Far Bright Star

Written by Robert Olmstead

Narrated by Ed Sala

Acclaimed author Robert Olmstead's Far Bright Star "packs a potent emotional wallop" (Booklist). In 1916, aging cavalryman Napoleon Childs leads an expedition into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa and bring him to justice. But Childs' troops are wiped out, and he is left to die alone in the Mexican desert. "[This] brilliantly expressive, condensed tale of resilience and dusty determination flows with the kind of literary cadence few writers have mastered."-Publishers Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 18, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440760587

Reviews for Far Bright Star

[snash_44 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

[Far Bright Star] was the story of a career army man in Mexico searching for Poncho Villa. He is attacked by a gang and nearly dies. Man's overwhelming will to live is the only attribute given him other than violence.

[limelite_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Overarching themes of man vs. nature and man’s inhumanity to man in this unflinchingly brutal and severe western set in Mexico during the chase to get Pancho Villa in 1916.An American army of “freebooters, felons, Christians, drifters, patriots . . . surgeons, mechanics, assassins,” proves to be no match for a band of Mexican mercenaries commanded by a beautiful woman with an extreme fondness for torture and degredation.“They are the future dead” are words that couldn’t be truer. Olmstead proceeds to savagely kill them all at the hands of the Yaqui, except for the leader of the troop, Napoleon Childs, who is set loose after undergoing torture and general abuse. He wanders in the desert, naked, with only his hat and his .45, loaded with a single bullet, and instruction to “tell the others what happened.” Napoleon’s brother, Xenophon (a lover of horses), along with the Apache scout, Ted, find him dead yet not dead and slowly he recovers in their care.Both in his wandering in the desert and in his recovery delirium, Napoleon’s mind tries to discover what he can know about death, deal with the horror of his memories of the hopelessly unqualified “soldiers” he led, and heal itself of guilt over the incident. Of course, he can’t make sense of unexplained evil.The strength of brotherly love, humanity and grace between Napoleon and Xenophon redeem the story along with the bonds the two of them make between their horses, lifingt the book from despondency to redemptive clarity in spare arid prose, fitting to the landscape that nearly destroys all who venture into it.I had to read this book as fast as I could – in a single sitting –because the ‘true grit’ was so disturbing and graphic. Powerful and upsetting though his book is, no doubt Olmstead is the best writer about the futility of war, of the wild glory of horses and the relationship men have with them that I have ever read.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although not a book about the American west per say, Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead has captured the feeling of the west. Set in the hot, dry, desolate deserts and canyons of Northern Mexico, an American Calvary patrol is caught up in the 9 month pursuit that General Pershing led after Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916.Written in stark yet lyrical prose this is an intense and gripping story of a small patrol ambushed, hunted and trapped with no help in sight. There is a plethora of gun fighting, violence, and torture, but more importantly this book examines the human character when placed in extreme conditions. The aging leader of the patrol, Napoleon Childs ponders the meaning of life and death, and this, combined with the portrait of the stark yet breathtaking landscape, and the author’s poetic writing raises this story far above the usual western. This is also a story of transition. These men are some of the last of the true horse riding soldiers, machines and new mechanical devices will soon be replacing them. This is also an American army about to enter the massive slaughter that was World War I. Not a long book, the author manages to convey his tale in a little over 200 pages. While not a book for the faint-of-heart, this tightly woven tale of men caught up in a blood bath of revenge was a very powerful read.

[mrstreme · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The 1916 search for Pancho Villa marked an important transition in American military tactic. The days of cavalrymen and their noble steeds were coming to an end, soon to be replaced by machine guns and gas-powered vehicles. At the cusp of this transition were Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman, and his brother, Xenophone, in charge of taking care of the Army’s horses. The men sensed that change was afoot, but like many military men, they had more immediate concerns – the battles in front of them. And this is the center of the short but powerful tale, Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead.Napoleon led a group of misfits into the desert one day – partly to search for the elusive Pancho Villa but also to find cattle for their camp – when they came under attack by a renegade group of Mexican soldiers. Napoleon was uneasy about this mission from the first moment, and the inescapable situation he and his men fell under only confirmed what Napoleon dreaded. One by one, Napoleon lost his men and horses. He was preparing for his death in a canyon in the Mexican desert.However, it wasn’t Napoleon’s turn to die, but his survival made him wish he did. After watching the senseless murder of the men who served under him, he was tortured by his captors, and perhaps worse, forced to watch the slow death of his last man. Once Napoleon was rescued by his brother, he underwent a physical and emotional reaction that we would now call post-traumatic stress syndrome.Olmstead is a master of the verse, his writing reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy or Howard Bahr. His sparse but lyrical writing style juxtaposes against the atrocities about which he is writing. Make no mistake: while the language is pretty, the scenes are not. However, Olmstead honors his characters, most especially the horses, and transports his readers to the hot desert with just a few sentences. I doubt Far Bright Star could be enjoyed but rather consumed. If sparse writing or military fiction suits your tastes, then this is the book for you.

