Lucia St. Clair RobsonRecensioni

Ghost Warrior by Lucia St.Clair Robson is a sweeping epic set during the last days that the Apache Indians roamed free. It is the story of Lozen, an Apache woman who was the unmarried sister of Chiricahua Apache chief Victorio. Lozen was different from most women, she did not chose to marry or have children, instead she fought side by side with the men and became her brother’s wise counselor. Although at first she was considered strange for wanting to behave as a man she eventually became revered as both a Holy Woman and a Medicine Woman.

Separating the real person from the legend, the story unfolds with humor, intelligence and realism. As the Apaches try to deal with the white people who are moving into their southwestern homeland in the late 1800s and changing their ancient way of life. That is not to say that their way of life was particularly peaceful, the Apache were a war-like people who spent much of their time on raids and in battles with other Indians and, in particular, Mexicans. Their life was one of marauding, ambushing and plundering, and now they were being rounded up, confined to a reservation and told to farm.

All the well known figures of the day are part of this story including General George Crook, George N. Bascom, Cochise, and Geronimo. But the author keeps her main character, Lozen, front and center at all times giving the reader a heroine to root for. Robson recreates the Apache way of life in great detail and gives all her characters a distinct personality. I loved this story and enjoyed my time learning about these unique people.½

Nacona, Wanderer, my brother, I wish the these white people would come west so we could raid them all the time. They have such wonderful things, and they're soft like newborn pups. I may spend ore time here in the east".

Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson

As someone with an interest in Native American History I liked reading this story about Cynthia Anne Parker. It made me angry though and not at Native Americans, at OUR government. I felt almost embarrassed on her behalf.

This was a really long book and there's alot of violence in it, you have been warned. I did have to skim over some parts of it. But the book taught me alot..which is what great books do. I looked up Cynthia's story after reading this book. Then I got mad all over again.

SPOILERS:

This is really just a comment but.. I wish her story had had a happier ending. It was painful.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to see the "trail of tears" which also made me outraged. I can remember, as a child, loving Native American History and wanting to live free as they did. This book really is superb and like many others have wondered I do not get why it has not been turned into a movie(although with Hollywood being involved, who knows how it would turn out?)

But this was a great story and my hat's off to the author as I read the story of how she came to write this as well. Highly recommended.

So lonely am I
My sul is a floating weed
Severed at the roots

tThis is how Lady Asano has felt ince the forced suicide execution of her father. Adrift in a dangerous world, Lady Asano vows to avenge her father's death and restore his name to honor. To do so she will have to travel the Tokaido Road.

Lucia St. Clair Robson is renowned for her beautifully written and carefully researched historical novels about the American Indian: the Washington Post proclaimed Walk in My Soul 'a richly detailed, rousingly good story' and : The Kirkus Reviews praised Light a Distant Fire for its 'briliant word-portraits of memorable characters,' Now, Robson has turned her remarkable storytelling gifts and her passion for historical accuracy to a place and time that have been long close to her heart, feudal Japan.

As the novel opens, Lady Asano has transformed herself into Cat, a high-rankng courtesan, to support her widowed mother. Yet Cat's career is temporary; the powerful Lord Kira's campaign against her family is continuing and she must find Oishi, leader of the samurai of the Asano clan, weapons master, philosopher and Cat's teacher. Cat believes he is three hundred miles to the southwest in the imperial city of Kyoto.

Disguising her loveliness in the humble garments of a traveling priest, Cat begins her quest. All she has is her samurai training-in Haiku and Tanka poetry, in the use of the deadly six-foot weapon, the naginata, and in Japanese Zen thought. And she wil need them all, for a ronin has been hired to trail her.

The ronin, a lordless samurai, is Tosa no Harushiro. His weapon is the traditional long-sword, a two-hundred-year old Kanesada blade. But he will find cunning adversaires in Cat and her faithful taveling companion Kasane. A peasant girl, Kasane is simple, her poetry a little crude. But her devotion to Cat runs deep.

Both picaresque and tagic, filed with the grand poetry, chivalrous love, adn rollicking goings-on of the era. The Tokaido Road is a stunning achievment by a noveist writing at th peadk of her considerable powers.

