|
Publisher:
Zumaya Publications |
Release
Date: April 2003 |
ISBN:
1894869575 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon US
|| UK |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Historical Fiction [1755/6 Ohio] |
Reviewed:
2003 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: Some violence |
|
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.
|