Frontiers

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, Daring, Suspenseful!
Review: Jensen does a wonderful job with this first book. However, it is not for the faint at heart. The brutal, harsh environment is depicted accurately and passionately. The reader gets a sense that Jensen has really done his research and has created a landscape that is both beautiful and dangerous. The author's sense of pacing is excellent making this a powerful page turner. Told in the first person, the novel introduces us to John Chapman, a man trying to escape his past and establish a claim in the 1797 town of Franklin. This is not your typical gay novel at all. The obstacles he manages to face are seemingly insurmountable!

I felt that some of the sexual content was a bit gratuitous and was taken aback at times by scenes of intense, horrific violence. These are not typical cosmopolitan gay men sharing drinks at a local bar. Jensen is part Stephen King, part Laura Ingalls Wilder, part Gordon Merrick. A great first effort from Jensen! I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Six Stars!
Review: Warning - Don't pick up this book unless you have some time on your hands, because you won't want to put it down! An outstanding first novel by Michael Jensen set in the 1790's. His hero is John Chapman, a kind, gentle, caring man who we easily understand, identify with and root for. John has been ridiculed and pushed down all his life. Now he's tired of running away. All of Mr. Jensen's characters are three dimensional, well-defined and real. His dialogue is always believable and often humorous. He has a great talent for making us feel we are right there within the action of the book. And there is A LOT of action! I also learned a great deal about what living on the frontier must have been like. There are some great messages also - tolerance and respect of others and their differences, the danger of violent relationships, environmental issues, not blaming ourselves for fate's whims, but most of all through John Chapman, that we deserve to be in happy, loving relationships regardless of how others may feel. I give this book my highest recommendation. Don't miss it! I'm hoping for a sequel!

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK!
Review: This book has it all: action, adventure, romance, and hot sex! I think Daniel McQuay is one of the most interesting characters I've ever read, and Gwennie is almost as fascinating. My only quibble is a plot twist at the end involving an identifying characteristic of one of the character's sons; it seemed a little contrived. Even so, this is one of the best "gay" books I've ever read!

Rating:
Summary: Well, it has a nice cover...
Review: I admit it, I'm an easy sell when it comes to gay romance, particularly if there's a little hot sex thrown in. So when I found "Frontiers" I was thrilled to see something new, something that wasn't contemporary, Science Fiction or Fantasy. Alas, the book did not live up to my hopes. It's NOT about the wild west, as one review on this site implies, it's about the colonial era. No studly, stony-eyed cowboys, guns a-blazin'. Still, the era is not without a good deal of interest, so that's not really a drawback.

The central character, John Chapman, has had the requisite Traumatic Childhood with the Abusive Macho Father, and as a result has a Bad Self-Image. Yes, really, it's that obvious. I felt as if I was being hit over the head with what a miserable life he's had. John is not the brightest bulb in the lamp and he's a whiner, so that by page 100 I wanted to start abusing him, too. On the run from a disastrous affair with a British officer, he travels on foot into the interior of an unsettled country with some vague notion of getting a piece of land and settling it. Except he has no money, no possessions, no supplies and no clear idea of what it means to be a pioneer other than showing up in the right place at the right time to get some free land. He encounters a mysterious, drunken, paranoid Irishman who is so weirdly written that it's impossible to get a fix on him. (Possibly this is part of the Plot Twist, but it's about as subtle as a sledgehammer.) John is terrified of him, but at the same time physically obsessed. When they finally do have sex, it's so unengaging (and not terribly believable, in my opinion) that you have to wonder why they even bothered.

Animals play a great part in this book, and that's not really a surprise since they were heavily relied upon by settlers for work, food and income. John is the odd man out here in that he has a distinctly modern attitude towards the subject. It gives him pain to watch an animal suffer. Okay, I can buy this since it is established upfront that he is not typical in this respect. Over and over, this fact is drummed into the reader. John is Sensitive. This is, or should be a plus to any contemporary reader who probably shares his feelings to some degree. Alas, his presence seems almost like the kiss of death to any animal within ten miles, and the carnage eventually becomes so gratuitous that it's likely to put off the very people who had been on John's side all along. Add to that, the impression that it's a good thing that he's learning to be a hard man, a less sensitive one,(a "real" man like his father, like Daniel?) and we get a very mixed message about John and his sensibilities.

Jensen has clearly done a good deal of research into the period, which is admirable. But when he peppers his narrative with contemporary phrases such as "pissed off" you have to wonder why he bothered. It's that jarring. Even if he didn't think about this aspect of his narrative, why didn't his editor catch it? His anachronisms make the narrative sloppy, and detract from the weight of the considerable effort he put into his research.

I don't know why it got such good editorial reviews. Can the field of gay-positive literature still be so thin, that this counts as some sort of classic? Personally, I don't think an author needs to rely on overkill when it comes to proving that being gay has always been harder than being straight in any given society. You don't have to provide profound trauma and bizarre plot devices. Life, particularly life on the frontier of an unsettled country, will bruise your characters quite enough as it is, and sort the weak from the strong pretty handily. John Chapman, defined by both sexuality and misery (and a healthy tot of stupidity) is not my idea of any sort of gay icon.

I give points for the research and good intentions. And for that nice cover. Other than that, not recommended. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: The gay wild west!
Review: Frontiers! Is an excelent novel. Its characters are believable and vibrant the story line spellbinding and captivating.

I started this book two days ago. From almost the first moment I could not put it down. There are so many elements that work together to create this stunning tale.

There is the western theme, and the baldly erotic scenes mixed in with an engaging tapestry of horror, all woven together by a master storyteller. I loved my visit to the old west.

