Lonesome Dove? I'd be one of the very first to buy it...)
Now, "hooray!" for all of the wonderful reviews here that I agree with. To the rest of you "nay-sayers" I say "Cmon, people...get real...loosen those ties that must be choking you and relax those sphincter muscles! Good grief, man! Commanche Moon is GREAT FICTION! A great, can't put it down, don't want to ever get to the last page, just don't want it to end story, with great characters, dialogue and events...all the stuff we L.D fans can't get enough of and come back for with tongues wagging. Sure there's some brutal torture and very bad treatment and disregard to women and children, but bad stuff like that did happen and don't kid yourselves, still does happen today in parts of the world. To all you "researchers" and "typo" complainers: Lighten up! It's a FICTIONAL STORY and a fantastic one, to boot! Give us some more, Larry!

NO ONE makes you feel as much a part of the story as larry mcmurtry. when i put one of his books down i generally have to get a glass of water to get the dust out. I enjoyed comanche moon, but felt it just left me hanging, which would be fine, except that i already read the other 3 parts to the series. as i was reading comanche i wondered how the book would have been if read in sequencial order, not knowing the future. GUS AND CALL are probably the two best characters in american fiction, and in comanche moon you can find several reasons not to like CALL. read this if you have read lonesome dove or plan to read it. alone, i am not sure.

I am a huge Larry McMurtry and "Lonesome Dove" fan. This is written in a younger timeframe of Gus and the Captain. If you like Western historical fiction, "Lonesome Dove" or Larry McMurtry books in general, you will enjoy it!!!

NO ONE makes you feel as much a part of the story as larry mcmurtry. when i put one of his books down i generally have to get a glass of water to get the dust out. I enjoyed comanche moon, but felt it just left me hanging, which would be fine, except that i already read the other 3 parts to the series. as i was reading comanche i wondered how the book would have been if read in sequencial order, not knowing the future. GUS AND CALL are probably the two best characters in american fiction, and in comanche moon you can find several reasons not to like CALL. read this if you have read lonesome dove or plan to read it. alone, i am not sure.

Having read many of McMurtry's books, including all in the Lonesome Dove series, I was anticipating a let down of sorts. I was pleasantly surprised with Comanche Moon. It developed many of the characters seen in Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, and even Dead Man's Walk. McMurtry's ability to truly explore the characters about whom he writes is superb. His background and description of the villains made them seem very real, and the suffering of their victims was comparable with anything McMurtry's ever done. This was an outstanding book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's acquainted with Captains Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae

I saved this one until I went to the Grand Canyon, figuring to read about hard country in a hard country portion of the USA. It was a perfect setting for a magnificent read.
Call & McCrea, their adversaries and allies come to life in technicolor.
Spent one day hiking the Canyon's South Rim, stopping to rest and read and what a way to enjoy this great portrayer of the American West.
Don't think it would have mattered where I read it as it was quite a treat. Being in the Grand Canyon was just a bonus.
I have yet to be disappointed in a McMurtry novel and these characters are full of life, color and verve.

This book is haunted by being a middle volume. Mr. McMurtry's writing is excellent but the story really goes nowhere. It takes the Lonesome Dove characters and gives them some advevtures for their middle years. Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae are full fledged Captains now. The time spance of the novel is too long and the stories are too disjointed. Characters are introduced and dropped. An example of this is Captain Scull, who is given much time in the first half of the book ( and is quite interesting in a Theodore Roosevelt sort of way) but is reduced to a caricature in the second half. This book was in dire need of some editting. I liked "Deadman's Walk" and I loved "Lonesome Dove". This book was best summed up by Woodrow Call's las line "It may be over but it wasn't fun".

I was expecting great things from this book after Lonesome Dove the movie being so good. I was thoroughly disappointed. There was no semblance of historical accuracy in this book. The story lines were completely unbelievable by anyone who has any knowledge of the time and place. Even considering the time and place, the violence was extremely cruel and excessive. Channeling Vlad the Impaler from Medieval Europe and stealing Val Kilmer in a cage from the movie Willow in something that claims to be a Western was pitiful. The only reason I finished this book is because I had seen the movie Lonesome Dove and wanted to see what happened with the characters. This book seems like the author just threw the most outlandish crap he could think of into a book in order to fill a contract. What a disappointment from a Pulitzer Prize winning author.

