What do you think?
Rate this book
Billy Battles #1
Finding Billy Battles
A link to the past no one could ever imagine.
When a great-grandson inherits two aging trunks and a stack of meticulously detailed journals penned by his great-grandfather, he sets out to fulfill his great-grandfather's last request: to tell the story of an incredible life replete with adventure, violence, and tragedy. The great-grandfather's name is Billy Battles--a man often trapped and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control.
and largely unknown to his descendants. His great-grandson is about to change that. As he works his way through the aging journals and the other possessions he finds in the battered trunks he uncovers the truth about his mysterious great-grandfather--a man whose deeds and misdeeds propelled him on an extraordinary and perilous journey from the untamed American West to the inscrutable Far East, Latin America and Europe.
But most of all he learns that in finding Billy Battles he has also found a long lost and astonishing link to the past.
When a great-grandson inherits two aging trunks and a stack of meticulously detailed journals penned by his great-grandfather, he sets out to fulfill his great-grandfather's last request: to tell the story of an incredible life replete with adventure, violence, and tragedy. The great-grandfather's name is Billy Battles--a man often trapped and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control.
and largely unknown to his descendants. His great-grandson is about to change that. As he works his way through the aging journals and the other possessions he finds in the battered trunks he uncovers the truth about his mysterious great-grandfather--a man whose deeds and misdeeds propelled him on an extraordinary and perilous journey from the untamed American West to the inscrutable Far East, Latin America and Europe.
But most of all he learns that in finding Billy Battles he has also found a long lost and astonishing link to the past.
299 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 26, 2013
2 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Ronald E. Yates
14 books146 followersRonald E. Yates is an award-winning author of historical fiction and action/adventure novels, including the popular and award-winning Finding Billy Battles trilogy. His extraordinarily accurate books have captivated fans the world over who applaud his ability to blend fact and fiction.
Ron is a former award-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and Professor Emeritus of Journalism at the University of Illinois where he was also the Dean of the College of Media.
His book, "The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles," is the second in his Finding Billy Battles trilogy of novels and was published in June 2016. It has won multiple awards, including the 2017 KCT International Literary Award, the 2017 John E. Weaver Excellent Reads Award for Historical Fiction, the 2016 New Apple Literary Award in the Action/Adventure category and First Place in the 2016 Chanticleer International Book Awards in the Literary Category. It was also a finalist for the United Kingdom’s Diamond Book Award.
The first book in the trilogy, "Finding Billy Battles," was published in 2014 and was a Kansas Book Festival Selection and a finalist for a Chanticleer Laramie Award. Book 3 of the trilogy (The Lost Years of Billy Battles) was published June 6, 2018.
Ron has been a presenting author at the Kansas Book Festival and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, among other venues. He is also the author of The Kikkoman Chronicles: A Global Company with A Japanese Soul, published by McGraw-Hill. Other books include Aboard the Tokyo Express: A Foreign Correspondent's Journey through Japan, a collection of columns translated into Japanese, as well as three journalism textbooks: The Journalist's Handbook, International Reporting and Foreign Correspondents, and Business and Financial Reporting in a Global Economy.
Before leaving the world of professional journalism where he toiled 25 years, Ron lived and worked in Japan, Southeast Asia, and both Central and South America where he covered several history-making events including the fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia; the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing; and wars and revolutions in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, among other places.
Ron's work as a war correspondent resulted in several awards, including the Inter-American Press Association's Tom Wallace Award for coverage of Central and South America; the Peter Lisagor Award from the Society of Professional Journalists; three Edward Scott Beck Awards for International Reporting, and three Pulitzer nominations.
He lives in Murrieta, California and is a proud graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.
Ron is a former award-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and Professor Emeritus of Journalism at the University of Illinois where he was also the Dean of the College of Media.
His book, "The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles," is the second in his Finding Billy Battles trilogy of novels and was published in June 2016. It has won multiple awards, including the 2017 KCT International Literary Award, the 2017 John E. Weaver Excellent Reads Award for Historical Fiction, the 2016 New Apple Literary Award in the Action/Adventure category and First Place in the 2016 Chanticleer International Book Awards in the Literary Category. It was also a finalist for the United Kingdom’s Diamond Book Award.
The first book in the trilogy, "Finding Billy Battles," was published in 2014 and was a Kansas Book Festival Selection and a finalist for a Chanticleer Laramie Award. Book 3 of the trilogy (The Lost Years of Billy Battles) was published June 6, 2018.
Ron has been a presenting author at the Kansas Book Festival and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, among other venues. He is also the author of The Kikkoman Chronicles: A Global Company with A Japanese Soul, published by McGraw-Hill. Other books include Aboard the Tokyo Express: A Foreign Correspondent's Journey through Japan, a collection of columns translated into Japanese, as well as three journalism textbooks: The Journalist's Handbook, International Reporting and Foreign Correspondents, and Business and Financial Reporting in a Global Economy.
Before leaving the world of professional journalism where he toiled 25 years, Ron lived and worked in Japan, Southeast Asia, and both Central and South America where he covered several history-making events including the fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia; the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing; and wars and revolutions in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, among other places.
Ron's work as a war correspondent resulted in several awards, including the Inter-American Press Association's Tom Wallace Award for coverage of Central and South America; the Peter Lisagor Award from the Society of Professional Journalists; three Edward Scott Beck Awards for International Reporting, and three Pulitzer nominations.
He lives in Murrieta, California and is a proud graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
January 29, 2014
The author describes this saga of one man’s extraordinary life a work of “faction”. The story is based on fact, with some real life characters and incidents, but he has added some purely fictional elements. The result is a compelling tale of the old West, with gunfights and outlaws galore, and a strong central protagonist to carry the narrative along.
It all begins when Billy Battle bequeaths to his great grandson a trunk containing the journals in which he has documented his life. At his request, the great-grandson compiles these journals into a 3-part trilogy, of which this book is the first part. Billy is born in Kansas in 1860, lives with his mother in Lawrence, becomes educated and a journalist, and one day his editor takes him along with him to Dodge City where he plans to create a newspaper in the newly settled and thriving town. Events there take Billy off into entirely unexpected directions and adventures he could never have predicted.
The sense of the era and the place is vividly evoked, the way of life in these often lawless towns in Kansas, Arizona and Texas is faithfully recorded with portraits of such iconic figures as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday interacting with Billy throughout. I found the blend of fiction and fact worked very well, and Billy’s adventures seemed totally convincing. This was a lawless time, when the line between law-breakers and law-up-holders was very thin and that wild and often desperate atmosphere is very well portrayed, without ever crossing over into melodrama. This is a fun read, which carries the reader along with its verve and action-packed story line, and I enjoyed it very much. No doubt the next two volumes will be equally entertaining.
It all begins when Billy Battle bequeaths to his great grandson a trunk containing the journals in which he has documented his life. At his request, the great-grandson compiles these journals into a 3-part trilogy, of which this book is the first part. Billy is born in Kansas in 1860, lives with his mother in Lawrence, becomes educated and a journalist, and one day his editor takes him along with him to Dodge City where he plans to create a newspaper in the newly settled and thriving town. Events there take Billy off into entirely unexpected directions and adventures he could never have predicted.
The sense of the era and the place is vividly evoked, the way of life in these often lawless towns in Kansas, Arizona and Texas is faithfully recorded with portraits of such iconic figures as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday interacting with Billy throughout. I found the blend of fiction and fact worked very well, and Billy’s adventures seemed totally convincing. This was a lawless time, when the line between law-breakers and law-up-holders was very thin and that wild and often desperate atmosphere is very well portrayed, without ever crossing over into melodrama. This is a fun read, which carries the reader along with its verve and action-packed story line, and I enjoyed it very much. No doubt the next two volumes will be equally entertaining.
September 7, 2020
You will be excited you found Billy Battles. Wonderful, intriguing and left me begging for more of Billy's life. The language used takes you right into the times and the color of the 1880s and on. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Bat Masterson of course Billy would know them. This is an exciting, suspenseful, and surprising book. All about how what appears to be a simple task becomes a journey of horses, guns, and love.
December 28, 2020
I wish I had known William Fitzroy Raglan Battles. Was he real? I don’t know. Was his life based on the exploits of someone else? Maybe. But the deft handling of his life and times, as written by Ronald Yates, has tantalized me with the possibility that there just might be more to William Fitzroy Raglan Battles than meets the eye.
Yates himself calls the novel faction – facts intermingled with narrative fiction. But all I know is that Finding Billy Battles reads like the memoir of one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever read about. It is historical, set in the 19th-century, in Kansas, a state known for violence and lawlessness. As Yates say, “It’s not a Western, not in the classical sense,” but William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, best known as Billy Battles, wanders the great prairies, cattle towns, and mining camps of the Old West with the likes of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday. They were real. Ron Yates makes it easy for us to believe Billy Battles was, too.
The premise of the novel is exceptional. A boy gets to know a long-lost great grandfather in a home for old soldiers. William Fitzroy Ragland Battles is a man he has never met. He is 98-year-old. His eyes were the color of pale slate and almost as hard. His adventures have carried him around the world. But he has long kept his most intimate, his most terrifying secrets to himself.
However, he takes a liking to the boy, his only male relative. And when he dies, he bequeaths the boy his two trunks filled with journals of a life that has carried him from the prairies of Kansas to China and on to French Indochina, Singapore, Tokyo, Germany, Mexico, and Central America. Among his possessions is a 750-word manuscript of his life and his times as described in his own handwriting.
He had been a journalist. He had been a soldier. In a single afternoon, he had found himself turning from a newspaperman to a murder and then a long rider, an outlaw. Wrong place. Wrong time. In trouble. In a gunfight. And the first person he ever killed had been a woman. She happened to be in the wrong place. The wrong time. He would regret it for the rest of his life. Before his ship sails from California to China, Wyatt Earp tells him, “That’s a long way to go to find peace.” Billy Battles agrees.
For him, however, it’s not the end. It’s never the end. The adventure has only just begun.
