As Captain Billy Snow’s wagon train moved across the prairie, twelve souls suffered the heat and thanked the Almighty for the breeze that cooled their sweaty brows. Unaware that soon all would come to the end of life’s road. Most of those that walked along that hot day knew the grand scheme of life to their good.
Bald Jo Kline (Black Hawk) chose a pathway through life that left broken lives like pieces of a puzzle, forever altered by his savagery. Those that he had broken had to face the overwhelming task of forgiving or defending the very reason for their bitterness. Some even had to defend the children brought into this world through the atrocity of Bald Jo Kline.
Kline’s character morphs through Broken into many personalities as he touches lives. He realizes that in the white man’s world, hate and savagery can only be tolerated for a season, and then it must be dealt with. In his self-indulgent, power-hungry travels, he stumbled over the rule book of life. He believed it was simply a tool to help him relearn the English language of his childhood. As he read the Book, he began to understand the insurmountable wrong he had committed. With knowledge comes the hope of wisdom, and with wisdom comes the hope of enlightenment. Leaving his dark past was not as easy as he had once thought. He was caught in the realization that life, even his life, was a series of choices, and he was accountable for those choices. He would have to face the consequences.
Broken is this world.
Broken is our life in this mortal existence. Only God can repair
our brokenness.
The following day Sarah sat by the small stream with a knife whittling away pieces of a branch and letting them float away in the current. “Mr. Bess, where do you think this river flows?” she asked.
The question got Joe’s attention as he walked past her and replied, “It should flow right into the river we were on last night. It should intersect downstream above where the Indians are waiting for us.” Suddenly, he stopped, dropped to his knees in the sand, and grabbed Sarah’s hand. “Sarah, what are you doing?” Joe gasped. A look of distress on his face.
Sarah looked at the small pieces of wood that she had been shaving off the stick floating away from her. “I’m just relaxing while I soak my feet. Why?” Hearing the alarm in his voice June came over as Joe jumped into the stream, trying to catch as many pieces of wood shavings as he could.
“Joe, what’s wrong?” she asked.
“These chips will float downriver, and any Indian that sees them will know where we are. Sarah girl, how long have you been doing this?” he asked.
Sarah looked at the stick she had whittled down to a point. Tears came to her eyes, and she wept. Joe Bess put his arms around the young girl and tried to comfort her by saying, “Sarah, it is okay. I doubt they will see them—just remember we are in the wilderness, and everything here must be part of the natural scenery, or it is like a book telling a story.”
Broken…what a trilogy for the person who is interested in the Old West. The Christian values of the born again and the Hope of Redemption! James Ferrell has written a sweeping trilogy of the West and interfaced it well with the values of life as well as the values of the Christian life. The books are like grabbing a bad bull by the tail, how do you let go?
I could not! Almost at once I became a settler, a survivor, a desperate fugitive, and several other personas as I was pulled into the tragedies and victories of the various characters in his broad story of life and death from the towns, plains, rivers, and mountains of the character’s experiences.
To anyone who enjoys a mixture of twists and turns and subplots galore, welcome to a shoot ‘em up full fisted read!
To be in any sense critical, my only problem is tracking the number of characters. This is James Ferrell at his best though, mixing and meandering storylines of a plethora of people into a mega story or stories of their lives and faults and successes of life by sharing the impact and power of how Christ can and does affect the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people!
Way to go James!
Robert Nichols, II
Pastor, Cook Springs Baptist Church
Nita M.
Broken is a rootin’, tootin’, western adventure trilogy of life in the new West spun up by a fine pair of storytellers, James Ferrell and Kathy Clair. You will not want to quit turning the pages. Get all three of these books lined up so you do not have to stop until the end.
It has everything! The characters are filled with the despair of broken families caused by the hardships and the renewal of faith as they struggle through putting their lives back together. This is a collection of rousing action and adventures during the development of the western parts of our country in the mid-1800s. Tales of cowboys and Indians, settlers, mountain men, and returning civil war veterans as they all moved West with most seeking new, prosperous, and happy lives while the Indians, owlhoots and outlaws with their dastardly deeds seek them out as prey. The West was rough country with murderous Indian and Comancheros raids, attacks on wagon trains, settlers, fledgling communities, and the kidnapping and brutalization of survivors. This tough new breed of American pioneers struggled mightily to bring civilization to this rough land.
They brought their hopes and dreams of a new life and most importantly, the "Faith of Our Fathers" to guide and see them through their struggles and hardship in the new territory. They trusted that this faith would guide them through those things beyond their control in the trials ahead of them. All these stories and characters are skillfully intertwined throughout the series and fold together along the way bringing the resolution from their choices in their lives and how the results of their choices have affected others. Characters are pressured by circumstance and wander from decency and goodness to lives of crime and despotism. Surprises abound as these people, both good and bad, discover what decency lives within even the worst of them and that their eternal life can be assured.
James and Kathy also show throughout Broken that those that were exposed to the teachings of the Bible at any time during their lives from childhood forward even though they might have grown to be thoroughly despicable still carried the flicker of that flame of Christianity. It returns to burn brighter than ever once the breath of the God brings it back to life. These are stories of human failings, sorrow and heartache, and the joy of the reunification of families, and redemption sprinkled with a delightful humor throughout that will warm your heart. I cannot wait for the next ones!
J. Stevens
Broken is a trilogy of compelling stories of war, life on the trail and how it affected the lives of those who endured and survived. It warmed my heart to see the lasting friendships that were made and their dependence on each other. Each book left me wanting to read more.
Lynda B.