Review: Name recognition gimmick goes only so far, but perhaps far enough
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2014
"The last time you heard of me and Tom was in that book Sam Clemens wrote ... Now Tom and I are a mite older and a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then ... We've been reading a lot of books and our English has improved a little." ‒ Huck Finn, from the opening lines of REDEMPTIONBy the end of the first couple of paragraphs of REDEMPTION by Andrew Joyce, the author manages to separate Tom and Huck from anything that came before in their previous lives created by Mark Twain. Why, even Becky was rumored to have run off with a corset salesman back in '54.  Indeed, the improved language skills from all that fancy book learnin' that our heroes hoisted aboard make them virtually unrecognizable. Whatever adventures they have here or in the future as adults, they're on their own.REDEMPTION takes up at the beginning of the Civil War when Huck and Tom join the Confederate Army. After a minor tussle, during which they pick up a sidekick for the plot's duration, a young Union soldier named Jed, the story jumps forward twelve years to Colorado Territory, where it pretty much remains except for an aside in Hawaii and a brief closing in New York City (!) in 1895. Huck is the first-person narrator for the bulk of the tale. It doesn't seem like there'll be any sequels or prequels.REDEMPTION is a classic Western morality play of good vs. evil far removed from those lazy days on the Missouri side of the Mississippi where our two heroes of yore grew up. The players in the White Hats are, of course, Huck, Tom and Jed. And all three are square-jawed, determined, honest, upright, brave, principled and straight-shootin' WASP American fellers that any frontier mother would be proud to have as sons-in-law, by God. There are no grey areas of personal character here (such as in Eastwood's award winning filmUnforgiven.)Speaking of Westerns in the film genre, I gather Joyce has seen his share. While reading REDEMPTION, I detected strains of at leastShane,Dances with Wolves, andWyatt Earp. As a matter of fact, Andrew's sagebrush saga would probably make a pretty decent movie with the right director and cast.As a book worth reading or not, REDEMPTION is certainly the former, though the plot elements are formulaic and the Huck, Tom and Jed personae aren't particularly stressed by any challenges to their stalwart codes of conduct. As pure escapism for filling a couple of hours on a plane or while on lunch breaks during the work week, it's more than adequate 4-star entertainment if you're not expecting nuanced conflicts. So, saddle-up, pardners.