Last of the breed
1986
- fiction
- indians of north america
- western
- native americans
- western stories
- adventure stories
- fiction, westerns
- indians of north america, fiction
The story
A United States Air Force pilot is shot down over Siberia in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and held prisoner at a remote camp, but soon escapes into an even greater prison -- the vast, harsh landscape. However, because he is a native Sioux Indian with survival knowledge he learned as a boy, Major Joe Mack must use all his hunting, trapping and evasion skills to escape his pursuers, especially a ruthless Yakut who follows him. Considered one of L'Amour's best novels, this classic story of adventure is richly textured, deftly plotted and riveting to the end.
What it’s like
Lean, open-air prose that moves like a long walk through taiga: sentences built around weather, terrain and the practical work of staying alive, with the Siberian cold rendered as frost on fur, snow glare, river ice cracking underfoot and the smell of smoke in a lean-to. The voice is plain and unfussy, almost laconic, so the landscape carries the mood, with wide empty vistas giving way to close, sharp detail when the hero sets a snare or reads tracks. Vibe: spare, austere, quietly determined, a frontier-style survival tale with the cold always present. It suits a windy afternoon with a blanket and a hot drink, or a stretch of time when you want an absorbing story without distraction. Pacing is steady and chase-driven, with long stretches of solitary effort punctuated by tense encounters. Emotionally it is about self-reliance and the memory of a boyhood taught by elders, a resourceful man leaning on inherited skill against long odds. Violence is present and occasionally sharp, including a hunt-and-pursuit menace and some killing, but it is not gory or lingered on. For readers who love wilderness survival, cold-weather endurance, and classic western-style grit transplanted to an unlikely setting.
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