The Stars in their Courses (1960) (Book)

Most notable for being the book that El Dorado was based on. Very little of the book was actually used in El Dorado: as far as I can tell, one character name (Nelse McLeod), a single scene where a young man falls asleep at his post while he's supposed to be standing guard and ends up being shot (at the start of the film, in the middle of the book), and the broad idea of the gunfighter crippled by medical problems (in the film a bullet wound, in the book heart problems).

To briefly summarise the plot: a noted gunfighter returns to town after an unsuccessful trip to Mexico, at the same time as a local rancher is throwing an 18th birthday party for one of his sons. A river that begins on the rancher's land dries up, causing other ranchers to get suspicious of his motives. This isn't helped by one of the main ranchers sons running off with someone else's wife. At that point things escalate....

One of the main themes of the book is destiny, and the idea that the events that take place are basically out of control of the main characters. I felt this bit of the book was possibly the weakest, and felt a bit "overwritten" or possibly just over-emphasised in places. The story as a whole was good, with interesting characters. Interestingly, the vast majority of the characters were sympathetic—if slightly flawed—despite the fact that they all end up fighting each other; there were no obvious heroes and villains. There was also a remarkable amount of sex in the book—especially compared to the film allegedly based on it—although all slightly implied (definitely not erotic novel territory!). In summary, it's pretty entertaining to read, but will never be considered a literary classic (although it's obviously trying to head down that route, rather than the action pot-boiler route).

I mostly bought this because I wanted to see how El Dorado was based on a book, when it was so obviously a remake of Rio Bravo. To an extent, the answer is "it wasn't", although the book was pretty good in it's own right. The book itself is long out of print, but I found a second-hand copy quite cheaply on the internet. The cover from the original 60s printing is wonderfully overblown in it's description of the old west (see the picture – sorry about the slightly dodgy picture quality!).