Lucia St. Clair Robson is the author of the New York Times bestseller Ride the Wind, and of Walk in my Soul and Light a Distand Fire. She has lived and taught in Japan, and made three trips there during the writing of The Tokaido Road.

Robsen lives in Arnold, Maryland, with her longo-time companion, the science fiction novelist Brian Daley.

Contents

Chapter One Beware the Stopping Mind
Chapater Two; A State of Confusion
Chapter Three: Aim for his weak point
Chapter Four: The Burglar in the House
Chapter Five: A Beggar's Bag
.......
Chapter Seventy-eight The Ultimate of Swordsmanship
Chapter Sseventy-nine Spring Dwells Inside The Strugging Buds
Epilogue

I could have walked the Tokaido Road many times over myself in the time it took me to read this book lol. Despite that, it really is good. I loved that we get to see the story of the 47 ronin through the perspective of a woman. And I'm always impressed when someone can craft a novel after real people and events and do them justice. Read my full review here.

Fictionalized telling of the life of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was captured by Comanches as a child and spent all her life among them until she and her young daughter were captured and sold back to her white family around the time the Civil War began, intermingled with the story of the wearing down and eventual penning up of a proud and free people.

I found this story very compelling -- compelling enough for me to persist through extremely grisly violence -- and the story felt well-researched and like stereotypes were applied with an even brush to all the groups. Westerns make me a bit hesitant because social expectations have changed so much since their heyday, but this one didn't feel dated at all. The depth of portrayal here is highly recommended.½

DNFing at the 50% point. I don't have a strong enough stomach for this book. I was warned that it was violent, and I thought I could handle it (I've read a Brief History of Seven Killings...twice, so I'm not exactly a lightweight). This was just too much. The writing style was also not that great. There was too much "First, she did this, and then she did this, and then she did this, followed by doing this and then she did some more." AHHH!!! I was not enjoying this book at all, and would much rather be reading something that I did.

A smidgeon of history amidst large dollops of romance. Abandoned.

Defying Apache tradition, Lozen declines marriage offers to train as a warrior and shaman. She is her brother's right hand throughout his leadership and is a respected member of councils even after his death. From her girlhood on her people's land in New Mexico to her death at a reservation in the swamps of Florida, it's continual atrocity (on both sides) between the indigenous tribes (stealing) and the US government/business interests/settlers (lying) [widespread brutal murder], with a brief recess during the Civil War. Have a serious crush on Rafe. Want more frontier historical fiction, preferably from Robson.

Just finished Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson. I have read this book before...about 20 years ago. While I understood the book was based on the true story of the kidnap of Cynthia Parker at the age of nine by the Comanches and I did remember some of the story as I came to it but it in no way interfered with my enjoyment of this novel the second time around.

I read another book on the Comanches written by Mike Blakely titled Comanche Dawn. This is a great companion novel to Ride The Wind. Blakely's novel is about the beginning of the Comanche nation when they discovered horses and use them to dominate their enemies. This novel ends in the 1500's. Robson's novel starts in the 1800's when the Comanche is at their peak but the expansion of white settlers encroach on their territory and way of life.... the two books complement each other in my opinion

Both books give an incredible amount of detail of life as a Comanche. For me, though life as a Comanche was brutal and the tribes fought each other... this was their culture back then, a way of young men to gain status and the women could be just as brutal... this was their way of life and it is sad to see how treaty after treaty was broken, promises not kept and the use of starvation and disease by the whites was horrible.

I gave both books 5 stars... if I could give more, I would

Lucia St. Clair Robson is a favourite writer of mine. This novel is about the life of the Seminole war chief, Osceola and the second Florida Seminole war.

As with any novel about life of native Indians in the USA, I get disgusted with the way the Indian was treated, with trickery to get get the Indian to sign treaties and followed by broken treaty promises and in this case, Indian leaders captured only when they are under a flag of truce to discuss peace (or so they think).

Obviously, since you are following the life of Osceola as a child until his death, there are large gaps of time between some chapters. This can a bit frustrating to the reader as there are sections of the book where you become very interested but that section ends quickly and the next chapter starts weeks to months later.