Yates himself calls the novel faction – facts intermingled with narrative fiction. But all I know is that Finding Billy Battles reads like the memoir of one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever read about. It is historical, set in the 19th-century, in Kansas, a state known for violence and lawlessness. As Yates say, “It’s not a Western, not in the classical sense,” but William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, best known as Billy Battles, wanders the great prairies, cattle towns, and mining camps of the Old West with the likes of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday. They were real. Ron Yates makes it easy for us to believe Billy Battles was, too.
The premise of the novel is exceptional. A boy gets to know a long-lost great grandfather in a home for old soldiers. William Fitzroy Ragland Battles is a man he has never met. He is 98-year-old. His eyes were the color of pale slate and almost as hard. His adventures have carried him around the world. But he has long kept his most intimate, his most terrifying secrets to himself.
However, he takes a liking to the boy, his only male relative. And when he dies, he bequeaths the boy his two trunks filled with journals of a life that has carried him from the prairies of Kansas to China and on to French Indochina, Singapore, Tokyo, Germany, Mexico, and Central America. Among his possessions is a 750-word manuscript of his life and his times as described in his own handwriting.
He had been a journalist. He had been a soldier. In a single afternoon, he had found himself turning from a newspaperman to a murder and then a long rider, an outlaw. Wrong place. Wrong time. In trouble. In a gunfight. And the first person he ever killed had been a woman. She happened to be in the wrong place. The wrong time. He would regret it for the rest of his life. Before his ship sails from California to China, Wyatt Earp tells him, “That’s a long way to go to find peace.” Billy Battles agrees.
For him, however, it’s not the end. It’s never the end. The adventure has only just begun.
Read
March 29, 2017Journalism, history, biography, memoirs, and historical fiction overlap to some degree. The first two focus on provable facts, but the facts must be arranged to form a coherent story, and that requires an element of interpretation, especially in history. Biography and memoirs demand even more of a story arc, although still devoted to a specific person who once lived or still lives. And historical fiction, although it departs from that fundamental reliance on what can be documented or evidenced by creating imaginary characters or putting words into the heads and mouths of real people, nonetheless relies on creating a you are there sense of authenticity that cannot exist without considerable research into how people in a given time and place dressed, talked, ate, traveled, and socialized.
Finding Billy Battles and its sequels, The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles occupy this space between journalism and fiction. William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, a centenarian in an old soldiers home when his reluctant great-grandson makes his acquaintance, turns out to have lived a rich and varied life that has taken him through the American Wild West, the Philippines, late nineteenth-century Saigon, the Spanish-American War, and other places, not to mention many of the tamer regions of the United States. A reporter by inclination and training, Billy typically observes and records, but the areas he visits often draw him into their conflicts, blurring the line between participation and journalism.
Ronald Yates, himself a journalist and professor of journalism who has visited many of the destinations where he sends his main character, brings each of these venues to life in a way that is both vivid and true to the time period. And in Billy Battles, based on a veteran of the Spanish-American War whom Yates interviewed in the same old soldiers home where we first meet his hero, Yates has created a multilayered portrait of a man of integrity who just cant resist a good fight.
For an interview with the author, see New Books in Historical Fiction.
Finding Billy Battles and its sequels, The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles occupy this space between journalism and fiction. William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, a centenarian in an old soldiers home when his reluctant great-grandson makes his acquaintance, turns out to have lived a rich and varied life that has taken him through the American Wild West, the Philippines, late nineteenth-century Saigon, the Spanish-American War, and other places, not to mention many of the tamer regions of the United States. A reporter by inclination and training, Billy typically observes and records, but the areas he visits often draw him into their conflicts, blurring the line between participation and journalism.
Ronald Yates, himself a journalist and professor of journalism who has visited many of the destinations where he sends his main character, brings each of these venues to life in a way that is both vivid and true to the time period. And in Billy Battles, based on a veteran of the Spanish-American War whom Yates interviewed in the same old soldiers home where we first meet his hero, Yates has created a multilayered portrait of a man of integrity who just cant resist a good fight.
For an interview with the author, see New Books in Historical Fiction.
May 25, 2018
I received this book from the author, free of charge, with no expectation of a positive review.
The author calls this a work of “faction” That is, the story it tells is based partly on fact, but it has
been augmented with narrative fiction. Many of the characters are historical persons.
The author claims that he has mined his family’s history as well as stories he has heard family members tell while he was growing up in Kansas. After having read about the many trials and tribulations of Billy Battles, I do believe that most of the story is a product of the author’s mind.
I am a Norwegian, but it so happens that I spend a year in Kansas as an exchange student. During this year I visited many of the places where this book plays out. The author’s vivid descriptions easily brought me back to the prairie of Kansas and his description of the old west seems authentic.
I have already mentioned that many of the characters were real persons. It seems clear that the author has put a lot of work into getting the historical details right. As the part of the history I knew is accurate, I find no reason to doubt the rest of the historical details.
To make a good story there needs to be action, and action there is. While the main character Billy Battles, does get into his fair share of trouble, he is also very lucky. Sometimes his is lucky to the degree that is seems a little artificial.
The characters are well portrayed and likeable.
In the preface the author tells that he has attempted to stay true to the vernacular of the time and place, especially late nineteenth century Kansas. One does, of course, expect that the language reflects the time the story plays out in. English is not my native language, but I think that even born and breed Kansans will have trouble with some of the expression used. In my opinion, many of the old expressions could have been left out without damaging the authenticity or quality of the story. Fortunately, most of them are understood from their context.
All in all, I will say that his was an enjoyable read. I will likely buy the rest of the books to see how things turns out for Billy Battles.
The author calls this a work of “faction” That is, the story it tells is based partly on fact, but it has
been augmented with narrative fiction. Many of the characters are historical persons.
The author claims that he has mined his family’s history as well as stories he has heard family members tell while he was growing up in Kansas. After having read about the many trials and tribulations of Billy Battles, I do believe that most of the story is a product of the author’s mind.
I am a Norwegian, but it so happens that I spend a year in Kansas as an exchange student. During this year I visited many of the places where this book plays out. The author’s vivid descriptions easily brought me back to the prairie of Kansas and his description of the old west seems authentic.
I have already mentioned that many of the characters were real persons. It seems clear that the author has put a lot of work into getting the historical details right. As the part of the history I knew is accurate, I find no reason to doubt the rest of the historical details.
To make a good story there needs to be action, and action there is. While the main character Billy Battles, does get into his fair share of trouble, he is also very lucky. Sometimes his is lucky to the degree that is seems a little artificial.
The characters are well portrayed and likeable.
In the preface the author tells that he has attempted to stay true to the vernacular of the time and place, especially late nineteenth century Kansas. One does, of course, expect that the language reflects the time the story plays out in. English is not my native language, but I think that even born and breed Kansans will have trouble with some of the expression used. In my opinion, many of the old expressions could have been left out without damaging the authenticity or quality of the story. Fortunately, most of them are understood from their context.
All in all, I will say that his was an enjoyable read. I will likely buy the rest of the books to see how things turns out for Billy Battles.
December 6, 2020
Finding Billy Battles is a blend of fact and fiction (“faction”) set in the post-1865 world of the US West. It is a fictional autobiography, if you will, of a young man entering adulthood.
Structurally, I found the book a blend of the plotless and picaresque novel formats.
There’s not a lot of movement in the book. We simply follow Billy as he tells his story. While not quite presented as separate vignettes, there are definite episodes of Billy’s life that he tells us about.
The novel is not what I’d call “action-packed”, although there is quite a bit of action in. Finding Billy Battles is much more an autobiography and should probably be read in that light.
I’m a fan of both the plotless novel and the picaresque. I also love history. And for those reasons, I very much recommend Finding Billy Battles.
Structurally, I found the book a blend of the plotless and picaresque novel formats.
There’s not a lot of movement in the book. We simply follow Billy as he tells his story. While not quite presented as separate vignettes, there are definite episodes of Billy’s life that he tells us about.
The novel is not what I’d call “action-packed”, although there is quite a bit of action in. Finding Billy Battles is much more an autobiography and should probably be read in that light.
I’m a fan of both the plotless novel and the picaresque. I also love history. And for those reasons, I very much recommend Finding Billy Battles.
March 22, 2019
This is a factual-fiction story about Billy Battles, portrayed as the author's great-grandfather. It takes place in the 1800s and is the first book of a trilogy. I love historical novels and enjoyed reading about Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Doc. Holliday. My great-grandfather visited the same places as Billy when he was out west which brought added interest. The well-described places and events made me feel as if I were there.
I gave it 4 stars because too often more than one character was speaking within a paragraph. This caused confusion, and I had to re-read the paragraph. Also, there were snippets of the story repeated in future chapters which did not seem necessary.
An enjoyable book and I highly recommend it. I also look forward to reading the second book of the trilogy.
I gave it 4 stars because too often more than one character was speaking within a paragraph. This caused confusion, and I had to re-read the paragraph. Also, there were snippets of the story repeated in future chapters which did not seem necessary.
An enjoyable book and I highly recommend it. I also look forward to reading the second book of the trilogy.
February 8, 2014
FINDING BILLY BATTLES
An Account of Peril, Transgression and Redemption
Book 1 of a Trilogy
A little of Louis L’amore and Zane Grey with the faster pace of modern westerns.
This is an interesting tale of settling the mid-west commencing with Billy Battles, then ninety-eight years old, being visited by his daughter and her son, twelve-year old Ted Sayles, in a veterans home, where Billy is known as the oldest Spanish American war veterans there. Billy hadn’t seen his daughter in thirty years and this was the first time he had met, Ted, whom he took an immediate liking to. Billy was a tall man, over six feet, still standing straight, but his eyes were hard and he gave off an air of having lived a hard life. When Billy and Ted were alone, Billy told him he had two trunks of memorabilia of his past life, including twelve journals of his memoirs and that he would leave instructions for his daughter as to when she should give them to Ted. Over the next two years, Ted visited him occasionally and Billy would leave him intrigued with bits and pieces of his past. When Ted was a grown man, working as a foreign correspondent, his mother died and he took possession of the trunks a few years later. The journals commenced in the year 1878 and it was from the information in them that Ted wrote the story of Billy Battles.
