Helpful Score: 4
It's my understanding that Alan Geoffrion is friends with Robert Duvall and that this story was written with him in mind. Even though the main plot is based on apparent historical fact, the character of Print Ritter is so reminiscent of Augustus McCrae that I think there was some tailoring done to make it a Duvall role in case there was ever a film version! But onto the book itself. The prose style is not as ornate or deep as my preference, but I found myself enjoying it immensely nonetheless. It was clean, stripped of any bloat or frills, and showed the characters' emotions and predicaments in a bare, frontier manner. One area that needed some more attention was the budding romance between Tom Harte & Sun Foy - despite the language barrier, to have their interaction consist mainly of glances was unsatisfying, especially at the end of the book where she gets onto the coach for San Francisco and their union is only revealed with one sentence in an Afterword. For the heart of the story, it should have had further exploration or resolution.
But that's what fanfiction is for, am I right? :-)
But that's what fanfiction is for, am I right? :-)