Other than that I found the book easy and interesting to read and I will look for the rest of her works.

What a great read this book turned out to be! It's the historical fiction retelling of the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, kidnapped at the age of nine by a Comanche war band who massacred her family’s settlement in Texas. She was adopted by the Comanche and lived with them for 24 years, eventually marrying a Comanche chieftain and having three children with him, including the last free Comanche chief Quanah Parker. When she was 34, she was finally "rescued" by the Texas Rangers and returned to her white family. She spent the remaining years of her life in lonely misery, refusing to adjust to life in white society. The author appears to have thoroughly researched the conflict between the Comanche tribe and the Texans. I appreciated the way she told both sides of the story and the way Cynthia Ann Parker (Naduah in Comanche) is portrayed. In reality she never told anyone about her life among the Comanche but based on the stories from her son, Quanah Parker, I would like to think that the author's version was how it happened.

I enjoyed this book very much but it is very difficult to read in places. It's often violent, very shocking reading, and is not for the faint of heart. Some of the atrocities were very difficult to read through especially the deaths of the children and babies. They die from disease and from the elements but many of them are brutally tortured and murdered.

This is a wonderfully written and readable book. The author does a great job of describing the culture and time period. In many ways it is a heartbreaking book that documents a time and way of life that is gone forever. I highly recommend this book.

I’ll give the author the nod for her historical research. From small details like hair cages and macaroni dress habits to the large epics events, Battle of Monmouth and Valley Forge, Lucia has shown some serious research chops as she brings her chosen historical period to life. This novel is the definition of bio-fiction, not straying from the historical record very far at all.

I find myself a bit at odds saying this, but the author sometimes incorporates too much historical details and information. There are some scenes that seriously bog down the overall narrative and just seem extraneous. The scenes with the smallpox inoculations in Valley Forge and the macaroni scene in New York are prime examples that come to mind. They don’t help the overall story at all and just seem to be included to incorporate those historical tidbits.

The character of Kate is very well done. The reader gets so caught up into her story that when the end of the novel comes around (OMFG, that ending!!! ;_:), I was left gasping and reaching for the nearest tissue box. Kate is a down to earth woman who is trying her best to navigate the treacherous path between Patriot and Loyalist without her world blowing up in her face, with varying degrees of success. I loved the fact that she didn't immediately define herself as either; even at the end, she wasn't an ardent anything. She was just Kate trying to keep her heart and soul intact.

The other characters and aspects of the book are a mixed blessing. The author incorporates many of the actual historical figures of the day; so history came alive again there. Yet, I felt like the author was incorporating far too many of the characters, both real and fictional. There were constant shifts between POVs and time-frames that the reader gets lost in this very choppy narrative.

The ending also screamed for more resolution. A bit about how the other people in Kate’s life dealt with the ending would have been lovely. Instead, the sudden jolt of the ending leaves you gasping and wondering how the other characters are dealing with the events portrayed. Even a few paragraphs or a short 2-3 page epilogue would have been nice…

This book was a mixed bag. Historical research and world building was top notch; the main character of Kate was three-dimensional and drew the reader into her journey all the way to the jaw-dropping ending. Yet, the novel has some serious flaws that keep it from scoring any higher than a 3 stars. Extraneous characters and scenes clog up the narrative and storytelling. The final ending is jaw-dropping in a not-good-way, with absolutely no final resolution for the other people in Kate’s life. That final one actually ticked me off a bit and so soured the book overall. I think I’d recommend this novel for the historical stuff, but there are better novels out there.

This is a very good historical novel of feudal Japan in the early 1700's.

It is based on true events. There was a Lord Asano , and there was a vendetta over his death led by Oishi and 47 Ako ronin resulting in the death and beheading of Kira's head. There is doubt about a daughter by Lord Asano and the author postulated a second "outside" wife for Lord Asano in this novel called Cat.

The novel is basically a chase scene. Cat was sold to a pleasure house to allow her to support her mother. An attempt is made on her life and she escapes the "floating world" to enter a world that she has no knowledge of. She doesn't know how to communicate properly, doesn't know the value of money, and cannot even buy food or clothing without compromising her disguise as a young male priest (one of many disguises). She is being chased by samurai from her enemy Lord Kira, and a ronin, Hanshiro, who acts like a modern day detective is hired by the pleasure house to track her down. She must travel the Tokaido Road from Edo to Kyoto with 53 check points which she must pass to see her master Oishi and organize a vendetta for her father's death... and she has no travel papers.