I can't decide whether this is better than McMurtry's original epic. Probably not, but I think it's far better than the other two in the series (the depressing Streets of Laredo, and the forgettable Dead Man's Walk) What makes this novel so good is not the story of Call and Gus, but the secondary characters. They're really wild this time, Inish Skull is probably the best of the new characters, when he is prisoner of the Mexican War Chief the book really takes off. I couldn't stop turning the pages, because I'm all too familiar with McMurtry's tendency to kill off likeable characters. Overall definately a great read, if you like McMurtry this is an excellent addition to your collection. Also try Elmore Leonard's westerns.

I think of all the books in the series about Gus and Woodrow, Comanche Moon is the closest in tone and feel to Lonesome Dove. There are fewer annoying inconsistencies than there are in the other prequels and sequels. McMurtry might have been making a special effort to wrap the series up neatly. The plot ambles along like a lost mule looking for water and there are occasional episodes of sickening violence and torture, but on the whole, one is just grateful for the chance to spend another seven or eight hundred pages with McCrae and Call.

In January, I heard Larry McMurtry speak briefly about COMANCHE MOON and his prevailing emotion was relief -- relief that he had finally finished the beautiful monster he had created with LONESOME DOVE. In fact, the author openly expressed weariness with Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae. While I can understand the unfortunate dilemma of a writer becoming enslaved by his own characters, as an ardent fan of McMurtry's work, I could not help but notice that his exhaustion with Call and McCrae comes through in COMANCHE MOON, the novel I had expected to take us through their most daring exploits. Indeed, COMANCHE MOON is not about Woodrow and Gus. Instead it is McMurtry's sad, revealing fictional depiction of the impact Western expansion had on Comanche warrior culture. Most of the novel is devoted to non-white characters: Buffalo Hump, Blue Duck, Kicking Wolf, Three Birds, Famous Shoes and Ahumado. What's great about COMANCHE MOON is McMurtry's ability to show his readers, ostensibly 20th Century white readers, the other side of those people our culture has deemed as the "other," the red and black-skinned villains lurking on the fringes of white civilization. What COMANCHE MOON reminds us of is that American progress transfigured such strong characters by placing them on "our" fringe and that their actions against our historical movement is the stuff of legend and tragedy. Ironically, Buffalo Hump emerges as the tragic hero of this novel. McMurtry paints him so vividly that by story's end we are more upset over his death, than by his massacre of the citizens of Austin. One clever technique McMurtry uses to pull this off is slightly shifting the point of view during attack scenes: an Indian shoots three arrows into Clara's parents impaling them to the floor of their store (later we learn it was Buffalo Hump); and it's nameless faceless Texans who charge into a Comanche camp killing several women (later we learn it was Call, McCrae, and some soldiers). Other new characters, Harvard scholar-cum Texas Ranger Inish Scull and his "slutty" southern wife Inez work well until they reach levels of excessive absurdity. Particularly disappointing considering McMurtry's gift for developing powerful female characters is Inez, a surprisingly one-dimensional woman who, after uttering an insightful observation to Woodrow Call that cuts to the core of his character, resumes her carefree existence as a frontier dominatrix. Her lack of evolution becomes silly and tedious. Also, tedious was the action in COMANCHE MOON, especially the Rangers' sojourns, which by and large prove uneventful. Perhaps McMurtry is trying to show that the allure of ranger life was just that, more fictional heroism than anything else, which would propel Gus at least to seek fulfillment in a whiskey jug in Lonesome Dove. But what of Call? His blind obedience to the governor's mandates produce little good for the commonwealth he seeks to protect. It has been stated many times that Call's relentless pursuit of outlaws is unmatched, but if you're looking for an example of that quality in COMANCHE MOON, you're bound for a let down. Basically, he and his partner (and Pea Eye, Jake Spoon and Deets) don't do much good in COMANCHE MOON. What's missing is at least one successful mission that would justify the admiration and respect flung at Call and McCrae by virtually every character they encounter in LONESOME DOVE. To claim disappointment over COMANCHE MOON is disappointing, but that's only because the legend of Woodrow and Gus as rangers in their prime McMurtry created in LONESOME DOVE in turn created certain expectations within the reader. What I didn't count on was McMurtry growing tired of the two characters we his fans can't seem to get enough of. So if you're a fan of McMurtry read COMANCHE MOON, but if you're a fan of Gus and Call you already read the book about them -- it was LONESOME DOVE.