Billy had grown up, and almost died twice while living in Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, the Philippines, French Indochina, Siam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Mexico and Central America. He was well acquainted with some of the heroes of the old West like the Earp brothers, Bat Masterson and a few scoundrels. Book 1 of this Trilogy takes Billy as far as commencing to sail for Indochina.
The story is action-packed, using plenty of the hard language of men living hard lives during those years as they helped to civilize and settle the old West. The author also is adept at developing all of the characters and actions so that the reader feels like he is right there.
The weakness of the book, which surprises me due to the background of the author, is that too often when one or more persons are speaking, although their sentences are set off by quotation marks, the sentences are all included in one paragraph. It makes the reader have to back up and distinguish who is actually talking, which is poor punctuation. Also, three different times the action at the OK corral with Doc Holiday and the Earp brothers is repeated almost verbatim. One time, based on the author’s choice, would have been sufficient. The story is long and at times seems to ramble about “stuff” that adds nothing to further the tale.
However, regardless of those flaws, for anyone who enjoyed the old Westerns as written by Grey and L’amore, you will certainly enjoy this book. I gave it four stars only because of that flaw in punctuation, which is confusing to the reader.
I was given a free e-book for an honest review.
An Account of Peril, Transgression and Redemption
Book 1 of a Trilogy
A little of Louis L’amore and Zane Grey with the faster pace of modern westerns.
This is an interesting tale of settling the mid-west commencing with Billy Battles, then ninety-eight years old, being visited by his daughter and her son, twelve-year old Ted Sayles, in a veterans home, where Billy is known as the oldest Spanish American war veterans there. Billy hadn’t seen his daughter in thirty years and this was the first time he had met, Ted, whom he took an immediate liking to. Billy was a tall man, over six feet, still standing straight, but his eyes were hard and he gave off an air of having lived a hard life. When Billy and Ted were alone, Billy told him he had two trunks of memorabilia of his past life, including twelve journals of his memoirs and that he would leave instructions for his daughter as to when she should give them to Ted. Over the next two years, Ted visited him occasionally and Billy would leave him intrigued with bits and pieces of his past. When Ted was a grown man, working as a foreign correspondent, his mother died and he took possession of the trunks a few years later. The journals commenced in the year 1878 and it was from the information in them that Ted wrote the story of Billy Battles.
Billy had grown up, and almost died twice while living in Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, the Philippines, French Indochina, Siam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Mexico and Central America. He was well acquainted with some of the heroes of the old West like the Earp brothers, Bat Masterson and a few scoundrels. Book 1 of this Trilogy takes Billy as far as commencing to sail for Indochina.
The story is action-packed, using plenty of the hard language of men living hard lives during those years as they helped to civilize and settle the old West. The author also is adept at developing all of the characters and actions so that the reader feels like he is right there.
The weakness of the book, which surprises me due to the background of the author, is that too often when one or more persons are speaking, although their sentences are set off by quotation marks, the sentences are all included in one paragraph. It makes the reader have to back up and distinguish who is actually talking, which is poor punctuation. Also, three different times the action at the OK corral with Doc Holiday and the Earp brothers is repeated almost verbatim. One time, based on the author’s choice, would have been sufficient. The story is long and at times seems to ramble about “stuff” that adds nothing to further the tale.
However, regardless of those flaws, for anyone who enjoyed the old Westerns as written by Grey and L’amore, you will certainly enjoy this book. I gave it four stars only because of that flaw in punctuation, which is confusing to the reader.
I was given a free e-book for an honest review.
February 17, 2014
This book captures the unique personality, flavor, and wildness of the old American West as we follow the life and adventures of a young man through a period of about 30 years. The prologue gives the backstory and generally held my interest, but once I began reading the first chapter I was smitten. The tale just seemed to flow from the page on my kindle into my thoughts and mind. I love books which allow me to become so immersed into the story that I lose track of time and forget my sense of self for a while. This book did that. The descriptive detail was phrased with such care that I could see, hear and smell the surroundings. The people were colorful, and when they spoke the cadence, rhythm, and turn of phrase seemed quite authentic to the time period. Even though there were some turns of phrases I was totally unfamiliar with, they still felt genuine. It was magnificent!
I personally feel this book deserves a brighter, more interesting cover. It is dark and drab; does not well depict the mesmerizing story that lies within. Besides the lackluster cover, I have one other minor peeve, and it is this. Especially in the first half of the book, and usually at the ends of chapters, there are short glimpses forecasting future events or repercussions. For me, already fully engaged in the story as it is unfolding, these quick teasers felt, for the most part, unnecessary. In fact, they actually pulled me out of the zone as they tended to force my mind to bounce around in new directions briefly trying to figure out how and when the new revelation would occur. The exception is the last bit at the end of this book. With Billy embarking on a significant new adventure, it is obvious that this journey will further test the mettle of a man already made strong, resilient, and forthright from the challenges he has faced. That forecast made me particularly eager to read the next book in this series so I can find out what transpires next for Billy Battles. If you enjoy historical fiction set in the American West then this novel is one you will not want to miss reading. The well-written prose combined with the often humorous dry, witty vernacular of the period will surely appeal to even the most discriminating historical aficionado.
This book was given to me by the author in exchange for my honest review.
Reviewed by Laurie-J
I personally feel this book deserves a brighter, more interesting cover. It is dark and drab; does not well depict the mesmerizing story that lies within. Besides the lackluster cover, I have one other minor peeve, and it is this. Especially in the first half of the book, and usually at the ends of chapters, there are short glimpses forecasting future events or repercussions. For me, already fully engaged in the story as it is unfolding, these quick teasers felt, for the most part, unnecessary. In fact, they actually pulled me out of the zone as they tended to force my mind to bounce around in new directions briefly trying to figure out how and when the new revelation would occur. The exception is the last bit at the end of this book. With Billy embarking on a significant new adventure, it is obvious that this journey will further test the mettle of a man already made strong, resilient, and forthright from the challenges he has faced. That forecast made me particularly eager to read the next book in this series so I can find out what transpires next for Billy Battles. If you enjoy historical fiction set in the American West then this novel is one you will not want to miss reading. The well-written prose combined with the often humorous dry, witty vernacular of the period will surely appeal to even the most discriminating historical aficionado.
This book was given to me by the author in exchange for my honest review.
Reviewed by Laurie-J
February 4, 2014
From the moment I started reading Finding Billy Battles, I was drawn into the story. It was well written, and held my attention through the entire book. The author, Ronald Yates, created an amazing blend of historical fiction and historical fact while using famous historical figures of the American West.
The main character, Billy Battles was well-developed, and since it was written from his perspective, we got insight into his thought patterns and his motivations through the whole story. I also liked the concept that the book itself opens with Billy Battle's great-grandson actually meeting him, and then later on receiving the journals that Billy had written. For me, what really brought the story alive was the use of the vernacular at the time, and I loved the turns of phrases they used in the past. It added another layer of authenticity to the story.
Billy Battles wasn't the only character I liked. As mentioned, I loved how the author utilized historical figures to flesh out the narrative – Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson to name a few. As I read this book, I found myself looking up the places mentioned, as it ranged from Dodge City, Kansas to Tombstone, Arizona. As far as other characters, one of my favorites was Signore DiFranco. He was in exile from his home country, but I found him to be as fascinating a character as Billy.
This particular book – Finding Billy Battles- is just part one, and I really want to read the next book to find out how this story continues. A highly recommended rating of 5/5 stars for those who love historical fiction, and the Old West in particular.
The main character, Billy Battles was well-developed, and since it was written from his perspective, we got insight into his thought patterns and his motivations through the whole story. I also liked the concept that the book itself opens with Billy Battle's great-grandson actually meeting him, and then later on receiving the journals that Billy had written. For me, what really brought the story alive was the use of the vernacular at the time, and I loved the turns of phrases they used in the past. It added another layer of authenticity to the story.
Billy Battles wasn't the only character I liked. As mentioned, I loved how the author utilized historical figures to flesh out the narrative – Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson to name a few. As I read this book, I found myself looking up the places mentioned, as it ranged from Dodge City, Kansas to Tombstone, Arizona. As far as other characters, one of my favorites was Signore DiFranco. He was in exile from his home country, but I found him to be as fascinating a character as Billy.
This particular book – Finding Billy Battles- is just part one, and I really want to read the next book to find out how this story continues. A highly recommended rating of 5/5 stars for those who love historical fiction, and the Old West in particular.
March 21, 2014
In many ways, this book is like Little House on the Prairie written for adults. The author blended factual events with fiction to give a better feel and understanding of the era (did you know Nellie Oleson is a mash-up of three different people?). Most books that aren't written as a study of a person's life, whether by the person or another, have elements of this.
I can also see some people having a problem with the language. Well, that's life in the 1860's, and making the language to today's standards rewrites history.
So you can't complain about the fictitious elements nor the historically-reflective language.
Moving on. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something in Yates' writing you right beside the narrator. Rather than having you view the world through Billy's eyes, you're by his side, and he's telling you what's happening as you watch. This is first-person POV done right. You're right beside Billy, you're at Frank McCourt's knee, and when it's done wrong, you want to smack Bella "Beautiful" Swan. Kudos for Yates for mastering great use of this POV.
There's a certain dryness that reflects the old west that makes me turn off all background noise to better immerse myself. I want to know more about Aida, see more with Doc and Wyatt, give Anna Marie and hug, and get a copy of this book into the hands of anyone who enjoys a genuine story that transports you to another time and place.
I can also see some people having a problem with the language. Well, that's life in the 1860's, and making the language to today's standards rewrites history.
So you can't complain about the fictitious elements nor the historically-reflective language.
Moving on. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something in Yates' writing you right beside the narrator. Rather than having you view the world through Billy's eyes, you're by his side, and he's telling you what's happening as you watch. This is first-person POV done right. You're right beside Billy, you're at Frank McCourt's knee, and when it's done wrong, you want to smack Bella "Beautiful" Swan. Kudos for Yates for mastering great use of this POV.
There's a certain dryness that reflects the old west that makes me turn off all background noise to better immerse myself. I want to know more about Aida, see more with Doc and Wyatt, give Anna Marie and hug, and get a copy of this book into the hands of anyone who enjoys a genuine story that transports you to another time and place.
