ALL THE COWBOYS AIN’T GONE
BY JOHN J. JACOBSON
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Pages: 352
Pub Date: February 23, 2021
Categories: Historical Fiction / Action Adventure / Western
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All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone is the rollicking adventure story of Lincoln Smith, a young Texan living at the beginning of the twentieth century, who thinks of himself as the last true cowboy. He longs for the days of the Old West, when men like his father, a famous Texas Ranger, lived by the chivalric code. Lincoln finds himself hopelessly out of time and place in the fast-changing United States of the new century. When he gets his heart broken by a sweetheart who doesn’t appreciate his anachronistic tendencies, he does what any sensible young romantic would do: he joins the French Foreign Legion.
On his way to an ancient and exotic country at the edge of the Sahara, Lincoln encounters a number of curious characters and strange adventures, from a desert hermit who can slow up time to a battle with a crocodile cult that worships the god of death. He meets them all with his own charming brand of courage and resourcefulness.
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Hang onto your hats when you open the cover of All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone, because you are in for one heck of a ride! Lincoln Smith is living in the wrong time. He longs for the days of the Wild West, when his now-missing father was one of the best Texas Rangers out there, when there were wide-open spaces, when the cowboy was king. His mother makes sure he gets a proper education, but he longs for a life of adventure, far from the clutter and noise of modern machinery. After his heart is broken, he aims to head off and join the French Foreign Legion, as any adventurous young man would.
I’ve always been a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, and Lincoln has a touch of Indy about him, with a little Clint Eastwood for good measure. He gets into some crazy scrapes, and the story includes hidden passages, a hermit in the desert with a message for him, a crocodile-worshiping cult, and of course, some good ol’ fisticuffs. It might seem like Lincoln has better luck than is reasonably possible, but that’s part of this book’s charm! You just suspend your disbelief, jump into the story, and enjoy.
The good guys are good, the bad guys are clearly bad – no question about who you want to be cheering for. There’s a little sparkle of romance with a strong-willed ambassador’s daughter. After all, it wouldn’t do to have our hero’s heart broken for good. The latter part of the book brings a twist that I DID NOT see coming, and it was glorious. I might have actually teared up a bit when I read it.
And I think a story like this might be just what we need right now. In a world that’s gone mad over the past year or so, a rootin’ tootin’ gun-slingin’ cowboy with a zest for life and a thirst for the epic is a bright spot whose antics we can laugh and cheer and gasp over, simply because it’s fun.
Five shining Texas-sized stars from me!
Though John J. Jacobson didn’t join the French Foreign Legion after being jilted by a girlfriend, or over his displeasure of missing the last great cattle drive, he has, borrowing Churchill’s phrase, lived a rather variegated life. He was born in Nevada, grew up in the West, surfed big waves in Hawaii, circled the world thrice, survived the sixties and seventies, corporate America, and grad school. Among other degrees he has an MA in Renaissance literature from Claremont Graduate University.
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FUN! The review is fun, and the book is fun, and you are right that it’s a ride of a book! Thanks for the post.