Being a romantic I was a little disapointed with the ending, but I guess Mr. Jensen was leaving room for what is to come. Mr. Jensen says that he was trying to write about somewhere other than NY or SF well he did it and he did it quite well.

Over all I'd say this is a definte must buy. Do yourself a favor and try something new and refreshing. Read Frontiers!

Rating:
Summary: Accurate Gay Historical Fiction
Review: FRONTIERS
By Michael Jensen
Reviewed by Jak Klinikowski

I readily admit I have problems with gay historical novels. Of course there are exceptions, but most of these books tend to use contemporary language and slang, and are told from a modern point of view, leaving me feeling like I've just attended a costume party instead of completing a work of viable fiction. I am thrilled to say that FRONTIERS by Michael Jensen is one of the previously mentioned exceptions. The painstaking research and the almost obsessive attention to detail are apparent from page one of this mesmerizing, and edge-of-your-seat-exciting story. I felt as if I had been transported to the harsh and unforgiving landscape of 1798 Western Pennsylvania, where I watched the life of protagonist, John Chapman, unfold.

John Chapman, fleeing an impoverished childhood and an abusive father, has been running for his safety since he turned 14. (...). As the adventure begins John, living in Lower Canada, has been having a relationship with a Major in the British Army. The affair has been discovered by local authorities, and John and the Major are forced to make a dash for freedom. Unfortunately, the Major gets shot so John, on his own, heads for the Western frontier in hopes of staking a claim and starting his own farm. (...)

Winter is coming on and, John, with no frontier skills, wanders across the Allegheny Plateau in search of an outpost called Warren, where he has read, claims, and the supplies to work them, are being offered to settlers. Near starvation, our hero is discovered, and taken in for the winter, by a gruff and drunken woodsman. Discovering his benefactor has some deep and disturbing secrets, John once again flees at the first sign of spring.

He heads for the small settlement known as Franklin. Once again on the brink of disaster, John is led by an Indian woman to an abandoned claim a days walk from the new town. Encouraged by the settlement leader to take over the claim, John decides to stay. Among the few settlers he meets, is Palmer Baxter, a brash but handsome, seventeen year old frontiersman. Desperate to keep his natural inclinations in check, John does his best to discourage young Palmer, but the boy has no intention of being kept at bay. Even though they are on the very outskirts of society, John and Palmer must still face the overly-suppressive circumstances of the day. Added to this pressure, is the re-emergence of an incredibly evil presence from John's past. This is the outside edge of the known civilized world, and wrong decisions can easily equal death. Can John and Palmer survive the tremendous odds stacked against them?

Jensen is able to weave an incredibly romantic love story, despite the extremely cruel and prejudicial attitudes of this society, inside an outdoor adventure to rival anything ever written by Jack London.
This wonderful novel hooked me and reeled me in faster than a trout in a shallow stream. Jensen's incredible sense of detail and his sharp writing style made for one heck of an entertaining read. The scenes painted here provide the reader with a very real sense of time and place; a repressive time in an incredibly beautiful but dangerous place. I understand there is to be a sequel, I for one can't wait. I HIGHLY recommend this book, especially for anyone with an interest in accurate historical fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Tense, Erotic, Violent Historical Fiction
Review: Wow, quite a lot of controversy about this book.

Some think it's a sort of Harlequin romance, which may be so. But I found that it had an interesting historical relevance, as most all Westerns delete any reference to the part gay men played in early US history.

I found the repressive environment, the sexual tension, and the hard life well-described. I have a hardcover version, with a very beautiful painting used as cover art. It's a book I'm keeping, and may read again, which is rare.

This isn't Proust, or Nobel lit, but stands out as one of few Western novels about gay men. As others have mentioned, it could well be made into a compelling film.

Rating:
Summary: Very good story of Life in the 1700's for a Gay Man
Review: In this book, set in 1779, we meet John Chapman a romantic, literate man who has set out to stake a claim in the wilds of America's Pennsylvania Mountains - fleeing from an alcoholic father, then a Military major and an irrepressible desire for other men.

A pathetically novice frontiersman, John is rescued from near starvation by a strapping Irishman named Daniel McQuay. The two become lovers, but when Daniel turns out to be a crazed murderer, John barely escapes with his life. After moving on to the future town of Franklin, PA, and with the support of a 17-year-old "Kentucky boy" stud named Palmer, John makes a new start in a small village of settlers, until McQuay reappears wreaking more havoc.

This is a thrilling, historical romance set against a harsh and rugged backdrop, and invigorated by hot sex scenes in bathtubs and amid thunderstorms.

The author, Michael Jensen, this being his first novel, does an excellent job describing scenes, and gets the history down perfectly. It is obvious, this is an Author that took the time to get the facts right about how the land was, the people were, and the dialects were in the late 1700's.

I highly recommend reading this book...

Mike Heine ('winterstone')

Rating:
Summary: Gay Historical Fiction
Review: Readers buy novels for many reasons, and an insight into real individuals is rare. This historical fiction I found to be a good read. The real "Johnny Appleseed" probably was as backward as the John Chapman of "Frontiers", and one senses the outcast nature of being an "abomination" in the 1790s. The author does a masterful job with the difficulty of John's sexual difference as well as the hardship of living on the frontier. There is no positive sense of closure with the novel, just as there probably was with the real John Chapman's life. I enjoyed it!

Rating:
Summary: Excellant read
Review: I hope Michael Jensen will write more books like this one. It's difficult to find good gay novels, and good gay historical ones are even more rare. He did a good job on his research and keeps everything within the period. Once I got started, it was difficult to put down.