I LOVE Lonesome Dove. I own the movie and watch it every couple of years and bawl like a baby every time. That always spawns a big reading spree of the whole series. I started with Dead Man's Walk figuring I'd read my way from start to finish in chronological order. I finished it and immediately devoured Comanche Moon, then dashed to Half Price Books for Lonesome Dove. Not even ten pages into Lonesome Dove it was glaringly obvious that either Mr. McMurtry didn't write the others, as I had always heard, or if he did it was under a quick deadline or extreme duress. The writing style is completely different, the wit is missing, the details first revealed in Lonesome Dove don't match (1.Maggie lived and died in Lonesome Dove, not Austin; 2.Gus was significantly older than Clara. He was married to his second wife when he met her; 3. He was married to wife #1 for 2 years, wife #2 for seven. They didn't both die within months of marriage as told in Comanche Moon. I could go ON and ON) and the historical FACTS are askew. Buffalo Hump was leading his people to a reservation in 1856 - not on a raid to the ocean. The raid was in 1840. And the hump on his back? I haven't found a reference to it yet in Texas History books. Oh, Comanche Moon is a decent read if you can ignore the facts and don't miss the lack of trademark McMurtry humor, but I'll stick with Lonesome Dove and skip the first two next time.

Gus and Call are now adults with experiences and memories both good and bad as they continue their exciting adventures as Texas Rangers determined to make the Texas frontier a safe place for settlers. There are daily challenges that test their strength, endurance, and will. The book takes us through the "highs-and-lows" of their lives and impresses us with how difficult it was to "tame the frontier." Many gripping and sometimes brutal moments.
Evelyn Horan- teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Books One - Four

How can one man write four books about the same characters with no concern for continuity? I don't know, but I am equally clueless as to how he can dispense with continuity, alter events, change characters' histories and personalities and still make me love the work. As he did in Streets of Laraedo and Dead Man's Walk, McMurty changes certain elements of his well established characters' pasts. The changes are most glaring in this book, the immeadiate precursor to his magnificent Lonesome Dove. However, as poorly as his four Gus and Call books fit together, they stand alone very well. In Comanche Moon, McMurtry leads us from Gus and Call in their late twenties to their mid fourties. It appears to end roughly 5 or so years prior to Lonesome Dove. Many will be surprised and delighted to find that the relationship between Call and Maggie, mother of Call's son Newt, is well defined and much more significant than was alluded to in Dove. Another detail that completely reverses itself from Dove is that of the life of Jake Spoon. Far from a romantic rival with Gus for the heart of Clara Allen, Jake is a dippy young moron, afraid of any action, desperate to end his days as a Ranger alive. But much of the action here centers on a new character, Capt. Skull, the rangering Ranger captain who gives Gus and Call their first command by abandoning them and the Ranger troop in order to learn how to track by walking off with Famous Shoes. Skull is a classic McMurtry eccentric, and the only person whom really provides any suspense, as only the future of his life is unknown to us. Skull is witty and full of vim and vinegar. His battles, both mental and physical, are among the most engaging portions of the story. And the most revolting.
Certainly, the way McMurty takes liberties with characters that many love is often maddening, but when seperated from the other books, Comanche Moon stands on its own well. It is another gripping and unflinching look at an unromanticized American West, and it continues the! excellent development of the Indian characters McMurtry began in Dead Man's Walk. Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf and Blue Duck are fleshed out in a manner that is not often seen with Indians in most Western novels. Far from ciphers, they are realistic characters that cause you to see that Ranger-Indian fights are not as simple as Good vs. Evil. They are, rather, Man vs. Man, and Culture vs. Culture, and they are all the more heartbreaking because of it.
I don't know if McMurtry is getting lazy. I don't know if he simply doesn't give a damn about whether or not readers care. In the end, it really doesn't matter as he still can deliver page turners with the best of them. And by the the time you finish Comanche Moon, you realize that the changes in Gus and Call's history, changes that can make rereading Lonesome Dove jarring, are for the best. This is how he should have set up their pasts in Dove. It a richer, more poignant past for Gus and Call than what was alluded to in that Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
Finally, the audio presentation is top notch. Of course, how could it not be with the peerless Frank Muller as narrator?

