Ghost Warrior (Hardcover)

by Lucia St. Clair Robson (Author) "Sister didn't know she had horse magic, but her older brother Morning Star did..." (more)
Key Phrases: red sleeves, tin cones, burden baskets, Broken Foot, Stands Alone, Morning Star (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Golden Spur Award-winner Robson (Ride the Wind) is long on frontier history and Indian lore, but short on drama in this latest, lengthy novel of life in the Old West. Covering 30 years (1850-1880) of Indian warfare between Apaches and white men in the Southwest, the story is a watered-down blend of history, romance and western adventure genres. The heroine, Lozen, is a fierce Apache woman who would rather be a warrior than a wife, a departure from Apache conventions. Lozen can see enemies in the future, a skill that allows her to ride with the likes of Cochise, Geronimo, Mangas Coloradas and her brother, Victorio. One white man who escapes Lozen's wrath is Rafe Collins, a Shakespeare-reciting teamster who weaves in and out of this tale, offering the white man's perspective. Lozen and Rafe meet frequently, but a tender moment of hesitation always keeps them from slaughtering each other. Their connection is vaguely romantic, yet Robson fails to create any spark between them. They're more like frontier saddle pals than lovers. For nearly 500 pages, Apaches and white men slaughter each other in ambushes and revenge killings, creating more bitterness and blood lust with each atrocity. The Apaches are portrayed as honorable men and women, while the whites (with few exceptions) are liars, thieves, cowards, murderers and dullards. Yet for all the violence, the action lacks energy. The only redeeming strength is Robson's detailed panorama of Apache society.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
"In Ghost Warrior Lucia St. Clair Robson has crafted a vivid and very entertaining picture of Apache life during the years of fierce fighting in New Mexico." --Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove

"Ghost Warrior gives us a rare and intriguing look at the Indian wars, from the Apace side, through the tribe's Joan of Arc--the sister of famed Victorio." --Tony Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author of The First Eagle

"Lucia St. Clair Robson has written an epic novel. Ghost Warrior evokes the life of a Native American woman who at last, and rightfully so, takes her place in history. The characters are memorably drawn, the narrative resonates with the truth of time and place, and Lozen, warrior and shaman, leads her people in the valiant fight against injustice. Ghost Warrior will compel readers to read on and on...late into the night." --Matt Braun, Spur Award-winning author of The Kincaids and winner of the Cowboy Spirit Award

"No one makes history as familiar and as vivid as Lucia St. Clair Robson. In Ghost Warrior she has breathed life into an extraordinary spirit and genuine heroine, Lozen. I can't wait to place this book on my keeper shelf." --Fern Michaels, bestselling author of Texas Heat and Texas Rich

"The spirit of Lozen, shaman, warrior, healer, and expert horse thief, surely possessed Robson while she wrote not only the story of Victorio's beloved sister, but of her people, from the time when they lived near streams and good grass to the cruel end when they survived like lizards, hiding in the rocks, enduring heat, cold, and thirst. For this, Robson deserves a warrior's embrace." --Jeanne Williams, Golden Spur Award winner and Levi Strauss Golden Saddleman Award winner for Lifetime Achievement in Western Literature

"Geronimo, Victorio, Cochise--so legendary is the toughness, and the hit-and-hide warfare of the Apache people in their centuries-long struggle against the Mexican and then U.S. invasions, that it might come as a shock to readers of Lucia St. Clair Robson's Ghost Warrior that Apaches were spiritual human beings with a complex culture, and that a woman, Lozen, was equal in importance with those famed war chiefs. The author's trademarks--exhaustive cultural research and earthy prose--make the reader believe, and care." --James Alexander Thom, author of Follow the River and The Red Heart

"Lucia St. Clair Robson is more qualified to tell the story of Lozen than any writer today, and she does so with an award-winning style...well-defined, personal, accurately depicting historical characters, with careful attention to historical fact. For anyone whose reading choice is the American West, history, action, strong women, or the mystical quality of the American Indians' 'medicine,' this is the book." --Don Coldsmith, bestselling author of The Spanish Bit Saga
-- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (May 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312871864
• ISBN-13: 978-0312871864
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #762,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Apache Story that Needed to be Told, October 6, 2002

By A Customer

I didn't know what to expect when I picked up a copy of GHOST WARRIOR for I had never read any of Lucia Robson's novels. I have a love for Native American and western history, so I thought it was worth a try. I finished the book about a week later, and was simply amazed at what I had read. I thought the book was very well written and was a compelling story that grabbed my attention at the very beginning and has held it ever since.

