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 Carl Melcher Goes To VietnamDownload or CD-ROM Available from Electric eBook Publishing "Carl Melcher Goes To Vietnam takes us along on a journey with fictional draftee Carl Melcher. In 1968 when much of this country was in turmoil filled with both racial tension and anti war movement Carl finds members of his new Army company are not unlike those he left at home. This ‘coming of age’ narrative by author Clayton presents a rather likeable, although naïve youngster who, along with most of contemporaries is little prepared to face the reality of war. Carl faces the alternating boredom and tension, the unpredictable nature of the situation, the enemy often largely unseen and the worry for forming friendships only to have them end I have heard my Green Beret husband discuss. In Carl Mercer Goes To Vietnam Writer Clayton draws on his own experience in Vietnam to present the reader with understanding of what it was to be ‘in country’ during the most difficult of times. Men on DEROS, yearly rotation, had little time to acclimate themselves with the horror of war or the reality that much of time is spent not in ducking bullets but in sheer boredom of ‘garrison duty’ out in whatever camp where they lived in the jungle. Very akin to David Hackworth’s revelations in his book, About Face, writer Clayton points out, the ‘coping with the situation’ problems the men faced there in the jungle in South East Asia were not necessarily left there when they returned to ‘The World.’ Clayton presents a bit of insight into why so many more Vietnam vets seem to have returned to the US ill prepared to reenter society. This is a book I will suggest to my sons who never had a chance to really know their father. This work may help them better understand the man who screamed each night before he died at age 37 while they were still children. Carl Mercer Goes To Vietnam is filled with the same excellent writing as is found in writer Clayton’s Calling Crow series. Highly recommended." Reviewed by Molly Martin, Oklahoma (20+ years in the classroom.) http://www.angelfire.com/ok4/mollymartin/ The Inspector’s Wife The Agent: Murder By Accident The Cat’s Paw: Blue Death "Paul Clayton's page-turning adventure, "Carl Melcher Goes To Vietnam," gets it right. From the dialogue that grew from disparate young guys thrown together under adverse conditions, to the smells, the longings, and the fear, this is the book I - also a Vietnam Army veteran - would give to anyone who asked me, "what was Vietnam really like?" Clayton is the author of the fine and perhaps underrated Calling Crow series of historical adventures, and this story, based on Clayton's own experiences in Vietnam, is even more vivid. Clayton has articulated in a way that nonfiction never could exactly why Vietnam war veterans have a unique perspective on their country, their fate and the difficulties of "returning to normal" after a year of facing death. This is a coming of age story told in a way that is suitable for young people, particularly teenagers, to discover why Vietnam was different from other wars - yet similar in some universal ways to every battle fought by young people for the past several thousand years. On the other hand, veterans or anyone who has lived through the past few decades will find perspective on a complex and difficult period in our history." Mike Goodkind Senior Editor Office of News and Public Affairs Stanford University Medical Center Paul Clayton's "Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam" is an honest portrayal of one young soldier's coming to grips with the realities of war--the alternating tedium and tension, an enemy unseen and lurking in a mysterious jungle, the unpredictability of fate, and friendships formed and brutally taken away. The characters and landscape of this carefully-crafted story lingered in my mind long after I finished it. "Carl Melcher" is simply one of the best Vietnam War novels I have read, a powerful statement on what a terrible and wasteful business war really is. --Robert W. Norris, author of "Toraware" and "Looking for the Summer" |
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Calling CrowE-reads, paperback or downloadable e-books Available at Amazon.com Reviewed by Molly Martin, Scribes World Reviews Rating: 5 stars Calling Crow is troubled with recurring images of a destroyer who will obliterate his people. This first in a historical trilogy opens with Calling Crow living in his village and wondering what the cloud ships he sees far out on the ocean may mean. The Spanish who travel in the caravels have only mischief on their minds. For four years Calling Crow is held captive, suffers much and at last makes his escape from their clutches. His return to his home village brings little satisfaction. The woman to whom he was betrothed has married another and the villagers begin to view him with suspicion. The suspicion increases as villagers begin to die from a strange malady. At last Calling Crow is chased out to sea where he sets his course for the land where he had been held captive. Excellent tale. This is the first in a historical trilogy; it is