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freewaygods 's review for:
Warlock
by Oakley Hall
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Warlock is a criminally under-read and underrated novel. It absolutely deserves its place aside mention of Blood Meridian as one of the great American novels, and certainly that of the Western genre. Oakley Hall not only delivers an epic, page-turning narrative, but also a view of the American mythos through a scanner darkly. The large cast of characters feel so real, based as they are on real historical characters, and the different points of view and styles that the chapters shift between are craft executed masterfully.
The town of Warlock serves as apotheosis of the American settler mythology — gunslingers, lawmen, ruthless businessmen, and angry unwashed workers. It’s a pot boiling over with the class conflict that not even settler colonial expansion could ameliorate. But most of all Warlock cuts to the heart of the heroic figure of the Western: the lone gunman who serves the law as the law. This figure is laid bare by Hall to show just how that very law is only ever created by force, and kept justified through blood. There is no universal sense of justice, and the only characters who make stands for what might be construed as moral or just are cut down like dogs.
This novel is not simply a parable. It’s extremely readable, descriptive and cinematic, epic in scale and scope. A testament to the times of its writing simultaneous to its setting, Warlock is an experience you should not deprive yourself of.
The town of Warlock serves as apotheosis of the American settler mythology — gunslingers, lawmen, ruthless businessmen, and angry unwashed workers. It’s a pot boiling over with the class conflict that not even settler colonial expansion could ameliorate. But most of all Warlock cuts to the heart of the heroic figure of the Western: the lone gunman who serves the law as the law. This figure is laid bare by Hall to show just how that very law is only ever created by force, and kept justified through blood. There is no universal sense of justice, and the only characters who make stands for what might be construed as moral or just are cut down like dogs.
This novel is not simply a parable. It’s extremely readable, descriptive and cinematic, epic in scale and scope. A testament to the times of its writing simultaneous to its setting, Warlock is an experience you should not deprive yourself of.