SInce I seem to be skipping a lot of exposition picking up the saga where I am, I'm going to give a touch of background.
Whip Holt- manly, manly mountain man who lead the titular wagon train across most of the country. Settles down to marry Eulalia and own a ranch. They have a son Toby
Eulalia Woodling Holt- shows up on the wagon train as a penniless southern belle, is bitchy, eventually becomes a hooker after being kidnapped by some random tribe, has a dramatic personality improvement, marries Whip and starts being "his woman".
Cathy Blake- the only person to make it all the way across the country from New England to Oregon (her sister stays is Missouri, her husband at the time dies). The first few books lead you to believe that she and Whip are going to get together, but they spend too much time being angsty and wind up marrying other people and being happy with them.
Lee Blake- Army dude that is sent on the wagon train and sets up a fort in Oregon. All around nice guy.
Emily and Ernie von Thalmann- He's a baron, she's a poor widow with four sons, they get married because all is equal in love (at least in America)
Chet Harris- Emiliy's oldest son, Danny's BFF
Danny Taylor- a runaway that joins the train, he's taken in by Ted Woods (blacksmith with a temper) and eventually lives with the von Thalmans
Monday, July 19, 2010
Everything's bigger in....TEXAS!
Unfortunately I'm going to start off with the 5th in the series. I'm enough of a completionist to get through the series (and hopefully blog about it) but I had already finished a few books when I decided to start this project.
This paticular book is mainly set in Texas, between it becoming independent from Mexico and joining the US.
In any case, we open with Captain Rick Miller of the Texas Rangers being masculine and awesome......."Dispatching four of their five foes had been a typical Rick Miller performance". (As a side note, Dana Fuller Ross/James Reasoner wrote a few novelizations of Walker: Texas Ranger, which may explain some of the preoccupation with the inherent maniless of the organization).
Within a few pages we transition back to Oregon and people that we've heard of before. Unsurprisingly, Lee and Cathy Blake have just found that they are probably going to Texas. 50-someodd pages later, they are told that this is the case and they need to get on a wagon train to get there. Hector Mullins (military dude) and his wife Ginny (another reformed wagon train bitch) are also going. We'll call this wagon train the entourage, so that I don't have to keep making train puns.
We are also introduced to lovely but vapid Elisabeta Manuel and the nefarious Anthony Roberts, who has lured her away from her home in Spain (NOT MEXICO, thank you). Senor Roberts is an American citizen, thinks it sucks, and has been a spy for England for years. He's heading to Texas to keep an eye on things there for the Brits, and also pick up some cash from Mexico to send them reports as well. Oh, and apparently avenge his father's death.
We are next reminded that Harry Canning owns a shipyard, that he is significantly older than his wife Nancy, and that she and her best friend Melissa Austin act like idiots when they're together. Also, Melissa is frontier hot and Danny Taylor and Chet Harris are in puppy love with her. (best friends do everything together I guess). Harry is heading to Texas to help them build a navy. He doesn't want his wife to go b/c it's a war zone. Danny and Chet are pumped to go. Melissa is too, but she also gets shot down (so that she isn't......literally shot down). This group will be lead to Texas by Rick: Texas Ranger and will be refered to as the posse.
Andrew Jackson is old but is still plotting and firey, evidently pulling the strings of the current US president as well as the president of Texas.
Sam Houston is very folksy. I think it's supposed to be endearing that he spits across his office.
Whip Holt is asked to go lend his manliness to Texas in its hour of need. Unfortunately, his arthritic hip sends him back home. The progression from Wild West hero to middle aged guy aging (fairly) gracefully seems to happen pretty quickly. We're only on book 5 of 25 here. This alone gives me the impression that this was meant to be only a few books long and was then fleshed out.
Finally, we head to a new time zone. Nancy and Melissa have stowed away with the posse and they menfolk don't appreciate it. Sometime while hiding in the hold and stealing food Nancy realizes that she should act like a grown ass woman when she relates to her husband instead of like a child. Melissa (and Chet and Danny) have not realized that the world is not a stage for her to be a big shining star. Rick:TR and Melissa continue to clash and both talk about how much they can't stand each other. By this we are to understand that they are going to make babies together.
Turns out the entourage is full of sterotypes. First we have Teng Chu (who is refered to throughout the book as "the Chinese"). He's here as an envoy b/c China has just been taken over by the Brits and he wants to learn about fighting with guns instead of throwing stars (really). Why this seems like a good idea to whoever's in charge over there is beyond me. Also, the MacGregors are a Irish family with red hair, 5 adorable daughers, and thick accents.
Upon the posse's arrival in Texas, Rick:TR begins investigating several murders committed by Senor Roberts with the unwilling help of the deflowered Elisabeta. Luckily this gives him a chance to realize that she's hot (but NOT MEXICAN). They fall in love, but he has to go off and help whopp some mexicans. Senor Roberts tries to kill her, but she nails his ass (in the only display of non-passivity the character ever makes).
