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Flight Of The Hawk: The River: A Novel of the American West Kindle Edition

by W. Michael Gear (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 1,013 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Flight of The Hawk

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INTERNATIONAL BEST-SELLING AUTHOR W. MICHAEL GEAR TURNS HIS MASTER’S HAND TO THE FRONTIER WEST.

1812 Missouri Fur Trade – An intimate of the Burr conspiracy, the condemned and hounded John Tylor signs on as boatman with Manuel Lisa’s expedition. But the river is now contested as the British, Spanish, and other fur companies prepare to break Lisa’s hold. As the expedition battles its way up the violent river, Fenway McKeever lurks in Tylor’s shadow. Not only is the half-mad McKeever paid to kill Tylor, but he’s convinced himself that by destroying Lisa’s expedition, he can sell his services to the highest bidder.

“No one reads a Gear novel without being transformed in beautiful ways.” – Richard S. Wheeler

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Gears are the preeminent historical novelists of our times, offering fascinating and brilliantly researched insights into war, suffering, tribal life, and the beliefs that inspire people to act above and beyond what they thought possible. No one reads a Gear novel without being transformed in beautiful ways. The Gears, separately and together, rank among the most significant novelists of modern times, and their work will endure for generations.—Richard S. Wheeler

A solid Western . . . A well-plotted page-turner that distinguishes itself from other Westerns with its depth and quality of historical reconstruction.— Publishers Weekly on Coyote Summer

Flight of the Hawk is a fast-paced story of intrigue, set in 1812, during the fur trade and on the brink of war. With well-detailed scenes and an evocative atmosphere and milieu, it tells the story of a brave man's journey through the complex interplay of Americans, British, French, Spaniards, and Native Americans. This is a compelling, well-researched narrative, from beginning to end.—John D. Nesbitt, Award-winning author of Destiny at Dry Camp

From the Back Cover

ADVANCE PRAISE

“Flight of the Hawk is a fast-paced story of intrigue, set in 1812, during the fur trade and on the brink of war. With well-detailed scenes and an evocative atmosphere and milieu, it tells the story of a brave man’s journey through the complex interplay of Americans, British, French, Spaniards, and Native Americans. This is a compelling, well-researched narrative, from beginning to end.”

–John D. Nesbitt, Award-winning author of Destiny at Dry Camp

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR W. MICHAEL GEAR

“A solid Western . . . A well-plotted page-turner that distinguishes itself from other Westerns with its depth and quality of historical reconstruction.”

― Publishers Weekly on Coyote Summer

“The Gears are the preeminent historical novelists of our times, offering fascinating and brilliantly researched insights into war, suffering, tribal life, and the beliefs that inspire people to act above and beyond what they thought possible. No one reads a Gear novel without being transformed in beautiful ways. The Gears, separately and together, rank among the most significant novelists of modern times, and their work will endure for generations.”

― Richard S. Wheeler

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08Y5XPNPW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wolfpack Publishing (March 31, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 31, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5365 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 262 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1647345189

Best Sellers Rank: #63,040 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #118 in Native American Literature (Kindle Store)
- #359 in U.S. Historical Fiction
- #440 in Western Fiction Classics

