Weekly Reader: Everlasting Spring Beyond Olympus Volume 2 Colton and Blue Star by Francis Audrain; Sequel Mostly Better Than The Original Everlasting Spring Book
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Francis Audrain's previous volume in The Everlasting Spring Beyond Olympus series, Benjamin and Boudicca was an incredibly uneven work. It recreated the leadership and independence in Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, but it came to a screeching halt when Benjamin, a newly converted Christian found himself in Britain and spent most of his time trying to convert the queen to his religion rather than actually helping her fight the Romans. It was clear that Audrain cared more about pushing an agenda rather than telling an engaging historical fiction or even an accurate one (especially since Christianity didn't enter Britain until centuries after Boudicca's death). I suggested that it might have been better if Benjamin encountered a historical character that actually did convert to Christianity or at least a fictional character.
However, Audrain's second volume, Colton and Blue Star, improves on that. While Christianity is a huge part of this book, it is relegated to the background with characters letting their actions and values represent their religious beliefs rather than constantly talking about them. It also presents a fascinating novel with characters living through times of great change and turmoil and how they survived through times of emigration, violence, harsh conditions, war, and racism. Except for a few respects which I will get to later, it is mostly a better volume than Benjamin and Boudicca by far.
The book begins in 1820-40's with Fiona Daley, an Irishwoman who loves to study the history, literature, and legends of her country, particularly the story of Boudicca (who is implied to be her ancestor, tying the two books together). With Protestants taking land and harassing Catholics, Fiona and her parents decide to emigrate to the United States. On the boat, both of Fiona's parents die and she falls in love with Aaron Patrick Cohan, a sailor. They marry and Fiona gives birth to their son, Colton Patrick Cohan.
Fiona and Aaron are pretty interesting characters who unfortunately don't get as much time as they should. It would have been nice for the book to focus on them a bit more or better yet, Audrain made a second book about Fiona and Aaron and made Colton and Blue Star the third book.
Well Colton is a good character as well and this book deals mostly with his adulthood where he moves to the west, gets involved with the Civil War, and falls in love with Blue Star, a beautiful Native American woman.
Colt goes on his own after he kills a man who raped his mother. As many do, in the mid 1800’s, the young man goes west. From a historical perspective, one of the best moments in the book is when Colton is in St. Louis. He sees several steamers and covered wagons all with the same destination as him. It is awe inspiring and at the same time sad at the thought of a country on the verge of expanding and eventually causing the decline of the environment and the people who lived there first. It is possible to feel both hopeful and in despair about the future that we know is coming.
There are plenty of moments of historical or religious diatribe where the action stops and someone explains something, usually some form of exposition that slows the plot and even some of the characterization, but thankfully it’s not as present or as distracting as it is in Benjamin and Boudicca. Mostly the exposition serves more of a purpose than to give a sermon to the characters and by extension the Reader. Instead, it is used for educational purposes like when Fiona is teaching Colton about his country’s history and why she and her husband immigrated there or as a backstory like when Colton’s friend, Jim Hunter explains about his travels and why he is going west. The exposition can be a bit tedious but does show that Audrain certainly did his homework in writing his novel and inserting his fictional characters in this historical setting. Perhaps, he loved the research so much that he couldn’t bear to part with it so he inserted it into the dialogue as history lessons.
The plot doesn’t get moving again until Colt goes on the Oregon Trail (1980’s kids will surely recall the many bouts of dysentery and cholera, snake bites, and drowning in rivers along the way). There are some interesting details about the costs of horses and wagons, how doctors treated the patients on the trail, and the appearance of a Pony Express rider. There is also a real sense of place and setting as the wagoners travel from Missouri, to Kansas, to Nebraska, and so on. Plains, plateaus, flora, fauna, and weather are present in many paragraphs. The intent of the setting is to recognize the vastness of the lands that surrounds and overwhelms the characters.
Thankfully, the book does not vilify Native Americans. In fact, it emphasizes how friendly and peaceable most encounters between Natives and European Americans actually are by showing trading exchanges and Natives guiding the white people along their path. In fact the few “Indian attacks” in the book are shown to be isolated incidents, rivalries between tribes, or specifically in self-defense because the European-Americans attacked first.
