Empire of Bones: A Novel of Sam Houston and the Texas Revolution

by Jeff Long

In a novel based on the life of the larger-than-life father of Texas, Sam Houston leads his ragtag army on a mission of vengeance against Santa Anna, the Scourge of the Alamo. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: Historical Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Long is a veteran climber and traveler in the Himalayas rock climbing often manifests in his writing. He has also worked as a stonemason, journalist, historian, screenwriter, and elections supervisor for Bosnia's first democratic election.

Many of his stories include plot elements that rely heavily on religious history or popular perceptions of religious events.

Reviews

[Jeff Tankersley]

A subversive account of the Texas Revolution that starts with Jim Bowie and William Travis committing suicide rather than fight the coming Mexicans and a cowardly Davy Crockett surrendering before being executed at the Alamo, "Empire of Bones: A Novel of Sam Houston and the Texas Revolution" (1993) is a lamely exhausting look at Sam Houston and the author's haughty dismissal of the "Texas landgrab."

I want my dollar back that I spent at the Half-Price Books store for this.

Verdict: Another reminder that those who think nothing matters also can't help but hypocritically shout it the loudest.

Jeff's Rating: 1 / 5 (Bad)
movie rating if made into a movie: R

[Esoteric Grimoire]

"Empire of Bones" by Jeff Long attempts to present a modernized and humanized look at the lives and motivations of one of Texas's Founding Fathers, Samuel Houston. The narrative is told from the first person of Sam Houston. The novel is set in 1836 at the height of the Texas Revolution, following the massacre at Goliad and The Alamo. The book portrays a confused and beset Sam Houston as he placed in charge of an army of rough frontiersman, vaqueros, and the dregs of Eastern society. The book's center piece is the battle of San Jacinto and the violence of that particular engagement is highlighted in the novel. I found the book wanting for dialogue and I found the secondary characters to be extremely flat, as Houston's dialogues in the novel tend toward inward introspection rather than outward observation. I found the book hard to finish due heavily in part to the writing style and lack of depth.

[Jan Notzon]

I was vacillating between 3 and 4 stars, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. This is a truly graphic tale. If you're into blood and gore and cynicism (there's basically Houston and Deaf Smith who have some redeeming qualities; everyone else is completely devoid of humanity and human decency.)

On the other hand, Long has some descriptions I would call jazz-like ("Santa Anna's eyes glittered. They were like unhealed wounds in the darkness, moist and pained.") ("But once more his name seemed to respirate in the breeze.") that, once I could make some sense of them, made the narrative somewhat choppy but interesting.

[Yael]

Jeff Long's fictional recreation of Sam Houston's battle with Santa Ana is one of the most moving books I've ever read. Based firmly on the history of Texas's battle for independence from Mexico and the men who lead that battle, it's a doorway onto a world left far behind us: fertile, mostly empty, with gigantic pockets of shadowed quiet rarely found today, most of America was truly a frontier then, mostly without the noise and bustle of big cities or even small towns. The men that went to battle General Santa Ana at the Rio San Jacinto were a motley crew, trappers and would-be settlers and men who had gone west because there was no real niche for them in the East. They were determined men who, however, were in the main civilians, not trained for war. They went up against superbly trained and equipped Mexican soldiers with Santa Ana, and won easily only because Sam Houston had managed to lure Santa Ana into a trap with only a relatively small advance guard of his soldiers, and sprang the trap during the siesta hour, when none of the soldiers with Santa Ana, nor the Generalissimo himself, had the slightest inkling that they were being stalked by a Texian band of fighters, nor were at all prepared to do any fighting themselves. It was a slaughter. In the end, Santa Ana, most of the soldiers with him dead at the hands of the Texian army under Houston, was sent home in a barrel after deeding Texas to Sam Houston in exchange for his life (as Houston, out of action because his ankle had been shattered by gunfire during the battle, told his men: "You want blood -- I want Texas. Here, General, sign this and you can keep your life."). What impressed me about Long's treatment of that battle and, indeed, the entire novel was the suggestion of *quietude*, the silences and times devoid of any human sounds throughout so much of Texas save the small towns and settlements scattered here and there, and during battles. Solitude was to be had by a short walk almost anywhere. Natural sound was overwhelming, defining the world in a very different way than that by today's mall Muzak, rock concerts, street noise, overhead jet traffic, and all the rest of what we mean by "the modern world." This was a world close to humanity's roots in the early Neolithic, ten thousand years ago, without even a hint of the urban crowding and saturation of almost every corner of the world with human populations and their machines. A world worth getting to know. Long is a master at capturing worlds beyond our ken and presenting them to us -- real worlds, worlds our ancestors lived in, as well as fictional ones.

[Jaime]

The legendary and historical Sam Houston come together in this vivid telling of the messiah of Texas. Houston was an imperfect man who tasted of life freely and overcame much destroy General Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto. His strategy, hopes and fears are presented. He was a man of his time with dreams for the future. Along the way, we meet some memorable historical figures like William Travis, David Crockett, Stephen Austin, Jim Bowie, Juan Segui, Defa Smith and Pamela Mann.

[Paul]

A very interesting novelization of the historical events following the battle of the Alamo. Novelization is almost the wrong word as he follows historical documents so closely. Nonetheless, it is one of the most easily read expositions of a historical event that I have ever read.