Where the Buffalo Roam

by Michael Zimmer

A sweeping western adventure in the classic tradition of Lonesome Dove, "Where the Buffalo Roam" is a remarkable new epic novel of friends, enemies, blood feuds, and the yearning of restless souls.

Born a slave on an East Texas cotton plantation, Clay Little Bull was captured by the Kiowa as a small child and raised among the wild tribes. But at the age of twenty, he left the only home he'd ever known and began a journey in search of freedom. Now, an outcast among whites, blacks, and Indians, Clay came face to face with the hypocrisy and lawlessness that ruled the West -- and drew first blood when he escaped from a band of Kansas slave hunters. Joining forces with an adventure-seeking buffalo hunter named Ty Calhoun, he led a band of freed men and a beautiful young Indian woman across the great Western plains in search of a place where he belonged. But with every mile he traveled, Clay moved closer to a truth he was born with: that freedom isn't found in a place or a people, but in a man's willingness to love, fight, and die.

Genres: Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Michael Zimmer is the author of twenty-four novels. His work has been praised by Library Journal, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, the Historical Novel Society, and others. City of Rocks (Five Star, 2012) was chosen by Booklist as one of the top ten Western novels of 2012. The Poacher’s Daughter (Five Star, 2014) received a starred Booklist review, and was selected winner of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s prestigious Western Heritage Wrangler Award for Outstanding Western Novel (2015); both were finalists for the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, and his short story, The Medicine Robe, won the Spur Award in 2019. Among his Westerns is the seven-volume American Legends Collection series.

In addition to Westerns, Zimmer also writes Mysteries, including the Two-Bit Street Mystery series featuring 1940s private eye Lafayette “Lafe” Doyle.

Zimmer resides in Utah with his wife Vanessa and their two dogs. His website is: www.michael-zimmer.com

Reviews

[Joni]

When reading a Western, one might expect adventure and action. Unfortunately in Where the Buffalo Roam, most of the action happened in the last 100 pages of the book. There were a lot of characters too, and in telling each character's backstory, the story bogged down. A heavy edit trimming about 150 pages would have been beneficial for the reader and rhythm of the storyline.

[Nick helbig]

Michael got a little hasty with the ending here. Poor man’s lonesome dove

[Joe Stack]

This is a story that was near impossible for me to put down and stay away for any length of time. There are scenes, such as a fight with a grizzly bear, where the author builds the suspenseful action, and holds it long enough to keep the reader on edge. Zimmer is good at creating characters you like and dislike. In this story, he's good at taking his time introducing characters and this gives the tale twists in the perspective of the action.

The author's descriptive details is impressive. When he describes how some of the characters recognize the subtle changes that indicate the changing of the season, it is an observation of true to nuances. When he details the shoeing and hitching up of the oxen, the reader is there looking over the shoulder of the character. This type of detail indicates the extent of Zimmer's research or shows he has actually done this work. Maybe both. This kind of writing gives the story substance and authenticity.

[Kalen Johnson]

Man without a people

A heroic saga of a man without a people. Clay Little Bull was born a slave, stolen by a Kiowa war party, and raised as one of their own. Again captured and enslaved by Osage, he was then traded to the Choctaw. And then his life truly became complicated.

Falsely accused, pursued by those more powerful, and fighting old vendettas, Clay navigates a vast and isolated country filled with peoples attempting to live and work together in harmony and others filled with inexplicable hate bent on destruction.

Zimmer captures an austere loneliness to his characters. One senses the smallness of man against the enormity of a frontier landscape. He presents a studied view of the wildness of terrain, a clash of cultures and a fight against institutions many sought to escape in a new territory. I never fail to be entertained as well as enlightened by his novels. I'm a fan.

[Michelle M. Wright]

I enjoyed the story concept and thought the characters of Clay, Jonas and Plato especially interesting and wish we would have had more of the story developed through their and Ty's voice and perspective. Ty remained an undeveloped character, limited by the author, to the end. There were too many unimportant side characters that we received back story on that detracted from the interesting main story in my view, such as the Pawnee, Wolf Tail, Moses and his psycho gunman for hire, thus the three stars instead of four or five.

[Mikel Rhodes]

A fantastic western that has the ring of truth.

This is one of the best western novels that I have read and I highly recommended that you read it. The characters are very interesting and the plot has the ring of a well researched and authentic truth of the times.

[Bee Pierce]

This was the best Western I have read in a long while.

[Randy]

This is my second Zimmer book, the first being The Poacher's Daughter. He is very good. If you have passed up his books because they are westerns, give them a chapter before you give up!