"Lyrically written, character-rich and authentically atmospheric, the novel affords a deeply affecting insight into the aftermath of war."
       Publishers Weekly - September 26, 2000

"The Cock's Spur stands alone as a classic work of literature... Barriers of time and culture drop, as Price's gifted, natural writing puts you right on the spot in the early 1880's... It's geneology made into authentic fiction."
         Rob Neufeld - Asheville Citizen-Times - October 1, 2000

"(Price is) a rip-roaring good novelist... The Cock's Spur is a tale in the grand tradition... He doesn't preach. But the theme is ultimately a serious one, the challenge of duty. Price's well-rounded depiction of...hardscrabble challenges...test the moral values and plain courage of his people. Their responses make a rousing story of hearts in conflict..."
      Fayetteville Observer - October 22, 2000

"The Cock's Spur is a much bigger book than its 300-plus pages. It's also perhaps the best of a batch of recently published novels (Cold Mountain, In the Fall, Gap Creek, etc.) that represent the Appalachians and their people during the turbulent Civil War era and after. What makes the book unique, separating it from the many others of its ilk, is the fact that, as in his previous two books...Price once more shines the literary light on his own ancestors... There is rarely a languid moment, never a dull scene. This is a sweeping novel of cockfights and gunfights, of moonshine-running and old blood feuds. of pride and honor...and dishonor. But it's not romantic, as many books with similar settings have been. The reader isn't spared the gritty details of a time and place where, often, only self-imposed law ruled the day. And yet the book's beauty fidgets in some of its most horrible details....

"The Cock's Spur is not without its tenderness, however. In fact,...I direct readers to a scene near the end that's as powerful as the dying scene in Hemingway's ‘Snows of Kilimanjaro’. The novels' final chapters certify the theme of redemption without the usual maudlin closure that a lesser writer might bring in to ruin an otherwise crackling good tale."
       Bill Brooks - Mountain Xpress - December 2000

"[W]e readers immediately fall under the spell of the storyteller... [Price's] plot is finely drawn. His characters intrigue us... In superb scene-setting based on careful research, he writes of poverty and the tyranny of the powerful, fatal illness with no remedy, and the striving of humans to make the best of what they have in a harsh environment... [The Cock's Spur is] a perfect Christmas gift to Western North Carolina from one of its outstanding sons."
      Margie Weathers - Smoky Mountain Sentinel - December 20, 2000 

"Moonshining, cock-fighting, race relations and psychotic mountain men thrive in his novel set in Western North Carolina in the 1880's. Price's passion for details and his earthy portrayal of men living close to the earth - and even closer to the edge - move the story forward, with occasional stops along the way for...melodrama..."
      Hal Jacobs - Atlanta Journal-Constitution - January 21, 2001

"Price has produced one of the most eloquent and honest historical novels of the post-Civil War South... (He) is serenely and confidently at home in the late 19th century. His characters speak with the roughness of the times, frequently in a voice that may offend the politically correct. He does not flinch from portraying the racial tensions of the era, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the Kirk-Holden War, and the heavy hand of the federal government in the post-war South.
"The author's notice of detail and vivid descriptions of place and time recall Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. You can smell the stale odor of farm sweat rise from the backs of these people. The cultures of cock fighting and moonshining are especially well developed. Price brings all these threads of family and character, plot, intrigue and history to a smashing and satisfying conclusion. I predict you'll live with these folks long after you've finished the book."
      Rodney Barfield - Roanoke Times & World News - February 12, 2001

"A truly original voice that resonates like the hill country he writes about. Price is leading a new wave of great Southern writing and publishing."

"Price's writing has tremendous power and clarity, and I say with delight that his characters are firmly of their time. There is not a shred of political correctness..., no delicacy in the descriptions of the terrible symptoms of consumption and dementia, or...torture.... The novel is very dark at times and is not for the squeamish, but it is also tremendously uplifting and possessed of a spiritual resonance. In my opinion it well deserves the accolade of being the Independent Publisher's outstanding book of 2001."

Susan Hicks - The Historical Novels Review - February 19, 2002

"In this sequel to his well-received Hiwassee, Price again shows that he can write absorbing and moving historical fiction.... Price has based his narrative on his family's own genealogy...; while he has taken fictional liberties, his narrative has an authoritative resonance and his prose is invested with quiet confidence. Against a fascinatingly detailed backdrop of the decaying and lawless postslavery South, Price eloquently addresses questions of race and class and morality, poignantly exploring whether hope and loyalty can exist in a world where war has damaged lives irrevocably."

