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Title: Empire of Bones: A Novel of Sam Houston and the Texas Revolution by Jeff Long ISBN: 0-688-12252-3 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: You'll either LOVE IT or HATE IT
Comment: Jeff Long always manages to open the proverbial "can of worms" when he puts his view of Texas history on paper. It's pretty obvious that he has an axe to grind, which CAN be positive. In this case however, it's positively appalling. Long might be a fair novelist, but he stinks as an historian. There are far too many skewered "facts" in this work. Long destroyed much of the mythology surrounding the Alamo, (DUEL OF EAGLES) but managed to create a whole new batch in the process. In EMPIRE OF BONES, Long takes aim at the Battle of San Jacinto and unfortunately he misses the mark. Revisionists will LOVE this book, and many "proud Texans" will hate it. It's a poor novel and worse history.
Rating: 2
Summary: Too much revisionism
Comment: First of all, the book is well-researched and quite entertaining. However, Long goes too far in his efforts to knock the Texas heroes from their pedestals. Instead of deifying them, he takes the exact opposite extreme with the end result being just as unrealistic and unbelieveable. The tone of the description on the cover is also quite arrogant, proclaming the possible execution as described in the book as a proven fact, ignoring the inconclusive nature of the evidence.
The book itself is full of good information, yet stretches the reader's imagination to believe that Sam Houston was nothing more than a lucky, bumbling fool who essentially did nothing and led nowhere and that the Texas Army was nothing more than a roving band of inhuman animals whose lust for land and money was responsible for the "massacre" at San Jacinto. Once again, the cover description seems to suggest that Long is the first to discover the "true nature" of the battle, as if no one else had previously figured it out. Additionally, the Mexican atrocities at the Alamo and Goliad are mentioned, but Long seems to only hold Santa Anna accountable for the slaughter at those events.
Essentially, it could have been a good book if the author was not attempting to prove an impossible point. Long had an opportunity to give a realistic portrayal of the epic conflict and failed by making Crockett, Houston and the Texas Army just as unbelievable as the demigods that they have been made out to be in the past.
Rating: 2
Summary: Self-righteous and over-written
Comment: About two-thirds through this work, I wondered why I was reading it. Houston is so thoroughly painted with a Hamlet-like melancholy that the book becomes lifeless. Indeed, according to Long, Houston was impotant in command and in character: unable to win over his officers and fearful of the mob that was his army. When placed in a position to administer justice, he waivers. He becomes a bystander to the events that stretch between the battles of the Alamo and of San Jacinto. Chapter after chapter foreshadows the battle of San Jacinto as a massacre brought on by the barbarity of the American volunteers. Yet Long (as Houston) also cries for the lost innocence of these settlers and fortune-seekers. But when the battle finally comes, Houston's actions are buffoonish. The killing is labeled criminal, but seldom described so. And perhaps that is the real flaw. There is a lack of description of events. There is a lot of wailing about death and the scattering of bones, but no action. Long wants to work both ways. He wants to condemn the events at San Jacinto - register it as the mark of Cain on the forehead of Texas, but he neither faults Houston nor the Texan army. The former is incapable of handling his men. The latter are no more than undisciplined children. Of other interest, there is a dramatic prologue featuring Davy Crockett at the Alamo, a ridiculous sexual encounter between Houston and a wealthy refugee, and of course the almost required parting shot at Santa Anna as an egomaniacal fop hated even by his aide.
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Title: Duel of Eagles: The Mexican and U.S. Fight for the Alamo by Jeff Long ISBN: 0688072526 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title:The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Widescreen Edition) ASIN: B00005JKZY Publisher: New Line Home Entertainment Pub. Date: 25 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.97 |
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