Path of the Wolf

The War Trail Series #3

by Charles A. McDonald

Wolfgang went into a highly mobile ready stance: a low crouch with his feet apart and his right foot quartered behind the left, every muscle in his body tense. This position gave him instant mobility to spring into a powerful attack. Breathing heavily, his teeth clenched, eyes wide and staring madly, he evenly distributed and balanced his weight, his left arm acting as a shield held away from his body. His eyes looked over his left shoulder and above the top of his shoulder as he tried to determine his opponent’s possible moves. Then he noticed the knife on the ground.

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2014

Reviews

[Bob Colvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

More is better, too much is just right. This novel has very good points and very questionable points. The action scenes are very good, once you get to them after a tedious series of travelogues. The first 2 novels drew me in though I got tired of the author showing off all he thinks he knows (and maybe actually knows) about the Indians of the time and their hunting, cooking, and fighting lives. The constantly repetitive purple prose descriptions of the countryside, the excruciatingly repetitive details of the face painting and garb, the constant grimacing and staring into opponents' eyes, are boring. Continuity errors abound, for example one minute the men are lying on the ground peering through sage brush, the next they're on horseback, then back on the ground; and an opponent is cut, drops his knife then is truck again and drops his knife again never having been described as picking it up. In one scene the enemy is charging 50 yards away but there is a discussion about how to load the rifle and then a kill shot is made. There is constant repetition of teeming wildlife. Lots of Buffalo...OK we got that 12 chapters and two books ago. Set the scene briefly, with enough detail to paint the picture ONCE, then GET TO THE ACTION. There are non sequiturs, whole repeated paragraphs, and this one: (The turkey's) "lifespan is twelve years: the time it takes the earth to revolves (gasp) around the sun." Uh, that's one year or twelve months. The sex scenes were OK with me but again, more is better and too much is just right. The rutting bull buffalo and bull elk fighting and mating were everywhere. This novel needed a developmental edit and a close read for continuity and pace. It is largely boring. Another reviewer thought there were several versions of this novel that were cobbled together with not much attention to continuity. I agree. The first half of the chapter where the Apache, Curly Bear, was ingratiating himself with the lead mare in the Spanish camp where they were going to steal the horses was completely out of place in time. I have finished the novel and finally found out where they were actually going, through the constantly re-described prairie, amid lots of buffalo, teeming wildlife, and birds as omens, but it was a hard slog. The last few chapters of the freeing of the Apache slaves was the best part of the story which is, at the base, very interesting but there is a lot of purple prose, needless detail, and author showing off getting in the way. Again, repetitive descriptions of paint, garb, blood pressure rising, blood spewing, intense stares, and prairie trekking were boring. As an author, I know we want to repeat things from earlier books in a series if the novel is read as a stand alone, but, there were many repetitive descriptions and endless travelogue in each novel. I will try the 4th in this series but, there better be more action and less author preening with intimate knowledge of excruciating detail and showing off. I'd give it 2 1/2 stars but that was not available.

[Sam Hossler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action Backed

A good exciting, action packed story full of Indian lore. A little too much lore for my taste, but still a great story.