Book picks similar to
The Iron Mistress by Paul I. Wellman
historical-fiction
fiction
western
american-history
Ghostwalkers
Jonathan Maberry - 2015
Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called "ghost rock" fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!Deadlands is one of the most popular RPGs in history, with over a million Deadlands gaming books sold.
Sioux Dawn
Terry C. Johnston - 1990
His Plainsmen series brims with colorful characters, fierce battles and compelling historical lore.The Civil War was over, and a great westward march began. Settlers and soldiers poured out of the East along the Bozeman Trail, cutting deep into sacred Sioux hunting grounds. For Red Cloud and his warriors, there would be no choice but to fight for their ancestral rights.Seen through the eyes of gruff Sergeant Seamus Donegan, here is the historically accurate tale of a tragic opening to the war between two great civilization: the Fetterman Massacre of 1866.
In the Shadow of the Mountains
Rosanne Bittner - 1991
From penniless settlers to wealthy mine owners to Denver's regal first family, together—and separately—they pursued their dazzling dreams of love and glory. From the era of the covered wagon to the rise of the western railroad, from the gold rush years through the golden age of the American West, IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAINS is the breathtaking saga of a remarkable family who endured tragedy and hardship to build a glorious mountain empire.
A Princess of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1912
It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil War veteran, unexpectedly finds himself on to the red planet, scene of continuing combat among rival tribes. Captured by a band of six-limbed, green-skinned savage giants called Tharks, Carter soon is accorded all the honor of a chieftain after it's discovered that his muscles, accustomed to Earth's greater gravity, now give him a decided advantage in strength. And when his captors take as prisoner Dejah Thoris, the lovely human-looking princess of the city of Helium, Carter must call upon every ounce of strength, courage, and ingenuity to rescue her-before Dejah becomes the slave of the depraved Thark leader, Tal Hajus!Excerpt:Her oval face was beautiful in the extreme, her every feature finely chisled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Similar in face and figure to women of Earth, she was nevertheless a true Martian--and prisoner of the fierce green giants who held me captive, as well!
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Nathaniel Philbrick - 2000
With a tremendous cracking and splintering of oak, it struck the ship just beneath the anchor secured at the cat-head on the port bow..." In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex - an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.
Appaloosa
Robert B. Parker - 2005
Cole and Hitch are used to cleaning up after scavengers, but this one raises the stakes by playing not with the rules—but with emotion.
Lily Cigar
Tom Murphy - 1979
She was a beautiful young innocent, driven into the sins of that womanhood by the dark desires that ruled men's hearts.You will never forget Lily -- as a child watching her mother die in want...as an orphan struggling to protect her reckless brother...as a teen-aged innocent discovering the power of desire...as a fear-filled young girl learning to sell her body in the most elegant brothel in the wickedest city on earth...as a captivating beauty whom men would pay any price to possess...as a mother desperately trying to keep the truth from her daughter...as a woman forced by love to return to the city of her shame and seek to conquer it..And you will never forget Lily's story -- as it moves from the Hell's Kitchen squalor and Fifth Avenue splendour of old New York..to the rolling decks of a great clipper ship...to the brawling streets, the fantastic pleasure palaces, the magnificent Nob Hill mansions of San Francisco, through storm and earthquake and fire in a breathless saga of love, intrigue and illicit passion....
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts - 2003
Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.
The Loner
George G. Gilman - 1972
This is the bloodiest and most violent story that ever erupted from our native territory. Here is mean, bone-chilling raw stuff, a compelling tale you'll never forget.His given name was Josiah Hedges, an innocent-enough monicker. But one look at the cruel set of his mouth and the icy penetration of his blue eyes and anyone would recognize pure danger in man's clothing. Now let's find out how this man lost his name and became known as Edge
Jamaica Inn
Daphne du Maurier - 1936
But young Mary Yellan chose instead to honor her mother's dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn.From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn's dark power. But never did Mary dream that she would become hopelessly ensnared in the vile, villainous schemes being hatched within its crumbling walls—or that a handsome, mysterious stranger would so incite her passions... tempting her to love a man whom she dares not trust.
Lord of the Silver Bow
David Gemmell - 2005
Some call him the Golden One; others, the Lord of the Silver Bow. To the Dardanians, he is Prince Aeneas. But to his friends, he is Helikaon. Strong, fast, quick of mind, he is a bold warrior, hated by his enemies, feared even by his Trojan allies. For there is a darkness at the heart of the Golden One, a savagery that, once awakened, can be appeased only with blood.Argurios the Mykene is a peerless fighter, a man of unbending principles and unbreakable will. Like all of the Mykene warriors, he lives to conquer and to kill. Dispatched by King Agamemnon to scout the defenses of the golden city of Troy, he is Helikaon's sworn enemy.Andromache is a priestess of Thera betrothed against her will to Hektor, prince of Troy. Scornful of tradition, skilled in the arts of war, and passionate in the ways of her order, Andromache vows to love whom she pleases and to live as she desires.Now fate is about to thrust these three together; and, from the sparks of passionate love and hate, ignite a fire that will engulf the world.Readers who know the works of David Gemmell expect nothing less than excellence from this author, whose taut prose, driving plots, and full-bodied characters have won him legions of fans the world over. Now, with this first masterly volume in an epic reimagining of the Trojan War, Gemmell has written an ageless drama of brave deeds and fierce battles, of honor and treachery, of love won and lost.From the Hardcover edition.
Cherish
Catherine Anderson - 1998
He is now a rugged, respectable rancher, but it's a solitary life. Then Fate leads Race to an earthbound angel—lost and alone' the sole survivor of an outlaw attack—and even his hardened heart is moved. He sweeps the ivory-skinned beauty into his arms and carries her away from danger.
A Woman to Cherish
When innocent Rebecca Morgan wakes up in a stranger's embrace, her life has been changed forever. Race's touch makes her blood sing and stirs up emotions in her she never knew existed. But this man has a fearsome reputation. And though her life may depend on him, can she trust him? Is it love she sees in her rescuer's dark eyes.?
Her Benny
Silas Kitto Hocking - 1879
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Giant
Edna Ferber - 1952
But for Leslie, falling in love with a Texan was a lot simpler than falling in love with Texas. Upon their arrival at Bick's ranch, Leslie is confronted not only with the oppressive heat and vastness of Texas but also by the disturbing inequity between runaway riches and the poverty and racism suffered by the Mexican workers on the ranch. Leslie and Bick's loving union endures against all odds, but a reckoning is coming and a price will have to be paid.A sensational and enthralling saga, Ferber masterfully captures the essence of Texas with all its wealth and excess, cruelty and prejudice, pride and violence.
The Traveler
Don Coldsmith - 1991
Now he is the Storyteller, weaving long-ago tales and trading as he traverses the lands of the People. Married to the beautiful Plum Leaf, the Storyteller sets out on the great adventure that will be his own life. He witnesses the changes the white men have brought--the taking of scalps, the preying of brother upon brother, the knives made of shiny, smooth metal. He journeys far and wide, to the land of the buffalo and to the heart of an enchanting young captive named Pale Star, who will be his shinning light and destiny in the dark days ahead. He is known by many names to those he meets in the wilderness: Storyteller, trader, Traveler--and one day he will become a legend as the half-man, half-spirit called the Watcher.