      Publishers Weekly

"Many will compare this book to Cold Mountain... Like that novel, Freedom's Altar is rich with detail and description... You can smell the moist, shadowed air of the high forests, and you can feel the fallow soil of the post-war South between your fingers... But where Cold Mountain was at its essence a romantic novel of a reluctant soldier's journey home, Freedom's Altar is something different - a profound, well-told tale of a family's struggle to survive and cope during the most trying of times."
      Greensboro News & Record

"Add to all this the graceful dignity of Price's prose, his portrait of the mountains themselves as a character in his narrative, his realistic portrayal of the physical suffering human beings endured in a time when medicine was primitive and death was often agonizingly painful, and his compassion for the human flaws that make even wise men ultimately vulnerable. The result is a saga that begs at the very least for the lens of the cinematographer and at most for a readership that could propel it not just to bestsellerdom but attract a major literary award."
      Durham Herald-Sun

"...(O)ne gets a terrifically engaging history lesson about Reconstruction in the South, particularly North Carolina... Price enlivens history by fittingly using distinctive families to dramatize the catastrophic (and ongoing) consequences of the Civil War as well as the agonizing and often violent process of national reconciliation.... Freedom's Altar...is...a thoughtful, and often compelling, book."
       Raleigh Spectator

"Price is a gifted storyteller, and his straightforward style and simple characters belie the complexity of the ideas he presents through them. You don't have to wrangle the meaning out of a Price character; you'd be blind to miss it, yet the message rarely seems forced.... (His) great strength as a writer is his ability to vividly express himself with simple, engaging language.... Price turns his pen with equal facility on a frosted mountain path or a bereft mother's musings on the place of pride and the lack of a place for God in man's affairs... "(Freedom's Altar) is a rare type of novel: It's simply but beautifully told, morally charged without seeming contrived or overbearing, and it's entertaining to boot."
      Charlie Purdue

"The War Between the States has proved to be a fathomless source of literary inspiration, and Price continues to produce flawless jewels from that well... (He) addresses...harsh realities with compassion and clarity. He writes as if from inside the soul of each character so that we see what they saw and feel what they felt. We feel the dislocation, loss, confusion and blazing resentment... One of Price's gifts is the ability to speak in the character's voice without appearing to do so. Moving from narrative to conversation to descriptions of local superstitions and practices, he never fails to choose the perfect cadences. The altar of freedom defined in this book is bloody and dark, but piercing through this desperate image we find honor, charity and hope... Times change. People change with them. At no time were these verities more powerfully evident than in the years following the Civil War. No one has evoked those changes better than Price."
      The Roanoke Times

"To his credit, Price sets up [the] conflict of race, class and economic dismemberment without stereotyping the principal actors. From the wealthiest landowner to the most destitute sharecropper, one has the sense that living, breathing souls populate Freedom's Altar. Thus, while the book's historical accuracy is undeniable, it is the human vulnerability of the characters that makes it memorable.”
      Orlando Sentinel

"Freedom's Altar is set in the mountains of North Carolina, and it is evident Price wants his audience to feel as if they were viewing the mountains as precisely as his characters might... [He] describes in detail the leaves of the rhododendron...and conveys how the mountain ranges are pale shades of blue... The character development progresses in a way that lets you get to know and care about each person. ...Price incorporates female characters who are essential to the story, and he has done a remarkable job placing the reader into the minds of these women...Freedom's Altar, a fine literary work, addresses the relationship between the races, an issue Southerners, and all Americans, still face each day."
      Lexington Dispatch

"Charles Price catapulted to the attention of Civil War readers three years ago with Hiwassee, an unusually well-received first novel that is based on the wartime experiences of his Southern Appalachian forebears... In fact those readers were so enthralled by Hiwassee that it earned Price...the reputation of a spellbinder in the realm of Civil War fiction. Happily, the reading pleasures crafted into Freedom's Altar both confirm and deepen that reputation. And for those left longing for a sequel at Hiwassee's end, yes, the new novel is just that. [E]legiac,...[l]onger, more complex,...[In] part this gripping, hard-to-put-down novel is about father-son and other male relationships. But...overarchingly [it] is about tragically squandered opportunities to begin the process of racial reconciliation in the war's embittered aftermath....Price's stellar creation is to be relished for its...beauties of prose. Indeed, the unforgettable final scene pierces the heart."
      Civil War Book Review

"...Price succeeds in capturing the harsh realities of the countless sideshows of the Civil War in regions that have been obscured by large military campaigns, though he does it in an engaging way. The characters are vivid [and] compelling and the dialogue crisp. He captures the anxiety and emotion of soldiers and women on the home front. The often phrased brother-against-brother characterization comes to life in this novel. [Price] successfully combines social and military history in a moving narrative. Though this is [his] first novel, one can hardly assume it will be his last."
     
     The Civil War News - December 1997

 "Good historical fiction brings the world it evokes down to a personal level, a process accomplished very well in this first novel...a tight, almost elegantly written, yet piercingly honest first novel all readers of historical fiction will appreciate."
      Booklist - May 1996

"Forceful and gritty, Price's debut is a gripping tale of brutality and sacrifice during the Civil War... Price's narrative is crisp and vivid, with sharply focused descriptions and dialogue."
      Publishers Weekly - May 20, 1996

"Reading almost like an expose of life in the Confederate army, Hiwassee is that rare thing: a short Civil War novel. The intensity is high, however, and we begin to care for these authentic characters very quickly."
      Library Journal - June 1, 1996

"Through the evolution of the story, the reader is reminded that even against the background of national fratricide, individual stories have their own impetus and precedence in the day-to-day living out of life... (Price's) story...is no less useful in refocusing our attention on the personal aspects of life during any war."
      Tennessee Librarian - Winter 1997

