The Light of Western Stars

One of my favorite Zane Grey novels. I love the romance, the tension, the devotion, and especially the character Gene Stewart. If you are one who reads the ending first, don't do that with this book - it will spoil a lot of it.<br /><br />PS. Be sure to read the sequel, Magesty's Rancho, as well.

"The Light of Western Stars" is the 12th Zane Grey book that I've read, and far better than I expected. "Stars" takes places roughly in the same year that it was published, 1914, about the same time as the publication of "The Rainbow Trail." "Stars" begins in the same fashion as the former book. A stranger from the East journeys to the Southwest, and the fish out of water plot commences. This time, the newcomer is Majesty Hammond, a wealthy woman from a patrician New York area family.<br /><br />Grey writes some amazing heroines, and Majesty might be at the top of a distinguished list. "Stars" is written in the third person, solely from Majesty's point of view. So we don't get to see the cattle drives or the gun play (except in a few critical spots) that are featured in Grey's novels told from the cowboy or gunslinger perspective. What we do see is Majesty planning, ruminating, and reveling in the ranch life that she experiences. She goes from being a terribly bored and emotionally empty member of the early 20th century leisure class to an active owner of a huge rancho on the New Mexico/Mexico border. And there's a revolution going on down South.<br /><br />Might I add that there is a love story undercurrent that Majesty stubbornly refuses to realize until the tumultuous end. The object of her extremely suppressed affections is Glen Stewart, her trail boss. Stewart also goes through a momentous character arc, from drunken yahoo to selfless hero. Former gunslingers Monty, Link, and Nels, round out a great trio of secondary characters.<br /><br />Every Zane Grey book I've read has a big set piece, usually, but not always, near the finale. As other reviewers have noted, "Stars" has one of the best. In 1914, huge, crank-started cars were around but not in wide use. Few roads pierced their way through the Southern New Mexico desert. Grey gives us a fantastic car race to the border and beyond, in an era when cars where not common, prone to breakdowns and flat tires, and viewed by people as a terrifying travel option. <br /><br />CRINGE ALERT: The cowboys' constantly use the term "Greaser" to refer to Mexicans. Though he does introduce a few minor, admirable Mexican characters, modern reader me needed to swallow my 21st century sensibilities when that epithet came around. Kinda like Black high school kids reading "Huckleberry Finn" or Jewish audiences watching "The Merchant of Venice." <br />

What an amazing ride! If only I could find more Zane Grey books like this one!<br /><br />I think perhaps the reason I like it so much is that it is told from the woman's perspective. I'm not really sure. I feel in love with every single on of "Majesty's" cowboys. None more so than Gene Stewart. What a man. I embarrass myself sometimes. I love how much he loved her from afar, trying to be everything she wanted and keeping her safe.<br /><br />All of the cowboys change with her around, they go from hardened men, to big softies. Doing anything to keep her safe and happy. Even so much as to die for her. The bad guys are really over the top bad, but that's exactly how I like my westerns.<br /><br />This story is like a rose. You think it is the most beautiful thing you have ever read and then another petal opens and you can't imagine it can get more wonderful and another petal opens. The padre's story? Oh my I smiled so much. Such perfect timing. I could so see myself in Madeline's agony both before and after.<br /><br />The ending? Oh my gosh, chills and tears. What suspense. What a thrill. I read online that people were unsatisfied with the ending, and I get that. I would have loved an embrace and a kiss, but for sheer drama, that one couldn't have been beat.<br /><br />

This somewhat melodramatic story of a British heiress who finds herself an owner of a ranch in the southwest not far from the border into Mexico can be both contemplative and fast moving. As usual, Mr. Grey provided plenty of description of this region of the west, and it is a wonder to think on. Probably the most interesting parts of the book deal with the automotive transportation and its difficulties in the early 20th century. Notwithstanding the primitiveness of cars during that period, the cars themselves were not the only drawback in using these "horseless carriages." The lack of roads was also a stumbling block, which makes for a very interesting narrative in various parts of the book. <br /><br />In any case, I found some of the book to be a bit sluggish, but as he always seems to accomplish, Zane Grey provides some extremely memorable scenes. Particularly towards the end of the novel. He literally provides a climax that is hard to forget, regardless of the lack of graphic violence or sensuality. As I read the last few pages, I could almost see Sergio Leone directing off in the distance with the music of Ennio Morricone playing in the background.<br /><br />I also found it interesting how the author peered into the minds of his characters to the point where I could have sworn some of them were a bit schizophrenic or, at least, completely conflicted. The reader cannot help but look at this with a bit of self-examination. <br /><br />In summary, the book is an excellent read with a never to be forgotten ending. Highly recommended.

