Firestorm

The peace that has endured for half a century between Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag people is coming apart. By 1671, the Wampanoags have lost much of their ancestral territory. Their fur trade is collapsing, their independence is threatened, and colonial authorities are pressuring their sachem, Metacom—known to the English as King Philip—into humiliating concessions. Each new demand deepens the resentment among young warriors who have never known war and believe it is time to reclaim what they've lost. Ned James sees the danger long before open fighting erupts. A Plymouth farmer and militia captain with family ties to both the English and Native worlds, Ned understands that fear and wounded pride are driving both sides toward disaster. His warnings go unheeded. When an interpreter named John Sassamon is murdered and three Wampanoag men are executed for the crime, the fragile peace finally shatters. Soon, settlements across New England are burning. Ned and his son Zack are swept into the fighting, while the rest of the James family faces its own dangers. Hump, Aponi, Tara, Tilly, and their friends must carry warnings, protect refugees, negotiate with Native leaders, and make impossible choices as old alliances collapse. Zack, too young and headstrong to stay home safely, discovers that courage has a price—and that war makes no distinction between soldiers and children. Amid them, historical figures including Benjamin Church, Josiah Winslow, Awashonks, Weetamoe, Canonchet, Mary Rowlandson, and King Philip struggle to protect their people and shape the outcome of a conflict none can fully control. Battles erupt from Swansea and Bloody Brook to Springfield, the Great Swamp, and Turner's Falls. Captives fight to survive, Native communities split over allegiance, and Church's revolutionary company of English soldiers and Native scouts develops a new form of warfare that will help bring the conflict to its violent conclusion. Yet Firestorm is more than a story of battles. It is a family chronicle of loyalty, survival, friendship, and the human cost of conquest. By presenting the war through English and Native perspectives, Glen F. Alden brings intimacy and complexity to a defining yet often overlooked chapter of early American history. Meticulously researched and rich in historical figures and events, Firestorm is the third James family novel, following Heat Lightning and Nor'easters. It is a sweeping account of King Philip's War and of a family caught between two worlds as New England descends into fire.