Sonya: Before there was revolution, there was empire and the brutal struggle that shaped it. Join us as we uncover the forgotten war that set the stage for America's fight for freedom. Master Wings Publishing.

Books that inspire, educate, and last. Welcome to the Master Wings Publishing Podcast. I'm Sonya, Associate Publisher here at Master Wings, joined by our Business Manager, Jeff.

Jeff: Hey, Sonya. So good to be here.

Sonya: Good to have you here.

Jeff: So today, we're traveling back to before the American Revolution, to a conflict that defined loyalty, ambition, and survival, the French and Indian War.

Sonya: That's right. We'll be focusing on A Savage War of Empire, a new novel by New York Times bestselling author Harold Coyle, a sweeping historical epic that reveals how the fight for empire shaped the people who would later fight for its independence.

Coyle is known for his ability to blend authentic military history with powerful human storytelling. From Team Yankee to No Small Thing, his novels explore the realities of conviction and of war. And in A Savage War of Empire, he transports readers to the rugged wilderness of 18th century North America, where British, French, and Native forces collided in a struggle that would decide the fate of a continent.

Jeff: Beyond those battles and strategy, Coyle writes also about love, betrayal, vengeance, and honor, and they all play out against the backdrop of a war that shaped early America. Today, we'll discuss A Savage War of Empire, talk about the characters who carry it, and share some of the supplemental readings Harold Coyle recommends for anyone who wants to go deeper into this forgotten war.

Sonya: Let's start where this book sits in history. We are in the years before the American Revolution. Britain and France are fighting for control of North America.

Jeff: It's truly a pivotal period. The French and Indian War shapes borders, trade, alliances, and even the careers of leaders who will later appear in the revolution. You feel that in the book. There's no guarantee the world we know will come out of this conflict.

Sonya: Yeah, Coyle makes the landscape here feel like another character. The forests, rivers, and mountain passes, they're not just background, they're obstacles, they're hiding places, they're sometimes even traps. Coyle really lays out how this environment shaped decisions that occurred in this time period.

I'm thinking about the many details he provides about terrain, season, location, conditions dictating where and when operations were conducted. The lines of waterways that shaped North American invasion in the past and in the present Anton’s perspective have a lot of this in it.

Jeff: It's true. Those opening chapters throw you into the environment right away. You get a sense that a wrong turn or delayed decision can cost lives. It's a messy, cold, and frightening kind of war.

Sonya: Yeah, and that sets up the rest of the story. In it, we narrow in on forts, on trading posts, and villages where every decision has human and political consequences. One of the things that makes A Savage War of Empire so compelling is the range of perspectives present in the book. Here, we follow multiple conflicts and multiple stories. A couple of the perspectives that we follow include Highlander Ian McPherson, who carries both duty and trauma and is searching for a possible future, a possible homeland.

Jeff: Ian is not just a soldier. He's a human who has to live with what he's seen and done.

Sonya: Yeah, and he's done a lot.

Jeff: His mission is shaped by loss, anger, and the hope that he can still choose an honorable path.

Sonya: Yeah, speaking of people shaped by loss and anger and hope and all that stuff, we've got French officer Anton de Chevalier. He's the one I briefly mentioned before. He also has a mission, and his precision and discipline are tested in this book by a brutal frontier.

Jeff: I find Anton fascinating, too. He has this very European sense of order, strategy, and honor. Then he's thrown into a landscape that just doesn't obey neat lines on a map. He becomes a way for readers to see how the ideals of empire collide with on-the-ground reality.

Sonya: Yeah, and there are also Native leaders like Tula. They and their communities have to fight for their future and deal with the consequences of every alliance and of every betrayal.

Jeff: These perspectives and characters add so much depth. They're not there to decorate someone else's story. They have their own priorities, their own loyalties, their own grief. The war is not an abstract struggle for them. It's survival, land, and the future of their own people.

Sonya: The title, A Savage War of Empire, really sets expectations for what you're going to get here. You're not getting a gentle story. You're getting a look at what happens when rival empires are pursuing power.

Jeff: Vengeance and honor run through every storyline. Sometimes they work together. Sometimes they pull characters in completely opposite directions.

Sonya: Yeah. You see characters who feel bound by oaths, who feel bound by their own sense of right and wrong, who have to deal with commanders and allies that are making choices that conflict, that feel questionable. That tension between right and wrong and conscience is a really interesting thread in this book. The uneasy alliance between the French and their native allies, as Coyle depicts here, is really rife for that kind of investigation.

Jeff: Yeah. That idea of empire itself almost feels like a force of nature in the story. It reshapes everything it touches, everyone it touches, soldiers, settlers, native nations, traders. Some people see opportunities, others see only loss.

Sonya: Yeah. There's this sad sense of inevitability sometimes. The victories that do happen will come with the cost, and the defeats that happen leave scars that are not healing quickly, if at all. This war is really planting seeds that grow into the grievances and ideals and characters of the American Revolution.

Jeff: When you turn the last page, you're not just thinking about who won the last battle. You're thinking about what was lost along the way, and how much of that loss still echoes in later history.

Sonya: One highlight of this project is that Harold Coyle wrote a guest blog that's featured on The Master Wing's website. In it, he shares four works that he leaned on while writing A Savage War of Empire. Each one adds context and is a really great reference. Jeff, do you want to call out one in particular?

Jeff: Sure. I really liked Coyle's third recommendation, which was Braddock's Defeat, The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution by David L. Preston.

Sonya: Yes. It's a good book. Coyle points out that this campaign became a defining experience for many British and American officers, including George Washington, and that it shaped early ideas of American identity and the tensions that later erupted in the Revolution.

Jeff: It's a great and helpful book. And if you want more supplemental reading recommendations, as Sonya said, there's several more on the website on the blog post.

Sonya: As we take a step back now from all of the details, what stays with me the most from this book is the sense that none of this was guaranteed. The world we inherited was built by people, by people making decisions, by people making decisions under pressure in dangerous places with incomplete information.

Jeff: You can see how choice in the woods in North America can shape events in London, Paris, eventually Philadelphia.

Sonya: Yeah. And if you're reading this with a book club, as I hope you are, or with a class, or even if you're just on your own, a really great question to sort of ask is what character's definition, which character's definition of honor feels the closest to your own, which one feels the furthest, which one challenges you the most.

Jeff: And another good one is what did this novel change about the way you think of the French Indian War? Did it shift the way you see the American Revolution that follows?

Sonya: If you would like to explore A Savage War of Empire, or revisit No Small Thing, or are just a little nosy, you can find all of that information at MasterWingsPublishing.com and wherever books are sold. At our website, you'll also find Harold Coyle's supplemental reading recommendations, study guides, and related titles for readers, educators, and book clubs.

Jeff: And we'd love to hear how you're experiencing these stories. Share with us your thoughts, your favorite characters, your book club questions and answers.

Sonya: Yeah, you can do it on social media or through our website. And don't forget to follow and subscribe and rate and share the Master Wings Publishing Podcast so others can discover these remarkable stories too. So, until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep the spirit of storytelling alive.