Well, this is a single volume of the complete set that currently takes up shelf space in my library. I don't mind Louis L'Amour too much but he is not a favorite either. Although I do like some of his stories. The last similar book of his that I read, volume 3, was okay, I liked a handful of stories in it. This book is no exception, I liked about a third of the stories therein but definitely not all or even most of them.
The stories I did like were That Man from Bitter Sands, From the Listening Hills, Trap of Gold (my favorite in this book), The Lonesome Gods, The Skull and the Arrow, Caprock Rancher, Dead-End Drift, The Defense of Sentinel (a tie for my favorite), War Party, Duffy's Man, The Strong Shall Live, To Make a Stand, One for the Pot, and Home is the Hunter. I found these easy to read, entertaining, liked the central characters, and felt these stories were the least overwritten.
The author does seem to have a problem with cutting the fat away from his stories especially the longer form tales such as Rustler Roundup. I really do not like getting bogged down in unnecessary prose or details that serve no real purpose in a story. This is a common problem amongst the pulp writers as they were paid by the word. Probably the main reason the Big Three of pulp and weird fiction were not so successful in their lifetimes as other less skilled but more prolific scribes. But that is neither here nor there.
I am glad I read this book if not all of the stories in it. I would recommend this book if you like Old West pulp stories especially if you can pick the book up for a song. ( )

It is a rare thing when one finds a collection of short stories in which every one is perfect. This is it. ( )

Excellent collection of stories about the west by one of the best sources of the genre, Louis L'Amour. It includes my favorites "One For the Pot" and "War Party" as well as others. One of the best in this volume is "The Gift of Cochise", which was later extended into the novel Hondo. ( )

This collection of short stories hooked me at the first page. L'Amour is the master of Western writing, with battles of good and evil, inperfect humans testing themselves in tight spots, learning to live and work with the land rather than subdue it, and women who are both feminine and capable. The short story is one of the more difficult literary formats for a writer because plot and character development and resolution must occur within a few pages. L'Amour proves he is the master again with this collection that keeps me turning pages way past my bedtime. The premise is pretty much the same in all the stories: the protaganist (usually a stranger, untested and underestimated youth or codgy elder) has challenges or troubles that he must face using his own intellect and abilities, usually against great odds. Often a sympathetic woman shows her own grit as his partner in a successful result and a future life. Good triumphs every time, and this is part of the satisfaction of the stories; we know that integrity and hard work will prevail. Sometimes there are echos of L'Amour novels, but I don't know which came first, the novel or the short story. ( )

It was fun to read these again after having done so over the years in the many Bantam paperback versions. There are a few stories that I do not remember so either I had totally forgotten them, or they were new to me. At any rate, most are page turners that I could not put down. The opening story, "The Gift of Cochise", is a delightful story of a lone woman's stand against the threat of an Apache attack and how she gains the respect of the Apache chief, Cochise, and then tricks him when he tries to marry her off to one of his warriors. The others tell stories of men & women traveling in wagon trains, fighting to keep their ranches & gold mines safe from nature & criminals and making a living in frontier towns. ( )