cover image The Magnificent Savages

The Magnificent Savages

Fred Mustard Stewart. Forge, $6.99 (512pp) ISBN 978-0-8125-6794-6

Teddy Roosevelt, Sir Randolph Churchill and the Rothschilds make prominent appearances in this breathless, name-dropping sequel to The Magnificent Savages. Filling in the years between 1882 and 1895, the saga of dashing robber-baron Justin Savage shifts focus to Johnnie, his half-Italian rakehell son, and Julie, his headstrong daughter by a Chinese woman pirate. Jilted on account of her race, 27-year-old Julie flees New York determined to return to China. En route to the Pacific, she meets and marries a rich San Francisco gambler and bordello entrepreneur. When he dies in a saloon fire, she resumes her pilgrimage and falls for an American-born Chinese revolutionary whom she ends up rescuing from the Forbidden City. Meanwhile, half-brother Johnny's budding romance with a Jewish woman is nipped by her Orthodox family, and he is persuaded by his wily mother, a contessa, to marry the daughter of an Italian princess. Full of evil intrigue, racy romance and very familiar period details, the rushed, fragmented plot will satisfy Stewart's enthusiasts, though even they may wish for fewer events and better-developed characters next time around. (Feb.)