[crazy4novels · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Far Bright Star, a loosely linked sequel to Olmstead's Civil War/coming of age classic, Coal Black Horse, is every bit as engaging and beautifully written as its predecessor. At the conclusion of Coal Black Horse, the book's young protagonist, Robey Childs, marries and fathers two strapping sons: Napoleon and Xenophon. Far Bright Star reacquaints the reader with these two brothers, now aging adults, as they engage in a new military venture: they're members of a cavalry unit that has been sent into the wilds of Mexico to capture Pancho Villa. Xenophon is a consummate horseman, but Napolean is the leader of the two, and as such he is ordered to muster a ragtag scouting party into the desert to assess Villa's whereabouts.Never the naive optimist, Napolean has an unusually keen sense of foreboding about the mission. His thinly staffed posse can boast of only one other seasoned cavalryman; the rest of the party consists of drunkards, untried boys, misfits, and a spoiled dandy from the East whose character flaws pose a serious danger to the entire group. Even Napolean's horse, a devilish black behemoth named Rattler, seems apprehensive. Pancho Villa is nowhere to be found, but the group stumbles upon evil nonetheless, and a series of tragic mistakes in judgment culminate in a survival story that will have you gripping the book with white-knuckled hands.Far Bright Star, like Coal Black Horse, has a mythic, larger than life quality that is enhanced by Olmstead's glorious use of language. Every other page of the book contains a passage that glows like a polished jewel. Olmstead's powerful prose, his consummate skill in portraying the varieties of human character that emerge when men are subjected to extreme circumstances, his ability to transport a reader's five senses into the physical landscape of the story, his willingness to confront the "big questions" -- all of these are compelling reasons to make Olmstead's recent novels part of your personal library.I listened to this book on compact disc, and I think that Ed Sala's reading performance enhances the impact of the novel. His dry, "man's man" delivery may initially strike the listener as a bit too Cowboy Poetry-esque, but his succinct, no-nonsense tone (think Tommy Lee Jones or Robert Duvall) conveys the flavor of the book perfectly. I fell in love with Sala's true west cadence by the end of the novel.One cautionary note: some of the events in this book are gruesome. If your stomach churned one too many times at the psychopathic atrocities committed by Blue Duck in Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, this novel may not be for you. One suggestion: read the book, don't listen to it. That way, you can "skim" when the going gets graphic.

[sharongoforth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the summer of 1916, soldiers from around the world were at war with each other all across Europe and parts of the Middle East.  American soldiers were not involved yet; rather, they were  with General John Pershing in the desert of the southwestern US and Mexico hunting in vain for Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary general who carried out a raid on the town of Columbus, New Mexico.  This expedition provides the setting for Robert Olmstead's newly published novel, Far Bright Star.The book's protagonist is a middle aged man named Napoleon who, along with his brother Xenophone, has been a life long soldier.  Xenophone's responsibility is  the care of the military horses, while Napoleon's is to train the men on the horses to ride in search parties.  The expedition is proving to be fruitless, and the men often as not are sent out on endless details such as looking for and shooting wild cattle for food.  It is during one of these routine busy-work missions that Napoleon and his men find themselves caught in a desperate situation from which there is little hope of escape.  Napoleon  faces the ultimate struggle - with himself - in the aftermath, questioning at the core of his being who he has been and what he truly wants.I could use  many words to describe this book -stark, beautiful, frightening, poetic - but I think intense describes it most accurately.  You don't realize how intense it is at first because of the lyrical quality of the prose and the occasional camaraderie and levity.  But when you reach the end (at only 207 pages), you won't believe how much has been packed between the covers.Olmstead has a true gift for incorporating his respect for our nation's history and the people who lived it (good and bad), his respect for horses and their place in that history, and the beauty of language pared down to its essence into a thought provoking novel.  It serves as a reminder of where we've been and makes one wonder if we've ever learned anything from it.I highly recommend Far Bright Star.  It is beautifully written and characterized, and delivers an intense reading experience that will not be soon forgotten. 

[devourerofbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Robert Olmstead’s “Far Bright Star” is a bleak novel of the terrors of war.Napolean is a veteran soldier who has seen action in many different places and is now stationed in Mexico in the search for Pancho Villa. When one of the men under his command commits a terrible act, Napoleon and his men learn just how terrifying war can be.“Far Bright Star” is very well done. The language was evocative and I could see Napoleon’s surroundings in my mind’s eye, feel the alternating heat and cold of the desert. In addition, I could truly feel the hopelessness of Napoleon’s position. Much of what happened in this book made me cringe and made me dispair of war.Honestly, this wasn’t the kind of book I really enjoy. The sparse prose isn’t really my sort of thing. However, I was able to appreciate the good story that Olmstead crafted and and the fact that this novel really was very well done. If the spare, stark style is one you enjoy, definitely consider picking up “Far Bright Star.”

[ellsea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is neither a comfortable nor an easy novel to read, but the lyrical, compelling voice pulled me in from the first sentence. That voice grew stronger until, within a couple of pages, even my unfamiliar ears were attuned to the narrator’s drawl and I could hear him as though he were stood next to me. His story is not told in a conventional manner: the narrative is linear up to the defining, terrifying moment of capture, torture and abandonment, but then it twists and turns alongside the narrator as his experiences traverse the increasingly blurred boundaries between life and death, dream and reality, until past, present and future become inextricably tangled.This complex unravelling of a consciousness could be interpreted as the representation of a man suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (at a time when such a thing was not known to exist), a respected, hardened soldier experiencing one atrocity too many, the axes of physical recovery and mental collapse intersecting and then mirroring one another. Such an analysis offers an oblique look forward at the experiences of soldiers serving both in the First World War (the start of which ends this novel), and, moving forward still further, in Afghanistan in the present day. Replace Pancho Villa with the Taliban, and you get the same sense of dread-laden and heat-drowned shadow-chasing in a hostile land.However, the dense, vivid language, the rich, complex imagery hold echoes of magical realism, a sense of the fantastical that is reminiscent of a stripped-down Gabriel Garcia Marquez in its impossibilities, though without his more impenetrable excesses. Perhaps one should simply suspend one’s disbelief and accept the mystical, or perhaps mythological, qualities of the improbable rescue and recovery, and see this as a deeply personal telling of an experience from a man who does things his own way and sees things in a different light to the rest of us. His perception is his reality, and we should accept his translation of it for us.But the reality he shows us is a bleak and stark analysis of war, in all its brutal, wasteful futility. The language may be evocative, luxurious and poetic, but such language forges a stark, telling contrast between its melodic beauty and the precise, horrific scenes Olmstead lays before us. You will not find here the glamorous, romantic stuff of Hollywood-slick spaghetti westerns, nor the idealised cameraderie and nobility of Zane Grey and Fennimore Cooper. This novel is unflinching in its exposure of the base ugliness, boredom and terror of a war of attrition in a hostile land, of the resigned disgust of soldiers who must carry out the flawed plans of distant political masters whose strategy takes no account of the human cost of their miscalculations. The heat and dust and stench of it seep into you, and, trapped in a web of sensory lyricism, it is impossible to look away and ignore the grisly outrage that concludes the betrayal and destruction of Napoleon’s small troop.This is not a comfortable novel to read. It is a haunting, disturbing unfolding of a man disintegrating under unbearable pressure, but in a story of contrasts, of language and image, of illusion and reality, of myth and truth, he makes a sort of peace within himself. By submitting himself to war, he allows himself to accept that war has both destroyed and forged his identity and that war gives him life just as much as it threatens that same life. It is not an understanding easily grasped, a single reading will not suffice. Detail will catch and nag and draw you back until you move through stunned, mesmerised revulsion to uncomprehending grief to silent acceptance. It is worth the journey to get there. Read it.