I am in awe of those who rise to the challenge of creating a work of historical fiction. The author is dealing with a situation or event the outcome of which is, in most cases, known. They must draw the reader in with something in addition to the storyline: a different take on a well-known personality, a unique stylistic approach, something; but must nonetheless stay true to the events, and times, which they seek to portray. There are a number of authors who do this quite well --- Barbara Hambly with her Benjamin January novels, and William Safire, among others, spring to mind --- but the task still appears daunting.

In 1875 three American Army scouts arrived --- fortuitously --- a day late and a dollar short to join General George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Calvary at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. One of these scouts was August Huebner, who is the great-great grandfather of Andrew Huebner, author of AMERICAN BY BLOOD. It has been part of the myth of the Huebner family that August was late in arriving for the battle, thus by serendipity experiencing his continued existence as well as the survival of his eventual bloodline. Andrew Huebner, having grown up with this story as part of his heritage, has woven this family myth into a tapestry composed with equal parts of history and his own imagination to create a haunting, poetic work of a controversial period of American history and heritage.

A lesser writer, feeling the tug of blood loyalty, would have focused primarily on the story of Augustus Huebner. Andrew Huebner instead examines each of the scouts as equally as possible over the long distance of time and space and history. James Gentle, an orphan who has lied about his age to enlist in the Army, is by turns fascinated and repelled by the Indians he is hunting. Gentle, regarded historically as the killer of Crazy Horse, is conflicted, as is James Bradley, the leader of the scouts known as being the first soldier to discover the massacre of the Seventh Cavalry, who finds himself doubting his mission and his motives but nonetheless feels honor-bound see both through to their completion and resolution. Augustus Huebner, interestingly enough, remains the largest enigma in AMERICAN BY BLOOD, and, at the same time, is the most believable character.

Andrew Huebner does not take sides in this historical, if fictionalized account. This is not a politically correct examination of the "wrongs done to the noble redman" type, nor is it a justification for the bloodlust genocide carried out against certain of the Indian tribes in the last half of 19th century. No, those seeking an examination of these issues, evenhanded or otherwise, are best advised to go elsewhere. AMERICAN BY BLOOD is an account of individuals who find that they are overtaken, indeed overwhelmed, by events they are part of and a catalyst to.

What set this account apart from others is Huebner's sparse, poetic prose, which makes its often brutal subject matter all the more quietly chilling. It is also the type of prose which transcends genres and topics, and stands on its own. Huebner without doubt as the talent to become a major voice in the literature of the new century. The genesis for AMERICAN BY BLOOD was familial heritage; Huebner, hopefully, has more stories to tell, and more books, familial or not, to write.