I kind of forgot that I'd requested this book - and also to publish my review. (Oops.)

It's an interesting western novel with a difference. The dash of fantasy adds something extra to the genre, and it's well done. It's like "Maverick" if there were bored gods and fantastical elements thrown in, but with less whimsy and a bit more realistic grit.

Worth checking out, if you want a western with a difference.

This is a gripping, dark and gritty novel. I enjoyed every minute of it. I liked the Cain and Abel plot line and the ties to Job intertwined with Native American deities. An all around great read.

Once in a while you come across a book that you can tell you should like - it's well written, it touches subjects that appeal to you, characters that are strong - but for whatever reason you just can't connect with it. <em>The Trials of Solomon Parker</em> by Eric Scott Fischl is just such a book for me.

We're in 1916 Butte, Montana. Solomon Parker is a broken-down old man who has always managed to stay a step ahead of his debts, but time is running out as his debts to some pretty nasty people are increasing. But ... deus ex machina ... the "Above Ones" - the gods of The People, in the form of a man known as Marked Face - are looking for a little excitement and offer Solomon a chance to gamble his way out of debt.

There is a fair amount of Native American back story that takes place here, and I do enjoy Native American history (and literature), but it's clear in the writing that this isn't tribe specific and Fischl tells us in his notes at the end that this was done on purpose - to give us the touch of Native American sensibility without giving us a tribe to relate to. I understand and appreciate Fischl's sentiment that he's not Native and these aren't his stories to tell, but combining Native stories and making them into one 'generic' Native tribe isn't 'not telling' a Native story. None the less, it was actually my favorite part of the story.

There is a scene early in the book which I highlighted and wrote "What is the point of this vile bit?" Suffice it to say that it's a moment with a couple of guys talking crudely about the things a woman could do with her private parts. I saw no purpose for this at the time and still don't feel it was necessary.

But overall I never connected with this book. I didn't care enough about Solomon Parker to care whatever happened to him. And since the story revolves around Parker, if he doesn't connect with the reader, then it just isn't going to work.

The Native American aspects to the story kept me interested, but it wasn't strong enough to make up for what I was missing with Parker.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Trials of Solomon Parker</em> by Eric Scott Fiscl is a unique fantasy set in the American west in the early 20th century, but the main character doesn't hold interest.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars!

The Trials of Solomon Parker is a difficult novel to define, other than awesome! Set in Butte, Montana in the early 1900's, it features Native Americans, deep ugly coal mines, mob bosses, boxing, lots and lots of drinking and, oh yeah, second chances.

Solomon Parker is a hard working man who has fallen on some hard times. His wife seems to be suffering from postpartum depression, his infant son is colicky and never stops crying, and Sol just wants to gamble and drink it all away. Add to that a fire in the coal mine and an ugly scene between mine owners and union organizers, and things only get worse. Then, Sol meets Marked Face and has the opportunity to gamble for a second chance. Will he do it, and more importantly, will he win? You'll have to read this to find out.

I requested this book from NetGalley, solely based on the description and the cover. I ended up seriously impressed-most especially with the quality of writing. There were scenes during that mine fire where I felt like I had trouble breathing-they were so smoky, claustrophobic and scary. I felt like I was there.

Interspersed with the main narrative was a bit of Native American back story. This wasn't tribe specific, but it did involve a number of traditional stories that rang true to me, (and really weren't all that different than stories from other religions and belief systems.) The skill with which this was all woven together was admirable, easy to follow, and hard to break away from.

Thinking about this story overnight, I raised my rating a little. This book captured and kept my imagination. It brought Butte, Montana to life, and showed real prowess depicting what the day to day was like for people back then. And that's before all the really cool stuff is taken into account!

So however one wants to label this book, be it historical fiction, a western, a native American fable, or a story about second chances and fate, you can be sure to label it DAMN ENTERTAINING and unique. I highly recommend it!

*Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the free e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

Mining towns. Legends of the Above Ones and Maatakssi. Strife, conflict and tragedy at the Richest Hill on Earth. As stated, this book is based loosely on a retelling of the story of Job. Rch native folk lore interspersed throughout, enriches the narrative and the tale. Enjoyable.

Well.

We have something very new and strange here, I think.

While The Trials of Solomon Parker shares something with Fiscal's previous book, Dr Potter's Medicine Show - a Western setting, magic - there are also clear difference. This is a very political book, taking in, as it does, nascent Union organisation in the deadly mines of Butte, Montana ("Butte brings to mind nothing more than a rotting carcass, the hill burrowed out underneath, hollowed like a dead thing swarmed with carrion beetles, the stink of decay rising up"), the position of Native Americans, and collusion between organised crime and the company bosses.

There's also religion and philosophy.

It's a dizzying mix.

David Solomon Parker, the titular character, is at the centre of the vortex. A miner when we meet him, he has a troubled past with a marriage gone tragically wrong. His wife Elizabeth - who we see first, her story opens the book - suffers from what I think would now be called post-natal depression, and this leads to terrible events. Years later, Parker is underground, emerging only to sleep, drink and gamble away his pay. It's almost as though he is hiding from daylight.

There is - as the quote at the front hints - more than an element of the trials of Job here. Job, that upright man whom the Almighty and Satan toy with to see if he'll break. The man who loses everything, through no fault of his own. This theme - of divinities playing with mortals' lives - plays out through the book, the powers - the Above Ones - being vaguely identified as Native American gods, mediated with by an old sorcerer. He has plans for Sol, but also for Sol's best friend, "Billy", a Native man who was taken into a Government school that made him a "brown-skinned White man".

Perhaps the idea is that Billy will recover his heritage? It's not actually very clear. Wreathed about with myths and legends of the brothers Maatakssi and Siinatssi, a sort of Cain and Abel, and their dealings with the Above Ones, the story takes a kind of quantum jump to follow different alternatives. Again and again Solomon is presented with an opportunity to mend what's been broken, but that means overcoming his own failings - his drinking, his gambling - and also finding a way to live a moral life in the boomtown of Butte.

There are, it seems, many ways to live immorally in Butte...

Reminding me somewhat of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, this story holds together the perspectives of the struggling miners - an important side plot is their attempt to improve safety standards in the mines - the crime boss and, of course, the Native Americans - two brothers and nephew/ son. Almost daunting in depictions of suffering and cruelty, it's nevertheless clear that these are not, quite, the point. Rather the book is - I think - a challenge to the idea of a happy ending, of achieving one state that resolves everyone's problems. Time and time again characters aim for such a state - Billy, in working at the mental hospital, doing what good he can, Sol, over and over again, even the union organiser Frank Little ("Thought it would be different, this time") - and of course Maatakssi and Siinatssi in the recounted legends. It's all about dicing with the gods, winning over them or cheating them, extracting a favour, a promise, a blessing.

It never quite seems to work, though. The House never loses. There are always loose ends which trip everyone up. Billy loses his friend. Sol encounters, or causes, tragedy after tragedy. Little himself is led to a lonely Calvary (he's a real person, it did happen). And in the myths, Maatakssi's attempt to redeem his tribe leads, in the end, to a catastrophe for them.

That leaves in doubt the outcome to the dramatic finale of the book - one wants to believe there has been some eucatastrophe, some healing, that things have finally gone right: but the real setting of the book in a specific time and place suggests it hasn't, at least not for Billy and his kin.

It's a visceral book, filled with the sights and sounds and, above all, smells of the squalid boomtown. Especially the smells. Everywhere there is smoke. Smoke drifting over from Idaho making Elizabeth's laundry stink even when it's washed. Smoke drifting through the mines, warning of ruinous fire. Sulphurous smoke from the works blanketing Butte. Smoke from cheap tobacco in the taverns and dives, smoke from expensive cigars in the crime boss's lair. Smoke from the sorcerer's fire, smoke from the burning house. Fischl makes it all very, very real, even as he's playing games with consequences, keeping us guessing about who is alive and who's dead. The book is a dream to read, and worth reading slowly, taking in the nuances and spotting the recurring themes: a prizefight, a scene replayed from a different perspective, an outcome the same, despite a changed starting point.

