Product Description

The author of Dances With Wolves turns his creativity and imagination toward America's doomed romantic hero, George Armstrong Custer--the youngest general of the Civil War, trailblazer, Indian hunter, passionate lover, obsessive husband, and tormented, guilt-ridden soul. A wonderful merger of fact and fiction, Marching to Valhalla is soon to be a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #847816 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-01
• Released on: 1996-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
Like a vampire who won't die, Custer rises once again from the grave. In the 1970s, a wave of books and movies, most notably the film "Little Big Man" and the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, seemed to have finally driven a wooden stake through the heart of that particular myth, transforming Custer from legendary hero to monstrous megalomaniac and racist. March to Valhalla hauls Custer back out of the coffin, seemingly as good as new. Written by Michael Blake, author of Dances With Wolves, March to Valhalla comes in the form of a diary that Custer supposedly wrote in the five weeks before his death. In Blake's incarnation, Custer rides again, a fearless, noble, warrior with a flair for romance.

From Publishers Weekly
The author of Dances with Wolves returns to the Old West for a startling novel about this year's most popular literary subject, the inimitable George Armstrong Custer, focus to date of at least four novels and three nonfiction books. Every author has his own Custer, and Blake's is wholly unexpected: not a glory-hungry martinet but a rational man and passionate romantic. Blake's approach is refreshing. He presents Custer by imagining the general's journals, written during the last seven weeks of his life, from May 18, 1876 to the morning of June 25, 1876, date of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. As he pursues the Sioux, Custer reveals his private thoughts about the military, his Indian opponents, his plans for the upcoming battle and his destiny. He also ventures at length into his past, making it clear that, although "I have always aspired to greatness," it was his remarkable battlefield achievements in the Civil War, as well as his ardent love for his wife, Libbie, that proved key to his later military successes and his popularity with the public. He also coolly explains his court martial conviction and his sordid affair with a young Indian woman. Though revisionist in its sympathy for Custer, the narrative seems rigorously authentic in its period detail, down to the flowery nature of Custer's prose. Blake's fascinating tale may not convince readers that its hero was a paragon of humanity, but it likely will persuade many that, for all his faults, Custer was a warrior who died with his boots on. 100,000 first printing; major ad/promo; film rights sold to New Line Cinema with Brad Pitt scheduled to play Custer; simultaneous Random House audio; author tour; foreign rights sold in Japan, Germany and England.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Two new biographies of General Custer, a newly discovered personal account by one of his troopers, and a novel about The Battle of the Little Bighorn have already been published this year, and now we have this novel by the author of Dances with Wolves (Fawcett, 1988). Surprisingly, it is a sympathetic portrait, cast in the form of a journal Custer supposedly kept during the last weeks of his life. In it, he recalls scenes from his days as a cadet at West Point, the battles he fought as the youngest federal general in the Civil War, his courtship of and marriage to Elizabeth Bacon, his first campaign against the plains Indians and his subsequent court martial, and his destruction of a Cheyenne village beside the Washita River. Blake gives us a convincing and well-rounded portrait of Custer the man, but some readers may feel gypped that he concludes his novel before Custer fights his final and most famous battle. For most fiction collections.
-?Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

It should have been so much better
Although a fair attempt to get inside the mindset of G.A.C., this book ultimately fails to deliver the thrills or tension it should have. The biggest downer is that this was written by the author of the excellent 'Dances with Wolves'. As a fictional account of Custer's diary, the book is tied by the fact that there is no reference to the Battle of the Little Big Horn and this also leaves the reader with a sense of unfinished business. Rumours are that the screen rights for this book have been bought by Oliver Stone. I would recommend Oliver and any other interested reader to acquire 'A road we do not know'. It's a far more exciting read.

A soul-wrenching journey.
_

Don't expect a nice guy who dances with wolves. This one kills with "Wolverines."

Penned by the best-selling author/Academy Award-winning screenwriter of DANCES WITH WOLVES, in Michael Blake's MARCHING TO VALHALLA we again journey West to the savage frontier of post-Civil War days. Only this time our guide's no Indian lover -- he's an Indian fighter. And an immortal legend. George Armstrong Custer.

But as we accompany him on this journey through uncharted territory, we discover -- soul-wrenchingly -- he's as mortal as the rest of us.

It is 1876. On a long march to what Custer hopes will be his most glorious campaign, he decides to record his daily thoughts and observations, as well as the events that led him here, in his Journal. It is through this Journal that we enter the secret catacombs of his "true heart."

The skeletons of fallen Confederate soldiers unearthed by rain. The dark entombment of Custer's dreams during his court martial and suspension from military duty. The taste of blood-lust, more satisfying than the finest wine, when he commands the brigade known as "Wolverines" on the battlefield. And piercing the mists as magically as the rainbow-colored suns he glimpsed during the Washita Campaign, the love Custer shared with his wife, Libbie.

Through Custer's eyes we see the beauty of the prairie flowers, the way light "dances" through the cottonwood leaves. And through his eyes we see the horrors of war. Battlefield carnage. Three mutilated bodies found at a stage station. The senseless burning of a Cheyenne village.

Michael Blake's a master, and his imagery flows like warm, golden honey. His words ambush us and hold us captive. But secretly we hope he'll never let us go.

When Blake sends us riding across the plains to that final destination, Custer's thoughts whisper tragically through our own hearts. And for that brief, flickering moment we know the name of the horse we ride -- Fate.

Great historical fiction
Thoroughly enjoyed a story about a memorable American icon that didn't need Little Big Horn in order to have closure. A personal look at a VERY personal character. His love for his wife is almost beyond poetic.