set in the year 1555 along the South Carolina coast. Writer Clayton has produced a spellbinding adventure thriller sure to command the interest of all who are interested in historical novels. The book is available for download, and is on paper. Clayton's research into the era is evident, his writing skills are superb as he winds a fascinating tale peopled with characters who are very real and very believable. Highly recommended. I was so captured by this novel, reality almost disappeared., April 20, 1998 Reviewer: Cheryl Frost (tearoom@cottagesoft.com) from tearoom ...Paul Clayton provides us with faces and names of these victimized humans (Native Americans) in his novel. The story of Calling Crow and the grueling tortures of his people takes place in the 1500's. It was a time when Spain was preparing for settlement in the southeast portion of what would someday be the United States. Calling Crow spent his life striving toward a great manhood. Like all braves of the Muskagee tribe, his goal was to be the strongest, bravest and wisest of his people. His determination and loyalty paid off when his people appointed him Chief. That achievement was short lived. When Spanish ships began staking out the land in search of slaves, Calling Crow volunteered to investigate and was captured. He was placed on a strange ship with strange people and forced to do strange work on a strange land. But Calling Crow was strong and determined to keep his promise of safety to his people. He never gave up the quest to return home. This novel is wrapped with excitement, fear, pain and anger. It also feeds you the horrific details of the barbaric Spanish civilization in the 1500's. Taut and terrific! October 2, 1997 Reviewer: Cora Snyder (see more about me) from Whiting, ME When a friend pressed me to read this book, I must admit to some reluctance. I thought the genre was not to my liking and the cover looked trashy. I was totally wrong! Paul Clayton's CALLING CROW is a fine read reminiscent of Michener's CARIBBEAN in that it is a fascinating historic novel based on the unfortunate meeting of East and West in 16th century North America. In this story, Spanish slave traders come to what we now know as coastal Georgia. They are no more than pirates looking for loot, and taking as their property the startled and hapless natives (Indians). The tragic circumstances that bring young Calling Crow, chief of the gentle Muskogee, to a life of slavery under Spanish rule in Hispaniola are appalling in that they are based on fact. But tragedy always makes for a spellbinding story. What transpires under Calling Crow's unflagging strength of character is nothing short of triumphant. When I finished this book, I was very happy to know that it is only first in a series of three. I look forwar d to reading more of Paul Clayton's work, and am so glad I did not turn a blind eye. Compelling fiction that rises well above the pack., June 15, 1996 Reviewer: A reader Set on the Southeast coast in the mid-16th century, this beautifully-written first novel tells the story of Calling Crow, a Muskogee Indian. The reader is reminded of modern tales of UFO alien abductions as Calling Crow is taken prisoner by men with metal skins (Spaniards). Imprisoned inside the strange cloudboat, Calling Crow is taken away. On the island of Hispaniola, he is baptized, brutalized, then forced to work in the silver pit mines. Along with the other slaves, Calling Crow sinks into despair and ill health. After repeated escape attempts, and on the verge of death, he is rescued by a kindly Spanish priest. With his new, limited freedom, Calling Crow learns the ways of the Spanish and plans his next escape. He meets and falls in love with another captive, Juana of the Arawak people. Finally, as part of a massive Spanish campaign to conquer the mainland of Florida, Calling Crow and Juana manage to slip away from their captors. Despite incredible odds, and after several years, Calling Crow makes his way back to his home village, bringing the novel to its startling conclusion. Genre fiction that rises well above the pack. Compelling and thought provoking. |
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Flight of the CrowPaperback (July 15, 1998) Available at Amazon.com Reviewed by: Kim Murphy, Sime~gen Reviews The second book of the trilogy about Calling Crow, a Muskogee chief, Flight of the Crow is set "around the middle of the sixteenth century, on the coast of what would someday be called the state of Georgia . . . " After his escape from slavery, Calling Crow wanders the coast in search of a way to get his beloved, Juana back from the Spanish. He stumbles on the Coosa's village, where strangers are regarded with suspicion. In a contest for his life, Calling Crow is wounded and Green Bird Woman nurses him back to health. Though he comes to love Green Bird Woman, he is unable to forget Juana and vows that he will find her or die in trying. Although Flight of the Crow can stand alone, I highly recommend reading Calling Crow first. As in the first book, Mr. Clayton displays his talent for possessing a unique grasp on the natives' point of view. Though he never fully understands