This is the saga of Madeline and Gene. They meet in chapter one when Madeline arrives at the El Cajon train station expecting to see her brother. Instead she is accosted by a drunk cowboy. She's a rich very young woman from back east somewhere and is not prepared for the rough life of the wild west.<br /><br />The book was first published on January 1, 1014 when my grandmother was four years old. Pearl Zane Grey's first novel was published in 1903. <em>The Light of Western Stars</em> was his 13th novel.<br /><br />Well, let's get into it. Why only three stars from me?<br /><br />First, I didn't like when I read "greaser" the first time. Sure didn't like it the fiftieth time either. I know a lot of Grey fans excuse the racist terminology as "a sign of the times." You know, the times that allowed people way back then to use words we would likely never use or hear these days. I guess his characters were expected to think very poorly of the dark skinned people from south of the border... but I just don't think that's a good enough excuse to write in disparaging ways about them, even in 1913. I don't know what Grey's opinions were or why he kept calling the Mexicans "greasers" - I only know that I certainly didn't appreciate it. I used to be married to a Mexican and two of my daughters are half Mexican, so I'm not taking this lightly.<br /><br />Second, the events of this story were extremely unlikely. With the car in the desert I kept wondering where in the world they were buying gasoline. Also, how many spare tires were they packing? And let's not forget the slow-burn romance. That was so, so, so unlikely... just saying. The last thing Madeline needed was an alcoholic cowboy. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="354e3b3f-598c-475c-8cde-b3427e33dbfc" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="354e3b3f-598c-475c-8cde-b3427e33dbfc">Also toward the end Grey made it clear that everything about why the relationship wasn't working out (or even existing, really) was due to Madeline's bad attitudes. Blame the woman. Of course.</label><br /><br />Third, at the mid-point of the book I hit a chapter that just about bored me to some extremely annoyed tears. It was titled "Cowboy Golf" . . . . and oh my goodness... what a useless waste of words. It didn't advance the story... it just gave play-by-play boring descriptions of cowboys playing an unlikely game of golf in the desert. Every other chapter in the book was so much better. <br /><br />I read this book for the 2023 version of "June on the Range" - a Booktube adventure during which we were to read at least one Louis L'Amour novel and one Zane Grey novel, plus two others. I'd already finished <em>The Californios</em> by Louis L'Amour and <em>Shane</em> by Jack Schaefer, and loved both those books. They were both five-star reads for me. I'm really sorry my experience with Zane Grey wasn't nearly so happy. <br /><br />I read both via Kindle and via audiobook. My audiobook version came with three other Zane Grey novels. It is unlikely that I'll read the other three novels unless if next June on the Range I'm again asked to read a Zane Grey novel. Then, maybe. <br /><br />The story of Madeline's adventure in the wild west had some merits, but the word "greaser" really ruined it for me. There were some Mexican characters described in a positive light, but most were depicted as low-life scoundrels from somewhere south of El Cajon. <br /><br />Adios, amigos.

This is Zane Grey's best western ever! I've read some of his other books like "Riders of the Purple Sage" and "The Last Trail" which where good but this one was amazing!!! As soon as the book started there was action and I knew that I would throughly enjoy this title. I wish that he wouldn't write out the swear words that the cowboys use. (He has only used 2 words) but in some titles (like Riders of the Purple Sage) they swore ALOT!!! His descriptions of places and landscapes and so such, are really good and very descriptive. I love all the characters and I hope that you will get this book and read it and enjoy it like I did! There is also a sequel to this book, but I haven't been able to find it yet, but I'll be looking :D

One of my favorite Zane Grey Westerns!