 "In the course of researching his roots, Charles Price has created a gem of a novel... More than other Civil War histories, Hiwassee tells a story of the civilian side of the war. Additionally, the rich description of the events and the countryside makes this (book) a pleasure to read."
      Tish Wells - USA Today - April 10, 1997

 "Price's beautifully evocative prose imparts a sense of immediacy to the landscape of valley, hill, field, stream, and forest and conveys the menace of war's depredations on the daily lives of ordinary people who thought they were involved in a gallant cause, only to be brought face-to-face with its uglier realities."
      Merle Rubin - The Christian Science Monitor - July 8, 1996

"Hiwassee is by turns movingly, horrifyingly and bracingly specific... Billed as fiction, [it] has the ring of a true story... Hiwassee is...packed with details of what it was like to fight in the war..."
      Charles Dickenson - Chicago Tribune - July 28, 1996

"Price's forte is description - the sights and smells, the expressions on the faces. It's not a story for the fainthearted... The author does his best writing when he describes the military engagements... The Battle of Chickamauga is presented not as a chess match of generals, but as a bloody, irrational and frightening bit of organized chaos... Hiwassee is an easy, believable read that is hard to put down."
      John Harmon - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - November 24, 1996

 "...(A) tight, finely structured novel. (Price) does more in 188 pages to capture the essence of the war than Ken Burns did in 15 hours of videotape... (He) gives us believable characters, a high level of drama, and that which is most necessary in first-rate fiction: a sense of surprise and astonishment... Hiwassee is an impressive debut..."
      Creative Loafing - Atlanta, GA - August 30, 1996

"How a book reviewer lives to utter these words: This first novel marks the appearance of a significant new voice on the American literary scene... Sparsely yet beautifully written in its author's unconscious Southern cadence, Hiwassee's remarkable achievement is in its ground-level evocation of the emotional experience of war..."
      Martin Northway - Strong Coffee - Chicago, IL - August 1996

 "Price paints his native North Carolina beautifully, from the mist on the mountaintops to the taste of the water in the Hiwassee River (old pennies). Seen through the eyes of a true native, the Hiwassee Valley takes on an almost mythical beauty, and its scourging is as painful as anything the characters themselves go through. ...There is always something enchanting in the voice of an author who truly loves the story he is telling, and Hiwassee offers that enchantment on every page."
       Barbara E. Walton - BookScapes - July 1996

"A grim, convincing, remarkably assured first novel about the darker byways of the Civil War... Throughout, ...Price brings an astonishing versimilitude to the narrative. The salty, exact language, tough-minded views, hard lives, and bloody deeds of these characters ring true throughout... Few recent novels have caught with such conviction the true texture and profound emotions of that conflict."
      Kirkus Reviews - April 1996

"True to history, Price's realism recreates a neighbor-against-neighbor warfare that is often tidily forgotten. In his portrait of battle between 'organized' forces, he does for Chickamauga what The Killer Angels did for Gettysburg; the section reads as if a powder-blackened private had sent an honest letter home."
      Will D. Campbell

"In this remarkable novel Mr. Price, with consummate skill, draws his reader inexorably into the ugly underside of the American Civil War. None of the pageantry of the great conflict is here, for the author has chosen to tell instead a gripping narrative of the North Carolina mountains and valleys, remote from the vast canvases of the war, where passions nonetheless ran high and ruthless freebooters, under the guise of dedicated partisans, preyed on 'secesh' and unionists alike. In doing so, Charles F. Price has written an account that rings with realism and authenticity."
       George F. Scheer

"Charles Price's Hiwassee is first rate Civil War fiction. More than that, it pulls the reader into a hidden corner of the war. Against the backdrop of big war, the author writes lyrically of North Carolina mountain places and people. He evokes the grim side of Civil War living in guerrilla-ridden border areas, a side rarely offered in most war books. The characters ring true, the dialogue is right, the mood exciting - and the book is hard to put down!"
      Frank E. Vandiver - Author, Mighty Stonewall

"This is a tough book. Readers will not forget the anxiety of men and, particularly, women on the home front. Equally memorable are the marauders, the meanest groups I've read about recently, here brought to life (yes, and death). Then there is the plight of soldiers in the ranks of the ever-shifting Confederate army. The novel seeps authenticity. Many of the people show grit and inherent dignity."
      John Ehle, Author, The Journey of August King and The Winter People

 "Reading Hiwassee is not a full-scale campaign...but rather like being in a quick, sharp skirmish. Price's crisp writing style and command of Civil War history keeps each page of his book fresh as a mountain breeze. While entertaining, Hiwassee is also an education into the tumultuous life many Tar Heels had to endure in the Civil War."
      Our State - Greensboro, NC - November 1996

"Set in the Appalachians during the Civil War, Hiwassee is an impressive recreation of one of the little known aspects of that conflict. More importantly, it's an intelligent, finely-structured novel, one in which the believability of the characters meshes perfectly with the setting and action. Even if you're tired of Civil War books, Hiwassee is recommended."
      Max Childers - Author, The Congregation of the Dead