Customer Reviews

A ROAD WE DO NOT KNOW: A Novel of Custer at Little Bighorn

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found the footnotes to be very helpful. There were so very many more people involved besides Custer, Sitting Bull, etc. The Native Americans were families doing what families do - enjoying their day, grinding corn, cooking. They became "real," not just Lakota people. The "ordinary" soldiers also became real. I compare this book to "The Killer Angels" for "fleshing out" the participants. Again, these were real people. I believe that Mr. Chiaventone did an excellent job of creating dialog that is believable based on the situation and the times. I have recommended this book to many people and it is one that I intend to read again.

Although fictional, this book is so uncannaly accurate in its attention to detail on the know facts and the characters that fought on that day, the reader does believe that they are finally uncovering the truth behind Custer's final moments. It is a thrilling read, both for a Custer buff or for a fan of Western/Military novels. The combatants on June 25th 1876, up to now one dimensional history book figures, become 'real'. The book should form the basis for a movie script, which would finally see the film studios complete an accurate portrail of America's most compelling battle.

After reading the reviews here, I agree totally with the comparisons of Frederick Chiaventone's "A Road We Do Not Know" to Shaara's "The Killer Angels." This book is that good!

Chiaventone's wonderful dramatization is simply the best fictional account of the Little Bighorn that I have ever read. The reader is taken from moment Custer's scouts spot the hostile village's pony herd in the pre-dawn darkness of June 25, 1876 to the burying of the torn, mutilated remains of 265 American soldiers on June 27. In between the men and events of that battle are brought vividly to life with terrific historical detail and well-thought out conjecture. Chiaventone goes into the thought processes of the commanders, both white and Indian, and the emotions of the average soldier or warrior. It is refreshing to see Lakota and Cheyenne leaders portrayed as able tacticians, and not just inspirational leaders without any thought of how to engage the enemy. Chiaventone shows Gall and Crazy Horse outthinking the 7th Cavalry as well as outfighting and outnumbering them.

It is also refreshing to see Chiaventone trying to rehabilitate the military reputation of General Custer. Over that last fifteen years, many historians (Utley, Hutton, Wert, Barnett ect.) have tried to tear down the current popular image of Custer as a blustering, racist, glory-hunting fool, and some novelists, such as Chiaventone and Michael Blake, have followed suit. In "A Road We Do Not Know", George A. Custer is shown as a very capable and experienced commander. (You don't become a brevet major general at the age of 25 for being an idiot!) Is he portrayed as Errol Flynn? No! But he is also not portrayed as a one dimensional, cardboard villain like on "Dr. Quinn." However, Custer's image is so intertwined with our national guilt over the treatment of the Indian that I don't think his reputation will ever fully be rehabilitated, but I do take my hat off to Chiaventone for trying.

It's a shame that Simon and Schuster really did not support this book when they published it, it deserves a far bigger following. It also deserves to be ranked with "The Killer Angels" as one of the finest pieces of historical fiction on the subject of men in combat.

Chiaventone's research had to be extremely thorough to bring the key historic characters to life from the LBH. Seen through the eyes of the young Chief of Scouts Lt. Varnum and major participants such as the acerbic Captain Benteen, Reno, Gall, Sitting Bull, Scout Mitch Bouyer, Crazy Horse, Captain Keogh, Charlie Reynolds, and on. Benteen's dialogoue particularly captures the spirit of Benteen for anyone that has read Benteen's sarcastic and bitter sounding letters in reference to Custer. The final battle scenes of Custer's battle ridge seem as probable as anyone else's theory. The portrayal of the actions of Keogh's company is particularly fascinating and could explain their unique groupings (headstones) where "I Company" fell. Recommend reading a few excellent Custer books first like Utley's or Gray's to fully benefit from this engrossing action oriented book that is framed with historical accuracy. As another reviewer stated, it's on par with "Killer Angels", the other best well researched and plausible historical fiction book.