Customer Reviews:
4.4 1,013 ratings

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W. Michael Gear
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Greetings, All:
I started out as a physical anthropologist, boiling human bodies and identifying pathological bone in the Colorado State University Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology. Life as a starving graduate student changed when Western Wyoming College offered me a field archaeologist position. With my M.A. in hand and a BMW motorcycle as my only transportation, I tied on a tent, then my little Sheltie dog Ted hopped onto the tank, and we were off to Rock Springs, Wyoming. Neither Ted, nor I, ever looked back.
When winter interfered with "have trowel will travel" field work, I lived in the family cabin, built in 1859, high on Berthoud Pass in the Colorado Rockies. There, I read beside the wood stove, played stick with Ted, and enjoyed great classical music, up until the day I read a western novel that made me crazy. What set me off was the ending, where a herd of steers (neutered male cattle) were having spring calves. I threw the book across the room, vowing I could do better. I started my first book the next morning, and within two weeks had finished a 500 page Western novel. (Don't look so impressed, it was real crap.) But the bug had bitten. I LOVED writing.
A couple of years, and eight unsold novels, later, I met Kathleen O'Neal (now Kathleen O'Neal Gear) at an archaeological meeting in Laramie. She was working as the Wyoming State Historian at the time. She stepped on my hat. I was raised old-school where you didn't wear a hat in a restaurant, so I'd thrown it on the floor. A couple of weeks later, we discussed writing over our first date, discovering yet another shared dream.
Since then it's been one hell of a ride. I've published twenty novels under my own name in the fields of SF, Thriller, Historical, and Western, and another forty-some Prehistory, Techno-Thriller, YA novels and non-fiction articles co-authored with Kathleen. Together we have close to 18 million copies of our books in print and translated into 29 languages. We've seen our titles on the New York Times, the USA Today, Toronto Star, Het Parole, and host of other international bestseller lists around the world. My novel UNRECONCILED was placed 1st in the International Book Awards for the science fiction category. Several of our novels have been finalists for the Western Writers "Spur" award, and our co-authored PEOPLE OF THE RAVEN was a spur winner.
These days we spend our lives writing novels and wrangling a wily shetland sheep dog named Jake. In January of 2021, Kathleen and I received the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to Western literature. We are deeply honored and humbled by the award. We will be installed in the Western Writers Hall of Fame this summer. No sooner than that had happened than I was infomed that I will also be inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame on September 18, 2021.
http://gear-books.com/post/92531699064/the-gears-at-cahokia-mounds-world-heritage
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Kathleen O'Neal Gear
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Kathleen O'Neal Gear is an archaeologist and New York Times best selling author. Her professional life began at the Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles where she was cataloguing three-hundred-year-old Guatemalan statues as part of her Ph.D. coursework. In 1980, she moved to Wyoming to work for the U.S. Department of the Interior as a historian and archaeologist, where she was twice awarded a "Special Achievement Award" for outstanding management of America's cultural heritage. She's authored or co-authored more than 50 novels and around 200 non-fiction articles. In 2015, the United States Congress honored her with a "Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition" for her work as an American archaeologist and writer, and the California State Legislature passed Joint Member Resolution #117, saying, "The contributions of Kathleen Gear to the fields of history, archaeology, and writing have been invaluable." In 2019, her book MAZE MASTER, won the International Book Award for Best Science Fiction novel.
She's married to W. Michael Gear, archaeologist and novelist, and they live near Cody, Wyoming.
In 2021, Kathleen and Michael jointly received the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to Western literature and were inducted into the Western Writers of America Hall of Fame. In 2023, they were awarded for Frank Waters Award for literary excellence.
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Customer reviews

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theresah

What the fans have been waiting for

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

Flight of the Hawk: The River (A Novel of the American West #1)
by W. Michael Gear

Flight of the Hawk is the first book in a trilogy that will lead those fans that favor the Michael Gear’s Richard Hamilton books on another Manifest Destiny/ Frontier adventure. They will have an intellectual immersion into American History and the past they dream about. All the aspects of the original Coyote Summer and Morning River are present.

Michael Gear has a way to describing that would astound most readers, you not only see but feel the muck and detritus that the characters slog through in the opening pages of the book. You can almost smell the city of St Louis. Not a smell I would recommend. You will deeply understand the danger and adventure of the characters as they engage on a trading adventure.

The book shows the struggles of the rivermen from the engages to the leaders of the trading empire. The engages are light hearted men who sings brawny songs, and finds peace in pole and rope like, Baptiste Latoulipe.

Then there is Manuel Lisa the leader of the Missouri Fur Company. The Missouri Fur Company was the American trading company that built a trading empire along the Missouri river in the early 1800’s. Manuel Lisa many dreams and aspirations that are being challenged or encroached upon by many sides.

John Taylor the lead character is a learned man finds little delight in songs, and thoughts of simple things. The past haunts John Taylor, Hallie, his estranged wife is the focus of his dreams, and she is who haunts him because of his mistakes of the past. All his love spurred because of his rival. He has backed the wrong horse, and has nothing to show for it, just the ashes of the empire he dreamed about in his hands.

Grey Bear is a brave of the Shoshoni that is struggling to save his people. He has a dream about a way to save his people, but he has to risk everything to save them.

Setting up the intrigue who is John Taylor? What is his motivation for joining the expedition that might be the last hope of the Missouri Fur Company? Will they control the river? Or will they find a way to connect to the native population for trading? This book makes all the important character descriptions that will hook the audience. Fabulous Job Michael Gear as always.

Flight of the Hawk: The River (A Novel of the American West #1)
by W. Michael Gear

Flight of the Hawk is the first book in a trilogy that will lead those fans that favor the Michael Gear’s Richard Hamilton books on another Manifest Destiny/ Frontier adventure. They will have an intellectual immersion into American History and the past they dream about. All the aspects of the original Coyote Summer and Morning River are present.

Michael Gear has a way to describing that would astound most readers, you not only see but feel the muck and detritus that the characters slog through in the opening pages of the book. You can almost smell the city of St Louis. Not a smell I would recommend. You will deeply understand the danger and adventure of the characters as they engage on a trading adventure.

The book shows the struggles of the rivermen from the engages to the leaders of the trading empire. The engages are light hearted men who sings brawny songs, and finds peace in pole and rope like, Baptiste Latoulipe.

Then there is Manuel Lisa the leader of the Missouri Fur Company. The Missouri Fur Company was the American trading company that built a trading empire along the Missouri river in the early 1800’s. Manuel Lisa many dreams and aspirations that are being challenged or encroached upon by many sides.

