Trail of the Red Butterfly

By: Karl Schlesier

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Employing an authentic map from 1805 and decades of research into Cheyenne culture, Karl H. Schlesier pens a tale as remarkable for its historical detail as for the intensity of its storytelling.

Whirlwind, the twin brother of Stone, disappears during a raid into northeastern New Spain. So Stone brings together Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Gataka warriors to go after his missing brother - but there are many things between earth and sky that oppose his quest.

©2007 Karl H. Schlesier (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Slow start but hang in there

I almost gave up on this book at the very beginning because it has a slow start. But after about the first two hours I was hooked. This is a very good story. The narrator speaks slow but it is just right for the story being told. I really really enjoyed this book and actually slowed down listening to it toward the end because I didn't want it to end but then speeded up at the very end because I wanted to know what happened. :-) I highly recommend.

FANTASTIC

This is a wonderful novel about Cheyenne culture and life in the 19th century. It is well written, very readable and exciting.

A 200 year leap back.

I found the Trail of the Red Butterfly gripping novel. The author has obviously invested years of research into the period and locale for this story. Though the book was written in English, enough of the local Indian dialects and Spanish are used to give the story a flavor of reality. The Southwestern U.S. of 1800 retained the primativeness of the previous thousand years. Indians still lived off the wandering bands of buffalo, wild game and food they could gather. Select a small band of Indians and send them on a 2000 mile circuitious quest to find a lost brother. and you will understand the terms bravery and brotherly love. Make this your next read.

Plains Indian Culture Brought to Life

Imagine yourself, a Spanish lancer in the early 19 century, caught in an ambush in a narrow mountain pass in Northern Mexico, with war paint adorned men shooting muskets and arrows at your troop; as your horses rear uncontrollably preventing you from escaping from certain death. This is but one scene in a richly written tale of life in what became the southwest U.S. and Mexico. The author masterfully describes the rituals which the plains indians invoke in their preparation for battles, including how they are dressed and painted; how they strategize their plans for revenge against the killers of their tribesmen; the rituals they employ after killing their enemies to request their spirit's forgiveness for having killed them.

The book is filled with insights into the culture of plains indians, in this case Cheyenne, Kiowa and Gataka (a tribe closely related to Kiowas and Apaches)

This is a truly entertaining, and excellently written narrative of adventure on the plains.

A story with only good native Americans

What did you like best about Trail of the Red Butterfly? What did you like least?

I liked that you do get the feeling of what it would have been like in the Southwest when the native Americans outnumbered all Europeans.

I thought the characters were not well developed and all the native americans were good and all the europeans were bad.

Has Trail of the Red Butterfly turned you off from other books in this genre?

I liked the genre, but I do not think I would read another book by this author

What three words best describe Jonathan Davis’s voice?

easy to listen

Did Trail of the Red Butterfly inspire you to do anything?

get through it as fast as possible

Any additional comments?

It was not poorly written but very predictable

You can almost imagine being there is person

I don't remember how I came across this book, but I am glad I bought it. The author did a great job bringing the American plains from back then alive. I am no authority on Indian history so I cannot talk to whether the culture depicted is authentic or not. But what I can say is that I felt like I was there riding along as another member of the party. The author have this ability to bring everything to life using words alone.

The story itself was plain. But then who needs a gripping plot line when the pleasure is the ability to immerse oneself into the story itself?

Another story mismatched with an overly perky and proper narrator

Who makes these choices? Terrible match up. Schlesier was one of the greatest researchers of the plains peoples, most especially the Cheyenne. His approach is serious and deeply researched and accurate. The narrator over accentuates and over annunciates. It’s too much like the schoolhouse instruction of how to read a story.
If you know Schleiser’s work and know the Cheyenne get it, the narrator is not unbearable, he just makes it feel like a teen novel.