She receives help along the way from unlikely sources in the peasantry she meets. Viper and Cold Rice are men who are hired by travelers to transport them by foot and are quite influential in their own right.

She helps a young peasant woman, Kasane, escape being sold into the life of a comfort woman. Kasane is like a puppy dog in loyalty and she will not leave her master...you see a change in this woman and more than once this puppy becomes a pit bull in helping Cat.

If you like a Historical novel FULL of description of the life and times of a period of time then The Tokaido Road is a MUST read for you. Every character is extremely well drawn down to the lowest peasant. There is action in the form of martial arts and romance but neither is described gratuitously, your imagination fills in the gaps ...as it should. There is humor just as subtle in the inner thoughts of Cat as she expresses frustration in situations.

I could not put this book down. Any negative review here is given by someone who is looking for gratuitous action and romance and cannot use their imagination. I gave it 4.5 stars deducting a 0.5 star because of the last 75 pages. No spoiler here but let us say the ending was a bit of an anti-climax for me.

That aside, this is one of the best historical fiction novels I have read.½

This a very readable and from my research pretty accurate historical novel about life as a Cherokee indian as well as details on the life of Tiana a Cherokee woman and a young Sam Huston.

I get pretty disgusted about the treatment of native Americans especially the Cherokee who were farmers ... not hunters/gathers and had easily adapted to the white American way of life. They had schools, a written language, even a newspaper but still they were not left alone on land given through treaty to them.

Greed of the white immigrant stealing their farms and livestock, moving them further west onto lands of other western indian bands fostering killing between native bands, whiskey sales and false promises and broken treaties...disgusting.

You will meet Tiana, Cherokee mother, Scottish father. You follow her life as a cheeky young girl to a respected "Beloved Woman" in her early 30's. You will meet a young Sam Huston who embraces Cherokee culture. However he is ambitious and suffers from delusion and alcoholism. You want to kick him in the ass for the way his ambition ruins a rather strong love between Tiana and himself.

If you like this book and I am sure you will... then read another book about Sacagawea, a native woman who was the guide for the Lewis and Clarke expedition... it is another read about an amazing Shoshone woman... here is a link to this book http://www.librarything.com/work/146916/book/35240793

I will definitely look for other books by the author, Lucia St. Clair Robinson

This novel by Lucia St. Clair Robson is based on the life of Cynthia Ann Parker, who in 1836 at the age of nine, was kidnapped by Comanche Indians. She grew up in their care, married a war chief and had three children. Her eldest child was Quanah Parker, one of last great warriors of the Comanche nation.

I consider this to be a masterpiece of historical fiction. Well-researched, totally accurate with her historical dates, places and people, yet, still a fantastic story that sweeps you away to another time and place. The life of Cynthia Ann Parker was an extraordinary one and Lucia St. Clair Robson, fills in the blanks in a totally convincing and realistic way. The details of Comanche daily life, their beliefs, their love of nature and the land, their loving family ways and humor is all shown but she doesn’t flinch from also showing the brutal and savage side as well. The book opens with the massacre at Parker’s fort and the capture of Cynthia Ann along with other members of her family. She and her younger brother are the lucky ones, because of their young age they are adopted as full family members. Unfortunately the other women that were taken were abused repeatedly, tortured and treated like animals. Of course, the brutality is not all on the side of the Indian, we are also shown how the white people lied repeatedly to them, introduced them to disease, killed off their food source and systematically wiped out a nation.

Beautifully written and totally absorbing, I highly recommend this unforgettable book.

This wasn't as exciting to read as "Ride the Wind" , but it was enjoyable.
I am not sure how true to reality this is as Samual Huston is concerned, but it was interesting to read about important people of our American History and see them as the normal people they were.

I cried at the end.

