A Storm Hits Valparaiso [Kindle Edition]

A Storm Hits Valparaiso is a work of sweeping historical fiction that captivates and entertains both in terms of the characters and the story narrative. The story follows the exploits of San Martin, a deserter from the Spanish army who returns to South America to fight for the continent's independence from Spain. Of course drawn into all of this are the local inhabitants whose loyalties and actions are tested by the uncertainty of San Martin and his followers' ability to carry out their ambitious task.

Gaughran makes a concerted effort to preserve the accuracy of the historical record and uses the deft touch of his creative imagination to fill in the gaps, as is required in a work of this sort, creating a story that is at once engaging and richly textured.

Adding to this is the world of characters that inhabit the story who are by turns heroic and tragic, vain and magnanimous - in short Gaughran has created believable characters who display the wide range of traits and personalities one would expect in a work of this nature. From military commander to foot soldier to inn keeper to prostitute, each of them attempts to make sense of and survive in a world turned upside down by war and personal tragedy.

The strength of this novel lies in the author's ability to pull together the stories of a wide range of individuals without adversely affecting the story's narrative arc, or worse causing the reader to get too sidetracked in character development at the expense of losing the plot.

I would certainly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys good historical fiction driven by interesting characters and a well conceived and executed narrative.

I have a lot of respect for David Gaughran. I read his blog daily and his non fiction work Let's Get Digital manages to be both inspiring and of practical use so when I saw the chance to get a review copy of his first novel, A Storm Hits Valparaiso I jumped at it, not lease because I saw it as a way of repaying a little bit of what I've gotten from David over the past several months.

A Storm Hits Valparaiso is an epic story of love, hate, brotherhood, power, revenge, and the thirst for independence told from the points of view of a variety of people in positions both high and low. For the sake of perspective, Historical Fiction is not a genre I read a lot and I have no particular interest in South America. My home genre is Epic Fantasy though, so I am fully ready to accept a story that spans a continent where what's at stake is the lives of every single person on the continent.

I wanted to love this book and I ended up just liking it.

Why did I like it?

Well, it has a little bit of everything it claims. There is love, of both the romantic and brotherly varieties. There is the simple struggle for survival of individuals juxtaposed against the larger struggle for the survival of a people with a regional identity. There is the desire of individual slaves to be free smacked right up next to the desire of a nation of people desiring to be free of a colonial power half a world away. In short, it has everything you would want in an epic.

Why then, didn't I love it?

There are two things I would point to but I think they both stem from one overriding factor. The story is too big for the book. I come from a world of Epic Fantasy where doorstopper novels are, if not quite the norm, well within the normal range. A Storm Hits Valparaiso comes in at a bit less than a hundred thousand words which is fairly normal for a novel. But this isn't a normal novel. We don't have a main plot with a few sub plots. Gaughran is trying to tell us a real story from real history and if you haven't noticed, real life is far more complex than your average novel.

To get into the specifics, I think A Storm Hits Valparaiso has two significant flaws.

One is characterization. It is spotty at best. There are, I think, two characters who are decently written though even there, we should have had more. In other cases, including what should have been one of the more emotional subplots there wasn't enough characterization to make me actually care about the character. If I don't care about them I don't care about what happens to them and they--and the novel--lose all the dramatic tension they should have.

The other problem--and it's related--is a showing/telling problem. There are a lot of places where Gaughran tells us something instead of showing us something and the story suffers as a result.

For example, there are two brothers, Jorge and Diego who get separated for a long time. When they get back together they find things aren't quite like they were before and they end up growing apart. Gaughran tells us this and gives us a scene or two to illustrate. It should have been the reverse. Give us nine scenes where we can see that things are different and just a few lines where one of them recognizes the differences.

All in all, if you like historical fiction and/or have a particular affection for South America, I think you'll really enjoy this story.

This was a LT Member Giveaway win. A well writen mini-epic taking place mainly in South America.
This book has a little of everything. Adventure, love, war, friendship, brotherhood. A good read that I did enjoy. Most of the characters were well written with a few not so much. The cast is followed through a liberating war with Spain, and you do end up caring about these characters.
My issue with the book is its length. A story of this magnitude requires more story. Some of the cast members I liked were not well developed enough and some were killed off with little fanfare. Though I suppose war lends itself to that.
I recommend this historical fiction though some will find it unsatisfying in that regard.