This may be McMurtry's last chronicle of the old west. It is a fiction blessed by his compelling writing style, and cursed by his dark view of human nature. McMurtry intentionally details some of the most sadistic tortures to appear in popular fiction. These disquieting events make the reader subscribe to the cynical axiom, "the only good injun is a dead injun". At the same time one suspects that the "civilized" white population may have a veneer mask of its concern for a fellow man. McMurtry can probably never divorce himself from the production of stories. He has a gift of inventiveness, and the ability to tell the inventions in an appealing way. But the joy has left him. Better no more stories than a continuation of the exploration of darkness.

Commanche Moon was undoubtedly the best western book I have ever read, plus it was one of the best books I have ever read period. What I especially liked about the book was the way McMurtry characterized the Indians. He made them come alive as individuals within a specific culture and a certain historical time period. I also enjoyed the Texas Rangers, but not nearly as much as I did the Indians. It was obvious to me that McMurtry has done consideralbe research on Amerindians and he has used that research well in constructing the characters in his book. I was always excited when I started a chapter and saw it was going to be about one or more of the Indian characters. Many authors sterotype the Indians of the American West, making them too cruel or too noble, but McMurtry managed to portray them as total human beings and thereby created fascinating characters to read about. There were many other parts of the book that I enjoyed, but the author's characterization of the Amerindians was easily the best.

I was such a Lonesome Dove fan that I would probably read anything about the Old West from McMurtry...and I guess I have. This was a very enjoyable read for me as were all of this series. Of course, Lonesome Dove was the best, but I would rate this one second and "Walk" last...but all four were down my alley. The insight provided during the Comanche segments was right on target. Comanche reasoning and the way they looked at life seemed to be well captured by Mr. McMurtry

It sure seemed to me as if McMurtry and Simon & Schuster were merely completing some sort of contractual obligation to each other and emotional obligation to fans of the Lonesome Dove series with the publication of Comanche Moon.

Yeah, I enjoyed the book for 400-500 pages, before it degenerated into a progressively typo-ridden, rambling series of brief, occasionally poignant but mainly disconnected and even trite series of vignettes attempting to sum up the lives of the various characters.

Others have described the incredibly sloppy proofreading job on this book, involving typographical errors and repeated portions of dialogue. What a mess! What lack of respect for the reading public! And the editors failed to correct the author's numerous mental lapses, among them:

* Ranger Lee Hitch is shaggy-haired and Stove Jones is bald, but several pages later, when they line up for haircuts in the town of Lonesome Dove, Lee Hitch is bald and Stove Jones is shaggy-haired.

* Inez Scull complains that she dropped her buggy whip, then just a few paragraphs later, she begins to beat Gus with her buggy whip.

* Call grows bored with the rangers' conversation and walks away, then somehow contributes a comment to the same conversation.

Have I missed anything?

I greatly enjoyed the Lonesome Dove series, but would rank this book fourth in quality.

This is the final volume of the Lonesome Dove trilogy, which actually spans the time between DEAD MAN'S WALK and LONESOME DOVE.

Three blood-thirsty men - Buffalo Hump, his son Blue Duck, and the Black Vaquero - dominate the story: all three prey on and slaughter and torture whites who have moved into Texas just before the Civil War. McRae and Call and the Texas Rangers do what they can to stop them, but without much luck. The book is a bit too long and way too bloody and violent - one becomes numbed by it all. Missing are the fascinating characters and their sometimes loopy ways that McMurtry is so good at creating.

How could Mr. McMurtry improve this book so that it could ever live up to the standards of his novel Lonesome Dove? He just couldn't. That's why I gave this book four stars. Not because it was a lesser novel, just that Lonesome Dove was so great NOTHING could/will ever be able to compete. I loved Comanche Moon. It's so completely gritty and raw, I was on the edge of my seat always with Gus and Call. Mr. McMurtry's description, his talent for the written word will run the gammut of all your emotions in one breath. Oh this book is a deffinite must read. You'll miss out on alot if you don't.

This book is divided into 3 parts, the first two of which cover a series of events resulting in Gus and Call's completion of their first mission as captains. Book 3 begins several years later and meanders through a wrap up of sorts, with one last adventure at the end. This kind of creates a splotchy pattern where the stories don't have a central connecting point and tend to kind of drift.

Most will read this book because it covers the time before "Lonesome Dove" when Gus and Call and the boys are Texas Rangers. As it is though, Gus and Call's roles in the story are not satisfying and really seem kind of pointless. We never see them win any great battles or do much to earn the fame alluded to in Lonesome Dove, nor do we get much info on how they developed their great skills as displayed in Lonesome Dove. Their relationships with Maggie and Clara are basically what would have been expected by someone who's read Lonesome Dove, and Gus's 2 marriages are hardly touched on. The few good nuggets come from a handful of conversations between the two, which take a very different tone than those of "Lonesome Dove," and help to explain how they ended up spending so much of their lives together.

