Louis L'Amour - Hondo

‘There was a curious affinity between man and dog. Both were untamed, both were creatures born and bred to fight, honed and tempered fine by hot winds and long desert stretches, untrusting, dangerous, yet good companions in a hard land.’ Louis L'Amour, Hondo

To get my head into the world of Dead Man's Hand I picked up Louis L'Amour's short novel the world of Dead Man's Hand I picked up Louis L'Amour's short novel Hondo. Highly-enjoyable light reading, this dime store novel is a book that all fans of the Old West are probably going to want to read at some point. A writer working in the 1950s and 60s, L'Amour's books are very much of their time and if you read the book with a sense of its history in mind it doesn't disappoint.

If you want a classic Western this is it. Hondo is the quintessential Wild West hero, an army despatch rider during a time of war with the Apaches. He's totally at home on the Frontier, rugged, self-sufficient, and respectful of the land and its native population (up to a point). Hondo, ever the individualist, lives by his own moral code and survives by his own strengths.Without giving any of the plot away, the book is packed with gunfights and gambling, honour and betrayal, and some great descriptions of the land that go a long way to making this book a deserved classic. Above all it's a love story, though perhaps that's just me being soft...

Here's a curious book-film fact. John Farrow's 1953 film Hondo, staring John Wayne and Geraldine Page, was based on L'Amour's short story “The Gift of Cochise” while the book itself is a novelisation of the film.

Finally, a gaming idea... “The Hondo three-way”

Reading Hondo has suggested several ideas for future scenarios, the first of which is for a three-player game that sees Hondo and his dog Sam take on two desperados (Lane and Phalinger), just as they are ambushed by three Mescalero Apaches. It's a pivotal scene in the book about which I'll say nothing more for now but hopefully it'll make for a fun game once we've got the figures sorted (I've just been eying up Black Scorpion's range of Apaches and trying to figure out who makes the best Hondo!)
PW