A review by jeffphilly
Ridgeline by Michael Punke

5.0

I loved this book. This is a work of historical fiction centering around the Fetterman Massacre (an actual event). The Fetterman Massacre preceded the Battle of the Little Bighorn by roughly 10 years. If the author's description of the tale is anywhere close to reality, it was indeed a massacre just as the Little Bighorn was one. I don't have the numbers offhand in front of me to compare the events. However, one thing is certainly clear. In both cases, the arrogance of the American soldiers on the frontier led to their downfall. In some ways things have not changed in the past 150 years of the American military. American politicians believed that they could simply travel west and simply dominate the indigenous people on the frontier. In time of course, the indigenous people did collapse due to the sheer numbers, advanced technology of the United States, and the foreign diseases of the settlers and soldiers. The indigenous people did indeed collapse, but they didn't go down without a fight. Likewise, American politicians of today arrogantly believed they could simply invade Afghanistan and the country would bend to its will under the Americans' technological advantage.
Obviously, with this being a work of historical fiction some of the characters were created. Likewise, it's impossible for the author to know exactly what the real characters were thinking in the moment. However, even with those 2 statements being said the author just had me completely drawn in to the story. It just seemed very believable with the way it was narrated. I'm hoping that before long a corresponding movie will come out, just as Punke's "The Revenant" had a corresponding movie as well. Now that I have read this book, I would really like to get out to explore both the Fetterman Massacre and Little Bighorn battlefields.