Frontier is the first book in the The Frontier Trilogy by S. K. Salzer. This historical western was published 2015 by Pinnacle while the audiobook was published by Graphic Audio with a full cast and sound effects. Now, have in mind that I am not a fan of western books or movies so I will most likely be more focused on other aspects of the books, but needless to say, there are plenty of action and gunfights in the book.
The story follows several people, but mostly Rose as she follows her husband Mark Reynolds to the frontier where Henry B. Carrington is assigned to build three new forts. Rose is abandoned by her ambitious husband and has to follow him through the desert with native americans following their every steps. She starts to fall for the surgeon, Dixon, while her emotions of reuniting with her husband becomes mixed. Especially when tension start to intensify as more and more people fall to the native americans who wage war against the blue coats.
Despite my explanation being focused on the naïve, but spirited Rose there are plenty of other characters whose perspective we follow. Mark, Dixon and Harry (the son of Carrington) is among some of them. Needless to say, most have their purpose. Mark being coldhearted and ambitious, Dixon being experienced and kindhearted while Harry is being young, naïve with dreams of becoming a surgeon instead of a soldier.
Each are suppose to give their own perspective of the incidents though as some reviewers might already point out, because all the characters are settlers, the native americans become demonized in the book. It might sense in the context of the book but many has pointed out that at least one character who could give some humanity toward the native americans would have been good. Especially when it name drops famous chieftans like Red Cloud who was considered both wise and a good chieftan, but because of the settler, whose perspective we follow, he are only mentioned killing people. Some of the interesting cultural facts of the Oglala tribe, such as the women where the owner of homes and producers of the village while the men only had power in political matters of the tribe, was lost.
Of course, it still is a realistic take on the history in all its gory details. Some parts is a bit overexaggerated but I would say it is, as mentioned, because there is no perspective from the native American side, so we will only see the cruel parts which is quite accurate from what I could see when I looked it up.
The war tribes of the native americans where expert in torture and all men, women and teenage boys that wasn’t enslaved or lucky enough to be killed. They were tortured for days, forced to eat their won flesh, and their bodies where even more mutilated after their death. Many books like to pretend this didn’t happen in order to make the native americans seem more innocent but the actions of both sides were considered even by those times standard to be a crime against humanity.
That said, the book did gloss over some things or not mentioning others. One example is that the book mentions the battle where Fetterman lost his entire unit going against his orders and going after the native americans. His body was mentioned in the book in great details, where he had been mutilated. The book on the other side did not mention the bugler Adolph Metzger who was considered the last to fall. He used his instrument to fight alone against hundreds before he finally fell. The Native americans did not mutilate his body but instead laid it to rest in a buffalo hide, honoring his bravery.
There are still the tribes in the book that were peaceful, many of them shared the fate of the settlers as they were seen as traitors or starved to death. It also shows the cruelty coming in from the settlers side, such as their inability to keep to their own treaty, the scalping of innocent native americans who wasn’t with those who fought them because they saw no difference between them, and their tendency to abandon their own people. In this book they pretty much sent men to “distract” the native americans so they can build railroads, sacrificing men women and children for their causes. All this are historical facts and the book does not shy away from them, giving us historical accuracy rather than choosing a side and romanticize it as is the trend with American writers.
If you like a bit of history about the Red Cloud’s War then this book might interest you though have in mind that though it is focused on accuracy it still is a story from the settlers side so it’s only half the story. There are plenty of action for those who want it and some romance in the far background. I would have liked a bit more variety other than bloody battles, as they often bore me after a while, but that is a personal taste. I prefer to read about the people underneath the historical incidents rather than the incidents themselves. All in all, it was a good book but did not entertain me simply because it focused too much on the battles rather than the people fighting them. I would give it a 6 out of 10, giving it praise for the historical account and the extensive research that must have gone into it, but I do feel like the characters felt a bit stale because it focused on the history too much. It almost in some parts felt like a history book rather than fiction. I would recommend it to fans of history though, especially history during this time.
With Kind regards
Senefer.
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