them, Calling Crow's perception of the Spanish has matured, but it's a natural progression that comes from his previous experiences. The continuing tale is a spellbinding, action-packed novel with a lot of story in a small package. Dreams and mysticism come full circle, again taking the reader by surprise at the end. I'm eagerly looking forward to the remaining tale in the trilogy, but this one is a must read for anyone interested in Native American history and all adventure enthusiasts! Reviewer: John M Peters, NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL This pre-western is set in the mid-sixteenth century on the coastline of what would become Georgia. Calling Crow is a native American indian, a chieftain cast out from his own tribe on suspicion of bringing the white man's disease which effectively destroyed the tribe. Later, Calling Crow was captured and ensalved by the Spanish but has escaped and is searching for his wife when he is caught by another tribe and eventually adopted by them. Spanish Catholic and French Protestant settlers invade this tribe's land and Calling Crow is called upon to use his knowledge of the Spanish to prevent a war that could destroy all three groups. Plus he has found his wife with the Spaniards. These bare details really do little justice to one of the best novels I've read in a long time. This period in North America's early history has been little utilised by modern writers, though from the evidence of this novel it is a rich seam ready to be exploited. Paul Clayton is a fine writer, economic and sparse in style, many chapters are only two or three pages in length yet carry the story forward, always with a richness in detail that other writers would take many more pages to achieve. Calling Crow himself is a noble savage, intelligent, a strong leader, upholding the tribe's traditions but knowing that the european invaders and their advanced technologies (horses, firearms, swords, cannon) will change the world forever. Praising a book as a quick read is mildly insulting as it intimates a book of little depth and substance, but Paul Clayton's work rattles along at a fast rate working both as a rollicking adventure yarn and as a study of how disastrous was that first contact between Europeans and Native Americans. This isn't the first book chronicling Calling Crow's adventures, and I hope it won't be the last. Highly recommended. Midwest Book Review During the middle of the sixteenth century, in what would someday be called the state of Georgia, Calling Crow returned to the Muskogee, after escaping the slavery of the Spanish. But his village was in the throes of a deadly fever. Spared from the sickness, yet cursed for bringing the disease, Calling Crow was driven away from his home. Without a people to call his own, Calling Crow went south toward the coast, to search for the woman to whom his spirit belonged. With his powerful medicine and his knowledge of the white man, Calling Crow found a home among the Coosa Tribe. And when a boat appeared on the horizon, carrying more Spaniards and their thunder-sticks to the peaceful land, Calling Crow was chosen to lead a new battle that would forever change the destiny of his people. Paul Clayton is a gifted storyteller. Flight Of The Crow is unique and imaginative reading! --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Scott Rettberg When author Paul Clayton sent in a review copy of Calling Crow, the novel came with a "cover correction kit" attached -- a color picture to place over the image his editors at Berkley had chosen the first volume of his trilogy. And a poor choice it was -- a portrait of the Native American as Fabio, posing in front of his bare-breasted babe and a squad of Spanish conquistadors. The cover lends the book a distinct whiff of cheese. Thankfully, you truly cannot judge a book by its cover. Calling Crow is a historical adventure novel, set in 1555, during the Spanish incursions into what would become America. Clayton departs from the conventional conquest-as-adventure story by focusing mainly on those dispossessed by the conquest, rather than those who benefitted from it. In this first novel of his trilogy, Clayton demonstrates that the Western institutions, the Spanish military forces and the Church, werere actually more barbaric than the Indians. Though captured, and then escaped Calling Crow is the main point-of-view character in the book, Clayton bounces around the map, covering the intrigue within the Spanish camp as well. The effect of his technique is to defamiliarize the European culture, to cause us to see the invaders as the foreigners, rather than the other way around.Though Clayton's narrative delivery is occasionally a little on the stiff side, his talents are for recognizing and describing incidents which bring to life the clash between the multiple cultures at play in the novel. Just as Calling Crow's understanding of the world is different from that of the Spanish, or that of a different tribe, the objectives of the Spanish missionaries are different from those of the soldiers, and of the officials of the Inquisition. The stories in the novel relate more to these differences