This is considered a classic western by Zane Grey...when men were men, women were on a pedestal, and Hispanics were Greasers! I've read a few other Grey westerns and remember enjoying them for the most part (he was a favorite author of my father's who read them back close to when they were written) but I just couldn't get into this. The story was about a young woman, Madeline, who decides to travel west where her brother is working as a cowhand on a ranch in New Mexico. As soon as she gets there, one of the other cowboys tries to forcibly marry her on a bet! Of course Majesty (Madeline's pet name) thinks this was romantic rather than sexual assault and later in the novel her maid actually does appear to be forced into a marriage. But of course the maid decides this is love and Majesty liked the idea. Well, Majesty being a woman of means, bails out her brother and his boss and establishes a ranch called Majesty's Rancho where all seems wonderful. The book is full of descriptions of the country and of life on the ranch including cattle roundups and branding but to me the story just seemed to go nowhere and the characters were very cliched and could have been out of a Hopalong Cassidy or Roy Rogers movie. In fact, Light of Western Stars was made into several different <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032706/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3" rel="nofollow noopener">movie versions</a> from the silent days up through 1940 or so. I stopped reading this about halfway through, deciding to move on to something a little more up to date and realistic.

Oh god. This started out as a fun activity and has now turned into a Sisyphean task. <br /><br />But first, backstory. I’m writing a western. Yes, a western. Hey, they say write about what you know, and I know about the Southwest. Also, research helps. Thus, I thought, you know, I’ve seen lots of westerns, I should also read some. So a while back (probably about a year now, god I’m bad at life) I bought three westerns. 1.) <i>How the West Was Won</i> because I saw the movie and figured it was pretty classic. Same for 2.) <i>The Ox-Bow Incident</i>. The third one I got, 3.) <i>The Light of Western Skies</i>, is a Zane Grey novel, because Zane Grey’s got his fingers in all the pies out here. Hell, there’s a ballroom named after him at the fancy, old-timey, tourist-trap hotel in our downtown here in Flagstaff. I used to go sliding down a waterfall named after him in the Tonto forest. So I was thinking, this’ll be classic too.<br /><br />I want to poke my eyes out.<br /><br />This is bad. And not just in the “vainly attempt to overlook the overt racism and misogyny of the time” kind of bad. Because that’s bad. Apparently all Mexicans are dirty and lazy if left to their own devices and will only be clean and hard-working if you as a white person force them to be so. Oh, and don’t forget, treacherous. And cowardly. And you also can’t tell how old they are because not white. And probably all these white people think they look the same because racism. <br /><br />Then there’s also the misogyny. I think this is most deeply rooted in the depiction of the main character as being so perfect. She’s pretty and wonderful when she firsts comes out to the West but she literally does nothing else except for getting more wonderful and pretty. She literally says that her “beauty has trebled” since she came West. She’s not full of herself at all, that one. Literally everyone is in love with her. And she’s dumb as a bag of bricks. And condescending. She pretends to take these cowboys seriously but really she just sees them as quaint. There’s nothing to her. She’s not interesting, she’s not flawed, she’s not even useful. I can’t figure out the point of her, except that he needed a main character.<br /><br />Madeline seriously is too perfect. There was an inkling of hope at the beginning when her brother’s like, “I lost all my fortune and cattle and everything because being dumb as a bag of bricks runs in the family,” and they could have really struggled. But she simply writes a check and all the bad things go away. The run-down ranch becomes as pretty and wonderful as she is and all their hopes and dreams come true and if only other people would just stop being so nasty and let them enjoy it then everything would be wonderful and pretty and perfect!<br /><br />And don’t get me started on the chapter solely devoted to “desert golf”. I thought I was gonna hurl.<br /><br />There were also many things which were an affront to us native Southwesterners. Such as, “the grotesque shapes of yucca and ocotillo”??? Are you really from the Southwest??? Because yucca and ocotillo are BEAUTIFUL, YOU DAMN FOOL. Or, when the party is riding to a camping spot and a thunderstorm is rising up. The leader of the party is like, “let’s keep going” and where do they end up? On a mountain top. Where they are more likely to be struck by lightning. Or washed completely away by torrential rains. What idiots.<br /><br />Ultimately, this book rubbed me the wrong way. The action didn’t have the right pacing, I didn’t care about the characters, and the meaning felt preachy. Men are manly and ladies are feminine and fainting and you better be the best person ever or else everyone will hate you! Oh, I’m sorry, wait, you better make sure everyone <i>knows</i> you’re the best person or they’ll hate you anyway automatically assuming the worst of you. And judging you unnecessarily.<br /><br />If the rest of Zane Grey’s novels are like this, count me out. If there’s one in the pack that could redeem him, let me know. I’ll take the chance, I guess.<br />

