Customer Reviews

Calling Crow

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The moving story of Calling Crow is not only a pleasure to read, it brings history to life in vivid pictures and unforgetable scenes. The novel chronicles the adventures of the Chief of the peacuful Muskagee tribe, Calling Crow, who is captured by Spanish conquistadores. Calling Crow narrowly escapes death and is taken as a slave to Hispaniola, where further humiliations await him. He has no other option but to adapt to some of the Spanish ways, such as learning the language, and finds a particular friend in the gentle Spanish Priest. But all the time his inner rebellion is nourished by the need to return to his native village, and the woman he is betrothed to.

The story is told in part from Calling Crow's third person perspective, and partly from the perspective of various Spanish protagonists. I personally preferred the Calling Crow perspective; as I could immediately identify with him, feel the pain of his separation from his home village and the woman he loves, and his longing to return home. Clayton very competently lets us see the new world that is opening up tp Calling Crow through his own eyes; the Spanish wear "skins of metal" and they carry "thundersticks". When he first sees a horse he thinks it is a huge dog, and is terrified; at first I was not quite certain what a "jagged hill" was, until he began walking up it and I realised it was a staircase!

The novel is very competently written. Clayton does not divide the characters into the "good" natives and the "bad " Spaniards. He shows how many of the captured become weak and lethargic in captivity; not every one of them possesses Calling Crow's bravery, quick-wittedness and strength of character. Similarly, the Spanish are not presented simply as cruel caricatures, but as characters with many dimensions, their cruel actions sometimes arising from simple self-preservation.

Throughout the story the reader is drawn forward by Calling Crow's overwhelming need to escape and return home. We yearn with him for the safety and comfort of his home village, and we look forward to the reunion with his friends of old. When it does happen, however, there is a surprise for Calling Crow, and the reader... we find out that there can never be a going back, only a moving forward. Of which we can find out more in the sequel!

Set on the Southeast coast in the mid-16th century, this beautifully-written first novel tells the story of Calling Crow, a Muskogee Indian. The reader is reminded of modern tales of UFO alien abductions as Calling Crow is taken prisoner by men with metal skins (Spaniards). Imprisoned inside the strange cloudboat, Calling Crow is taken away. On the island of Hispaniola, he is baptized, brutalized, then forced to work in the silver pit mines. Along with the other slaves, Calling Crow sinks into despair and ill health. After repeated escape attempts, and on the verge of death, he is rescued by a kindly Spanish priest. With his new, limited freedom, Calling Crow learns the ways of the Spanish and plans his next escape. He meets and falls in love with another captive, Juana of the Arawak people. Finally, as part of a massive Spanish campaign to conquer the mainland of Florida, Calling Crow and Juana manage to slip away from their captors. Despite incredible odds, and after several years, Calling Crow makes his way back to his home village, bringing the novel to its startling conclusion. Genre fiction that rises well above the pack. Compelling and thought provoking.

Calling Crow - a chief of a Muskogee tribe at what is now the sourtheast territory of USA - went to the coast to find out what were those rare cloudships seeing at the ocean and in a brutal way he made contact with the europeans who imprisoned, shipped him to Santo Domingo colony, enslaved and forced to work extracting gold from the rivers where he received hard punishment and humilliating treatment because of his resistence. Calling Crow dreams of freedom are fulfilled when he is taken to mainland continent again as a helper in a disastrous expedition to conquer Florida in the name of the Catholic King of Spain from where he escape and return to his tribe where he found resistence to believe everything he was telling about the Spaniards but also he had to run away to safe his life because unconscuously he brought diseases unknown to his tribes and decimate it.
This is a very interesting story that is narrated with a native point of view that express his reasoning about the clash of the cultures everything about the new civilization and religion and about everybody he meet in the colony, spaniards and captived indians, their way of thinking, believing and living.

Calling Crow is tormented with persistent images of an obliterating entity who will come to annihilate his people. This inaugural in a historical trilogy opens with Calling Crow living in his village and wondering what the esoteric cloud ships he sees far out on the ocean may mean. The Spanish who travel in the conveyances have only rascality on their minds. Calling Crow learns the full intent of the voyagers when he is captured by men from one of the cloud ships.

For four years Calling Crow is held prisoner, sufferers much and at last makes good his escape from their clutches. His return to his home village brings little contentment for him; the woman to whom he was affianced has married another, and as problems swell within the population the villagers begin to view him with broadening misgiving. The skepticism increases as villagers begin to die from a inexplicable affliction. At last Calling Crow is pursued out to sea where he sets his course once again for the land where he had been held captive.

Excellent well written account of the earliest citizens along our eastern coastline. Calling Crow is the first in a historical trilogy; it is set in the year 1555 along the South Carolina coast. Writer Clayton has constructed a penetrating adventure thriller sure to dominate the attention of all who are interested in descriptive historical novels.

