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The Outcast of Spirit Ridge: A Keystone Ranch Story (Five Star Western Series) Hardcover – September 1, 2006
- Print length252 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFive Star
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 2006
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-101594143986
- ISBN-13978-1594143984
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Product details
- Publisher : Five Star (September 1, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 252 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1594143986
- ISBN-13 : 978-1594143984
- Item Weight : 15.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Hometown: Estes Park, Colorado
Present home: Fort Collins, Colorado
Education: BA, MA English literature; PhD, Victorian Poetry.
Career: Professor Emeritus CSU (Western literature, nature writing, creative non-fiction)
Offices: President, Western Literature Association; Exec. Director, Colorado Seminars in Literature; Director, Rocky Mountain MLA.
Awards: CSL Book of the Year (PROSE AND POETRY OF THE AMERICAN WEST); Frank Waters Society Literary Achievement Award ("The Lion at the Well"). Western Literature Association Wylder Award for Distinguished Service.
Activities: canoeing, hiking, camping, fly fishing
Interests: Western American history; archetypal mythology; etymology and rhetoric.
Most satisfactory accomplishments to date:
(1)Discovering how to apply archetypal Arthurian legends to new fiction set in the American West, i.e. bringing Gawain and Lancelot to Wyoming;
(2)Selling a collection of amusing memoirs to an academic press--the Utah memoir "Don't Shoot the Gentile" is scheduled for September 2011 publication.
(3)Being modern-minded enough to have published on Kindle as well as writing articles for an on-line magazine, NewWest.Org
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As a fan of Mr. Work's Keystone Ranch series, I was looking forward to reading OUTCAST OF SPIRIT RIDGE and enjoying another episode of the Arthurian legend cleverly transposed to the Wild West; chronicling the saga of Art Pendragon, rancher and moral leader, who campaigns to create an organized lawful society out of the lawless western frontier. If the Arthurian connection in the previous five Keystone Ranch novels is your only reason for continuing with the series, you will be disappointed. Mr. Work's new book is not Arthurian. However, this is the only aspect of his latest offering that will disappoint you.
A descendant of pioneer families, Mr. Work reveals more of his personal attachment to his subject in this novel than in any previous Keystone episode. His knowledge of the culture of the American Indian and mythology in general is strikingly evident as well as the empathy he feels for the people and places in his book.
Grudj, a black, deformed, one-eyed creature that made a brief appearance in RIDE WEST TO DAWN is the protagonist of this book. As a baby whose parents are part of a wagon train heading west, he falls under a wagon wheel and has half of his skull crushed. Believed dead, he is buried in a shallow grave with his only inheritance, a steel bar measuring over five feet in length. Endowed with magical properties, this bar was obtained from the mysterious blacksmith that was frequently encountered in earlier Keystone tales. Rescued from death by a tribe of Plains Indians known only as THE PEOPLE, Grudj grows up with the uncanny ability to learn any language almost as quickly as he hears it spoken. He also develops the ability to talk to water and is know as a water-dreamer. During a sacred ceremony involving the appearance of a mystical spirit lodge, Grudj unwittingly commits an unpardonable offense and is cast out from his tribe. Grudj (a genius loci?) sets out alone to cross the Rocky Mountains and find the place where his people were created, Spirit Ridge, so that he can bring them to a new home and be redeemed.
OUTCAST OF SPIRIT RIDGE is a tale rich with myth and magic but clearly rooted in the reality of the old west. The story is enjoyable and entertaining and the detailed descriptions of the characters and places demonstrate that the writing was a labor of love. In my opinion, OUTCAST OF SPIRIT RIDGE will not fail to please all of Mr. Work's fans and anyone else interested in an absorbing western yarn. Although this story was not drawn from Arthurian lore this volume is a welcome addition to the Keystone Ranch series. I'm looking forward to the next novel in this series that will hopefully return to Arthurian roots, but with trepidation, since we all know the inevitable ending of the Matter of Britain.