- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (1 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0671027204
- ISBN-13: 978-0671027209
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,894,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Walter Vatter A Different Light Bookstore Michael Jensen's "Frontiers" has all the "bells and whistles" of a deluxe adventure story: a racing narrative, high drama, vivid images, keen dialogue, even hot sex! I predict John Chapman finds a permanent place on the ever-burgeoning list of gay-positive characters from literature.
Product Description
A thrilling homoerotic odyssey etched in the cross-currents of lust, greed, murder, and revenge as the struggle of two men against a depraved killer draws us into the heart of an unknown wilderness.
The year is 1797. John Chapman, an impulsive young man and a sexual outlaw, forsaken in the bitter winter of the Allegheny Plateau, clings to his one tenuous dream: to claim a future in an ever-elusive Western outpost. Unarmed and near death, Chapman is on the brink of giving up when an unexpected rescue changes his course in life forever, and he discovers the true meaning of survival.
The mysterious savior is Daniel McQuay, a frontiersman who has already fought to the death to protect his last holdings of ammunition, supplies, and land. He's a loner whose overpowering bond with Chapman is as shifting as a shadow, as dark as the prairie tale he spins for the impressionable young man. He tells of a deranged killer who once roamed the Plateau terrorizing the Senecas, whose torture of their youngest was only the beginning of his crimes, and who disappeared one terrible night into Allegheny legend.
For Chapman, the story clings to his transient soul like a nightmare, tracking him further South along the frozen banks of the Conewango River, and into the safe haven of a gentle Indian woman named Gwennie. His journey also takes him into the intimate deliverance of Palmer, a brash but irresistibly innocent seventeen-year-old settler whose forging of the frontier is a search for his own identity in a vast and inviolate land. Together, Chapman, Palmer, and Gwennie, redoubtable and daring, carve a new life out of the edge of an endless wilderness. But their struggle for a piece of theAmerican Dream becomes more treacherous than the elements as they face the most unpredictable enemy of all -- man -- in a life-and-death struggle that unfolds in the shadow of a legendary and avenging evil.
Weaving an uncommon story of love and loyalty, a vivid rendering of time and place, and a transcendent novel of survival, Michael Jensen moves beyond the boundaries of Western tradition, sweeping the reader into a seductive, primal landscape, where the untamed savagery of the wild intersects with the senses of the mind, the spirit, and the body. Raffish yet lyrical, sensuous and suspenseful, "Frontiers" breaks new ground in its depiction of the power and illogic of human affections, and in its stirring and original evocation of the American West.
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First Sentence
My first memory is being Lost on a cold December night when I was four. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
My first memory is being Lost on a cold December night when I was four. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Well, this book was not one I would have picked on my own, but I was surprised and found it to be quite fun and offered an interesting twist. It is nice to see the traditional gay theme being interwoven into a different setting - the 'old west'. Although I found the ending to be somewhat overdramatized - I kept thinking that this guy watched too many Wild Wild West and Lone Ranger episodes - and finding it interesting that two "gay" men would find themselves together in the middle of nowhere, the story kept me intrigued.
I hope that this is a beginning of more stories containing infusions of gay themes within historical contexts.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read a review before purchasing "Frontiers" which promoted the book as a modern-day Fennimore-esque novel with a wonderful gay twist. Wow ... what a let down. The characters were thin (I didn't for a moment believe such people could ever exist), the plot was transparent (not much happens that you can't predict), and the characters all definitely have an anachronistic 20th century sensibility. The main character, John, is a whiny wimp who never would have survived the frontier.
But even those sins might be forgiveable, had the style lived up to (or even approached) James Fennimore Cooper's way of story-telling.
I planned to and wanted very much to like this novel, but it did NOT live up to its hype. Sorry, but thumbs down and save your dough.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this book before I saw all the reviews here and I'm wondering if we're all talking about the same novel. The one I read was formulaic and totally unremarkable. Compared to some really excellent novels set on the frontier and featuring gay characters (The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon or The Rest of the Earth), Frontiers is pretty lame--lowest common denominator fiction, written as if it wanted to be a screenplay. I never believed for a second that these characters lived in the 1700s, what with all the late 20th century pop psychology running through the narration. Within 20 pages of the end, I simply stopped reading. I was so bored with the characters and knew exactly what would happen next. If you like contrived, anachronistic historical fiction with tons of gratuitous sex and violence, then Frontiers might be right up your alley.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
refreshing change of pace
The well researched historical setting and fully developed characters make this a refreshing change from many Gay oriented novels. Mr. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 1999
Gosh, golly, wow.
What can I add to the praise that others have so lavishly heaped on this book and its author? Well, here's what I said in a private review to the author - "unique, touching,... Read more
Published on 31 July 1999
Save your money . . . buy better!
Though I've never read a Harlequin romance, I imagine that they must read much like Mr. Jensen's "Frontiers." I feel misled by the early hype. Read more
Published on 25 July 1999
Very pleasant summer reading!
I wasn't sure whether I'd like "Frontiers", but as I started reading it, the story just pulled me in. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 1999
Refreshing and different
What might life be like for a gay man in 1797? Michael Jensen looks at the possibilities in his debut novel, Frontiers. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 1999
Left me wanting more!!
This is a truly delightful read. I couldn't put it down and found myself very engaged in the story and characters. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 1999
A New Gay Genre
History, 18th Century Frontierism and Dealing with Sexual Identity -- not the usual strands that are woven into gay fiction. Read more
Published on 16 Jun 1999
Highly Recommended Historical Literature
From the first, Frontiers grabs the reader and doesn't let go. Throughout the novel, new characters emerge as new chapters unfold, and each one is as engaging as the last. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 1999
An absolute must-read!
In my opinion the perfect novel has two qualities. It grabs the reader and doesn't let go until well after the book has been read, and it makes use of language in a way that... Read more
Published on 14 Jun 1999
Promising but inconsistent, dark with a tragic theme
It seemed to me this book was written by three people: a literate writing an well-thought and interesting introduction, an 10th-grade wannabe, awkward and stumbling in dialogue,... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 1999
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