A freebie from Amazon (there are a few Zane Grey books that are in the Public Domain which are made available at no cost through Amazon; I’ve also gotten several H.G. Wells books this way). This one (published in 1915) tells of Madeline Hammond, a rebellious young woman, debutante from back East (her nickname is “Majesty”). Madeline has tired of the entitled lifestyle and the possibility of having to marry one of her boorish contemporaries. After seeing a stage play in which the backdrop is a night sky filled with stars, which she finds very inspiring. Madeline feels that she needs to be out West, where she can see them for herself. Her previously ne’er-do-well brother Alfred is a ranch owner in El Cajon, New Mexico, so she decides to join him. Well, El Cajon is a pretty boisterous town and Alfred is nowhere to be seen when she arrives. A rough-around-the-edges (understatement) drunken cowboy named Gene Stewart sees her and immediately fetches the local Padre, declaring that he is going to “marry the first woman who comes into town.” He also appears to have some sort of relationship with a local Mexican woman named Bonita. Nonetheless, after he finds out she’s Alfred’s sister, he becomes more solicitous and protective, escorting her to a boarding house run by Florence Kingsley, a woman of good reputation whom Alfred wants to marry (uh-oh, the local corrupt sheriff, Pat Hawe, also has his eyes on her, watch out!). So Madeline is both attracted to and repulsed by Gene.<br /> Over the course of the book Madeline comes to love and embrace the West and purchases ranches owned by Bill Stilwell, a very experienced man and Madeline’s mentor; and Don Carlos, a Mexican with a nefarious agenda. He also appears to be involved in supplying rebels in the Mexican Revolution. And here’s where I have difficulties with this book, namely the pervasive racism in which Mexicans are referred to throughout as “Greasers” and are described to a one as ignorant, violent, cunning, untrustworthy and superstitious (though excellent horsemen). I must admit that this decreased my enjoyment of the book. <br /> Nonetheless, the story of a woman who becomes aware of her own independence (well, in most ways…), strength and drive is an enjoyable tale, with a somewhat of a surprising twist in her relationship with Gene Stewart. And Mr. Grey has a wonderful ability to write about the Western landscape and its effect on the characters (and, believe me, the cowboys, rough as they all are, have many different personalities and relationships to the land, also well described by Mr. Grey.<br /> So, three stars for “Light of the Western Stars.” I found out that there have been three movie adaptations of this book, the first in 1918 (which Wikipedia describes as following the plotline of the book very well) and again in 1925. Both of these films are silent and are among many “lost” films (I’d recommend looking up “Lost Films” on Wikipedia; fascinating if sad history, but I digress). Another version, in 1940, stars Victor Jory as Gene Stewart and Jo Ann Sayers as Madeline; the plotline seems to differ somewhat from that of the book, but it’s available for free on YouTube, so I’ll give it a watch and do a review in the “Comments” section.<br /> Oh yeah, I also found out there’s a sequel, “Majesty’s Rancho,” published in 1938. I’ve had good luck with previous sequels to Mr. Grey’s books, having read “Wanderer of the Wasteland” and its sequel “Stairs of Sand;” and “Riders of the Purple Sage,” followed by “The Desert Crucible.” “Majesty’s Rancho” is cheap from Amazon, so review coming in the vague future.<br />