Star of Empire

The author of Fort Worth turns his attention to old San Antonio in this romantic historical western, which begins shortly after the fall of the Alamo. With his new wife, Charleston, S.C.-born Corrie, Tad Logan, a headstrong black-sheep son of a wealthy Georgia plantation-owning family, takes his limitless ambitions to the infant Republic of Texas. It seems a place of almost inexhaustible potential, where residents can pursue their dreams of manifest destiny all the way to the Pacific, if only some Mexicans and Indians can be displaced. Such historical figures as mercurial, alcoholic Sam Houston and megalomaniac Mirabeau Lamar (``the Buonaparte of Texas'') interact with the fictional characters as historical events--most importantly, the ill-conceived Santa Fe expedition--are woven into the story. While characters seem to debate events more than live them in the slow-moving plot, Sanders nevertheless captures the combination of avarice, bravado and courage associated with the era and the formation of Texas. (Sept.)