Peter Prasad's Blog: Expletives Deleted - Posts Tagged "mandan"
Welcome a New American Hero: Buffalo Dick (a review)
Welcome a new American hero – Buffalo Dick Maddock. Run as they might, Dick makes this chase of mad bombers a cake walk with blood splatter. Bet on Buffalo Dick in a dust-up. He’ll dog you from Brazilia to Argentina to danger zones north. Then he sprints in a chase that raises the bar from page-turner to cinematic blockbuster. It don’t matter, Dick refuses to die.
I’m amazed when a writer weaves story craft this tight. DICK’s enemies jump off the page with full-blown back story. Hats off to new author Duff O’Brian, a master of plot that drips credibility and rings true in technical detail. The research could crash Wall Street. The havoc promised will keep Homeland Security up at night. So cut your teeth on Uncle Sam’s nightmare.
I emailed O’Brian to learn more. Everything in Buffalo Dick, he says, can be checked on the Internet: The deaths from radiation poisoning in Goianas; the private intelligence agency; the top-secret British army unit; etc. The legend of White Buffalo Woman is authentic Plains Indian lore. He hopes people read along with a live Internet connection.
O’Brian cites Borges, Marquez, and Kafka to explain his ‘magical realist’ perspective. My favorite reference: When Lewis & Clark reached the Mandan villages in 1804, they noted tall, white-skinned Mandans who spoke a language similar to Welsh. It was believed they were the lost descendants of Prince Madoc (Maddock), a 7-foot tall Welshman who historians say made two trips to North America 300 years before Columbus; on the second trip he brought 100 colonists, and they were never seen again.
From a lost tribe to a New York brownstone to an Argentine bistro, Dick chases ‘hell on wheels’ until the tires come off. For pure grit, I loved it. The first 20-pages are resilient with word choice, then the yarn puts you in a hammer-lock until the last page. The dastards do their do until Dick is driven to drill them through and through. 5-stars, plus Orion’s Belt for plausibility, as in OMG this could really happen.
I’m amazed when a writer weaves story craft this tight. DICK’s enemies jump off the page with full-blown back story. Hats off to new author Duff O’Brian, a master of plot that drips credibility and rings true in technical detail. The research could crash Wall Street. The havoc promised will keep Homeland Security up at night. So cut your teeth on Uncle Sam’s nightmare.
I emailed O’Brian to learn more. Everything in Buffalo Dick, he says, can be checked on the Internet: The deaths from radiation poisoning in Goianas; the private intelligence agency; the top-secret British army unit; etc. The legend of White Buffalo Woman is authentic Plains Indian lore. He hopes people read along with a live Internet connection.
O’Brian cites Borges, Marquez, and Kafka to explain his ‘magical realist’ perspective. My favorite reference: When Lewis & Clark reached the Mandan villages in 1804, they noted tall, white-skinned Mandans who spoke a language similar to Welsh. It was believed they were the lost descendants of Prince Madoc (Maddock), a 7-foot tall Welshman who historians say made two trips to North America 300 years before Columbus; on the second trip he brought 100 colonists, and they were never seen again.
From a lost tribe to a New York brownstone to an Argentine bistro, Dick chases ‘hell on wheels’ until the tires come off. For pure grit, I loved it. The first 20-pages are resilient with word choice, then the yarn puts you in a hammer-lock until the last page. The dastards do their do until Dick is driven to drill them through and through. 5-stars, plus Orion’s Belt for plausibility, as in OMG this could really happen.
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