The other major characters of the story, however, are everything they should be. The Stories of Inish Scull, Kicking Wolf, Ahumado, Buffalo Hump, Blue Duck, and Famous Shoes are well written and insightful. The Indians are particularly compelling, and I found myself siding with Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf as often as I did with the Texans.

Overall, Gus and Call could almost have been written out of the story. It would have been slimmer and it would have been easier to focus on the real stars of the story. The ultimate result is a story that has wonderful high points but breaks apart because it spends too much time covering repetitive side stories for the sake of mentioning certain people's names.

I love Gus and Woodrow. They are without a doubt two of my favorite characters of all time. This is why I was somewhat let down by "Comanche Moon". True, "Dead Man's Walk" was far from a great book but at least it dedicated a whole book to such a small period of time in the lives of two such rich characters. In "Comanche Moon", I get the feeling that McMurtry was writing it just to get it out of the way. Now I'm not saying that he should write ONLY books featuring the characters from "Lonesome Dove", but come on. In the space of one book, he covered what seemed like ten or fifteen years. How can the readers be expected to grow more attached to the characters if we have to whip through their lives so fast. Whoosh, Maggie is pregnant. Whoosh, Newt's born. Woosh, Maggie dies. I was feeling like I was getting whiplash.

Before writing a review, I enjoy browsing previous reviews of the same book. With as many opinions expressed with Comanche Moon, a majority of folks enjoyed this book. What kept me coming back were the characters. Now, I've read how McMurtry's characters were weak but I didn't see that. Every day after work and on weekends, I anxiously picked up where I left off, to see what adventure lay ahead. This is an easy book to unwind. Very enjoyable...

This was the best book in the series besides Lonesome Dove. Maybe because it saw the characters really evolving into what they would become in Lonesome Dove. It might deserve 5 stars, but I wouldn't feel right giving it the same rating as Lonesome Dove, as they are not in the same class.
McMurty has written a great series, but it might be hurt by the fact that the best book by far was the first. In any case, this was a good book and definitely worth reading.

A good yarn, I haven't read his others and ran onto this one at random. Quite lucky as this is a good one. If his others are this good, I'll order them. I thought the movie, that I really like, had some background but this gives it. I really enjoyed the captain that went to Mexico with his big horse to stand vis-a-vis with the brutal indian that has people skinned or thrown into snake pits. Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

"Comanche Moon" is the second best of the four books in this series, next to "Lonesome Dove", but McMurtry tries too hard to connect all the dots, espeecially in the last 200 pages.
The chapters dealing with the Indians are the best in the book, with the exception of Blue Duck's adolescence.
Maybe McMurtry should have let "Lonesome Dove" stand as a solitary achievement. While I enjoyed reading more about the characters in "Comanche Moon", each of the succeeding books in the series seem to lessen the power of "Lonesome Dove" as a novel, making it just the best in the series of a set of otherwise average novels.

Perhaps it is unfair to judge a book against a classic such as Lonesome Dove, however this is a hazard faced by writers of sequels (or in this case prequels). While much of the book was fascinating, such as those parts dealing with Inish Scull, Ahumado, Blue Duck and Buffalo Hump, it almost seems that McMurtry has run out of interesting things to say about Call and McCrae. While Lonesome Dove captivates from the start, Comanche Moon, like most good but not great books, allowed me to start feeling drowzy around midnight. Certainly this is a worthwhile book and at 700+ pages, it is well worth the price.

Larry McMurtry is a masterful story teller, and, with the exception of Lonesome Dove, which could never be matched, this is one of my favorites. Call and McRae are at their prime, as are their enemies, at least in the beginning of this tale. I have read this book for the third time, and I will read it again. Enjoy!

This book is filled with typos!!! I can't believe the editors would allow this to happen to a McMurtry book! Hey, I liked this book. It filled in a lot of the gaps leading up to Lonesome Dove. I was humored that Call got what he deserved. I was happy to learn that Maggie did have an enjoyable relationship, at least for awhile, with Call. A good read and if you are a Lonesome Dove fan, get this book. Now that we know about Woodrow and Augustas, I think it's time McMurtry filled us in on Cadillac Jack and Duane Moore. These are two sequals I would love to read. Mr. McMurtry, if you read this, what's the deal. What about Cadillac Jack and Duane Moore?