July 1, 2020
Finding Billy Battles: Book 1 of a trilogy by Ronald E. Yates
I wrote this review based on a copy that the author sent me.
This is a story of faction Kansas with a rich Native American and immigrant history set in late nineteenth century. It begins with an introduction written by Ted Sayles describing William Fitzroy Raglan Battles also known as Captain Battles , veteran of the Spanish-American War. This introduction leads us into the story, his first meeting with his great-grandfather, Billy, at Leavenworth which also happens to be the first time he learns of his existence. Ted was aged 12 at the time, the only living male relative of Billy, as his own father had died. He later discovered that Billy had bequeathed him the few belongings which he had – journals, memoirs etc to hopefully “ set the record straight “ when Ted reached adulthood. Years later, on the death of his great-grandfather, Ted received two trunks filled with these journals, old photographs, letters , several rifles – basically a treasure trove in history. Most importantly Ted learned of a manuscript and several reel-to-reel tapes as interviews complete with instructions not to be viewed before he reached the age of 25.
We then move to Book 1 in the penmanship of William or Billy to his friends written at the age of 88 ( in 1948 ).His description of a somewhat turbulent life including acts he as proud of …and others not. He was a dabbler in quite a few things but considered himself “ a scribbler “ for most of his life. His parents had settled on a farm which became known as “ Battles Gap “ due to its emplacement between two ravines and was a stop gap for many wagons. It was a hard life for his parents, especially his mother, being left a widow when Billy was aged 5 or 6. They moved to Lawrence to settle near relatives where he grew up to almost 19 years when he received his first job offer helping a local newspaper in Dodge City for a friend of his mother’s. Things go well as the newspaper begins to take off then the first unfortunate incident happens – several deaths, unfortunate occurrences and his life takes a path neither himself nor his mother could ever have imagined. It first begins with the disagreement between the Bledsoe Clan and their vigilante posse.
I felt sorry for Billy concerning the events during this episode of his life as it was just simply bad luck, a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time which led to such feelings of guilt towards his mother, as though he had let her down and the events leaving him with nightmares. WIth the opportunity of travelling to Tombstone to work for the “ Denver Sun “ things looked promising but after only a short stay Billy’s bad luck followed him. He was tracked from Colorado to Arizona by the same person and here he was again looking over his shoulder. Once and for all Billy acts on the advice of Wyatt Earp, to face his fears and problems head on and to clear his name.
One can not but be intrigued by tales including the names Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and this is no exception, including colourful characters as Signore Difranco and Mallie McNab. I find it tragic that the vendetta against Billy was carried so vehemently over such a long period of time and covering a great distance.
My overall thoughts on this book: On reading this book I was grabbed at the beginning and spat out at the end. I encountered many different emotions during this read, the fear and worry Billy must have sensed at such a young age, sadness as to the condition of Battles Gap which was left to rundown. And with Billy’s own words, “ There was also a miserable irony about Battles Gap that unsettles me even today. It was a place where my life began as well as a place where I had taken lives. I had no desire to ever return. “
I was shocked and surprised at the outcome, the author describing so eloquently and concisely the period and events as the reader passes through the life of Billy. The book ends on a cliffhanger just as Billy thinks he is escaping the tragedy in his life with the appearance of a private detective and the mysterious Madame Schreiber. Looking forward to diving into the sequel!
I give Finding Billy Battles 5 out of 5 stars , an inciteful journey through an iconic period in time.
I wrote this review based on a copy that the author sent me.
This is a story of faction Kansas with a rich Native American and immigrant history set in late nineteenth century. It begins with an introduction written by Ted Sayles describing William Fitzroy Raglan Battles also known as Captain Battles , veteran of the Spanish-American War. This introduction leads us into the story, his first meeting with his great-grandfather, Billy, at Leavenworth which also happens to be the first time he learns of his existence. Ted was aged 12 at the time, the only living male relative of Billy, as his own father had died. He later discovered that Billy had bequeathed him the few belongings which he had – journals, memoirs etc to hopefully “ set the record straight “ when Ted reached adulthood. Years later, on the death of his great-grandfather, Ted received two trunks filled with these journals, old photographs, letters , several rifles – basically a treasure trove in history. Most importantly Ted learned of a manuscript and several reel-to-reel tapes as interviews complete with instructions not to be viewed before he reached the age of 25.
We then move to Book 1 in the penmanship of William or Billy to his friends written at the age of 88 ( in 1948 ).His description of a somewhat turbulent life including acts he as proud of …and others not. He was a dabbler in quite a few things but considered himself “ a scribbler “ for most of his life. His parents had settled on a farm which became known as “ Battles Gap “ due to its emplacement between two ravines and was a stop gap for many wagons. It was a hard life for his parents, especially his mother, being left a widow when Billy was aged 5 or 6. They moved to Lawrence to settle near relatives where he grew up to almost 19 years when he received his first job offer helping a local newspaper in Dodge City for a friend of his mother’s. Things go well as the newspaper begins to take off then the first unfortunate incident happens – several deaths, unfortunate occurrences and his life takes a path neither himself nor his mother could ever have imagined. It first begins with the disagreement between the Bledsoe Clan and their vigilante posse.
I felt sorry for Billy concerning the events during this episode of his life as it was just simply bad luck, a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time which led to such feelings of guilt towards his mother, as though he had let her down and the events leaving him with nightmares. WIth the opportunity of travelling to Tombstone to work for the “ Denver Sun “ things looked promising but after only a short stay Billy’s bad luck followed him. He was tracked from Colorado to Arizona by the same person and here he was again looking over his shoulder. Once and for all Billy acts on the advice of Wyatt Earp, to face his fears and problems head on and to clear his name.
One can not but be intrigued by tales including the names Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and this is no exception, including colourful characters as Signore Difranco and Mallie McNab. I find it tragic that the vendetta against Billy was carried so vehemently over such a long period of time and covering a great distance.
My overall thoughts on this book: On reading this book I was grabbed at the beginning and spat out at the end. I encountered many different emotions during this read, the fear and worry Billy must have sensed at such a young age, sadness as to the condition of Battles Gap which was left to rundown. And with Billy’s own words, “ There was also a miserable irony about Battles Gap that unsettles me even today. It was a place where my life began as well as a place where I had taken lives. I had no desire to ever return. “
I was shocked and surprised at the outcome, the author describing so eloquently and concisely the period and events as the reader passes through the life of Billy. The book ends on a cliffhanger just as Billy thinks he is escaping the tragedy in his life with the appearance of a private detective and the mysterious Madame Schreiber. Looking forward to diving into the sequel!
I give Finding Billy Battles 5 out of 5 stars , an inciteful journey through an iconic period in time.
August 16, 2020
I love good historical fiction, and this first book of a trilogy reminds me of my prior favorite “history” book of another centenarian, LITTLE BIG MAN. The narrator writes a compelling story, reportedly organizing diaries, letters, and other mementos passed down to him by his great grandfather, Billy Battles. Battles starts his life raised by a single mother and Civil War widow on a poor dirt farm in Kansas where, as a very young man, survives a “shoot-out” with a criminal gang, but must skedaddle to escape the surviving family who have political connections in the Kansas capitol. Great word pictures of the “colorful” but more often smelly old west. Yates’ journalism is most evident in his incredible descriptions of the sights and sounds and smells and feels and emotions of Battles and his environs. The great grandson narrator is a journalist. The great grandfather was what he self-described as a scribbler. The pace of the story is very fast, and the plot is well-conceived, and the characters are developed nicely. Especially interesting are the “associates” of Billy like his cousin Charley Higgins. Yates’ own career as a journalist certainly is in large part responsible for the incredible detail of the facts and descriptions of the old west that could only result from extensive research. And Yates also weaves the life of Billy Battles into the real history of notables such as Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson. Most notable in his writing is the author’s use of dialects and vernacular to set the stage for the locations that Battles finds himself. The book is very hard to put down once started. And like the best westerns of L’Amour or Kelton or more recently Don Bendell or Ken Farmer, the bad guys are truly evil, and Billy along with his allies are virtuous and good. Can’t wait to pick up Book 2.
Well I found out about this excellent trilogy after reading the author’s blog. Ronald Yates has created an incredible historical fiction that follows Billy Battles from his humble farm near Dodge City through the famous towns of the old west, in Colorado, New Mexico, California and Texas as he works as a for a newspaper opening in Dodge City Kansas. Billy Battles makes it to Chicago for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Yates’ story takes Billy from a shootout Kansas, to a new life in exile with a different newspaper in Denver. And the new Denver editor sends Billy into the boom towns of the US Southwest like Tombstone, where he interacts with the most famous characters of our western history – Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson. After several fights including one where he is nearly killed after suffering a glancing shot in the head, in a coma, he appears to have settled down, gets married, and has a daughter He set out with his posse to track down the outlaw who tried to kill him, and ends up on his birthplace family farm for a final showdown. The west of Ron Yates is not the clean and attractive picture I remember from TV’s Gunsmoke. The author has very accurately described the smells and dust and dirt of the western towns. The bad guys are truly evil. And Billy and the “good guys” are virtuous, yet flawed, and the reader really cares about Billy and his family and friends. The story moves very fast, and once started, the book is very hard to put down. At the beginning of the book, a 12 year-old boy meets hi 98 year-old great grandfather, Billy Battles and find out that the story is a compilation of Billy Battle’s diaries of his life. Which is good, because so many of Billy’s adventures seems impossible to survive. I look forward to books TWO and THREE.
