Best Fiction, Florida Historical Society, Patrick D. Smith Award, 2018. [Rating: PG-13, violence] The Ninth novel in the award-winning "Tropical Frontier" series, The Indian Fighter is, in addition, the First novel in the "Indian Fighter" sub-series. For Jubal and Evie Prescott, there was only one answer: find a new land and create their own opportunities. Indeed, to confront their own destiny. The Second Seminole War would be the longest and most costly of all Indian conflicts in the United States in both lives and national treasure. In 1842, Colonel William J. Worth, commander of the Florida Campaign, declared hostilities at an end. Although as many as 3,000 Seminole and Miccosukee had been relocated to the Oklahoma Territory, several enclaves remained in the extreme southern portions of the peninsula at Big Cypress, Fisheating Creek, Catfish Lake, and New River. A census taken three years later accounted for 120 warriors, (70 Seminoles, 30 Miccosukee, 12 Creek, 4 Uchee, and 4 Choctaw), 100 women, and 140 children - a total of 360 souls. The Florida Indians had prevailed, and old Sam Jones would fulfill his vow to die in the land of his birth. This is a monumental work. It's a huge slice of historical fiction, with characters based on real personages,others fictionalized, and some composite. The storytelling is great--the pace is just right. It is full of twists and turns and converging currents of conflict. Tim Robinson's style is that of a classic yarn-spinner, yet he is firmly grounded in Florida's geography and history. The descriptions of Biscayne Bay and the Everglades take the reader there, feeling the saw blade foliage, hearing the cries of exotic birds. There are scenes so vivid and well-described, the reader carries the imagery in mind for a long time afterward.The characters are great--some are priceless in their foibles (there's a lot of humor in the book). Others--like Jubal Prescott, the protagonist--are many-faceted and complex mixtures of light and darkness. Jubal's grief (which motivates him to become the Indian Fighter of the title) is described to perfection in a way that cannot help but resonate with anyone who has ever known loss. All of the characters have an essential humanity that comes through. For example, the vengeful Indians who engage in savage acts against the settlers are depicted as loving family men too, deeply attached to children and grandchildren, full of natural and human wisdom.We are taken right into the action of the Second Seminole War, and we feel the impact of that cultural clash as Seminole mothers escape into the waters of the Everglades with their children and are defeated, pitiably, by both nature and soldiers; the taking of Indian Key by Indians and the vengeance wreaked upon the (mostly) innocent inhabitants there is imprinted on the reader's mind and heart. This is really great writing. I would urge every serious reader to give themselves the treat of reading Tim Robinson. He shows how great storytelling is done. Tim Robinson is a third generation Floridian, his grandfather having taken up a 100 acre homestead on Cape Canaveral in 1924. It was his grandfather and father who instilled in him a love for everything Florida. Tim grew up in West Palm Beach, halfway between saltwater Lake Worth and freshwater Lake Mangonia, where he spent his childhood and youth traipsing through the woods or biking over to the beach or taking in the wonders of Florida in some fashion or another. He presently lives with his wife, Connie, on a small farm in Indiantown, Florida.