The Far Horizon

Being the second book in the MacQuarie Series. It bears mentioning that the books are written by a women because in finding his second wife our hero manages to be dumb to the fact that the woman he eventually stumbles over has placed herself under foot since he was 25 and she 13. When he comes back to England a widower he finds Elizabeth working in his Mother's Home and then later squires her around London without managing to take a tumble. In fact it isn't until she threatens to off to China as a missionary that he finally comes to his senses. All this by way of saying that even the greatest of men can miss matters of importance right in front of their noses.

As Military Governor of New Holland Lachlan MacQuarry had dictatorial powers and an army to back it up; communication with England took at least 16 months. The free-men who settled Botany Bay were given free land grants and the free labor of those transported at regular intervals backed up by the lash. The convicts arrived on a one-way ticket with a minimum sentence of seven years after which they had no means of return. Men who gained their freedom could attempt to find work but with boatloads of up to 500 free-labor arriving regularly their labor was not worth much. Girls so transported had little recourse but to enter the prostitution trade as a means of staying alive and with a military garrison at hand madams had no lack of clients. In attempting to break this tyranny the new governor invoked the wrath and opposition of the 'exclusives' who until his arrival had had things pretty much their way.

After several miss-carriages and the death of her first-born Elizabeth gives birth to a son with the aid of a transported doctor. George Jarvis who follows Lachlan to Australia, so-named by the governor himself, continues ably in his unofficial capacity as aide-de-camp. As Lachlan points out he is more useful to him in that capacity than if he joined the army. A strikingly handsome Indian Moslem walking the halls of Government house served to raise more than a few eyebrows and attract the attention of serving girls but lightning finally strikes in a love-at-first-sight scenario.

Above are the bald facts that inform this historical novel but the execution is done in such a way that the reader is given an insider's view of the events and the characters who inhabit government house with all their foibles and with a sense of humour that engages from start to finish. I sat down and read 3/4 of the book in one sitting. Lachlan is pragmatic, just, and caring, brooks no interference, and refuses to entertain fools. He gets things done. With George at one side and his military attache at the other, and a troop of guards at his back he rides out, assesses the situation, seeks advice, and sees things righted. That he uses transported ex-prisoners and even eats with them scandalizes the puffed up elite. He sounds almost a Christ-like figure and to many he probably was.

By Eastern Windows

A 15-year-old Scottish tenant farmer form the Isle of Mull leaves his mentally deficient older brother and widowed mother to join the British Army to support his family. From that humble beginning he would go on to serve with distinction in the West Indies, India, ending up as the governor of New South Wales and father of Australia. Along the way he meets his first wife Jane who dies in South-East Asia; acquires an Indian major-domo Bapoo; his wife's maid Marianne; and a slave boy whom he steals at gunpoint in a slave market where he is being whipped. The boy was adored on sight by Lachlan's wife and given the name George and his wife's maiden name Jarvis. Stationed back in England he brings the boy with him and sends him off to private school. Confronted with his choices for the future an ethnic if not practicing Indian Moslem pulls a copy of the Christian Bible foisted upon him at school and quotes the book of Ruth:

"Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."

in answer to a suggestion he return to India to avoid discrimination.

In the hands of a skilled writer such as this dry historical facts come to life and the characters jump off the page, or tablet as in my case. Book one of this trilogy by Gretta Curran Browne was offered free--I read it in one day; book two--The Far Horizon I bought and began reading last night; book three--Jarvisfield is yet to be published.

Dark Seraphine

Being the first in a trilogy by KaSonndra Leigh.

Seventeen-year-old Callum is a hunky, sexy looking jock with a distant father and a distracted mother. What's the point of academic success or sports prowess if the people you love most can't be bothered to notice or be supportive. Although he can seemingly have any girl he wants and has the long-term companionship of his best friend Kyle, there's an emptiness in his life. So far he sounds very much like your typical teen until you learn that he can see 'Walkers', creatures that only he can see. Turns out these creatures from a parallel universe are divided into two warring camps.

Told from Callum's point of view the storyline is as feckless as person who relates it, at times getting bogged down in teenage angst and lengthy petting scenes. The action only truly picks up in the last few chapters. Better than your average young adult novel the para-normal aspects are handled in a manner that makes them almost believable. You decide whether you want to read volumes 2 & 3.

High,Wide and Lonesome

Had I internet access right now I'd check to see if this was made into a movie. Because I went on the road reading this book took nearly 3 weeks.

Told from the point of view of a nine-year-old who is taken out of school and carted across half a continent to homestead half a section in the Colorado High Country so that his parents could prove a claim and gain title to the land. Drama is provided by range wars betweencattlemen, sheep herders, and homesteaders and the latter's barbed wire fences. The dangers and threats provided by lack of rain, prairie fires, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, blinding blizzards, illness, and broken bones. The challenges of drought, starvation, biting cold, marauding cattle, debt, privation, solitude....

The book is filled with the characters attracted to this pioneering spirit way of life. Told with a naiveté and sense of humour and discovery only a child could bring to such a situation. Privation and danger are approached not so much as challenges but with a sense of adventure and newness. The land is his teacher and his books the prairie dog town and the ant hills. And every boy deserves a dog as his companion.

The story ends when the family proves up their claim and moves to a town where the boy returns to school and father returns to his trade as the printer of a country newspaper. In those times a newspaperman manually set his own type and printed his own papers.