Well I found out about this excellent trilogy after reading the author’s blog. Ronald Yates has created an incredible historical fiction that follows Billy Battles from his humble farm near Dodge City through the famous towns of the old west, in Colorado, New Mexico, California and Texas as he works as a for a newspaper opening in Dodge City Kansas. Billy Battles makes it to Chicago for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Yates’ story takes Billy from a shootout Kansas, to a new life in exile with a different newspaper in Denver. And the new Denver editor sends Billy into the boom towns of the US Southwest like Tombstone, where he interacts with the most famous characters of our western history – Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson. After several fights including one where he is nearly killed after suffering a glancing shot in the head, in a coma, he appears to have settled down, gets married, and has a daughter He set out with his posse to track down the outlaw who tried to kill him, and ends up on his birthplace family farm for a final showdown. The west of Ron Yates is not the clean and attractive picture I remember from TV’s Gunsmoke. The author has very accurately described the smells and dust and dirt of the western towns. The bad guys are truly evil. And Billy and the “good guys” are virtuous, yet flawed, and the reader really cares about Billy and his family and friends. The story moves very fast, and once started, the book is very hard to put down. At the beginning of the book, a 12 year-old boy meets hi 98 year-old great grandfather, Billy Battles and find out that the story is a compilation of Billy Battle’s diaries of his life. Which is good, because so many of Billy’s adventures seems impossible to survive. I look forward to books TWO and THREE.
November 19, 2020
Author Ronald Yates creates a gripping historical fiction using Billy's journals that tracked his life, people he met, and events he witnessed from the mid-1800s. Tracing the history and fact-checking started with Billy's introduction in 1958 to his great-grandson, Theodore Remington Sayles. Billy was in a veteran's home and ninety-eight years old. Old but not senile.
Ted, as he preferred being called, was a Kansas lad who became an investigative newspaperman. He received the twelve journals his grandmother saved in 1998. The memoirs revealed the fascinating story of Billy's life in ways most of us have only viewed from the slanted perspective of television. Ted reflected upon how he related to Billy because they traveled similar career paths.
Billy's worked as a journalist for multiple newspapers causing him to travel across the old west. He lived during, what is commonly called Old West, times of lawlessness, bank robbers, and marshals rode horses or railroad with their Colt's handy. During his travels, his path crossed with notables like Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Diamond Jim Brady, and Billy the Kid.
The stories of his travels are shared in a way that worked for me. I enjoyed the writing, especially with the authentic vernacular of the times. I highlighted the area below where Billy hooks back up with Doc Holliday after several years. Doc is fighting his TB at that point.
"I filled him in on my career at the Denver Sun, my marriage to Mallie, and my last run-in with the Bledsoes in Lawrence.
"I am pleased to see that a woman has made an honest man of you. That's more than can be said for me,"
Doc said. "Seems like when it came to women, all I did was put a spoke in the wheel."
"I just got lucky, I guess."
With that, Doc pulled a small silver flask from under his blanket and took a short swig. It wasn't whiskey, but laudanum often used to ease the symptoms and pain of TB. "This stuff used to help, but now it just seems to be a damned bad habit," he said, returning the flask to its hiding place.
We talked a while longer. I asked him if he had seen Wyatt recently.
"He and Josie stopped by in Gunnison maybe four years ago, on their way to Denver to get hitched—at least that's what they told me," Doc rasped.
He fell into a short coughing fit, and I felt guilty that by making him talk so much, I had brought it on. "Sorry, Doc… I don't mean to make things worse."
"Don't worry… they can't get any worse than they already are. I'm about played out."
Then holding up the book he had been reading, he asked, "Have you read Homer?"
I explained that I had as part of an assignment at the University of Kansas.
"In that case, you might recall this line." Then picking up the book, he read, "Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great things that shall be told among men hereafter."
He coughed again and took another swig from his small flask. "I think I failed Homer on all counts," Doc rasped."
I enjoy western historical fictions, especially with the action/adventure related in this book. With Author Yates using the journals, the woven history of Billy Battles becomes so personal. I recommend this to readers who like to feel they are a part of the story. The characters are well-developed, and the memories will remain with me. I enjoy this writing style. I now have my sights on book 2 and book 3.
Ted, as he preferred being called, was a Kansas lad who became an investigative newspaperman. He received the twelve journals his grandmother saved in 1998. The memoirs revealed the fascinating story of Billy's life in ways most of us have only viewed from the slanted perspective of television. Ted reflected upon how he related to Billy because they traveled similar career paths.
Billy's worked as a journalist for multiple newspapers causing him to travel across the old west. He lived during, what is commonly called Old West, times of lawlessness, bank robbers, and marshals rode horses or railroad with their Colt's handy. During his travels, his path crossed with notables like Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Diamond Jim Brady, and Billy the Kid.
The stories of his travels are shared in a way that worked for me. I enjoyed the writing, especially with the authentic vernacular of the times. I highlighted the area below where Billy hooks back up with Doc Holliday after several years. Doc is fighting his TB at that point.
"I filled him in on my career at the Denver Sun, my marriage to Mallie, and my last run-in with the Bledsoes in Lawrence.
"I am pleased to see that a woman has made an honest man of you. That's more than can be said for me,"
Doc said. "Seems like when it came to women, all I did was put a spoke in the wheel."
"I just got lucky, I guess."
With that, Doc pulled a small silver flask from under his blanket and took a short swig. It wasn't whiskey, but laudanum often used to ease the symptoms and pain of TB. "This stuff used to help, but now it just seems to be a damned bad habit," he said, returning the flask to its hiding place.
We talked a while longer. I asked him if he had seen Wyatt recently.
"He and Josie stopped by in Gunnison maybe four years ago, on their way to Denver to get hitched—at least that's what they told me," Doc rasped.
He fell into a short coughing fit, and I felt guilty that by making him talk so much, I had brought it on. "Sorry, Doc… I don't mean to make things worse."
"Don't worry… they can't get any worse than they already are. I'm about played out."
Then holding up the book he had been reading, he asked, "Have you read Homer?"
I explained that I had as part of an assignment at the University of Kansas.
"In that case, you might recall this line." Then picking up the book, he read, "Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great things that shall be told among men hereafter."
He coughed again and took another swig from his small flask. "I think I failed Homer on all counts," Doc rasped."
I enjoy western historical fictions, especially with the action/adventure related in this book. With Author Yates using the journals, the woven history of Billy Battles becomes so personal. I recommend this to readers who like to feel they are a part of the story. The characters are well-developed, and the memories will remain with me. I enjoy this writing style. I now have my sights on book 2 and book 3.
September 16, 2019
I received a copy of this ebook, in exchange for an honest review.
A very well written western (even though the start of the book is set in the mid 20th century), referred to the author as 'faction', which is a mix of a story based on fact, but has fiction thrown in.
The story begins with a boy named Ted Sayles who travels meets his great-grandfather for the first time, but isn't particularly interested in the prospect. He visits him a few times until the great-grandfather passes away and left him some personal valuables, which Ted isn't supposed to get until his grandmother (the great-grandfather's daughter) passes away... and he doesn't actually see it until a few years after that since he was living in other countries. The story truly begins when Ted finds journals written by his great-grandpa, Billy Battles, and he decides to research and write a book about him so as to continue what Billy couldn't finish, so the reader is taken to the late 19th century, after the Civil War, and becomes part of Billy's life since he was a child. And the adventure begins.
Except it really didn't. Granted, A LOT of things happen to Billy as he grows up and slowly becomes a man, but although well-written (as I previously stated), it all was just seemed to happen very slowly. Characters were introduced all the time, not only in every city Billy moved to, but they also kept popping up from his past - which we didn't know about and were just told at that moment, so after a while it was a bit difficult to keep up. Was he from Lawrence? Or From Dodge City? Or was it from Tombstone? etc... I believe this book was intended to be a type of epic, but for the reader to be really invested in the characters, maybe the main character has to stay longer in a place, otherwise they're just names. Although it seems I contradict myself by saying that everything happened slowly, but at the same time Billy just moved from place to place, it felt that way because although he was in different towns, similar things happened to him.
I think it's commendable the author did such great research and could introduce historical characters, like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday into the narrative, although sometimes they just seemed to be there for the narrative's sake, so as to make it more interesting, and weren't woven into the action naturally.
However, maybe I just didn't understand/get the complete point or the big picture of the novel, so if you like westerns and bildungsromans, this might be the novel for you.
A very well written western (even though the start of the book is set in the mid 20th century), referred to the author as 'faction', which is a mix of a story based on fact, but has fiction thrown in.
The story begins with a boy named Ted Sayles who travels meets his great-grandfather for the first time, but isn't particularly interested in the prospect. He visits him a few times until the great-grandfather passes away and left him some personal valuables, which Ted isn't supposed to get until his grandmother (the great-grandfather's daughter) passes away... and he doesn't actually see it until a few years after that since he was living in other countries. The story truly begins when Ted finds journals written by his great-grandpa, Billy Battles, and he decides to research and write a book about him so as to continue what Billy couldn't finish, so the reader is taken to the late 19th century, after the Civil War, and becomes part of Billy's life since he was a child. And the adventure begins.
Except it really didn't. Granted, A LOT of things happen to Billy as he grows up and slowly becomes a man, but although well-written (as I previously stated), it all was just seemed to happen very slowly. Characters were introduced all the time, not only in every city Billy moved to, but they also kept popping up from his past - which we didn't know about and were just told at that moment, so after a while it was a bit difficult to keep up. Was he from Lawrence? Or From Dodge City? Or was it from Tombstone? etc... I believe this book was intended to be a type of epic, but for the reader to be really invested in the characters, maybe the main character has to stay longer in a place, otherwise they're just names. Although it seems I contradict myself by saying that everything happened slowly, but at the same time Billy just moved from place to place, it felt that way because although he was in different towns, similar things happened to him.
I think it's commendable the author did such great research and could introduce historical characters, like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday into the narrative, although sometimes they just seemed to be there for the narrative's sake, so as to make it more interesting, and weren't woven into the action naturally.
However, maybe I just didn't understand/get the complete point or the big picture of the novel, so if you like westerns and bildungsromans, this might be the novel for you.
February 1, 2020
Young Billy Battle grew up on a hardscrabble farm near Dodge City Kansas at the peak of its cattle-drive squalor. Along the way, Billy Battle meets every lawman and a bunch of desperadoes in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas and includes a visit to Lawrence Kansas (Quantrill’s Raid fame). A family acquaintance in Lawrence knows Billy wants to cut his Momma's apron strings and suggests he work for a local newspaper that wants to open a newspaper in Dodge city. Billy’s early training in shooting rifle and pistol are a blessing and a curse. His shooting ability saves his and his publishers life but leads to trouble with folks wanting revenge. Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp (and all the Earp boys), and Doc Holiday provide plenty of story and eventually convince Billy to “Get out of Dodge.”
