The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for stories within stories, of tales written in an epistolary way.

This one captures us recursively, from a modern scholar who has a great grandpa whose written records are in great demand--and from there we learn, feel the growing dread, and fall into a kind of hell within this sometime Lutheran pastor's head in 1912--as he recounts his long accounting of a "confession" by an ex-Blackfoot tribe member.

This nesting works really well in my opinion. Getting to know everything about Good Stab and his people, his long experiences and the sheer HISTORY of his people, as written in the context of a white priest who listens, has all the earmarks of a modern version of Interview with a Vampire.

And, indeed, that's exactly what it is. No Lestat, of course, but something less--and so much more.

There's a ton of heartbreak here. And that's not just about the horrors of what America did to the Indians, but all the personal tragedies, too. The horror and the rage and the revenge work SO very well in this mix.

That being said, there were times when the pacing made it a bit hard to stay immersed. But overall, I thought it was a fantastic tale.

Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

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