Written by: Sam Barone
Submitted By: Chris Okusako
Sam Barone takes the best from my three favorite authors: Zane Grey, Bernard Cornwell, and Wilbur Smith. Like Zane Grey the main characters are presented as people that you can really like and respect. They are thoughtful, introspective, grow in stature, and have interesting relationships. The women tend to play a major role and know how to inspire their men and share in their success. Like Bernard Cornwell, Sam Barone writes great historical fiction. Cornwell is a master at writing about battle and how people react to it. Barone is at least equal to Cornwell! His single battle detail may take 50+ pages to read, and the battles are described through the eyes of many characters both the good and the villainous. I was up until 2:30 in the morning last night reading the climactic battle in Empire Rising, just loving it while at the same time wishing for it to end so that I could go to sleep. Like Wilbur Smith, Sam Barone is a wonderful story teller. But unlike Smith, Barone rarely kills off the people that you grow to admire. And when he does, he doesn't make the reader ill by graphically dismembering them the way Smith does. Lastly, unrelated to any of the three authors I previously mentioned, Sam Barone's characters tend to not just see and react to dangerous situations. What I find vastly interesting is that when there is time, the characters contemplate what they see, try to make sense of it, use the lessons that they have learned, and then try to make knowledgeable decisions. It is hard to believe that Sam Barone has only written two books!!! Well, I am one person that will continue to buy his future books.
