Written after Lonesome Dove, telling the story of the characters before Lonesome Dove. It suffers because it’s not trying to be anything else but a prequel. Everything is leading to Lonesome Dove in a straight line, even the characters in their twenties. The cast is limited to LD’s characters or proto-versions of LD’s character. That type of teleological writing does not make for very good stories. The zealous descriptions of Comanche and Apache tortures don’t make up for it.

Clearly not as good as Lonesome Dove (LD), but never mind: this is the series of sunny doorstoppers about to get me through a cold winter. There is this same monotonous rhythm that I am getting very acquainted with, and not yet sick of, although it is sometimes irregular, with some slowness and repetitions not seen in LD (in short: it is not as tight and probably would have needed an editor equipped with scissors).