Superb! Foolishly, I neglected to read this fine book when it was first published--assuming no one could have anything fresh to say about Custer and his mythologized battle. But genius always surprises us--and there is a spark of genius in Colonel Chiaventone's ability to communicate the feel of combat--its complexity, speed, randomness and sheer brutality. As a fellow writer, I can only envy the job this author has done. His research, including that on the "other side" was remarkable--yet his use of detail is always effective and never degenerates into laundry-listing. His sense of psychology and character is consistently sound, and his prose is sturdy and appropriate. As a former cavalry officer himself, Chiaventone understands the dynamics of men at war--in fact, he even understands the dynamics of horses, as anyone who has ever ridden seriously will recognize. This book has received deserved critical acclaim--but it also deserves a much wider audience than has discovered it to date. "A Road we do not Know" bears comparison with the few truly great American historical novels, such as "The History of Rome Hanks" and "The Killer Angels." We, as readers, may only hope that this author's future publishers will vigorously promote his future novels and bring them to a broad audience that will, as I did, find them as remarkable as they are readable. As a former soldier myself, I admire this work. As a novelist, I envy it. As a reader, I want more. --Ralph Peters

Even though this book was written by a wasichu, it is truly the best account of the Greasy Grass that I have ever read. True to the spirit of the times, this is a gripping and heartbreaking book. Even we Lakota find it without peer among the thousands of books written. My Great-Grandfather was the Wicasa Wakan of the Oglala and I believe he would agree. Hokahe! (Tatanka Ptcele

An impressive novelisation of the much-written about 'Last Stand'. The author captures the mood and the horror of the actual event in such a way as to suggest that he has acquired inside information about the battle. The book illustrates superbly the research which clearly went into the task of 'fictionalising' this historic encounter. Rumour has it that another Custer movie is in the pipeline - let's hope that this book is the inspiration for that film. Any other source would be an injustice to the writer of this excellent work.

Fred Chiaventone's novel, A Road We Do Not Know: A Novel of Custer at the Little Bighorn, was awarded the prestigious Colby Award on April 16, 1999 at the 1999 William E. Colby Military Writers' Symposium, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont. The Colby Award, named in honor of the former Ambassador and CIA director, is presented for a first work of fiction or non-fiction which has made a major contribution to the understanding of intelligence operations, military history or international affairs. Presenting the award was symposium co-founder, W.E.B. Griffin. On hand for the 1999 event were authors Ralph Peters,Harold Coyle, Bill Harlow and CNN's Frank Sesno.

The William E. Colby Military Writers Symposium -- founded in 1996 by the late Ambassador Colby, W.E.B. Griffin and Carlo D'Este -- holds events at Norwich University, the nation's oldest private military college, in April and at the National Press Club, Washington, DC., in November each year. Among the top authors and historians in the Colby Circle are: W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts, Dale Brown, Phil Caputo, Bill Harlow, Thomas E. Ricks, Ralph Peters, Harold Coyle, Ed Ruggero, H. R. McMaster, Admiral Stansfield Turner, Cole Kingseed, Carlo D'Este, GEN Gordon R. Sullivan, USA (Ret.) and Winston Groom.

It's uncanny how well Chiaventone blends fact (much of which has never appeared in novel form) with well informed speculation. The comparison to "The Killer Angels" is especially apropos, in that the reader is immersed in a riveting you-are-there approach to events which we have come to take for granted as a familiar part of our heritage. But the detail and realism shaped by Chiaventone's descriptive power is decidedly unnerving as these men - native and invader - are gripped in their death struggle. One feels as if they might still be there in the dust and the heat on that hill...

Readers will feel the heat, taste the dust, and experince the fear and confusion in this first novel by Frederick Chiaventone. This novel places you on the plains and on the battlefield as primary and secondary characters come alive and stuggle with varing degrees of human fobles. George Custer and Marcus Reno come alive as never before and have never been treated as fairly. Neither whites or Indians are made the villains but instead are humans struggling with the changing times of history. When Custer first sees the immensity of the Indian village before him and gasps ' Good God' you will know that this novel has surpassed the ordinary and has joined such novels as " The Killer Angels" in bring history alive.Having been raised in the Midwest it is a pleasure to read a novel in which the Indians are not made out as villains and the whites are not considered doomed heros. This nicely balanced novel brings the reality of the tragedy home to the reader. We all know the story, we've all studied the battle, now is our chance to experince it as it might have been. It's to bad this is not ' must reading' in high school history classes.