What do you think?
Rate this book
Marching to Valhalla: A Novel of Custer's Last Days
The author of Dances With Wolves turns his creativity and imagination toward America's doomed romantic hero, George Armstrong Custer--the youngest general of the Civil War, trailblazer, Indian hunter, passionate lover, obsessive husband, and tormented, guilt-ridden soul. A wonderful merger of fact and fiction, Marching to Valhalla is soon to be a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1996
15 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
Michael Blake
98Ìýbooks137ÌýfollowersThe author of several novels, including the New York Times #1 Bestseller Dances With Wolves and winner of the 1991 Academy Award.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 10, 2020
What if George Armstrong Custer kept a journal during the ill-fated Montana expedition that ended with his death near the Little Bighorn? What if the journal encompassed his life and military career beginning with the Civil War right on up to the day before his last battle? If there had been such a journal, the result would be this book.
Far-fetched? Not really. Custer was an accomplished writer who had one book and numerous magazine articles to his credit.
Michael Blake, better known as the author of Dances With Wolves (which by the way, is better than the movie and is about the Comanche and not the Sioux), is able to take on the persona of Col. Custer to such a degree that it is almost possible at times to forget that it is a work of fiction
Far-fetched? Not really. Custer was an accomplished writer who had one book and numerous magazine articles to his credit.
Michael Blake, better known as the author of Dances With Wolves (which by the way, is better than the movie and is about the Comanche and not the Sioux), is able to take on the persona of Col. Custer to such a degree that it is almost possible at times to forget that it is a work of fiction
August 1, 2021
Marching to Valhalla: A Novel of Custer’s Last Days by Michael Blake (Villard Books 1996) (Fiction) (3556).
The conceit employed here is that Custer kept a journal until he died in battle. Author Michael Blake has written a narrative that convincingly captures the young general's spirit.
As I neared the end of the book, I was really looking forward to how the author would present Custer’s own account of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
You have surely spotted the fatal flaw in my reckoning: Custer could not have written a journal entry recounting the battle, for by the time the battle ended, Custer was in Valhalla.
Well duh.
My rating: 7/10, finished 7/31/21 (3556).
May 16, 2018
George Armstrong Custer is riding on his final campaign against the Indians. This novel purports to be his own account of his life leading up to his last stand at the Little Big Horn. It's an enjoyable and interesting novel, indicative of Custer the man, rather than Custer the legend. Custer obviously gives a somewhat biased account of his life in the army, but attempts to be truthful about his motives and his failings. One of the most fascinating aspects of the account is his relationship with his wife, Lizzie, and their mutual passion for each other. This part of the story sent me back to the history books to see what was fact and what fiction and added a very human element to a man whose other passion was purely and simply making war.
June 29, 2017
Well-written and fascinating. I really enjoyed this one.
August 14, 2020
This is the author that wrote the book Dances With Wolves. After showing the movie to our daughter I read the book and enjoyed it enough that I put all of his books on my reading list. This is a fictionalized account of Custer's last days. Those accounts are used as a door to introduce the reader to Custer's history. I know a little bit of his history, but this was an interesting insight into Custer's life. I don't know how accurate it is historically, but it was entertaining. Not a great book, I need to find a book that explains in detail what happened on that fateful day. I wouldn't recommend this novel, but it doesn't discourage me from reading the rest of his novels.
September 29, 2020
I really really enjoyed Dances with Wolves, and so was hoping for another life-on-the-frontier page turner.
Sadly it didn’t live up to its predecessor, and I honestly found the book boring. I kept going though, thinking ‘Well at least there’ll be the famous battle at the end�.
- Nope. The book finishes just at the start of the battle (oops, spoiler alert! Sorry, too late).
So, to sum up, it was a very long and uneventful march to Valhalla - and we didn’t get there anyway!
Thanks, Mr Blake. Wish I’d not bothered!
Sadly it didn’t live up to its predecessor, and I honestly found the book boring. I kept going though, thinking ‘Well at least there’ll be the famous battle at the end�.
- Nope. The book finishes just at the start of the battle (oops, spoiler alert! Sorry, too late).
So, to sum up, it was a very long and uneventful march to Valhalla - and we didn’t get there anyway!
Thanks, Mr Blake. Wish I’d not bothered!
December 29, 2017
Very well written ! It kept me engaged and wanting to know more about this historical figure I knew very little about. It left me wanting to know more. This novel had some great examples of how politicians create such difficulties for military officers who are just trying to do survive !
December 15, 2018
I read this book to brake out of my black and wight thinking. No one is all good or all bad. God forgive us all.
May 1, 2025
A vivid, thunderous novelistic memoir about "the Boy General", George Custer. Written in such a way that you feel as though you're standing at Custer's side as he commits his life story to paper in the days leading up to the fateful - and fatal - Battle of Little Big Horn. One of the best novels I've read in recent memory.
September 21, 2012
It goes without saying that Michael Blake's Custer novel "Marching to Valhalla" is a story that ends in disaster. There's no attempt here to change history as we know it happened.
But what Blake does reveal is the man Custer might have been, based on his profuse letters to his beloved wife and his various publications during his lifetime.
From that Blake builds up a very believable character for Custer as a man who believes in his own destiny for greatness, who holds his obligations as a military leader sacred above all else - except for the love he feels for his wife Elizabeth.
Although Blake is most famous for his novel-turned Oscar winning movie, Dances with Wolves, which, along with its sequel The Holy Road, is very much from the Indian's point of view, in Marching to Valhalla we see only what Custer sees and are told what he knows.
As such, it is an excellent recreation of a time and place and sense of destiny as experienced by one extraordinary man, who loved, and was loved by an equally extraordinary woman.
But what Blake does reveal is the man Custer might have been, based on his profuse letters to his beloved wife and his various publications during his lifetime.
From that Blake builds up a very believable character for Custer as a man who believes in his own destiny for greatness, who holds his obligations as a military leader sacred above all else - except for the love he feels for his wife Elizabeth.
Although Blake is most famous for his novel-turned Oscar winning movie, Dances with Wolves, which, along with its sequel The Holy Road, is very much from the Indian's point of view, in Marching to Valhalla we see only what Custer sees and are told what he knows.
As such, it is an excellent recreation of a time and place and sense of destiny as experienced by one extraordinary man, who loved, and was loved by an equally extraordinary woman.
January 23, 2015
I was really Surprised that this book tried to remain true to History, with a few embellishments, and made LtCol. Custer's Character more naive and greater sense of integrity than he probably possessed. I really liked the concept and how he covered most of Custer's military Career while on the campaign trail to the Little Big Horn and his death and a day by day account of the happenings of the campaign. when I started reading it I thought it was going to be like the Movie, "They Died with Their Boots on", Completely historically inaccurate with the only truth was that he was in the U. S. Calvary and he died at the little Big Horn. fortunately it wasn't, although it was being narrated through the eye's of Custer himself, and very biased as to the events as he saw them. It was a very enjoyable book and a relaxing light read.
September 2, 2015
Interesting fictional coverage of the days before Custer died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn River. This book is a chance to consider some different thoughts that may have impacted Custers approach to the Battle but not very easy to verify such thoughts and etc.
January 23, 2011
having a hard time getting this one read,, just not doing anything for me.
July 25, 2011
Lots of good history and I liked the way the author took on the personalilty of George Custer. It really brought him alive.
August 30, 2012
A work of historical fiction derived from General Custer's journal. Well done! Some of the battle descriptions were too detailed for me, but it did keep my attention, right up to the end.
August 4, 2014
Not bad. Custer's life told as if through his diary. Nice prose. A couple anachronisms, but not a bad read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.