Ms. Robson's book made a significant impression on me. It inspired me to spend the next several months reading Apache Indian history. I didn't realize how good the book was until I really understood how much research the author had done to be able to tell this story with so much passion, detailed knowledge and competence. The book followed the history of the Apache Indian wars accurately, but it also gave me insight into what her Native American, and American characters must have been like beyond the historical facts. I had to keep reminding myself that her book was a novel, and by definition novels distort history. But I found her depiction of history was in many cases more accurate than some of the histories I have read, and it was exciting, sad, outrageous, fun, and gives a profile in American history that deserves wide attention.

Ms. Robson tells a complex tale that centered around Lozen, an Apache warrior and Shaman of the Chiricahua Apache band. The complexity of the story increases as her novel follows Lozen's long life as a warrior. The Apaches struggled for survival against western expansion pre and post civil war, against the ever present Mexican army, other hostile indians, the invading gold rush and it's inherent lawlessness and the best troops the US Army could deliver.

Lozen, the main character, was one of the only Apache warriors, male or female, to fight with all of the great Apache Chiefs over a 30 year period right up to their final battles. Their mission was survival of their race.

GHOST WARRIOR is an ambitious work, and I not only recommend it to family and friends, I rave about it. I've noticed that Ms Robson's best selling work makes noticeable improvements with each new book. I'm looking forward to her next book; it can't come out soon enough!

A reader in Arlington, VA

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Enjoy Slowly, Like a Good Wine, July 4, 2002

By	Mick McAllister - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am always amused when the pros miss the point, as the Publishers Weekly reviewer clearly did. Lucia St. Clair Robson is a bit of a mystery, in that her books have an air of "historical romances" about them which is nothing more than a clever disguise for some of the best historical fiction being written these days. *Ghost Warrior* is up to her best standards, likely to become a classic just as *Ride the Wind* has.

It is, first and foremost, a love story with a wonderful twist. Never, as you read this book, can you imagine a resolution that will put Rafe and Lozen together. And yet they are in love, perhaps from the moment they meet. Wisely, Robson doesn't turn that into a lengthy demonstration of the unfairness of life. Avoiding sentimental what-ifs, she keeps the dynamic of their growing relationship at the center of the action.

While that relationship is the personal center of the novel, the historical center is the story of the destruction of the Apache people. Again, the PW fellow gets it wrong. Robson is not doing "good guys/bad guys" with the PC emphasis on demonizing whites. The Apaches of her novel are not folks you would want for neighbors. Like the Comanches of *Ride the Wind*, they are brutal, terrifying enemies. What Robson does do is tell the truth about the times. The truth is, the white men who carried on about Indian brutality were the same ones who made tobacco pouches from the intimate skin of murdered "squaws" and butchered babies of color.

I can't say that her picture of Apache life is accurate and complete, though I'm convinced it is true to her impressive research. Her book is, after all, a historical reconstruction, and that means it is dependent upon the accuracy and completeness of the historical data. I can say that her Apaches are believeable, rounded, and sympathetic. The single most memorable thing Robson dramatizes is their sense of humor. As for Lozen, her heroics are a historical fact, and her "mystic powers" are carefully unplayed. Robson presents her as a brilliant, complex woman, not, like so many "woman warrior" books would, as a man in drag.

A great book? Well, no, but who said it was? Accurate history? As much as any history can be. There are few periods of the American past more shameful than "the Indian wars," and if Robson's white people are less than admirable, we can console ourselves that this means they were not as noble, compassionate, and honorable as we, who would never have done that to the Indians....

If you like Larry McMurtry and Jame Michener, you will enjoy this book. It is better than anything Michener ever wrote, and better than any of the endless sequels to *Lonesome Dove.* It is, like *Ride the Wind*, daring in its balance, so it runs the danger of pleasing no one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Lucia's best - right up there with "Ride The Wind", May 21, 2002

By A Customer

Lozen, an Apache Warrior blessed with far-sight and horse magic, is a wonderful subject for Lucia's rich tapestry woven from The Old West. Well-researched and detailed, Ghost Warrior puts you there in the daily life of the Apaches and the wide assortment of white people living in the same time and space - so realistic, I needed to wash the dust out of my hair and empty the dirt out of my shoes while reading it. Best of all, this story of the Chiricahua Apaches and their war with everybody is so well told, it is hard to put down and impossible to forget.

After reading this, I went back to re-read Ride The Wind again - yes it's on that level.