A New Beginning

Bill Conner's seventh entry in the Wolde Family Saga is an ambitious undertaking — 740 pages of historical family fiction tracing multiple generations from New York City to Kentucky. The story opens with a cablegram that sets death, inheritance, and westward migration in motion, and the multi-generational canvas gives readers a sweep of American experience that saga fans tend to love. The honest problem is that this is a self-published title with virtually no independent critical footprint. There is no outside reviewer to help a potential reader gauge whether the writing rewards the investment of time a 740-page novel demands. Readers who are already committed to the Wolde Family Saga and want to see it through have reason to pick this up. Cold-start readers have little evidence to go on beyond the premise.