David Anthony Durham

I almost hate to admit that this is a five star book -- it's like something that Quinten Tarantino would film. It's violent in places, but so well written, the characters and setting are so true.

Gabriel, with this younger brother and mother, leave Baltimore after the Civil War and after his father dies to head to Kansas to homestead with a man the mother knew (and loved) many years ago. They disappointedly come to a sod house and nothing but hardship. Gabriel yearns for more. After meeting a show more smooth talking white cowboy, Gabriel and a newly found friend, James, leaves with Marshall to head for Texas.

Marshall and his two sidekicks are perhaps the crudest, cruelest, and most evil individuals I've encountered in fiction. The group heads south through Oklahoma where the uncalled killing starts leaving a sick and poverty stricken Indian family dead. Gabriel and James become witnesses to merciless in a number of situations including the cruel killing of a Mexican family and the abduction of the daughter.

There are alternating sections of the book telling of Gabriel's family left in Kansas and the story of the remaining son of the Mexican family who pursues the killers.

The book clearly brings a sense of oncoming fear but is also sprinkled with tender moments particularly at the time when Gabriel manages to return to his home in Kansas. This book is a well-written page turner with characters of pure evil and complexity. Good read. show less

Gabriel’s Story by David Anthony Durham is a classic coming-of-age story set in the American West of the 1870s. As many black families did after the Civil War, sixteen year old Gabriel Lynch, his mother, brother and stepfather have come west to Kansas to make a fresh start as farmers. Gabriel isn’t happy with this as he had hoped to stay in the east and train as a doctor.

He finds homesteading to be backbreaking, depressing and resents that he has lost his opportunity for education and a show more better life. He runs away and joins a group of cowboys who have come from Texas. Little does he know that he has made the worse decision of his life as these men are both cruel and sadistic. Before too long they are all on the run from the law. When Gabriel finally is able to break away from the group, he accidentally takes something of value with him. He makes his way home and back to his family little knowing that he is being tracked by two of the killers.

Gabriel’s Story paints a vivid picture of both the times and the appearance of the American West. His writing brings Cormac McCarthy to mind, but this story of a young African-American confronting evil is entirely original. My only quibble is with how the book was formatted. As the story moved from one narrator to another there were no breaks to give the reader time to adjust to the change. But overall this debut author’s literary skill and creativity is impressive. show less

The book revolves around four royal children as they try to manage the massive kingdom their ancestors have created. We meet the children in the middle of a lesson, where the youngest princess asks the tutor "why is Acacia always in the center of the map?". Her siblings answer that is it because Acacia is the only country of importance while the tutor tries, unheard, to explain the equal validity of others. Then the king is assassinated and the children secreted away to those other show more countries.

To be blunt? The entire series makes you feel like the poor tutor. Even after the empire begins to collapse and is taken over by a country that has been cursed and subjugated by their own for generations. Worse, you find out that even the local citizens are controlled by drugs and live in slavery. All this and at least one of them doesn't grow out of that same superiority complex.

Overall, the book is like watching a train wreck. Good writing and world building, but you really start to hate the characters. show less

Me, 50% of the way through: This epic fantasy is trying interesting things in making the drug trade the foundation of an empire and having the usurper Mein not much better than the deposed Acacians, except for how the Mein cut deals for other groups’ support that worsen conditions of oppression that we only hear about and don’t see. It’s also really neat to see fantasy where the characters seem mostly African- or Asian-derived, including the POV characters, and the whitest group is the show more barbarian Numrek. But I just don’t like anybody. Me, 80% of the way through: I really like what he’s doing with the exiled former ruling family! I can’t wait to see what happens! Me, 95% of the way through: Argh! Why did he hand one of the most interesting characters the stupid stick, in a way everyone in the text acknowledges is stupid, and contradicts decisions made a few short pages ago, in order to get to the next big plot point? Why did he then have another interesting character “just know” something that causes her arc to swerve wildly? He at least tries to explain the latter, but only in a way that destroys her agency. [personal profile] astolat suggested that he was too interested in the plot developments he decided should happen to deal with the characters he’d set up, and that feels right. If you like palace intrigue and don’t mind one stunning instance of plot-mandated idiocy, then you might enjoy this book/series, but I'm done. show less