One jump ahead of Kansas Law, Billy goes to Denver to work at a newspaper. The newspaper editor at the request of a friend send Billy out to write about the Gold or Silver Strike towns as a ploy to get Billy away from courting the friend’s daughter. Billy charmed life continues as he falls in with Doc and Wyatt in Tombstone fighting the crooked Sheriff and Ike Clanton’s gang of rustlers. Billy makes it out of Tombstone on the run and returns to Denver, where his dispatches from the field made him popular. When it looks like Billy has settled down and married with a baby on the way, the Kansas bandit who forced Billy from Dodge arrives in Denver and shoots Billy in revenge.
In true cowboy fashion, Billy survives and sets out to hunt his Kansas nemesis. Billy meets more legendary western characters and ends up back at his birthplace in Kansas for the final shootout. Billy has more lives than 3 cats and survives a head wound. With the Kansas nemesis dead and buried on the prairie, Billy returns to Denver to find he has a daughter. Fortune smiles on Billy as he garners fame as a “scribbler” and he’s off to Chicago with his wife to see the World Expo and enjoy his fame. It doesn’t end here as live deals Billy a rough hand and the family of the dead Kansas nemesis have hired Pinkerton’s to prof Billy hilled him. There are 2 more books to conclude Billy Battles’ adventure.
This is an off-beat western told as a memoir, but it’s so well-written, it becomes an enjoyable yarn about a time gone by.
One jump ahead of Kansas Law, Billy goes to Denver to work at a newspaper. The newspaper editor at the request of a friend send Billy out to write about the Gold or Silver Strike towns as a ploy to get Billy away from courting the friend’s daughter. Billy charmed life continues as he falls in with Doc and Wyatt in Tombstone fighting the crooked Sheriff and Ike Clanton’s gang of rustlers. Billy makes it out of Tombstone on the run and returns to Denver, where his dispatches from the field made him popular. When it looks like Billy has settled down and married with a baby on the way, the Kansas bandit who forced Billy from Dodge arrives in Denver and shoots Billy in revenge.
In true cowboy fashion, Billy survives and sets out to hunt his Kansas nemesis. Billy meets more legendary western characters and ends up back at his birthplace in Kansas for the final shootout. Billy has more lives than 3 cats and survives a head wound. With the Kansas nemesis dead and buried on the prairie, Billy returns to Denver to find he has a daughter. Fortune smiles on Billy as he garners fame as a “scribbler” and he’s off to Chicago with his wife to see the World Expo and enjoy his fame. It doesn’t end here as live deals Billy a rough hand and the family of the dead Kansas nemesis have hired Pinkerton’s to prof Billy hilled him. There are 2 more books to conclude Billy Battles’ adventure.
This is an off-beat western told as a memoir, but it’s so well-written, it becomes an enjoyable yarn about a time gone by.
September 15, 2019
I received a copy of this book from Booktasters in exchange for my honest review.
Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVED this book. I wasn't sure at first that I would, but by the first page of the memoir, I was hooked. The story is full of action, with gunfights and outlaws, adventures, emotions, and sarcastic wit that I wasn't really expecting to see.
The story is set in 1800s Kansas, along with other parts of the Western frontier, and there are often colloquialisms used. While my Kindle kindly translated a few of these for me, and a few more were defined within the text, many of the terms were not found in the dictionary, Wikipedia, or anywhere on the internet. I often had to rely on context to figure out what these words or phrases meant. Many of them were charming, but at times it could get a little frustrating, especially since I was often not sure that I had figured out exactly what they meant.
The descriptions were vivid, and frequently made me glad for the comforts we have in modern times (indoor plumbing, lights, heat, refrigerators, medicine, etc.), but I really enjoyed learning more about a period of time that really wasn't so long ago. I was actually disappointed when the book ended, not because of how it ended, but because I just wasn't ready to let go yet! I guess I'll have to get started on the next book in the trilogy sooner rather than later. While this is generally a book involving lawless times and wild experiences, it's surprisingly clean. There are a few curses and some references to prostitution, but overall it's actually pretty mild. I'd definitely recommend this if you're a fan of historical fiction, westerns, memoirs, or just plain action stories!
For my full review, please check out:
https://www.leahsbooksandcooks.com/po...
Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVED this book. I wasn't sure at first that I would, but by the first page of the memoir, I was hooked. The story is full of action, with gunfights and outlaws, adventures, emotions, and sarcastic wit that I wasn't really expecting to see.
The story is set in 1800s Kansas, along with other parts of the Western frontier, and there are often colloquialisms used. While my Kindle kindly translated a few of these for me, and a few more were defined within the text, many of the terms were not found in the dictionary, Wikipedia, or anywhere on the internet. I often had to rely on context to figure out what these words or phrases meant. Many of them were charming, but at times it could get a little frustrating, especially since I was often not sure that I had figured out exactly what they meant.
The descriptions were vivid, and frequently made me glad for the comforts we have in modern times (indoor plumbing, lights, heat, refrigerators, medicine, etc.), but I really enjoyed learning more about a period of time that really wasn't so long ago. I was actually disappointed when the book ended, not because of how it ended, but because I just wasn't ready to let go yet! I guess I'll have to get started on the next book in the trilogy sooner rather than later. While this is generally a book involving lawless times and wild experiences, it's surprisingly clean. There are a few curses and some references to prostitution, but overall it's actually pretty mild. I'd definitely recommend this if you're a fan of historical fiction, westerns, memoirs, or just plain action stories!
For my full review, please check out:
https://www.leahsbooksandcooks.com/po...
June 27, 2020
Well I found out about this excellent trilogy after reading the author’s blog. Ronald Yates has created an incredible historical fiction that follows Billy Battles from his humble farm near Dodge City through the famous towns of the old west, in Colorado, New Mexico, California and Texas as he works as a for a newspaper opening in Dodge City Kansas. Billy Battles makes it to Chicago for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Yates’ story takes Billy from a shootout Kansas, to a new life in exile with a different newspaper in Denver. And the new Denver editor sends Billy into the boom towns of the US Southwest like Tombstone, where he interacts with the most famous characters of our western history – Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson. After several fights including one where he is nearly killed after suffering a glancing shot in the head, in a coma, he appears to have settled down, gets married, and has a daughter He set out with his posse to track down the outlaw who tried to kill him, and ends up on his birthplace family farm for a final showdown. The west of Ron Yates is not the clean and attractive picture I remember from TV’s Gunsmoke. The author has very accurately described the smells and dust and dirt of the western towns. The bad guys are truly evil. And Billy and the “good guys” are virtuous, yet flawed, and the reader really cares about Billy and his family and friends. The story moves very fast, and once started, the book is very hard to put down. At the beginning of the book, a 12 year-old boy meets hi 98 year-old great grandfather, Billy Battles and find out that the story is a compilation of Billy Battle’s diaries of his life. Which is good, because so many of Billy’s adventures seems impossible to survive. I look forward to books TWO and THREE.
July 10, 2018
Was there more to the "Wild West" that gunfights and saloons? In the novel "Finding Billy Battles" Ron Yates gives a remarkable insight into the lives of those persons living at that time. He adeptly weaves fact and fiction into a compelling and entertaining story. We meet Bat Masterson, the Earp brothers and many more people known to have lived in the Wild West. It was a dangerous time with gunfighters, Indians and lawless people moving from place to place.
A young man is born on the plains of Kansas. Billy Battles is very young when his father leaves to fight in the Civil War. His father is killed at the end on the Civil War by a shot to the back while brushing his horse. His wife and son await his return. Young Billy Battles begins his life of adventure when his widowed mother leaves the family farm behind and returns to Lawrence, Kansas. She wants Billy to grow up in a town and be a civilized person. Billy does his best to do what is right but his actions tend to land him in trouble. Yet it is in dealing with trouble that he becomes a man.
This book describes the difficulties of life in the 1880's. The familiar historic names are in context and live in the correct time period. To help understand the buying power of money at that time, the author notes 1880's value and current day value of money. Throughout the book, Billy hints of bigger adventures to come. This first book ends with him starting another adventure. As exciting as the first 30 years of his life are, I can't begin to imagine what experiences he will have next. I know one thing for sure...I plan to follow along.
A young man is born on the plains of Kansas. Billy Battles is very young when his father leaves to fight in the Civil War. His father is killed at the end on the Civil War by a shot to the back while brushing his horse. His wife and son await his return. Young Billy Battles begins his life of adventure when his widowed mother leaves the family farm behind and returns to Lawrence, Kansas. She wants Billy to grow up in a town and be a civilized person. Billy does his best to do what is right but his actions tend to land him in trouble. Yet it is in dealing with trouble that he becomes a man.
This book describes the difficulties of life in the 1880's. The familiar historic names are in context and live in the correct time period. To help understand the buying power of money at that time, the author notes 1880's value and current day value of money. Throughout the book, Billy hints of bigger adventures to come. This first book ends with him starting another adventure. As exciting as the first 30 years of his life are, I can't begin to imagine what experiences he will have next. I know one thing for sure...I plan to follow along.
May 15, 2018
Ted Sayles meets his great Grandfather, Billy Battles, for the first time when he was a young lad. He goes to visit him with his grandmother and up to that moment he had never heard of him. The first visit was with his grandmother, but future visits would be by himself. His grandmother drops him off for a few hours and then pick him up at the end of each visit. When his great grandfather passes away a few years later he leaves Ted all his journals and trunks. He had told Ted previously that he wanted him to transcribe his journals into a book and publish it. His great grandfather wanted the world to know his story. After many years in university and journalist jobs out of the country he finally comes home. One of the family members has inherited the house and stumbles across the trunks and contacts Ted to see what he wants to do with the trunks and the contents. When Ted finally starts to go through the material he kicks himself for neglecting the job for so long.
Billy Battles story takes place during the time of the wild west and he meets many old heroes we are familiar with. His job with a newspaper takes him to Dodge City. He meets Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson and friendships develop between them.