To summarise: I'd strongly recommend this book. It's deeper, darker and scarier than Dr Potter's Medicine Show - which was already deep, dark and scary.

I'm intrigued to see what comes next.

The Trials of Solomon Parker by Eric Scott Fischl is a “What would happen if you could go back and fix your mistakes?” book which succeeds when it breaks away from the expected pattern for such a book.

Which it does.

A lot.

It succeeds a lot.

Maybe it’s just me, but the book’s title character pulled me into this book. Sol is a hard-working guy with a good heart. He’s fiercely loyal to his fellow miners, even if they screw up. He doesn’t always make the right choices, but he’s close. Like, really close.

Look, I’m not going to lie to you. Sol goes through some tough times. If you get attached to the guy like I did, you’re in for some tough spots. He has to make some tough choices, and he needs to take some risks. It’s not easy.

But it’s worth it.

This is historical speculative fiction, which I admit isn’t my usual thing. Butte, Montana circa 1916 is brought to life in this book in incredible detail. Turns out the different aspects of that town in that point in history are absolutely fascinating. With the boom brought on by the mines (wow, the mines were cool, too) Butte’s population shot up in no time at all-and had the growing pains to show it. Throw in some pivotal struggles to unionize the mine workers and you have a pretty damn interesting point in history.

Sometimes a book just nails the ending and I want spend time discussing it with someone.

But you haven’t read it yet.

So go read The Trials of Solomon Parker.

We’d like to think that, if we had the chance to do something over again, we’d do better the second time. This is what reincarnation is about, after all. But in Eric Scott Fischl’s The Trials of Solomon Parker, we see a pair of men who have the chance to take back their biggest mistakes only to see their lives go wrong in new directions.

Solomon Parker and Billy Morgan are tragic men of the old school. Parker lost his wife to madness and his son to a bad decision during a mine fire. His gambling addiction means that he’s always on the run from the people he owes money to. Morgan is caught between his government school education, his native heritage (unspecified), and his very strange father and uncle. For the first quarter of the book, from 1900 to 1917, we see their lives getting worse and worse (mostly Parker’s). But when they’re both at their lowest point, Morgan’s uncle, Marked Face, offers them a gamble.

The first time Parker gambles with Marked Face, he has no idea what the stakes are. He wins, but it’s clear that he was supposed to. The next thing he and Morgan know, it’s 1916, right before the fire that would kill Parker’s son. Over and over in The Trials of Solomon Parker, Parker gets the chance to make things right. He can remember how events went wrong before, so he knows what he has to do to change things. The problem is that the universe is messing with both men and it has a nasty sense of entertainment.

As the novel develops, Morgan (and we readers) learn more about how he and Parker got tangled up in an ongoing story that goes back a lot farther than he would have realized. We are introduced to a new mythology based on several North American tribes*. For every bad decision Parker or Morgan made, there’s another one behind it in this new mythology. Untangling it would mean going back to the beginning, but is it necessary? Parker and Morgan have to decide if their new lives are better or worse than their old, and how much they’re willing to risk for another gamble.

While other novels about reincarnation and section changes tend to be hopeful overall, The Trials of Solomon Parker has a more cynical view of human nature. Its darkness and refusal to make one set of lives better than the other had me thinking less about human nature, however, than about chaos. Making a different decision the second time around doesn’t mean that everything will be better; it just means that everything will be different. The Trials of Solomon Parker is a darkly philosophical novel, one that feels very honest for all its lack of hope.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 3 October 2017.

* Fischl states in the author’s note at the end that he was deliberately not using any one tribe’s stories, to avoid cultural appropriation. This brings up other questions, of course, but that’s a whole other blog post.