Jed Smith: Freedom River

Good book! Like most good historical fiction, the main points and characters are historically accurate (just enough). Jedediah Smith shows up on almost every list of famous Mountain Men; trappers and scouts and explorers of the West in the 1800s. Smith is unique in his education. As a boy in Pennsylvania he received an education, of sorts. Hints of how this may have influenced him are sprinkled throughout the book. The result is this, easy to read, novel felt a bit like a blend of a Louis L’Amour novel and Hampton Sides excellent Kit Carson novel “Blood and Thunder”. Although each novel in this American Explorer series is written by a different author (which, of course, makes all the difference) I have ordered a few more books in the series.