I really enjoyed this book. (As I get older I need to keep a notebook to follow the Indian names!)
This was a very detailed book on Indian life and I just loved reading the exact details of how the Indian women did things in their daily lives. I have a new respect for Native Americans and am ashamed at how the americans treated them.

Shadow Patriots by Lucia St Clair Robson is a novel set during the American Revolution. Kate Danby is a Quaker and although they are against war and most choose not to take sides, Kate sees her brother, Seth run off and join Washington’s army at Valley Forge. Throughput that difficult winter she often visits her brother in his quarters bringing food and clothing for his squad. She finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the conflict and eventually she cannot deny her patriotism and joins her brother in spying on the British.

Loosely based on a the life of an unknown female spy known only today as 355, the author fills her story with historical details that are well researched and authentic. The story unfolds in an episodic manner and conveys a great deal of information on the Revolution from July 1776 to the early spring of 1781. You get a real feel for the hardships that so many had to deal with.

Lucia St Clair Robson is a author that I can rely on for good historical fiction, and although this book wasn’t my favorite, she still delivered a good story that held my interest and was informative.½

Last Train from Cuernavaca is an historical fiction novel about two women living through the Mexican Revolution. After Profirio Diaz is removed from office, the state falls into the hands of Francisco Madero. However, when he fails to make good on his promises to poor Mexicans, unrest begins growing again. Angela, a 16 year old girl from a wealthy family, finds her world turned upside-down when her home is raided and many of her friends shot. She runs off to join the rebel forces of Emiliano Zapata. She soon finds herself a leader with a reputation for being ruthless and getting results. Grace is a wealthy British woman who owns a hotel in Cuernavaca that caters to military officials. She has a strong sense of fairness, but isn't terribly motivated to push for social reform. As the Revolution approaches Cuernavaca, she finds herself in increasing danger.
I enjoyed this book. It wasn't as history-oriented as I had hoped. There is a heavy focus on the women's love lives. That said, it is very entertaining and has a number of twists. It's probably appropriate for 10th grade up.½

Fabulous. I guess because I recognized so many of the towns on LI mentioned in the book and knowing our Revolutionary War history--I just loved the story. I didn't realize how important a women's role was during this time period--makes a girl proud!

The fictionalized story of Cynthia Ann Parker's abduction and life among the Comanche. Very little detail is known about Cynthia Ann's life, other than that she was abducted at age 9, adopted and brought up by a Tenowish Comanche family, married Chief Peta Nocona (for whom the fearsome Noconi band was named), had three children (one of which was Quanah Parker, the last of the Comanche Chiefs to surrender and enter a reservation), and was recaptured and returned to her birth family at age 34 where she tried and failed to escape and where she, after her daughter's death, was so unhappy that she starved herself to death.

Obviously, the descriptions of Cynthia Ann's day-to-day tribal life are purely fictional - she never described any of the events - but because of the author's great knowledge of Native American life, every little detail rings true. It may not be an exact description of what Cynthia Ann experienced, but it is a great description of a collective experience - if you want to know how the Comanche (and other tribes) lived without resorting to straight history books, this is perfect. Details (and there are loads of them) of how they trained and rode horses, how they made camp, raided, cooked, celebrated, worshipped, courted, gave birth, hosted friends, raised children, and (ferociously) fought their enemies, are all integrated into the overall narrative.

Robson isn't a sentimental writer, so the descriptions of the hardships - on all sides - are described in quite gruesome details. Life on the prairie may be romanticized by Wild West movies, but it was harsher than harsh and most of us wouldn't have lasted a season. A few parts of the book do tend toward the romantic (and the book cover is beyond BAD), but not too much - they read more like a tribute to how happy Cynthia Ann and Peta Nocona's marriage was, made evident by the fact that he never took another wife, which would have been traditional for a great chieftain. Overall, it's a well-researched story about the end of traditional Native American life, with all the proverbial good, bad and ugly inherent in its history.

A Must-Read Western Saga

The author, Lucia St. Clair Robson, has created a masterpiece of historical fiction. There is great storytelling and a remarkable amount of research in this heartbreaking novelization of the life of Cynthia Ann Parker (Naduah), abducted as a child by the Comanches.