Lonesome Dove, a masterpiece, deserved the Pulitzer Prize but the prequels and sequel have been disappointments. Comanch Moon is actually one of the better books of the series but there are some inconsistencies in continuity that make me think McMurtry forgot what he wrote before or perhaps he got someone else to wtite these less than stellar books. For instance the histories of Clara and Maggie the women who loved the main protaganists do not match up with the Lonesome Dove descriptions. Clara never returns to Austin TX to runs her parents' store as in LD after a terrible Indian attack in which her parents perish. She marries a dumb horse trader from Kentucky and leaves Texas forever leaving the store to languish in CM. Maggie, Call's ever suffering prostitute lover never makes it to Lonesome Dove to languish and die as an alcoholic as she does in the first book. Instead she dies of consumption 6 years after cleaning up her life and having Newt in Austin Tx in CM. Neither does the past marital history of Augustus ring true. Did he marry two fat women and become widowed after less than one year each or was 7 years his longest marriage?

Are they piddly details in an otherwise compelling story? Perhaps. But it is certainly annoyingly disappointing to encounter these simple continuity mistakes. Why make such mistakes in your own books? The changes wouldn't improve the story but only make one suspicious.

I think Margaret Mitchell had it right to not try to inflict on the public a sequel to Gone with the Wind. No one could ever top it. Look at the romance novel sequel that followed 50 years later written by another author and a different writing style. Take my advice. Read Lonesome Dove and enjoy but I wouldn't think it necessary to read the other books in the series.

The events from the past that are referenced in Lonesome Dove are brought to life beautifully in this prequel, which was, of course, written afterward. Gus McCrae, in my opinion, is one of the 20th century fiction's most humorous, memorable and well-developed characters - and Comanche Moon keeps him out front. He also exposes the more of the makings of Capt. Call just as his crust begins to harden. One of the most outstanding and entertaining characters here is Famous Shoes, the Indian tracker who was introduced in Streets of Laredo. Overall, I found Comanche Moon to be compelling and authentic. It follows closest to the feel and sentiment of Lonesome Dove. My only disappointment was that McMurtry changed the story up some toward the end of the book, creating some inconsistencies where Lonesome Dove picks up. I'm glad I read the latter first.

To me, one of the most interesting episodes of life on the border between European and Native residents of the frontier. Lots about Naduah, (Cynthia Ann Parker) and life of Quanah Parker after he settled down and became a prosperous rancher, as well as his life as a leader of his band of Commanche just as the horse culture of the Commanche on the plains was coming to an end. Very emotional and personal, and yet historically accurate. Drawings are not the most beautiful, yet they are very accurate to the known photographs and well composed. I've read this book dozens of times. Don't know why it is not at the front of the list for histories about Quanah Parker.

Let me start by saying I loved Lonsome Dove. I also enjoyed Dead Man's Walk. However, I could not finish this book. To me, it is not a big deal that there are historical inaccuracies. I do, however, mind that the characters are not true to their own history. Part of the whole Gus/Clara relationship is that he first met her when he was married, and maybe he would have been able to win her had he not been. You don't really see any of the wooing of Clara, no picknicks, no long conversations, etc. Clara comes out like a flighty silly woman, not at all the type of maid who would grow into the Clara of Lonesome Dove.
In this book the author hits the reader across the face with facts. He never mentions Clara's future husband without refering to him as "the horsetrader from Nebraska" which just gets annoying. (additionally, this doesn't jive with the impression I got from Lonesome Dove, in which he and Clara went out to make their fortune, settled in Nebraska and became horse traders. The fact that he has an existing horsetrading business in Nebraska and still hangs around Austin wooing women?) We hear about "Young Jake" which is okay, but "Young Deets" and "Young Pea Eye" just don't work. He never misses a chance to note Maggie's last name, which is an unknown in Lonesome Dove.
Nothing original happens with the main characters, and every plot turn is spelled out in Lonesome Dove. It feels very forced that in a period of just a few months (maybe a year) Call and Gus become captains, meet Jake, Deets, and Pea eye, Maggie tels Call she's pregnant, Clara gets married, and her parents get killed. Hell, those last three take place in the course of a few weeks.
The characters don't seem true to themselves, but pale copies. I cannot imagine Call not taking responsibility for a child the whore tells him is his, but riding back in and finding a whore he had some relations with for a few months with a toddler, and never making the connection to himself, that's a bit more in character.
Skip this one folks.

