Riders of Vengeance ;

The rating of three stars is only because this is an abridgment of the book Riders of the Purple Sage. Otherwise it would have been five stars plus, plus, plus. What can one say about "Riders of the Purple Sage"? For as long as man has dreamed of the west, he has written about it or sought it out for himself. Yes, James Fenimore Cooper wrote about the "west". There were the Dime Novels and the Penny Dreadfuls of the 1800's written by such as Ned Buntline. Then an Easterner named Owen Wister created a character called "The Virginian" and Zane Grey had already written "Heritage of the Desert" but "Riders of the Purple Sage" would immortalize both the author and the genre of "westerns". From then on every "western" would be compared to this one. The ironic part is: Zane Grey never considered them to be "westerns"; they were romances, romantic adventures, romantic novels. And to be totally accurate, the word, "western" did not exist at the time this book was written; it did not come into use until 1927 at the earliest, so to insist Zane Grey was a "western" writer is suspect, at best. But "Riders of the Purple Sage" has everything a person has come to know and understand that belongs in a story of the west--the taciturn gunfighter; the woman in distress fighting a losing battle; great scenery; fast horses; and evil men. Yet "Riders" is more than that. It has sub-plots upon sub-plots that keep the reader wondering what is going to happen next, and this book "fills the bill". And, what most people don't know or realize today, Zane Grey wrote quite often from a woman's viewpoint, and does so in this book. At the time of ZG's greatest popularity more than half of his readership were women, and he was published in such magazines as, Cosmopolitan, Colliers, and Ladies Home Journal. If you have never read a "western" I whole-heartedly urge you to try this one. Lastly, abridgments should not be allowed except under extraordinary circumstances, such as in times of war, i.e. WW2.