Last of the Breed: A Novel

Louis L'Amour has never been one of my favourite authors because most of his books are Westerns but "Last of the Breed" is an exception to my rule simply because it isn't a Western. This is a brilliant novel that is both suspenseful and creative and it is a real shame that a sequel was never done.Set during the hostilities between the Soviet Union and the USA Joseph "Joe Mack" Makatozi is a man trapped in enemy territory. He is a downed test Pilot who has been captured by the Russians and is seemingly at their mercy in the inhospitable landscape called Siberia; the only inhabited cold Hell in existence.However Joe Mack isn't your ordinary test pilot. He is part Sioux and in his blood is the will to survive a savage land that was once home to his ancestors. He escapes his prison with the goal of crossing Siberia and making his way across the Bering Straits and into America, something that has not been done by modern man.Joe Mack finds himself slowly merging with the wilderness, forced to rely on his ancestral abilities to survive the killing cold and elude the constant danger of his determined Soviet pursuers, including a man who is to become his nemesis, a Siberian Native Yakut tracker called Alekhin who knows that in order to trap his quarry he must think and act like a Sioux.As we follow Joe Mack across the deadly landscape we become aware that he is changing, he is becoming what his ancestors once were thousands of years ago, trackers, hunters, killers, but ultimately survivors.It is a slow transformation, and along the way we watch him struggle to hold onto his humanity, finding love in the guise of a woman who helps him and a fragile but brief friendship with a crippled furrier but all the time he is in the cruel wilderness Joe Mack is changing into something that can never revert back to what it once was.He hungers for revenge against Alekhin and the jovial but brutal Soviet Commander who imprisoned him and the book ends on an eerie haunting note when the Soviet Commander receives the scalp of Alekhin and a gentle warning from the wilderness that he will be next...This is a truly magnificent book about a man's ability to transcend his environment and upbringing and descend into savagery in order to survive.Once you start reading this book you won't be able to put it down, this is no run of the mill pot boiler about the noble savage. There nothing remotely noble about Joe Mack, but you find yourself admiring him for his ability to survive against all the odds.

Louis L'Armour is an author of rare quality. His words seem to flow straight from the heart of the wilderness. He can place his readers in the midst of heated gun-fight, or on the icy arctic tundra. He can describe a situation with skill that few authors have mastered. Out on the cold, desolate plains of Siberia there stood a boy, filled and surrounded by the incredible writing of a man who is close to the ways of the wild. This boy stood watching a Soiux warrior in his journey home. This boy was me. When I read Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amoure, I experienced a feeling I had never felt before. It was a feeling of lonliness, comfort, joy and sorrow. I could feel the cold that Major Joe Mack felt. I could feel his hunger as well as my own as I feverishly read through the last minutes of class before the bell rang for me to go to lunch.This is a book of capture and escape, a cat and mouse game between a man and his enemies. It has a quality about it that makes you want to keep reading, yet not want to know what imminent danger lies around the next rock, or hillside, or bend in the stream. I loved this book from beginning to end and have read several times as I hope you will too. If you enjoy the outdoors, suspense, survival, or if are just a Louis L'Amour fan, I highly suggest you give this book a try.

The late Louis L'Amour wrote mostly Westerns--specifically about the 'Old West'--for which he is justly famous. I may have read them all, but I hope not. I hope there are a few more out there, somewhere.This book, however, is different. This is the kind of authentically detailed story that is his hallmark, but it is more modern. It is about U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, whose forbears were Sioux Indian. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in the USSR, he is captured, and no one but he and his captors know he is a prisoner. He escapes a prison camp, and is forced to survive the Siberian wilderness in an effort to make it to the Bering Strait, which he will have to cross to get back home. He is pursued relentlessly by a Yakut scout who knows the land intimately. Joe Mack must think like a Sioux to escape.Louis Dearborn L'Amour (originally Lamoore) lived the lives that he portrayed. He was a roustabout, merchant seaman, boxer, cowboy, logger, miner, and an army officer during WWII in tank destroyers. He was shipwrecked in the West Indies, sailed a dhow on the Red Sea, and circled the earth on merchant ships. He wrote a hundred books, and had more million copy best-sellers than any other author. I was personally desolated by his death. What a glorious man! He was a true troubadour in the original sense.Joseph H. Pierre Author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity

This is an action-packed book about Major Joe Makatozi and his fight for survival. Captured by Russians, Joe "Mack" must escape and flee into the Siberian wilderness. With nearly half the Russian army in hot pursuit, he reverts back to the ways of his Indian ancestors. The longer he spends in the wilderness, the more he begins to become a Sioux. However, Joe Mack has to evade Alekhin, a legendary tracker who is also a native. To escape Russia, Joe Mack knows he must cross the Bering Strait, the same path his ancestors took many years before. Also, he must endure a harsh Siberian winter. If you want to find out how Joe Mack deals with these hardships, you better read the book for yourself.

Having read nearly all of Louie L'Amour, I mark LAST OF THE BREED as one of my favorites. He steps out of his traditional "old west" setting and takes you on an incredible journey across Russia. This is one book I could not put down. L'Amour takes you there and makes you feel the adventure.