The Lion’s Apprentice
The Neophyte Warrior Series, No. 3
By Richard Patton 

I chose the first volume in this series, His Majesty’s Envoy (also reviewed on this site) as my choice for the best general historical novel of 2002. I read a lot of novels each year, so this is no light thing. On finding out that this series is about the early campaigns of George Washington, you might be wondering why I call it a general novel rather than a military one and the answer is simple; it has much broader appeal than that.

Following closely on from The Reluctant Commander (this is not a book to be read as a stand alone novel), Washington is feeling disenchanted with military life and also being blamed for the death of Jumonville. He vows to settle down and be a farmer, still spending much time with the married Sally Fairfax, but such is not to be. Across the ocean in England, the Duke of Cumberland has decided to send out his own man to settle the question of the French once and for all. His choice is the elderly Major General Edward Braddock, an unremarkable career soldier who was lately in Gibralter. The greatest part of this novel deals with his progress towards the field of battle and leader of a strange cavalcade of soldiers, wives and wagons, as they try and scale the Allegheny Mountains and penetrate a vast forest.

It is a great measure of Patton’s skill as a writer that this novel, very much an interim volume between one battle and the next, isn’t boring. True, it isn’t as exciting as the first two books, but reading about the remarkable ignorance of the English about the American terrain and the comical progress (or lack of it) of the seemingly unsuitable Braddock’s “army” makes a fascinating tale. Perhaps it is true that it is easy to think of writing about Washington’s early campaigns, and this isn’t the first book I have read that deals with them. It is, however, the first that gives a multi-viewpoint look at events, and the thing that lifts it head and shoulders above where it could have been for me is Patton’s insights into the characters, both real and fictional, and the addition of the Native American viewpoint. There is the nadir of both native and white civilization in the shape of the enigmatic sadist Buffalo Hair and the insane Stump Neck, contrasted with the believable humanity of Washington and Old Smoke. This series gives as good a description of life in the “Indian” villages as it does of Washington’s campaigns. Like a good soap opera, we are left wondering, too, what is to become of the wealthy and brave Robert Stobo and the basically decent Contrecoeur. I said before that this is Robert J. Conley and James Carlos Blake rolled together for that mix of uncompromising grittiness, readability and historical verisimilitude. I hope that Book IV, Massacre of the Forks, isn’t too long in coming. Very highly recommended.