it's about trials and problems of the mexican army. The writing is good. I like it better than my first books. ( )

Victorio's War is the third book in the Desert Legends trilogy. The trilogy follows Jim Doolen, a young man thrust into incredible encounters with some of the Wild West's more colorful personalities. From Billy the Kidd in the second book to the Apache chieftain Victorio, Wilson does a good job placing his protagonist in the midst of significant historical moments. The text and fictional narrative flows into the factual one which strengthens the narrative and bring the history alive.

The pace of the series is never particularly hectic. Time slows down in Jim's eyes as he spends a lot of time recalling what brought him to his current situation. There are several call-backs that would leave a new reader confused and as this book acts as something of a culmination of the first two, several plot points suffer without knowledge of the entire trilogy. Even with three books to establish his story, Jim is not a deep character. Remorse and guilt take over for most of his personal range of emotion s as time goes by. Secondary character have even less dimension which can be forgiven somewhat as they are really only vehicles to move the story forward. This is especially true to the historical figures though the reader gets the feeling that Wilson enjoyed written in the character of such notable people like Bonny.

This book did a decent job of wrapping of the series' plot points and presented itself as a quick but fairly enjoyable read. It is hard to really identify with any element of the book so while it was a fun book it was not a particularly engaging book. The series shows potential. ( )

This book was really slow. The descriptions were very vivid, but almost to the point where they were too much. The story was ok, but it found myself uninterested in most of it. I did find four pages close to the middle of the book that were simply brilliant (during a time when the main character is talking to the Indians). However, I felt that the author could have spent a little more time on character development as it took me forever to figure out whether Wellington was an Indian. ( )

Victorio's War was an enjoyable and quick read. Historical fiction has always fascinated me, and this book was very good in that regard. The characters were true-to-life, and the story-telling was great! This was the third book of a series and, although I did not read the first two, I felt that Victorio's War stood alone. I was never lost in the story and thought there was great flow to it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction about the Old West. Four stars! ( )

This was the third book of a trilogy, and it felt like just that as I was reading. Since I hadn't read the first two, I felt lost as things and people from past books were referenced, but not really explained. If I had read the first two books, it likely wouldn't have bothered me, or perhaps the references were never explained there either. The story was good, and the characters likeable. However, I had trouble staying engaged since so much of the story had occured in the past and we were simply told about it. Show don't tell. It makes the story come alive, and keeps the attention of the reader. Everything told becomes passive and dull. That is my biggest complaint, but the story was worth reading, and had some deeper points for personal reflection and discussion.
The hero was believeable, but I really would have liked to have seen more emotional development. If we could have known a little more what he was thinking, and why when he made his decisions and went through his trials, it may have held more interest. The biggest example of the flaw is, I think, when he tells about how he shot someone to save his life, only to later find out it had been his friend. Both the incident and the revelation are told to us from past memory, and it really lessens the impact. Also...almost nothing else is said after the initial revelation, about the character's reaction to it or how it affects him and his decisions, or lack thereof. I'm assuming that this friend was known in the first two books, because we know virtually nothing about him in this one, but I had more emotional attachment to the little girl he wants to save even though we see nothing more of her than a smile and a doll.
Great potential, but I don't feel it will be a story that will stick with me. ( )