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fourtriplezed's review against another edition
4.0
Author Rohan Wilson has written an impressive historical novel that has left me considering it as good a debut that I have ever read.
The main character is a Vandemonian born indigenous man called Black Bill. Bill is beholden to John Batman to assist in the hunting down of plangermaireener clansmen and women as part of the Black Wars that were part of the sad history of Van Diemen’s Land. Along with a crew of convicts looking for their pass’s to freedom and Aboriginal trackers from the mainland Wilson writes a tale of both brutality and beauty about this Roving Party intent on genocide and the rewards that would go with the capture of some of the clans people.
The book is many themed. Man’s inhumanity to his fellow man looms large. Also covered is the deep spiritual aspect of knowing the value of the land that one is part of be that as an individual or through a clan. Black Bill for example never says what is on his mind in being part of the Roving Party with its murderous intents but as the reader I always got the impression he was torn between the old world and the new. The brutality of some of the events is written in such a way as to leave nothing to the imagination. This is countered with beautiful descriptions of the starkness of the country side and the extremely inclement weather that the protagonist’s encounter on their journey. The seamlessness of the telling of the story and the description of the land was fantastic.
I was immersed from page one to the very end and recommend The Roving Party to anyone with any interest in the subject of Van Diemen’s Land be that fact or fiction.
The main character is a Vandemonian born indigenous man called Black Bill. Bill is beholden to John Batman to assist in the hunting down of plangermaireener clansmen and women as part of the Black Wars that were part of the sad history of Van Diemen’s Land. Along with a crew of convicts looking for their pass’s to freedom and Aboriginal trackers from the mainland Wilson writes a tale of both brutality and beauty about this Roving Party intent on genocide and the rewards that would go with the capture of some of the clans people.
The book is many themed. Man’s inhumanity to his fellow man looms large. Also covered is the deep spiritual aspect of knowing the value of the land that one is part of be that as an individual or through a clan. Black Bill for example never says what is on his mind in being part of the Roving Party with its murderous intents but as the reader I always got the impression he was torn between the old world and the new. The brutality of some of the events is written in such a way as to leave nothing to the imagination. This is countered with beautiful descriptions of the starkness of the country side and the extremely inclement weather that the protagonist’s encounter on their journey. The seamlessness of the telling of the story and the description of the land was fantastic.
I was immersed from page one to the very end and recommend The Roving Party to anyone with any interest in the subject of Van Diemen’s Land be that fact or fiction.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
‘The Governor is payin us to instil a lesson in the obtuse skulls of these dark skins.’
Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania)’s Black War was fought between 1804 and 1830 when the new and old inhabitants of the island clashed violently over occupation and use of the land and its resources. The end result of the Black War was the dispossession and near annihilation of the indigenous inhabitants. In this novel, researched over a number of years, Rohan Wilson focuses on one roving party: sanctioned by Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur, and was led by John Batman in 1829. While the precise demarcation between fiction and fact is unclear, the story has its own momentum and its own raw impact.
In 1829, Van Diemen’s Land had been a British penal colony for 26 years. John Batman was then a grazier (he went on to found Melbourne), and this roving party was to consist of nine men: Batman himself, his farmhand William Gould, four convicts (Baxter, Clarke, Gumm and Toosey), two black trackers from New South Wales (Pigeon and Crook) and Black Bill.
John Batman tells the roving party: ‘There is among them a chief. A warrior. Some say witch. He is called Manalargena.’ ‘You must bring him down before all others.’
Black Bill, referred to as the Vandemonian, is an indigenous man who has been educated and raised by Europeans. (There is an historical ‘Black Bill’ – William Ponsonby about whom I would like to know more.) He belongs to both cultures, and to neither. As the novel opens, Black Bill is approached by Manalargena to fight with his indigenous clansmen:
‘Who is brother. Who is hunter. They forget this thing.’
Black Bill refuses: he has already agreed to accompany Batman. It may be a pragmatic choice: the members of the roving party have been offered freedom, land grants and money; but it is not to be an easy one.
‘It was through old country they went, a thousand generations black.’
The events, relationships and confrontations depict the brutal world of early colonial Van Diemen’s Land. While many of the acts depicted are violent and cruel, each has a reason and its place in the narrative. The descriptions of the natural world contrast its beauty: ‘the white cotton crown of Ben Lomond’ and hostility: ‘They scanned the weave of alpine scrub along their sights. To follow him into that realm was a near thing to suicide.’, and add to the tension of the story.
Black Bill is the central character in this novel, and it is Black Bill’s relationships with his wife Katherine, with John Batman, with Manalargena and with others that brings this novel to life.
A very haunting life, based on troubling historical events.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania)’s Black War was fought between 1804 and 1830 when the new and old inhabitants of the island clashed violently over occupation and use of the land and its resources. The end result of the Black War was the dispossession and near annihilation of the indigenous inhabitants. In this novel, researched over a number of years, Rohan Wilson focuses on one roving party: sanctioned by Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur, and was led by John Batman in 1829. While the precise demarcation between fiction and fact is unclear, the story has its own momentum and its own raw impact.
In 1829, Van Diemen’s Land had been a British penal colony for 26 years. John Batman was then a grazier (he went on to found Melbourne), and this roving party was to consist of nine men: Batman himself, his farmhand William Gould, four convicts (Baxter, Clarke, Gumm and Toosey), two black trackers from New South Wales (Pigeon and Crook) and Black Bill.
John Batman tells the roving party: ‘There is among them a chief. A warrior. Some say witch. He is called Manalargena.’ ‘You must bring him down before all others.’