This isn't the typical western story, but it does show what the untamed frontier was like. The story takes many twists and turns that will surprise you. Just when you think all of Billy's problems are solved they catch up with him again when he lets his guard down.
This is a good book for anyone who likes historical fiction.
Billy Battles story takes place during the time of the wild west and he meets many old heroes we are familiar with. His job with a newspaper takes him to Dodge City. He meets Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson and friendships develop between them.
This isn't the typical western story, but it does show what the untamed frontier was like. The story takes many twists and turns that will surprise you. Just when you think all of Billy's problems are solved they catch up with him again when he lets his guard down.
This is a good book for anyone who likes historical fiction.
June 21, 2017
For Booktasters, this is my first review. And to begin, it is one of the best books in the historical fiction genres I have read. I fully savored every page. This story is of a great great grandfather who had quite a journalistic life. He bequeaths his journals (which are golden) to his great grandson and the story takes off like an Indiana Jones screenplay. Only better. Because this history is real. And one will learn all about the wilds of Kansas and you will find Asia and South America in the mix when reading this. The orthography and grammar is genuine. Kansans had their own colloquialisms and they are interesting. Interesting in any community. The eloquence this author uses with his characters and the hardship that Billy Battles went through and the famous and not so famous figures he met makes one feel they are there. Lost in the page. Most of all it is a love story between great grandson and great grandfather through journals. The great grandson is a journalist. A gold mine for many of us who strive to find our family ancestry and this lucky young man has it all at his fingertips. Even if it is fiction. It would be a major mistake if this was not made into three screenplays because the ending leaves you wanting and it is a trilogy. Thank you Ron Yates. You are a giant.
February 16, 2020
Faction - mix of a story based on fact but has fiction thrown in, is what the author presents the books as.
We are first introduced to a boy named Ted Sayles. The beginning is more like a set up to slowly slide you into the story. It really starts only after the boy finds the journals written by his great grandfather - Billy Battles. The boy then decides to re narrate his experiences and write a novel about him.
Thus we are then pulled into the late 19th century post Civil War era.
We begin at Billy's childhood and journey through all the numerous ups and downs but after a point it gets boring as it gets way too descriptive with unnecessary details moving at very slow pace.
Whilst the story moves at a slow pace, Billy may not ved rapidly through different cities.
As on a life journey, we meet many new people and each has a different effect on shaping us in who we are today. The author too has tried to get us to know people who shaped Billy's life experience except it wasn't that well written. As Billy moved cities, an overload of characters are being introduced and abruptly leaving as well. What happened was I failed to connect to certain characters in the story and the few that I did, disappeared quickly.
Overall the book gives us many small stories but fails to paint the picture.
If you are a history buff, you will definitely enjoy the background.
We are first introduced to a boy named Ted Sayles. The beginning is more like a set up to slowly slide you into the story. It really starts only after the boy finds the journals written by his great grandfather - Billy Battles. The boy then decides to re narrate his experiences and write a novel about him.
Thus we are then pulled into the late 19th century post Civil War era.
We begin at Billy's childhood and journey through all the numerous ups and downs but after a point it gets boring as it gets way too descriptive with unnecessary details moving at very slow pace.
Whilst the story moves at a slow pace, Billy may not ved rapidly through different cities.
As on a life journey, we meet many new people and each has a different effect on shaping us in who we are today. The author too has tried to get us to know people who shaped Billy's life experience except it wasn't that well written. As Billy moved cities, an overload of characters are being introduced and abruptly leaving as well. What happened was I failed to connect to certain characters in the story and the few that I did, disappeared quickly.
Overall the book gives us many small stories but fails to paint the picture.
If you are a history buff, you will definitely enjoy the background.
November 30, 2020
Finding Billy Battles
I read the book first and then read the author's notes on Ronald E Yates. I’m impressed. A former award-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and Dean Emeritus of the College of Media at the University of Illinois. He’s been a college professor as well. Trust me, the book is well-written and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ll bet you will too.
Billy Battles grew up the son of a widow a small farm on the plains of Kansas. After a couple of years of college, with the blessing of his mother, he moved to Dodge City and began work as a newspaper correspondent. Billy eventually traveled for the newspaper and wrote stories of the wild west where Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson and other famed early American heroes lived and wore law badges.
An outlaw by the name of Nate Bledsoe and his family squatted on the Battles’ family farm. When Billy tries to take back the homestead, he accidently kills Bledsoe’s mother and so begins a long saga of Billy being dogged, tracked and almost killed by Bledsoe across many state lines.
Yates’ book is an engaging tale of the old west and the growth of the US during the 1880s and beyond. This is the first of a trilogy of Billy Battles’ adventures. I heartedly look forward to the next.
May 14, 2017
I usually do not invest the time into trilogies, however, the Prologue: Ted Sayles in the first installment, Finding Billy Battles by Ronald E. Yates hooked me. As a prolific journal writer, I was intrigued with the inheritance of a treasure trove of journals written by Billy Battles. The Preface of the book states it is a work of “faction. That is, the story it tells based partly on fact, but has been augmented with narrative fiction.” It further goes on to qualify that many of the protagonists were actual persons. The novel, Finding Billy Battles by Ronald E. Yates has rich detail of the mid to late 1800’s in every respect. I recognized familiar historical characters and I was fascinated that Billy Battles was an acquaintance of these recognizable figures in our history’s western lore; and he told their part of Billy’s story without all the glamour of these individuals. I truly enjoyed that aspect of Finding Billy Battles. I rated the first installment, 4 out of 5 stars because the chapters seemed too long for my taste. Although chapter length has not deterred me from wanting to find out what happens to Billy Battles in the next sequel, The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles by Ronald E Yates. Enjoyable read!
September 19, 2025
A rich, immersive journey through a life that feels both epic and intimate. I didn’t expect to connect so deeply with Billy Battles, but this book surprised me. From the moment his great-grandson opens those old trunks, I felt like I was being handed a secret history, one that spans continents, wars, and personal reckonings. The journal-style storytelling made it feel like Billy was speaking directly to me, and I found myself pausing often just to take in the weight of his experiences.
The blend of fact and fiction (“faction”) works beautifully. I loved seeing real historical figures like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday woven into the narrative; it added authenticity without feeling forced. But what really stuck with me was Billy himself. He’s not a perfect hero; he’s flawed, introspective, and often caught in circumstances beyond his control. That made him feel real.
As someone who’s always been drawn to stories about legacy and identity, this book hit home. It made me think about the stories we inherit, the ones we forget, and the ones we choose to pass on. I’m already diving into book two, and I’m genuinely curious to see where Billy’s journey takes him next.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to truly “find” someone through their words, this book delivers.
The blend of fact and fiction (“faction”) works beautifully. I loved seeing real historical figures like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday woven into the narrative; it added authenticity without feeling forced. But what really stuck with me was Billy himself. He’s not a perfect hero; he’s flawed, introspective, and often caught in circumstances beyond his control. That made him feel real.
As someone who’s always been drawn to stories about legacy and identity, this book hit home. It made me think about the stories we inherit, the ones we forget, and the ones we choose to pass on. I’m already diving into book two, and I’m genuinely curious to see where Billy’s journey takes him next.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to truly “find” someone through their words, this book delivers.
December 7, 2014
Accepted by Columbia University in the fall of 1959 after ten years in France (my native country) and ten in Venezuela (my next in line, barely emerging from a cruel dictatorship), I forced myself to read “The Virginian” (a Western classic) by Owen Wister, a Spanish-English pocket dictionary in one hand, having never read an American novel before, as a way of improving my English language (the third for me, the one I hated the most for being so different than Spanish, my previous nightmare). I don’t remember why I was reading this particular book since I had no preference for so-called “cowboy books,” but it prepared me, in a strange way, to read “Finding Billy Battles” (another Western classic, I predict) by Ron E. Yates 56 years later. I said in a strange way because about half way in those years I became a writer of American novels myself, although eventually specializing in postmodern fiction.
Ted Sayles, in “Finding Billy Battles,” could’ve simply become Billy Battles by time travel anytime in the story, not necessarily early on in his life, depending on how creative and clever the author, any author, wanted to be, using postmodern novelistic techniques, and thus reducing, if not eliminating, the explaining stuff in the prologue and the complexity of the introductory chapters. But Ron E. Yates, being a traditional writer, a superb one, I may add, told the story straight forward, from the heart, from beginning to end, the way journalists do, but in the first person to add immediacy and intimacy—two amazing ingredients. Wise choice!
So Billy Battles tells his own story (Chapters 1-25) once Ted (the real storyteller, interviewer, editor, helper, and user of Billy’s old journals and letters), his great grandson, is out of the picture. And it’s a fantastic story, legitimately Western because it happens in that well-defined period in American history, where traveling trigger-happy pistol-smart cowboys, twisted-minded horse thieves, wandering misfits, cold-blooded outlaws, overly wealthy ranchers, fearless frontier doctors, iron-headed disciplined sheriffs with amazing shooting skills, and the likes met or confronted each other in all kinds of fistfights and deadly shootouts in and out of old town saloons aplenty with hard drinks, loud music, pool tables, and beautiful women. Ahhh, yes--those old Wild West days that forever grow into myths and legends and top-grossing Clint Eastwood movies!
Surprisingly, Yates delivers a story that, for the most part, avoids all this--the clichés and stoic supermen gunslingers and romanticized cowboy lore that normally dominate the Western genre. His main character, Billy, trying to live a peaceful life that includes a steady job as a newspaperman, a loving wife and child besides his already loving mother and respectable in-laws as well as trusted and loyal friends, is drawn by accident into unexpected encounters of violence, treachery, murder, tragedy, and hate. Moving from town to town, mostly by urgency or special need, he crosses large, barren, and dangerous pieces of lands, like the 60-mile stretch between Cimarron and Arkansas Rivers, which Mexicans call “Jornada de la muerte”…expecting to run into bands of Kiowas and Comanches! This contrasts greatly with Hogback Ridge, the land onto which the University of Kansas today sits—his early, quiet place of higher learning while still living in Lawrence with his mom…or Dodge City (“…a ‘wicked cattle village,’ grown prosperous on the hide of the buffalo and the flesh of the Texas longhorn.”), where he got his first job as a journalist reporting for the Dodge City Union.