Larry McMurtry has done it again. This book is full of excitement and humor. It's the kind of book you want to stay up to all hours to see what happens in the next chapter. It's a must read if you enjoy a look into the western days.

"Lonesome Dove" is one of those books I loved so much that I hugged it like a teddy bear until I had finished it. This second of two prequels, "Comanche Moon", is not on that level, but it is about as much as you can have reading a book without revisiting "Lonesome Dove".

Comanche Moon is a prequel to Lonesome Dove, and the sequel to Dead Man's Walk. Strong characters populate this sprawling tale of the Texas Rangers and the violence of the times. An enjoyable read from a talented storyteller. Not being completely consistent with the series and a few loose ends kept McMurtry from getting my "5th Star."

I read Comanche Moon after having read Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove. Comanche Moon seems closer to the mark than Dead Man's Walk, but still falls short of the standard set by Lonesome Dove. Gus and Call are developed more fully than was the case in DMW and that is good. We are told that they are well respected and admired, but it is never clear why. The only successful missions are the rescue of Inish Scull and the break up of Blue Duck's gang of renegades, otherwise it is not clear why they are regarded as heroes. That notwithstanding, the description of the contest of wills between Inish and Ahumado is very compelling and is worth the time spent on this book. Overall, a pretty good read but not everything I had hoped for.

Simon & Schuster -- I would have proofread this book FOR FREE, and I'm sure other McMurtry fans would have volunteered as well. Why all the typographical errors? I still enjoyed the book, feeling that McMurtry wasn't as pessimistic as he'd been in Dead Man's Walk and Streets of Laredo. Still can't compare to Lonesome Dove, but what can? I think all readers would have appreciated a better proofreading job.

I've listened to hundreds of audio books, but this is one of my all time favorites. Frank Muller is, if not the best, then the top 1% of audio book readers. The combination of an extremely powerful story and frank muller makes this one of my favorite audio books of all time. I've listened to other McMurtry books, but none were as incredibly written or phenomenally narrated as this story.
Note to McMurtry: Continue this powerful style of constant action and drama. Be sure to have Frank Muller read all your work from now on. He *is* the best.

An outstanding read. The book, style, and story we hoped we'd get from Larry McMurtry after the Pulitzer Prize winner. Head and shoulders above Streets of Laredo, and better than Dead Man's Walk, Comanche Moon actually re-creates the characters Call and McCray and fills in the huge expanse of time between their near death at the hands of Buffalo Hump and the departure for the Rio Grand. Very satisfying reading, and a novel truly worthy of the classic characters McMurtry created previously. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE !

Comanche Moon is a typical Mc Murtry novel. More or less entertaining but with a totally predictable plot, a disdain for historical facts and some sadomasochism added for seasoning the mediocre tale. As other McMurray books, this novel presents the same improbable white men characters, combined with murderous, ignorant and sadists Indians and the ever present detail of tortures that the author seems to particularly enjoy. Regarding inaccurate historical facts, many have been pointed out in prior reviews; let me add just another one. The Mexican bandit "Ahumado" is described as a Mayan Indian, a race unlikely to be found in the north border of Mexico in the mid 1800's. Mayans happen to live a few thousand miles down south in Yucatan and Guatemala. A slight blunder, but what the heck!, an Indian is an Indian no matter where he comes from!. The most surprising thing, however, is the number of readers that granted four and even five stars to this book. Some of them, they even took the trouble of writing lengthy and professional sounding reviews populated with magnificent words to praise the writing skills of McMurtry. Give me a break! I suppose this people will no hesitate to give an Oscar to Madonna for her acting!

Just finished Comanche Moon, a colorful tale of wild adventure out in the old west. A few really great characters in this book. Cowboys, Indians, Bandits, Whores....the wild west of the 1800's. I'm just a huge fan of this genre, looking forward to more of the same.

Like most reviews, I liked the book and was sad the great Gus and Call saga had finally come to an end. Of the four books, this ties with Dead Man's Walk. The best, by far, is Lonesome Dove and then Streets of Laredo. Because of the following these books have generated, I hope McMurtry writes another novel about one of the Lonesome Dove characters.

Forget about plot and character development and read McMurtry's books for the dialog. It isn't that this book is lacking in plot or colorful characters, it has both. But it is the dialog that makes it a pleasure to read.