I am a long time student of history and am pleased to find writer Clayton's research into the era to be evident in his narrative Calling Crow. Clayton's his writing skills are superb as he winds a fascinating tale peopled with characters who are very real and very believable. Combining the wealth of research found in Eric Balkan's City of Tears with the intriguing thrill set down in Gold in The Shadow by Michael Marcotte, Calling Crow is a gripping `can't put it down until the end' read.

The publication is accessible for download, and is on paper.

Reviewed by: Molly Martin

...Paul Clayton provides us with faces and names of these victimized humans (Native Americans) in his novel. The story of Calling Crow and the grueling tortures of his people takes place in the 1500's. It was a time when Spain was preparing for settlement in the southeast portion of what would someday be the United States. Calling Crow spent his life striving toward a great manhood. Like all braves of the Muskagee tribe, his goal was to be the strongest, bravest and wisest of his people. His determination and loyalty paid off when his people appointed him Chief. That achievement was short lived. When Spanish ships began staking out the land in search of slaves, Calling Crow volunteered to investigate and was captured. He was placed on a strange ship with strange people and forced to do strange work on a strange land. But Calling Crow was strong and determined to keep his promise of safety to his people. He never gave up the quest to return home.

This novel is wrapped with excitement, fear, pain and anger. It also feeds you the horrific details of the barbaric Spanish civilization in the 1500's.

This review covers all three books in the Southeast series. Overall, this series was an enjoyable read; I have no regrets with the purchase.

While I am no history expert, I have a better-than-average understanding of the era represented in this story. It seems due diligence was done, and there were no historical gaffs that pulled me out of the world. A true expert may have a more critical eye than I, but as far as I can tell everything fit together fine. Set during the early days of exploration in North America, the drama for this series is pushed forward, mainly, by the interaction of Europeans with the Native Americans. These books to an enjoyable job of showing the motivations of each group involved, as well as how each of the cultures struggle to understand each other. The story moves back and forth between groups and explores their interactions. I enjoyed this perspective shift and it serves the story quite well.

On the down side, these books tend to suffer from 'super hero syndrome'. The action becomes unbelievable and forced quite quickly and stays there for the entire series. Our hero is saved, continually, at the last possible moment by some extreme chance luck of fortune. Add to that some Native American religious stuff that seems to be taken a bit to seriously. It is never really explained or delved into to deeply, but it seems the writer relied on, and lent too much stock in this "magic" for a true historical novel. Overall, the action in these books is sub-par and is what forces me to drop the three star rating.

If you enjoy historical fiction, are looking for a good Native American / New World story...give this a shot.

I love historical fiction. Theoretically, I love historical fiction regarding American Indians, but I always approach the subject with caution. PC sensibilities ruin most books on the topic (and one current novel compares De Soto to Pol Pot and Hitler right in the introduction - is there any point in reading further?), but not so Calling Crow. It is a mostly mature and even-handed treatment of first contact between the Spanish and Native Americans in the American Southeast.

Despite a sagging middle, it is an engaging page-turner almost all the way through. It is well-written with a likable hero (Calling Crow) with a brilliant and surprisingly moving ending. Calling Crow's pathetic attempt to harness iron is especially touching.

The only quibbles I have with the book are of the wish-list variety. I wish it was 100 pages longer. It could use a little more depth. I wish the Spanish characters (other than Father Luis, if I recall the name correctly) were a little more fleshed out. Who were the Spanish? How did their minds work, and why? Some of the villains were a bit cardboard, mustache-twirlers.

Note to the author: I bought this book eagerly for my Kindle on the strength of the sample. I would have been happy to pay in $5-8 range. I was surprised to see it priced at $.99. But just so you know, the low price did not encourage me to buy. Bad books are not worth $.99, and good books are worth much more.

I'm getting the rest of the series now, whatever the price.

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel and gained insight into the history of the Cheseapeake Bay region. It is a sad reminder of our terrible treatment of native americans.

This book by Paul Clayton is one of a series of Indian (American) written about the Southeast, or in this case Florida. I found it to be a captivating read. The story line is exciting and catches your attention from the first and carries you throughout. The characters are interesting and believable. Clayton's book gives you a good, solid, intereting story line and does not bog you down with a lot of cultural anthropology and other studies. The story rests on itself and it rests well. I enjoyed reading this book greatly. Glad to hear there is a series.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

I read all 3 books in the Calling Crow series, I really enjoyed the story and found it hard to put my Kindle down until I was done. The Kindle version price is a great value, but there is little or no navigation available. I would have liked to see a preface or an "About the Author" section in the book. What is Paul Clayton's background, or expertise on the history of Native Peoples prior to European contact? Did the story of Calling Crow stem from actual historical events? As an avid reader of historical fiction it is of interest to me to know this information. The books are a good read but I did get hung up on the spelling and grammatical errors throughout all three. This was a disservice to Mr. Clayton's writing by the publisher, perhaps there were just problems in converting the script to the electronic format, in any case the errors are distracting and take away from the great story it is. I do however look forward to future books from this author.