Although nothing much is known about Naduah during the period covered in Ride the Wind, Robson creates strong characters that spring to life and are long remembered after you've put the book down. I learned a lot about the day to day life of the Comanches, their warfare, customs, family relationships and nomadic lifestyle.

Be warned the book is very graphic and not recommended for the faint hearted. The cruelty is sickening, but to balance, there are many acts of love and kindness as well. The author strikes a note of fairness in her writing which elevates the novel beyond the usual finger-pointing and knee-jerk, bleeding heart narratives contained in much of this genre. This is not your typical good guys vs bad guys Western.

Knowing Naduah’s unhappy outcome beforehand, I approached the ending of the book with dread. After a weeks’ long gap, I came to the final sections of the book to find it was all wrapped up rather quickly and neatly with limited sentimentality. After my long journey reading Ride the Wind, the author let the previous chapters speak out instead of inserting over-the-top melodrama into the ending. I admire Ms. Robson for this as it made for a much stronger finish to the story.

There are a few other fictionalized accounts of Parker's life story available and I will likely seek these out. However, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find another book to rival Ride the Wind's sheer emotional intensity. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Old West.

Been many years since the first time I read this, I have read it many times since and will no doubt read it a great many times again. Always an enjoyable read, but the first time had such a profound affect on me. The story draws you in immediately and shortly you become one with the heroine. Changes forever how you view that age of history.

Lucia St Clair Robson has written an excellent novel of the American Revolution, Shadow Patriots. It's filled with wonderful, well-researched history, some love stories and intrigue. Shadow Patriots is about the spy network set up by George Washington. The insight she shows about the interaction between the two combatant groups is eye-opening. For example, I had not thought about the fact that the people of the revolution and the British lived together in the towns and cities. Ms. Robson also describes the circumstances for both sides in vivid detail.

““The general and I will be billeting here should we find the house suitable.” Andre looked over Kate’s shoulder, taking in the walls laid in yellow milk paint, the plaster ceiling with its frescoes of fruit and flowers, the large paintings of landscapes in heavy guilt frames, the broad marble stairs. “I venture to say the general will find the accommodations quite to his liking.”
He winked at her. Kate feared that between Captain Andre’s charm and General Grey’s menace she would swoon and fill the spot that Lizzie had warmed on the floor.”

The novel deals with the politics and clashes between the two warring groups. The depiction of the way they had to live, the conditions in the jails and the food and clothing that they had to contend with is so well done that you will be glad you were not there, but you will be transported to the time and place in your mind’s eye. Siblings, Kate and Seth Darby are caught up in the fight for independence in spite of their Quaker upbringing. They become “intelligencers” or spies for the Americans, but both have conflicting loyalties to specific individuals from both sides. The interesting side story is the use of a woman as a spy in a time when women were not expected to understand the intricacies of war. The intrigue and danger were real and Ms. Robson tells it in all its pathos. Kate and Seth meet and marry their respective spouses during the conflict and intrigue. The romances are a strategy used to tell the story of a fascinating part of the American Revolution.
Lucia St. Clair Robson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela, a teacher in New York City, and a librarian in Annapolis, Maryland. She has also lived in Japan, South Carolina, and Arizona. She now resides near Annapolis, Maryland.
She is the author of Ride the Wind, which made the New York Times best sellers list. It also won the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Best Historical Novel of the year and was included in the top 100 westerns of the 20th century. Several of her other historical novels have won top awards.

Robson writes a well researched novel about Lozen, known as the Apache Joan of Arc. Lozen didn't marry, she lived as a spiritual leader, healer and a warrior as she fought for decades with her brother Victorio to maintain their lands. For anyone sweltering in the dessert heat in 2012, imagine what it was like for the Native Americans who lived there before air conditioning, supermarkets, and cars. Robson shows how they lived, their love of laughter, their ribald joking, their love of stealing, and the enmity between them and the Mexicans. She doesn't hesitate to talk about the fact that Apaches, even the women, utilized torture against their enemies. She also details the chain of mendacity, deceit, greed and incompetence perpetrated by representatives of the US government as they made and broke treaties with the Native Americans, enticed them to and moved them from reservation to reservation, and killed, starved and froze the people they were supposed to be helping.