Then and Now

I ended up throwing away my copy of Time Enough For Love without finishing it. It was old, bought at a used bookstore, and I knocked it off my bed, the weekend after I wrote that post, and about a hundred pages fell out and scattered across the floor. The book just wasn't worth trying to piece back together. Sure, it was getting more interesting, though. Ah, well.

Now I'm about halfway through The Return of Little Big Man. If I lay off the comics, I'll probably finish it before I get back to work on Tuesday (HOORAY FOR VETERANS DAY!). It's an okay book. I think, at least so far, the reason it's not as good as the first is because Jack Crabb is just aimless. In the first book, he started out growing up and just had to survive, first with the Cheyenne and then with the Pendrakes. Next he wanted to be a good white person so he got himself a wife and child and business. Then after they were taken from him and after his search and a little battle, he decided to be a good Cheyenne and got himself a wife who he got pregnant, until she, along with a lot of other Cheyenne, was killed at Washita River. He went into a decline after that, but eventually got it into his mind to take revenge on George Custer. The Jack of Little Big Man wasn't just watching history happen, he was participating in it while trying to survive it. So far, the Jack of The Return of Little Big Man has pretty much been a witness to history drifting from the Cheyenne he was with at the end of the first book to Deadwood (at the time Wild Bill Hickok was killed), to Dodge City (where he tended bar and watched Bat Masterson go about doing things), to Tombstone (where tended bar and watched Wyatt Erp and his family, and Doc Holiday, stir up trouble). Now he's traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody in that show, keeping Buffalo Bill in plenty of alcohol. The Jack in this book is just so darn passive. Sure, he sees interesting things, but because they're so specific to well know individuals, he can't take part. There's no more battle in which he can play a part in. I'm sure he'll be heading to Europe and meeting Annie Oakley soon, I hope he gets to actually do something by then.