Black Bill, referred to as the Vandemonian, is an indigenous man who has been educated and raised by Europeans. (There is an historical ‘Black Bill’ – William Ponsonby about whom I would like to know more.) He belongs to both cultures, and to neither. As the novel opens, Black Bill is approached by Manalargena to fight with his indigenous clansmen:
‘Who is brother. Who is hunter. They forget this thing.’
Black Bill refuses: he has already agreed to accompany Batman. It may be a pragmatic choice: the members of the roving party have been offered freedom, land grants and money; but it is not to be an easy one.
‘It was through old country they went, a thousand generations black.’
The events, relationships and confrontations depict the brutal world of early colonial Van Diemen’s Land. While many of the acts depicted are violent and cruel, each has a reason and its place in the narrative. The descriptions of the natural world contrast its beauty: ‘the white cotton crown of Ben Lomond’ and hostility: ‘They scanned the weave of alpine scrub along their sights. To follow him into that realm was a near thing to suicide.’, and add to the tension of the story.
Black Bill is the central character in this novel, and it is Black Bill’s relationships with his wife Katherine, with John Batman, with Manalargena and with others that brings this novel to life.
A very haunting life, based on troubling historical events.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
leighkhoopes's review against another edition
2.0
Two and a half stars. I was intrigued by the premise of The Roving Party, and it is very well-written, but large parts of it are exceptionally dull. Specifically, when it's nothing but the men wandering in the wilderness for pages at a time--that gets really old, really quickly.
The last 30 pages or so are the best part of the entire book, when Katherine joins Black Bill after the death of their baby and Bill finally breaks, killing the two wanderers who captured and abused the young girl. I could have really cared less about John Batman (which, I understand that this is a historical fiction, but you have to understand American readers are going to constantly think about the Dark Knight every time they see that name and not a Tasmanian bounty hunter, who also seems like a terrible piece of shit. It is really hilarious in some cases, and I often felt bad for laughing to myself about it.) and the convicts and their quarrels once it got down to Bill and his wife on their own. They're the most interesting characters in the book, and their actions towards the end are jaw-droppingly awesome.
Another problem I had was with the punctuation, or lack thereof, and the random usage of Aboriginal language and extensive Australian slang. With the slang, most is provided with enough context so you get an idea of what they're talking about, but the Aboriginal phrases slow stuff down and are very rarely effectively translated or implied. All in all, it was a pretty quick read with mostly short chapters, but there's much the somewhat over-stylized writing and vague language choices leave to be desired.
*I received an advance copy of The Roving Party as part of the First Reads program.*
The last 30 pages or so are the best part of the entire book, when Katherine joins Black Bill after the death of their baby and Bill finally breaks, killing the two wanderers who captured and abused the young girl. I could have really cared less about John Batman (which, I understand that this is a historical fiction, but you have to understand American readers are going to constantly think about the Dark Knight every time they see that name and not a Tasmanian bounty hunter, who also seems like a terrible piece of shit. It is really hilarious in some cases, and I often felt bad for laughing to myself about it.) and the convicts and their quarrels once it got down to Bill and his wife on their own. They're the most interesting characters in the book, and their actions towards the end are jaw-droppingly awesome.
Another problem I had was with the punctuation, or lack thereof, and the random usage of Aboriginal language and extensive Australian slang. With the slang, most is provided with enough context so you get an idea of what they're talking about, but the Aboriginal phrases slow stuff down and are very rarely effectively translated or implied. All in all, it was a pretty quick read with mostly short chapters, but there's much the somewhat over-stylized writing and vague language choices leave to be desired.
*I received an advance copy of The Roving Party as part of the First Reads program.*
lisa_setepenre's review against another edition
4.0
In 1829, a roving party enters the Tasmanian wilderness with aim of massacring any of the indigenous population they find. Led by John Batman, it is made up for four convicts seeking their freedom, two black trackers from New South Wales, a downtrodden farmhand and Black Bill. Black Bill has been brought up by white settlers, his loyalty given to Batman, but his heritage as an indigenous Tasmanian cannot be forgotten, even as he hunts down Manalargena, the much-feared warrior, witch and headsman.
The Roving Party is an exquisitely told but brutal story. There is something incredibly lyrical and fluid about Rohan Wilson's writing, that no matter how brutal, how ugly The Roving Party gets – it is quite a dark tale – there is still some beauty to be found in the words.
For me, this didn't quite reach the heights of Wilson's [b:To Name Those Lost|23206603|To Name Those Lost|Rohan Wilson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411092734s/23206603.jpg|42750252]. I felt a bit muddled at times – which was possibly caused by the use of heavy colloquial speech and the decision not to use quotation marks to indicate speech. However, for me, To Name Those Lost was such a powerful, towering read that it feels unfair to expect any read to live up to that – and The Roving Party is, on its own, extremely powerful.
4.5 stars.
The Roving Party is an exquisitely told but brutal story. There is something incredibly lyrical and fluid about Rohan Wilson's writing, that no matter how brutal, how ugly The Roving Party gets – it is quite a dark tale – there is still some beauty to be found in the words.
For me, this didn't quite reach the heights of Wilson's [b:To Name Those Lost|23206603|To Name Those Lost|Rohan Wilson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411092734s/23206603.jpg|42750252]. I felt a bit muddled at times – which was possibly caused by the use of heavy colloquial speech and the decision not to use quotation marks to indicate speech. However, for me, To Name Those Lost was such a powerful, towering read that it feels unfair to expect any read to live up to that – and The Roving Party is, on its own, extremely powerful.
4.5 stars.
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