Frontiers (original 1999; edition 2000)

In the winter of 1797, young John Chapman -- on the run from the military after his affair with a major is discovered -- treks through the harsh wilderness of the Pennsylvania territory, hoping to stake a claim in the new frontier. He stumbles upon the outpost of Warren and it's sole inhabitant Daniel McQuay. After finally convincing Daniel that no one sent him to check on the outpost, John settles in for a long winter made more difficult by his attraction to the muscled mountain man. As the days pass, John learns the fate of the other people who originally kept on at the outpost with Daniel: how they were attacked by the Senecas only to discover that one of their own -- a former preacher named Zach looking for his half-Indian son -- was more of a threat than anything else. But John finds something about Daniel unsettling and soon finds himself running for his life when he uncovers the truth about Daniel's past.

John escapes and makes his way down the Allegheny, where an Indian woman leads him to an abandoned house. He reluctantly settles in and after a day, is surprised when strangers appear at the door, welcoming him to the settlement of Franklin. Their ease with him taking over the abandoned home surprises him, and he happily agrees to stay on and make a go with the land. The Indian woman -- a quiet, intelligent spirit named Gwennie -- helps him to prepare the land, talking him into planting apples. After all, she is known about those parts as the Apple Woman. He also finds himself falling for a young man of the town named Palmer who is somewhat of a misunderstood outcast, thanks in large part to his brother who happens to be the preacher.

John's attempt to settle into his new life in Franklin is soon thrown into disarray when Daniel somehow finds him and begins a reign of terror on John and his friends that threatens to destroy them and the settlement.

"Frontiers" makes for a good bit of historical fiction, providing a glimpse into the hardships of life in the newly expanding territory of Pennsylvania. The story also introduces the beginning, albeit a fantasy beginning, for a well-known figure in American folklore -- John Chapman, a.k.a., Johnny Appleseed. As the story moves, he progresses from an inexperienced and unsure young woodsman to a man who can hold his own in any fight and who cares about the people and the land around him. Though, I must admit that I was surprised at how sexually charged and explicit the story is, especially given the time period. It's almost like an historical pulp novel, but it never falls into the cheesy Harlequin romance style of writing. It's a good story, and in the end, that's what matters most.

Definitely a good read, and I recommend the sequel, "Firelands". ( )

Sometime ago a friend told me he loved Western Romance, and I thought, how many chance he will have to read them? If I think really hard, I probably come out with two, three titles. At the time I didn’t know about Frontiers; I found about it in the top 10 list Brent Hartinger compiled for my LiveJournal, and I immediately added it to my wish list; I was not sure about it, not knowing about it before, I had a little doubt that maybe the novel was too “heavy”, I like historical, but sincerely, I don’t like when they are too heavy on details, making the read more a challenge than a pleasure. But Michael Jensen is also the partner of Brent Hartinger, and so this romance outside the romance was a point more the pro list to buy it.

The book is a good historical, and above all a good Western romance; if we are true with us, Western romance is the “light” subgenre of the Historical romance, and so the risk to be “boring” is less, and Frontiers is not boring at all. It’s a mix of drama and romance, the drama part makes the novel realistic; it’s not an easy life for the people living on the Frontier at the end of the XVIII century, and both side, white men and Native Americans. All the story is centred around John Chapman, apparently a lucky man, but Lady Fortune does strange tricks; John seems to be always on the run, first from his family, then from expectations he is not willing to meet, and now even from the law: he was seen with his lover, and English Officer, and so he is double a traitor, to the Law of God as sodomite, and to the Law of his country, sleeping with an Englishman.

John runs away once more time, and he ends up literally lost in a snowstorm and right on the doorstep of Daniel, a strange hunter, who first seems to don’t like so much strangers, and John in particular, and then teaches him how to survive. But Daniel’s love borders in obsession, and John has to find his own way, and another run is there for him. This time he ends up in Franklin, a settler town in the middle of nowhere, but even here John finds a possible partner, Palmer, a 17 years old boy (don’t worry, John is only 24) who, on the contrary of his townsfolk, is able to appreciate and respect the nature around him.

Colin, the English Officer, Daniel, the rough hunter, and Palmer, the young settler, represent different type of love and lover. In order of appearance, develops also John’s involvement; don’t get me wrong, in a way or the other, John loves them all, but only with Palmer he will realize what true love is. The novel was also acclaimed like a good erotica: indeed, it has more sexy scenes than other mainstream novels, but don’t worry, the sex is never gratuitous, and it always serves the story, not the way around.

Another point that let me perplexed reading the blurb, and that in the end was better than expected, is Gwennie’s character, the Native American woman who will help John settle down with his new life; I’m sincere, I was a little worried that John had to “settle down” also in the other meaning of the words, and that Gwennie was his “historical” beard. Maybe she will be, and maybe the author sometime hinted at that, but she is not part of the emotional development of John: one thing he is sure and doesn’t change, is his strong belief that he prefers men to women, and he has to deal with it, on the good and the bad.

The author neither saves to the reader the dark side of that part of History, and I think he is by the Native Americans side, and also by that of Nature. Almost all the worst episodes, if not all, are by the hand of the white men, and I don’t doubt that they are not fantasies, but unfortunately only retelling of what really happened.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0671027212/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

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. ( )

Here is a link to my review on Speak Its Name:
http://speakitsname.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/review-frontiers-by-michael-jensen/ ( )

I don't know why, but I think of this book as the gay "Cold Mountain." Even though, historically speaking, it's about 100 years BEFORE that Civil War book.

I found myself really liking the protagonist in this book. Sure, he can't seem to do anything right, but you grow fond of him anyway, even though you are left confused on the first location of the book and how he ended up bedding with an officer. But then you see how haphazard his life is, so you figure you've just jumped into his life in the middle of it.

The travels he takes and the experiences he has really make you root for him in the end, hoping he finds his homestead and meets someone he can settle down with. This guy really gets into some predicaments and he sure is jumpy.

I usually don't like books that have flashbacks to when the main character was younger, told as a journal entry would be told, but the ones in this book, at the beginning of each chapter, were not very long and were usually pretty comical. I liked them.

My problem was with the ending. Granted, they leave you believing it's going to be a happy ending, but the book ends with Palmer going to the fort with his family, so he's actually leaving at the end. Sure, he says he'll be back, but it doesn't change the fact the last scene with him in it, he's leaving. And they just assume Gwennie is okay and the she survived the fire, Chapman just "knows" she's alive somewhere, but they don't actually PROVE IT! I don't like that just left hanging.

Overall though, it was a really enjoyable book to read. I'll rate it a 7.5 out of 10.