Dances with Wolves Series- Micheal Blake

divey

Dances with the wolves is a brilliantly written book, simple yet compelling. It was written almost three decades before people were mesmerized by Steven Speilberg's Avataar and the portrayal of indigenous people. The book revolves around a young US army lieutenant John Dunbar who is posted in a remote fort which was abandoned by his comrades. Here he lives alone until he encounters native Indians and then gradually he becomes an integral part of their tribe.


Book explores how a conquering force which justifies its means in the name of bringing civilisation to the unexplored land, brutally suppresses nature, killing and plundering at will and destroying the delicate balance that people living in that place have forged out in centuries. This has been the norm since humans first ventured into unchartered territory and is still continuing when we read tribes protesting against setting up big refinaries and steel plants in their backyard. The book explores the journey of Young John as to how he struggles with his loneliness and fights to find his way and purpose in the greater scheme of things and how he transforms into the young Comanche warrior.


The book was written as a screenplay inspiration and also has a sequel which looks more promising than the first part for it explores the life of young officer after he was made part of the tribe and he settled to live with them. Thus it also satiates the curiosity that what happened after "Happily ever after". Will share my views for the sequel soon.


P.S. The book was later adopted into academy award winning movie in 1991 with the same name though there are many differences in both


You can explore the book here


https://www.craxme.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=13080&highlight=dances%2Bwith%2Bwolves

divey

I have finished reading Dances with the Wolves 2. It is again a well written book, but it is dragged in the early parts with details of lives of inhabitants of Comanche village which could be avoided. It captures the feelings of people who have lost their homeland, their lives and their identities to a conquering force, with great apolomb. How lives change by just one stoke of a legislation and so caled rules made by so called civilised and cultured people resonated deeply with me. It is a theme most conquerors have used time and again to subjugate others including us. People are left with no choice but to bend their heads and souls in front of their conquerors and then bid goodbye to their freedom, their way of life; everything they held dear just for the sake of their future generations. Slowly every single identity is stripped and they would get integrated into a bigger mass of civilised and cultured whites.

Action sequences are few and could have been pepped up a little to lend more power to rebellion, especially when warriors like Dances with the Wolves and others are seen to be defeated and dying so easily, it lacks heroism and their fights should have been made more heroic, I mean we have all known many kings who died fighting valiantly with a far superior force but we still remember them with same respect as their conquerors.

I Would give this book 3.5......

@cynic - have made this thread part of earlier thread instead of starting a new one, hope that is fine...

cynic

divey 20-9-2018 04:28 PM
I have finished reading Dances with the Wolves 2. It is again a well written book, but it is dragged ...

That is fine @divey. I would suggest updating the title to reflect that you are posting the review of the series.