There's a lot of battle scenes, but I'm going to skim them. It's actually fairly interesting historically (I'm assuming at least the outline is accurate). In the meantime, Danny loses a leg. While he's recovering, he and Heather MacIrish fall in love. Unfortunately, he has to run off to deal with Melissa-related drama before they make this clear. Since Melissa is still trying to string both Danny and Chet along, she finds the news that one of them is no longer interested disturbing to her world view. If this were the real world, she'd probably threaten suicide to get his interest back (I don't know people who are that self-obsessed without also being crazy). Danny wisely gets the hell out of there before this happens and he and Heather prepare to ride off into the sunset (of TEXAS)
This paticular book is mainly set in Texas, between it becoming independent from Mexico and joining the US.
In any case, we open with Captain Rick Miller of the Texas Rangers being masculine and awesome......."Dispatching four of their five foes had been a typical Rick Miller performance". (As a side note, Dana Fuller Ross/James Reasoner wrote a few novelizations of Walker: Texas Ranger, which may explain some of the preoccupation with the inherent maniless of the organization).
Within a few pages we transition back to Oregon and people that we've heard of before. Unsurprisingly, Lee and Cathy Blake have just found that they are probably going to Texas. 50-someodd pages later, they are told that this is the case and they need to get on a wagon train to get there. Hector Mullins (military dude) and his wife Ginny (another reformed wagon train bitch) are also going. We'll call this wagon train the entourage, so that I don't have to keep making train puns.
We are also introduced to lovely but vapid Elisabeta Manuel and the nefarious Anthony Roberts, who has lured her away from her home in Spain (NOT MEXICO, thank you). Senor Roberts is an American citizen, thinks it sucks, and has been a spy for England for years. He's heading to Texas to keep an eye on things there for the Brits, and also pick up some cash from Mexico to send them reports as well. Oh, and apparently avenge his father's death.
We are next reminded that Harry Canning owns a shipyard, that he is significantly older than his wife Nancy, and that she and her best friend Melissa Austin act like idiots when they're together. Also, Melissa is frontier hot and Danny Taylor and Chet Harris are in puppy love with her. (best friends do everything together I guess). Harry is heading to Texas to help them build a navy. He doesn't want his wife to go b/c it's a war zone. Danny and Chet are pumped to go. Melissa is too, but she also gets shot down (so that she isn't......literally shot down). This group will be lead to Texas by Rick: Texas Ranger and will be refered to as the posse.
Andrew Jackson is old but is still plotting and firey, evidently pulling the strings of the current US president as well as the president of Texas.
Sam Houston is very folksy. I think it's supposed to be endearing that he spits across his office.
Whip Holt is asked to go lend his manliness to Texas in its hour of need. Unfortunately, his arthritic hip sends him back home. The progression from Wild West hero to middle aged guy aging (fairly) gracefully seems to happen pretty quickly. We're only on book 5 of 25 here. This alone gives me the impression that this was meant to be only a few books long and was then fleshed out.
Finally, we head to a new time zone. Nancy and Melissa have stowed away with the posse and they menfolk don't appreciate it. Sometime while hiding in the hold and stealing food Nancy realizes that she should act like a grown ass woman when she relates to her husband instead of like a child. Melissa (and Chet and Danny) have not realized that the world is not a stage for her to be a big shining star. Rick:TR and Melissa continue to clash and both talk about how much they can't stand each other. By this we are to understand that they are going to make babies together.
Turns out the entourage is full of sterotypes. First we have Teng Chu (who is refered to throughout the book as "the Chinese"). He's here as an envoy b/c China has just been taken over by the Brits and he wants to learn about fighting with guns instead of throwing stars (really). Why this seems like a good idea to whoever's in charge over there is beyond me. Also, the MacGregors are a Irish family with red hair, 5 adorable daughers, and thick accents.
Upon the posse's arrival in Texas, Rick:TR begins investigating several murders committed by Senor Roberts with the unwilling help of the deflowered Elisabeta. Luckily this gives him a chance to realize that she's hot (but NOT MEXICAN). They fall in love, but he has to go off and help whopp some mexicans. Senor Roberts tries to kill her, but she nails his ass (in the only display of non-passivity the character ever makes).
There's a lot of battle scenes, but I'm going to skim them. It's actually fairly interesting historically (I'm assuming at least the outline is accurate). In the meantime, Danny loses a leg. While he's recovering, he and Heather MacIrish fall in love. Unfortunately, he has to run off to deal with Melissa-related drama before they make this clear. Since Melissa is still trying to string both Danny and Chet along, she finds the news that one of them is no longer interested disturbing to her world view. If this were the real world, she'd probably threaten suicide to get his interest back (I don't know people who are that self-obsessed without also being crazy). Danny wisely gets the hell out of there before this happens and he and Heather prepare to ride off into the sunset (of TEXAS)
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