Once again, McMurtry is not to be outdone with his representation of the Wild, Wild West. This story is at times implausible, but still a fascinating story. One major complaint is that his story lines do not correlate with other novels. There are many details described in this story that contradict details described in Lonsome Dove. It is frustrating that an author that takes the time to create characters we grow to love, would not take the time to make certain his story line is correct. Still a great read, and a strong recommendation.

I have read all of his epic west books. I laughed to tears, almost cried at the sad moments... the emotions were rampant. At the last page you take the book in your hands, caress it and then say "Wow, that was heady!" Larry fails to disappoint. Rest assured that he delivers first class material.. always. Definitely worth 5 (or more if allowed) stars!

Not only a great western, but also a fantastic horror book.

When I considered some of the scenes involving the evil characters of the book I didn't know where to put it in my

book collection.

I my mind, a good book makes you sorry when you finish it. Sorry in the sense that you want to learn more. I wasn't sorry when I finished "Moon" because McMurtry did a good job in filling in a lot of questions naturally raised in Lonesome Dove. The list of rich characters grows deeper with this book and the reader can truly feel what the West must have been like. This book brings the whole series together and is a keeper. An ultimate male bonding adventure.

Larry McMurtry has redeemed himself for the fiasco that is "Streets of Laredo" with the second prequel to the original "Lonesome Dove". The characters are presented as true to the vision of the lives of Texas Rangers on the frontier and at the same time developed the supporting cast to a far greater extent than any previously seen before. The story is well-paced and brings the story of Call and McCrae to a satisfying conclusion.

If Lonesome Dove was required reading in school, (like Romeo and Juliet), the library couldn't print cards fast enough for students coming back for more Larry McMurtry. The book is that good. It is the best I have ever read, and I have read quite a few. If you plan to build your own book collection, this should be the first hardback to buy and keep in a special place.

I wish I had read the book before I saw the movie. So much more realism in the book. The characters seem to jump out of the pages and become real. I cant wait to get back to reading after I have stopped. I want to finish this so I can get to the next book.

I love reading books by Larry McMurtry. I read all of the Lonesome Dove books and this one is very good too. Too bad it had to end. I'm sorry to say that the TV movie that came out about Camanche Moon was just terrible. Read the book........

Certainly the second best of the four Lonesome Dove books. As reported elsewhere, the typos are distracting, and the research sloppy, but all in all a decent story. I would have loved an translation of Scull's Greek writing

The story picks up about 15 years after Dead Man's Walk and ends about 10 years before Lonesome Dove. Great story, great characters, but it just didn't have the great ending McMurtry usually delivers.

I loved Lonesome Dove. I also enjoyed the sequals(and prequals). I found that I could hardly put Comanche Moon down. It is a good book but be forewarned if you are a stickler for details, you may be disappointed. There are too many inconsistencies.

An excellent book. If you're a Lonesome Dove fan, you have to read this book. This gives excellent insight on the earlier years before and leading up to the move to Lonesome Dove for some of the most memorable characters ever. A must read.

A friend thought I would enjoy this book since I enjoy reading so much. I did read it though every time I turned a page I wondered why I bothered.Such foolishness is a disgrace.About the best thing about the book is that no one has to read it.

Arguably the second best of the Lonesome Dove books. As a stand-alone novel, it pales next to Lonesome Dove, but for us fans, it is a wonderful trip into the past, learning about the events and people that made Call and Gus into the characters we know from Lonesome Dove. I cried at the end, not because the book touched me, but because I never get to read another Lonesome Dove book.
If the Lonesome Dove books are the only Larry McMurty that you have ever read, try "Texasville" or "Some Can Whistle" McMurtry is unequalled when it comes to creating incredibly eccentric and entertaining characters that are still completely believable.

I have read all of mcmurty's books. He is the type of author that you hate for the story to end. His writing style is so very easy to follow as well as relaxing. In Commanche Moon, Gus, Call are their old usual selves as well as Pea Eye. I truly wish this saga could go on forever. I am an african-american female so it may be surprising to some that our culture also enjoy the old west.

I read Dead Man's Walk first, and was disappointment that it didn't build up the characters more. Then I read Comanche Moon, which did. I loved it. It does have some violence, I am talking some really EEWWW stuff, :), but it belonged in the story. I loved it and then read the "Lonesome Dove books in order. Buy it!