Colt is, like I said, an interesting character. In the beginning he is intelligent through his history lessons but also awestruck on the trail. Everything is a new and exciting experience for him, so he learns by example. He also shows tremendous courage when he goes to help Yomba, a Shoshone chief, save his daughter, Blue Star, who was kidnapped by a rival tribe of Paiutes.
Though cleverly, we are saved from a typical fight because Colt is taken out easily, is resuscitated by a nun, and learns that Blue Star, who is helping to nurse him, escaped on her own accord. Our hero, folks, rides a horse and gets knocked out! Clearly, there are moments to show that Colt, while eager and brave, is still out of his element and is capable of messing up and making plenty of mistakes. He also has a temporary attraction to the gold other riders have found but thankfully it doesn’t drive him to the extreme avarice and addiction of gold fever that many of the miners in California and Alaska would succumb to. Instead he settles in Virginia City, Nevada and agrees to be the partner and bodyguard to Bill Stewart to help keep the peace in Virginia City (an extremely tall order as there are plenty of violent shootouts, Southern sympathizers taking the Civil War to the west, and con men taking advantage of newcomers).
Unlike Benjamin and Boudica, Colton and Blue Star don't just talk incessantly about Christianity. Colt acts according to his beliefs. Coming from a family that was treated horribly in their home country, Colt has a natural aversion to slavery so sides with the Union and the belief in making the United States free and equal for everyone. He also has to show a lot of honor and integrity by upholding the law against various people who want to take the Civil War to Virginia City.
While Colt may not be tempted by gold, he is tempted by other interests, showing that though he bestows Christian behavior he is far from saintly, perfect, or self-righteous. He briefly returns to the east, discovers the fate of his parents, and enlists in the Union Army. After being wounded, he enters into an affair with Virginia, a nurse. Colt’s dalliance with Virginia squeaks by because he is under the impression that Blue Star returned to her tribe and married, but he has very little resistance in engaging in an affair with the other woman. In later chapters, it does not go unnoticed and leads to subsequent results.
While Colt is well written, Blue Star does not fare as well. She is written as beautiful, kind, quick-witted in learning to speak English and effectively communicating with Colt and other white people, strong-willed in escaping from the Paiutes on her own, and loyal to Colton who becomes her lover. However, she is treated more as the object rather than the subject. She does not get a point of view chapter and even disappears from the narrative for a time. Most of her thoughts and actions are interpreted by Colton so she is often deprived of her agency. She shows some spunk in later chapters when Colton is assigned to keep an eye on Confederate sympathizers and saboteurs. She learns information by talking to Confederates and provides it to the Union, but she is still often seen as helpless and needing rescue by Colton. It is a sharp contrast to the woman who escaped from the Paiutes and walked her own way from captivity to freedom.
It could be since Boudicca was such a strong protagonist in the previous book, that anyone after her would falter. But Fiona is an effective lead in the beginning of this book and even gets the POV in the first two chapters. In Virginia City, there are plenty of well written women that are capable of representing themselves such as Julia Bulette, a Madam who helped build the Virginia City community. Fun Fact: Prostitutes often helped build many of the western towns and communities, using their money to build buildings like stores, schools, and churches. They eventually became influential businesswomen and community leaders in their own right. Their contribution was so important that these prostitutes were part of the reason that Wyoming was the first state to grant women’s suffrage. It’s great that Audrain includes this bit of true history in his writing.
So Blue Star’s uneven characterization and exclusion in telling her own story is even more evident with better women written about in her own book. Audrain should have developed equal time to his heroine as he did in his hero, alternating their perspectives as he did with Benjamin and Boudicca.
Colton and Blue Star deals with much of the hardship and sacrifice of the time period, of living and surviving in an unknown land and fighting to hold the country together. There are plenty of deaths and great sadness, but there is also a strong sense of community, love, family, and friendship that can be found during those times.