I’m not a fan of guns, but here I’m suddenly, and later repeatedly, exposed to more guns and accessories than I ever imagined existed in that era. This excessive, although finely described, Western element violates Hemingway’s self-imposed writing practice of always doing a “complete research of your subject” but using only “ten percent of it in your story”. I mention this famous novelist because he was also a newspaperman (initially a reporter for the Kansas City Star) and wrote short, clear, crisp, unadorned sentences like Yates does—not a coincidence, I imagine.
Describing things—anything!—regions, old towns, atmosphere, sunsets, windstorms, ranches, barns, saloons, people, feelings, work in progress, family reunions, aging, loneliness, fear, encounters, guns, shootouts, horses, trains, ships, wars, morals, you name it—is Yates’s greatest gift, I think. He has the unusual ability, care, and patience to define with simple words, freshness, and finesse what normal writers omit--from the feeblest element to the most delicate detail. I’m still amazed at the variety of colors and textures in people’s eyes and attires, for example, he dutifully illustrates to render truth and authenticity to his characters, even the unimportant ones. Likewise, he risks criticism, unafraid, for using (perhaps too much) the vernacular language these people conversed with in late nineteenth-century Kansas and other states, adding to this one of the most freewheeling displays of metaphors I’ve seen in novels in recent years (“the place was as quiet as a room full of owls,” for example, still rings in my head).
So Billy Battles accidentally kills Nate Bledsoe’s mother and intentionally his brother who tries to kill him first in a shootout near Billy’s property, occupied by these strangers, early on in the story. This, predictably, turns the novel into a revenge type of story, which the reader also must endure. But Nate is also, we soon find out, a horse thief and rapist of women and worse.
Small talk, often witty and amusing, colloquially authentic to this era, well-depicted by Yates, abounds and goes along with the action and shootouts and reunions of family members, relatives, and friends across the many states described, mostly south, west, and north of Kansas. The dialogue gets larger and more philosophical in later chapters, when Bill marries Mallie and unexpected problems ensue, his daughter now in the balance, turning the story in a completely new direction, which points to Asia. Loved this book!
Ted Sayles, in “Finding Billy Battles,” could’ve simply become Billy Battles by time travel anytime in the story, not necessarily early on in his life, depending on how creative and clever the author, any author, wanted to be, using postmodern novelistic techniques, and thus reducing, if not eliminating, the explaining stuff in the prologue and the complexity of the introductory chapters. But Ron E. Yates, being a traditional writer, a superb one, I may add, told the story straight forward, from the heart, from beginning to end, the way journalists do, but in the first person to add immediacy and intimacy—two amazing ingredients. Wise choice!
So Billy Battles tells his own story (Chapters 1-25) once Ted (the real storyteller, interviewer, editor, helper, and user of Billy’s old journals and letters), his great grandson, is out of the picture. And it’s a fantastic story, legitimately Western because it happens in that well-defined period in American history, where traveling trigger-happy pistol-smart cowboys, twisted-minded horse thieves, wandering misfits, cold-blooded outlaws, overly wealthy ranchers, fearless frontier doctors, iron-headed disciplined sheriffs with amazing shooting skills, and the likes met or confronted each other in all kinds of fistfights and deadly shootouts in and out of old town saloons aplenty with hard drinks, loud music, pool tables, and beautiful women. Ahhh, yes--those old Wild West days that forever grow into myths and legends and top-grossing Clint Eastwood movies!
Surprisingly, Yates delivers a story that, for the most part, avoids all this--the clichés and stoic supermen gunslingers and romanticized cowboy lore that normally dominate the Western genre. His main character, Billy, trying to live a peaceful life that includes a steady job as a newspaperman, a loving wife and child besides his already loving mother and respectable in-laws as well as trusted and loyal friends, is drawn by accident into unexpected encounters of violence, treachery, murder, tragedy, and hate. Moving from town to town, mostly by urgency or special need, he crosses large, barren, and dangerous pieces of lands, like the 60-mile stretch between Cimarron and Arkansas Rivers, which Mexicans call “Jornada de la muerte”…expecting to run into bands of Kiowas and Comanches! This contrasts greatly with Hogback Ridge, the land onto which the University of Kansas today sits—his early, quiet place of higher learning while still living in Lawrence with his mom…or Dodge City (“…a ‘wicked cattle village,’ grown prosperous on the hide of the buffalo and the flesh of the Texas longhorn.”), where he got his first job as a journalist reporting for the Dodge City Union.
I’m not a fan of guns, but here I’m suddenly, and later repeatedly, exposed to more guns and accessories than I ever imagined existed in that era. This excessive, although finely described, Western element violates Hemingway’s self-imposed writing practice of always doing a “complete research of your subject” but using only “ten percent of it in your story”. I mention this famous novelist because he was also a newspaperman (initially a reporter for the Kansas City Star) and wrote short, clear, crisp, unadorned sentences like Yates does—not a coincidence, I imagine.
Describing things—anything!—regions, old towns, atmosphere, sunsets, windstorms, ranches, barns, saloons, people, feelings, work in progress, family reunions, aging, loneliness, fear, encounters, guns, shootouts, horses, trains, ships, wars, morals, you name it—is Yates’s greatest gift, I think. He has the unusual ability, care, and patience to define with simple words, freshness, and finesse what normal writers omit--from the feeblest element to the most delicate detail. I’m still amazed at the variety of colors and textures in people’s eyes and attires, for example, he dutifully illustrates to render truth and authenticity to his characters, even the unimportant ones. Likewise, he risks criticism, unafraid, for using (perhaps too much) the vernacular language these people conversed with in late nineteenth-century Kansas and other states, adding to this one of the most freewheeling displays of metaphors I’ve seen in novels in recent years (“the place was as quiet as a room full of owls,” for example, still rings in my head).
So Billy Battles accidentally kills Nate Bledsoe’s mother and intentionally his brother who tries to kill him first in a shootout near Billy’s property, occupied by these strangers, early on in the story. This, predictably, turns the novel into a revenge type of story, which the reader also must endure. But Nate is also, we soon find out, a horse thief and rapist of women and worse.
Small talk, often witty and amusing, colloquially authentic to this era, well-depicted by Yates, abounds and goes along with the action and shootouts and reunions of family members, relatives, and friends across the many states described, mostly south, west, and north of Kansas. The dialogue gets larger and more philosophical in later chapters, when Bill marries Mallie and unexpected problems ensue, his daughter now in the balance, turning the story in a completely new direction, which points to Asia. Loved this book!
July 11, 2019
Our storyteller, Ted, tells us an interesting saga about the life and times of William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, his great-grandfather, based on journals he inherited when his great-grandfather died. Although, initially, Ted was too young to truly appreciate the immense wealth of knowledge and life experiences his great-grandfather had recorded in several volumes of journals, he kept the journals and later told the tale.
I was unsure about reading 'Finding Billy Battles' as it isn't my usual genre, but I am thrilled I elected to read it. Not only is it well-written, but it is also very entertaining. I actually found myself wanting to read non-stop, not wanting to put it down, as it is a real page-turner. The occasional mentioning of a true-life character from the "wild, wild west," that everybody will recognize, just adds another intriguing element to the novel. I highly recommend you read this book. Ronald E. Yates has an easy-flowing, easy-read writing style that will keep the reader on the edge of their seats. 'Finding Billy Battles' is the first book of a trilogy and I can't wait to read the other two. Definitely a "thumbs-up"!!! Five star material...
August 11, 2019
I was hooked from the first paragraph! Billy Battles has a great story to tell and the modern-day lead into the main part of the book was believable and intriguing. The fictional autobiography of Billy starts in America in the mid-1800s. Now I wouldn’t normally read a ‘cowboy’ story, but this is so much more. Billy takes the reader through the turbulent and wild West in a writing style that really brings the era to life. I was particularly intrigued by the wonderful array of 19th century words and phrases that are no longer in common usage and impressed by the depth of research that the author must have undertaken both to ensure that the historical detail was correct and that spoken language was of the time ( I really need to use ‘bumbershoot’ in context, in a conversation now). As a young reporter for various newspapers, Billy meets and interacts with several historical characters i.e Wyatt Earp, while following his own story. I loved this book and can’t wait to continue Billy’s journey in the 2nd and 3rd book in this trilogy.
June 11, 2019
What I liked most about this book was the way the author blended true factual happenings and events with a fictional tale. For example, the infamous characters, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday make several appearances throughout this book. I also thought the author did a great job depicting the language of the era as well as a true look at the simple basic living conditions of the time. The history of the railroad was shared in a way that I found interesting and truth be told, I learned more about the old west history from this book than I did from a textbook! The conflict kept me turning the pages and I rooted for the good guys to win. Billy Battles is an unforgettable character! The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is that there were a few typos, switching of POV and repetition of events, such as the shoot-out at the OK Corral, in a few places. If you want to see how it really was in the untamed west in the 1800s, you will truly be fascinated by this book!
April 7, 2020
Really enjoyed this book! It's completely engaging and carries you along on its rollercoaster ride with absolutely no effort required by you. It's #1 of a 3-book trilogy.
I actually read book #3 in this series before reading this one, so I sort of knew a few things that were going to happen, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment (or the suspense, really either!) at all.
It's basically historical fiction, following William Battles, a young man from the midwest US in the latter part of the 19th century, as he describes his life and his travels throughout the western US. Billy meets such real-life characters as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, encounters success and tragedy alike, and paints pictures for the reader of the landscapes, cities, people, and lifestyles of that time in its own language.
I now can't wait to read the middle book in the trilogy!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...#
I actually read book #3 in this series before reading this one, so I sort of knew a few things that were going to happen, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment (or the suspense, really either!) at all.
It's basically historical fiction, following William Battles, a young man from the midwest US in the latter part of the 19th century, as he describes his life and his travels throughout the western US. Billy meets such real-life characters as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, encounters success and tragedy alike, and paints pictures for the reader of the landscapes, cities, people, and lifestyles of that time in its own language.
I now can't wait to read the middle book in the trilogy!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...#
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews