From Publishers Weekly
This latest installment in the apparently never-ending adventures of intrepid mountain man Titus BassAaka "Scratch"Acarries Johnston's fearless hero far from the Rockies on a horse raid in pre-Mexican War California. Joining up with a band of two dozen similarly ragtag refugees from the failing beaver trade, Bass trails across the deadly desert lands of the Southwest, fighting thirst, hunger and, of course, frequent battles with fierce adversaries. Along the way, he's shot several times, pierced by a number of arrows and always saved from certain death by the arrival of some friend or other left dangling in a previous novel. Upon their return, and after slaughtering a number of evil Mexicans, the rustlers discover only a small market for their four-legged booty. Bass and his bigoted buddies end up rescuing settlers caught in the Taos Rebellion, an uprising of Pueblo Indians. There's little of value in this picaresque tall tale. Bass is the only character who is developed beyond one dimension, and his heroics strain belief. The plot is episodic and quirky, with pitched battles against the odds occurring frequently, linked by Bass's ruminations on his adventures in previous Johnston novels, complete with footnotes to direct the reader to the proper title. The story is pockmarked with meticulous lessons in woodcraft and even, at one point, wall plastering. Other footnotes clarify geographic and linguistic references for the uninitiated. Brief outbursts of realism and description indicate that Johnston has done his homework, but the novel is further marred by careless overwriting, including hokey, inconsistent and often anachronistic dialect. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Eighth and possibly final installment in Johnston's Northwest wilderness saga (Ride the Moon Down, 1998, etc.) featuring a now-aged, bone-weary Titus Bass, a mountain man and trapper who will hang onto his old ways under the Big Sky where hes spent his life trapping buffalo and then beaver. But now even the beaver are gone, or else those at hand won't repay risk of life nor the effort to capture, skin, and carry them to a trading post. Titus experiences a deep running-down throughout the present story, although the death rattle is also for a way of life trampled under the incoming hordes of town-builders and civilizers. As Titus puts it: ``A man either figures he can live all crowded up with folkswith trouble a constant shadow lurking just outside his door . . . or he sets his sights on taking those he loves off away from the shove and clutter or so many others.'' As it has had for so many others, Spanish California holds a lure for Titus, who joins some friends bent on raiding the large horse-and-mule ranches and running off with plenty of the overabundant livestock to offer to fur traders beyond the Mojave. Theres danger behind as Mexican soldiers chase them, and ahead as murderous Digger Indians lie in wait. After a spell in the Rockies, where, sadly, the whole culture has changed, Titus joins the ``Taos Rebellion,'' which leads to the greatest dismay of all. Bleak as winter rain, but a wide readership awaits Titus, a character cut from rawhide. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
