THE FLAW

With all of its charms and strengths, the X Bar X series has a serious built-in flaw: the setting provides only limited possibilities for plots. The action is always centered on the ranch, and the largest close center for any kind of activity is the little town of Eagles. That leaves little opportunity for excitement beyond riding, resisting rustlers, rodeos, round-ups, and ranch life, gold and girls, storms and scenery. After a while, it can get a little monotonous. The style of the series really forbids that the boys journey elsewhere.

Other series are more flexible, and their action is transferable. Ken Holt and Sandy Allen go to Colorado (were they near the X Bar X ranch?), Mexico, and other exotic places; Rick Brant spends about two-thirds of his books outside the country; Tom Quest gets around a few times; Don Sturdy of course is never home, once he manipulates his father into getting him out of the clutches of his hand-wringing mother; and the Hardy Boys get their share of frequent flyer miles even in the original text versions. But there could never be any titles like The X Bar X Boys in Argentina or The X Bar X Boys Ride the Tundra. (However, see the entry for With the Border Patrol in the section called "The Books."

As an unfortunate corollary to this, there is little variety in criminal possibilities. Mostly there is rustling, rustling, and more rustling. There is occasionally a little extra excitement when the boys deal with fraud, theft, missing persons, or kidnapping, or face danger from weather and animal predators, but you're not going to find Roy and Teddy riding Star and Flash on the outskirts of Chicago or packing their gear for long trips on ship or plane.

This means that, to keep the plots going, what the criminal element lacks in imagination and when it isn't around, will have to made up for by Adventure in the Great West. Too often, perhaps, Adventure has to carry the stories about as much as any mystery to be solved or crime to be thwarted or punished. Admittedly this is often skillfully done, but after a while, the reading can get to drag a little. Sometimes the plots stretch a long way to introduce mystery or excitement, and the stretch is just not always enough to work. Perusing the entire series may be better done over time, with breaks in between the books.