Customer Reviews

The Callings

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"The Callings" is a great read!!! I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to anyone that loves a well written story, westerns, or historical fiction. This is a compelling story that plunges the reader into timeless personal struggles between main characters while capturing the real struggles between two cultures on the Great Plains in 1873.

It gave me a historical perspective from both the Comanche and the buffalo hunters that is realistic and truthful. I wasn't sure which side should prevail at the end of the story which is a fresh viewpoint in our politically correct world of today.

This is a great story told without ethnic bias. The author helps us understand the cultural differences that led to the near extinction of the bison as well as the native peoples that depended upon them. The author does not take sides but presents the differences through the eyes of his characters via a well told tale that will keep you reading past bed time.

The year--1873. The place--the LLano Estacado (The Staked Plains) and the vast surrounding grasslands of the Texas Panhandle. Bison still roam in ocean-like herds that attract white hunters and the freedom seeking Indians who hate them. Henry Chappell's lyrically beautiful new novel sets these two groups on a collision course destined from the first word to end in unexpected ways for everyone involved.

Cuts Something, an aging Comanche war chief, longs for the glory days of the past and leads his small, starving band away from the reservation near Fort Sill. His broken heart yearns for the valleys of the Pease River, the unchanging reminder of better times now lost forever. Logan Fletcher, a young buffalo skinner from Kentucky, flounders into the same area on the heels of a promise made to his dying father. A promise of redemption and healing from the hands of a true believer.

Surrounding these two men are a grand cast of characters the reader cannot soon forget. Cuts Something's wife, She Invites Her Sisters, his son Elk Rub, his close friends Thats It and Otter Belt bring the Comanches to brutal life. Chappel's Comanches are fiercly realistic, but so carefully drawn as to make their murderous behavior understandable and almost sympathetic.

Equally understandable is the destructive behavior of Fletcher's band of acquaintances. Bob Durham, a former slave, whose skill on the plains is even sought after by the U.S. Army. Ezra Higginbotham, a hunter determined to exterminate the entire buffalo population. These three end up in the company of rescued white women and Army pursuers led by Tonkawa scouts who hate Comanches and practice a form of cannibalism when given the opportunity.

Chappell's story does not turn away from the cruelty or racism of either group. In the end he offers the discriminating reader no pat answers or sharply drawn politically correct conclusions for what happens between them. Others have attempted what Mr. Chappell succeeds in doing. Most have fallen woefull short with stupendous loads of pretentious literary fluff. No pretentions here. Straight from the shoulder--damned good stuff--don't misss it! Other writers should be green with envy.

I loved this book. It's a gripping and eye-opening account of a brutal period in Texas history... the systematic destruction of the great southern bison herds, and the clash of culture between the Comanches and the buffalo hunters, soldiers, and settlers. Mr. Chappell's words come to life as you read, his vivid imagery takes you back in time and makes you feel as if you are there. His characters show the best and the worst of human nature, and the customs and beliefs of each culture. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction, or anyone who loves a heck of a good story!

I picked up Henry Chappell's novel The Callings just in time for my annual hunting trip to Amarillo, Texas. After reading it, my image of the Panhandle country has gained an indelible bottom layer: Peel back a few feet of concrete slab and you'll find wagon tracks, bare native footprints and buffalo bones.

Chappell's book takes us to a strangely familiar place. It is the America of 1873, specifically the western frontier, which at that time split Texas in half, halted in its progress by great tribes of native American warriors, raiders and hunters. Collectively, the region was known as the Comancheria.

My knowledge of native tribes and 19th Century American expansionism ends right about there. But my faith in Chappell's research and local expertise is considerable and reinforced by his exceptional storytelling and moving prose. Chappell's story brings together a handful of memorable personalities---an aging Comanche warrior, a young pilgrim from Kentucky, a former slave and master plainsman, among others---and pits them in a conflict that would become one of the final chapters of an ancient regional history.

Along intersecting plot lines, the protagonists reveal themselves from every perspective: their own and that of each other. The differences are stark, and yet there is truth in all views. As widely acknowledged, the native warriors prove capable of extreme cruelty to their captives and enemies. In equal measure we see their merciful moments and displays of ingenuity, bravery, skill and endurance that are as much humanity's hallmarks as our capacity for evil. The white settlers, the US soldiers both black and white, the various mix of traders and immigrants all prove fully human in Chappell's engaging and fast-paced drama.

In a sketch of it, the young Kentucky pilgrim, Logan, picks up his father's calling as a faith healer and lay-preacher and, in search of new pastures, signs on with a small company of westward bound buffalo hunters. Leading the party is one Bob Durham, a former slave who took to life on the plains and made a name for himself as a scout and a fighter of Indians. In his 60s, Durham serves as mentor and protector to Logan, and as a fascinating counterpart to Cuts Something, the restless Comanche chief of similar age and with whom he has some history.

Over the course of several months on the southern plains, every one will be forced to take a side.

The Callings is a story of inevitable conflict and horrendous violence. It is a fiction that contains a great many terrible truths. But as it must do, it becomes also a story of faith and healing for a nation that has yet to see the last of its own making.

Mr. Chappell creates a world with vivid scenery, well developed characters and razor-sharp prose that cuts to the heart of the story like a well honed knife. I could smell the buffalo. This is a great read.

I like the west, and I like reading about the history of the west. Who settled it, why, what they saw/found, and why they wanted to protect it from the other side. This book takes you through a period in the development of the west on horseback, on foot, on a wagon, and paints a vivid, realistic picture of the land and the opposing people who wanted to keep it or claim it.
Rarely is the reader allowed to determine who is right/wrong or who wins/loses in the struggle for ownership of the west by two opposing sides, both committed to their cause and belief in the rightousness of their convictions. The characters are well developed and you can almost see the dust on their clothes, the sweat on their brow, and identify with the motives of each of them. I enjoyed this well researched story and it is obvious that Mr. Chappell has put some boot leather on the ground in the west as evidenced by his very vivid descriptions of the plant and geological aspects of the region.
Highly recommended.

I found this book by a happy accident. I recommend it to any reader who has an interest in the American West. The historical research is accurate and fascinating and the language used has the feel of the period. The characterisation is engrossing and the differing values and beliefs of two different cultures is brilliantly structured. Even if you are not a lover of the "western"- view this as an historical novel and you will be very well rewarded