John Taylor the lead character is a learned man finds little delight in songs, and thoughts of simple things. The past haunts John Taylor, Hallie, his estranged wife is the focus of his dreams, and she is who haunts him because of his mistakes of the past. All his love spurred because of his rival. He has backed the wrong horse, and has nothing to show for it, just the ashes of the empire he dreamed about in his hands.

Grey Bear is a brave of the Shoshoni that is struggling to save his people. He has a dream about a way to save his people, but he has to risk everything to save them.

Setting up the intrigue who is John Taylor? What is his motivation for joining the expedition that might be the last hope of the Missouri Fur Company? Will they control the river? Or will they find a way to connect to the native population for trading? This book makes all the important character descriptions that will hook the audience. Fabulous Job Michael Gear as always.

Flight of the Hawk: The River (A Novel of the American West #1)
by W. Michael Gear

Flight of the Hawk is the first book in a trilogy that will lead those fans that favor the Michael Gear’s Richard Hamilton books on another Manifest Destiny/ Frontier adventure. They will have an intellectual immersion into American History and the past they dream about. All the aspects of the original.

5 people found this helpful

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Mike

Great story

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2022

Verified Purchase

Great historical fiction woven around real events. I’m not an expert, but it seemed well researched, and has a compelling ending leading to a sequel.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Senoj

An Utterly Engaging Tale!

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

With talk of a coming war with England, Manuel Lisa, an experienced trader, is in St. Louis preparing his river expedition for a dangerous journey on the Upper Missouri. While there, a ragged man with an odd air of quality about him, comes to see Lisa in hopes of joining his keelboat mission.

John Tylor has intentionally sought out Manuel Lisa after hearing rumors of the planned expedition. Tylor is well spoken and knowledgeable, which is completely out of character given his scruffy appearance. He applies for any available work and is ready to start immediately.

Lisa hires Tylor under doubtful eye, sending men to spy on Tylor before the expedition begins. The most disturbing secret he uncovers? John Tylor has books, and he reads! (Gotta love it!) For the times and the given conditions, it is a curious activity for any engage or hired man, especially one dressed in tattered clothing lacking personal hygiene. Suspecting Tylor is a spy, Lisa widens his search for information on this enigma of a man, but cannot find a reason to dismiss him.

Tylor soon sets sail with the Lisa expedition where a realistic account of life on the river in 1812 is handed to the reader on a silver platter. Native American clashes, British war threats, mosquitos, and murder plague the expedition, but when a letter written by Andrew Jackson is sent upriver, Tylor's life and his head earn a price tag.

This is a rare glimpse into the world of rivermen and fur traders in America. History buffs and historical fiction readers should snap up this story not only for the pure enjoyment of reading a realistic tale, but also for the historical facts and accuracy of a time period often overlooked.

Flight of the Hawk: The River caught my attention after falling in love with another frontier book by this author, Morning River, which was first released in the mid-90s. (I am still aghast that a movie hasn't been made out that fabulous book!) W. Michael Gear portrays this true-to-history life so well that his vivid descriptions and realistic dialogue pick you up and set you down on the banks of the Missouri. His expertise and talent for delving into the heart of the American frontier, especially the fur-trade, is simply unbeatable!

10 people found this helpful

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Randy Eickhoff

A truly wonderful book transcending the Western genre

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2018

Verified Purchase

I started and finished W. Michael Gear’s new novel FLIGHT OF THE HAWK: THE RIVER (Book One) in one sitting, unable to put it down. The first three paragraphs are emblematic of the lyrical writing, thought-catching descriptions, and finely-honed plotting. Subtle hints foreshadowing happiness, despair, and anguish create vivid portraits and pictures in the reader’s mind. Let us consider, for example, the opening paragraph:

“A drizzling April rain fell on Saint Louis that morning in 1812. It speckled the slate-colored waters of the Mississippi; it stippled the stagnant water that pooled in the city’s rutted avenues. The wet spring had already turned the mud on 2nd and 3rd streets into a bog where horse manure, bottles, bits of wood, and paper scraps floated in narrow ruts left by wagons and cart wheels. Broken bits of old Indian pottery, fractured cooking stones, prehistoric charcoal, and even the occasional bit of brown bone dotted the mud where it had been churned up from wheels, feet, and hooves.”

Gear has established the first four categories needed in a story, leaving only “who”---which is given in the third paragraph. Following that, the reader is led through periods of tension, awareness of the cyclical advancement of tragedy, bitterness, discovery, and leads the reader into a roller-coaster of tension and want.

FLIGHT OF THE HAWK is a novel that transcends the typical Western genre and easily slips into the paradox of the “modern novel” category and may, if we are lucky, become the Hallmark of a change in traditional writing and thinking of Western novels.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

michael Corson

spell binding

Reviewed in Canada on October 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

I have read a lot of Michael Gear novels ,some written with his wife
Their background ensures that authenticity is guaranteed and their writing is exceptional
Fabulous story- don't miss it