of world-view than they do the development of any one particular character. Clayton clearly did much research in preparation for writing this novel and the two that followed. His telling is rich in historical detail, and establishes a believable context for the anecdotal vignettes that drive the story as a whole. Clayton has a very good sense of the scene. The episodic stories within the novel are adventures that bring out with a great deal of clarity how absurd the arrival of this highly armed flotilla must have seemed to the indigenous people. Though clearly written within the tradition of the historical adventure novel, Clayton's prose is at its best when he is getting into the particulars of individual situations, as when one Spaniard is accused by Inquisition of being a homosexual, and forced to "prove his manhood" by having sex with his wife before a crowd of priests. When he is unable to produce the necessary effect (and who could whilst surround by priests?), he is executed as a heretic. The standards of the "civilized" here are clearly not terribly civilized. At the end of the first novel of the trilogy, Calling Crow has returned to his people, who have a hard time believing in the white terrors Calling Crow describes. Like all good adventure stories, Clayton's ends leaving the reader wondering what will happen next, though in the end, of course, what will happen to the native culture is a foregone conclusion. The ones with the horses and the Inquisition will win, though it will hardly be a victory of civilization over the barbarians. More honestly, as Calling Crow illustrates, it is the barbarians who came from Europe to America; not the other way around. Savagery and greed were "civilized" Spanish traits, and not Native ones. |
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Calling Crow NationMass Market Paperback (January 1997) Available at Amazon.com Reviewed by Kim Murphy, Simegen Book Reviews The third and final book of the trilogy about Calling Crow, a Muskogee chief, Calling Crow Nation is set "in the land that would one day become the American Southeast . . . " When a rival tribe, the Timucua, sells their own people into slavery to the Spaniards for thundersticks, Calling Crow faces his greatest challenge. He forms an uneasy alliance with the English and negotiates a trade of deer skins for thundersticks. To keep the bargain an honest one, Calling Crow and Red Feather sail to England, only to discover that not all of the English are as honorable as the ship's captain, Samuel Newman. Calling Crow Nation is a splendid grand finale to the Calling Crow tale. With its Eastern setting, the entire trilogy breaks the mold. Usually readers of Native American tales think of Western plains Indians, not long forgotten tribes like the Muskogee. I found the change highly refreshing. Throughout the book, the excitement and action never falter. In Calling Crow, one of the most absorbing aspects was the innocence of the natives seeing European technology for the first time. This naiveté returns when Calling Crow and Red Feather travel to England. Their reactions to simple things like the houses and carriages are humorous, but understandable. Calling Crow Nation can easily stand alone, but I recommend reading the trilogy in its proper sequence. Although the ending failed to take me by surprise like in the previous books, nonetheless, it is right. A compelling, page-turning read that Mr. Clayton should be commended for! A brilliant work of historical fiction, April 11, 1997 Reviewer: A reader In sixteenth century Terra Florida, there exists a balance of power between two rival tribes, the Timucua and the Coosa. However, with the incursion of the Europeans, an arms race has ensued. The Timucua led by Mantua obtain the help of a Spanish slaver, Avila, who provides them with shooting sticks in exchange for slaves. Mantua has even sold his own people into bondage for the weapons provided by Avila. ...... Calling Crow, a Coosa leader, has to make a decision that could change the way his people live. He realizes that his people's weapons, bows and arrows, are primitive to what Mantua and his band use. The Spanish rivals and hated enemies in the Southeast are the English, represented by the Newman family and their crew. The English meet Calling Crow and offer to help his tribe in the upcoming battle with Mantua and Avila. Calling Crow has an extremely difficult decision to make. If Calling Crow accepts the English offer, is he replacing one serpent with another? If he rejects the offer, has he doomed h is people to death and slavery when they struggle to survive the onslaught? ...... CALLING CROW NATION is an action-packed historical fiction that brings the native and European cultures in picturesque color. Calling Crow is one of the great characters ever to grace a historical novel and the secondary characters add plenty of realism. This tale should be recognized as one of the most exciting novels of the year. This reviewer plans to read the two previous books (CALLING CROW and FLIGHT OF THE CROW) in this brilliant trilogy. .......Harriet Klausner |
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