What do you think?
The Land of Frozen Suns
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 4, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 27, 2018
I spent a few years trotting through all the titles on the Project Gutenberg author page belonging to B. M. Bower. She wrote westerns, mainly set in Montana, but also in California. Many of her books were turned into silent movies, and I very much enjoyed them all.
As I neared the end of the list, I read more about Bower herself, and learned that her second husband was also an author. Bertrand Sinclair was his name, and here is part of what Wiki has to say about him.
"At age 14 Sinclair ran away to Montana and became a cowboy for the next seven years. In 1903 he left Montana for Seattle and San Francisco, but returned to Montana, living in Great Falls for the next three years. In 1905 he first published stories. Also in 1905, he married author Bertha M. Brown, better known under her pen name (using her first husband's last name): B. M. Bower. Bower, a very prolific novelist, taught him to write "productively" and to employ a formula."
I looked to see if any of his books were at Gutenberg. They were, so I thought it might be fun to work my way through his (much shorter) list in order of publication. I read the first one, Raw Gold (1908), in December of 2017 as a test: would I like it, would I want to read more?
Yes and yes. Now here we are in September and I have finally gotten around to the second book, The Land Of Frozen Suns. It starts off good, when we are introduced to Robert Sumner, who was the son of a Texas rancher.
"I cannot remember seeing a town when I was small. The world to me was a place of great plains, very still, and hot, and dry, a huddle of cabins, and corrals, and a little way to the south Red River slinking over its quicksands—except in time of storm; then it raged.
So that when my father bundled mother and myself off to a place called St. Louis, where great squadrons of houses stood in geometrical arrangement over a vast area, I had already begun to look upon things with the eyes of cattleland. I recollect that when we were settled in a roomy, old-fashioned house I cried because my mother would not let me go out to the corral and play. “There are no corrals in a city, dear,” she explained—and I cried the harder. I could conceive of no joy in a place where I could not go out to the corrals and have some brown-faced cowpuncher hoist me up on a gentle horse and let me hold the reins while the pony moved sedately about."
Robert skims over his St. Louis years until a week after his 20th birthday when he and his mother received the news that Dad (who had continued to spend time on the Texas ranch) had been killed in a riding accident. The news shocked Robert's mother into a fatal heart attack, and left Bob heir to the ranch and in need of a guardian. He arranges things with his Dad's banker and decides to go visit the ranch, since he has a few months before time to head off to college.
Here is where our Robert begins to change from The Hero to a mere narrator. Events still take place directly to him, but more on the lines of silly things that would not have happened to an older, more worldly wise man. Well, of course, because where would be the story otherwise, I guess. But due to a series of silly things, Robert ends up in Canada in the company of one of those worldly wise men who can handle anything.
And after that the story begins to get dull and predictable, at least in my opinion. I kept going to the end, but I was not nearly as pleased with this one as I was with Raw Gold, and I have decided not to read any others by Sinclair, at least at this time. I might come back to them someday, but there are so many other shiny objects on my lists that I do not feel compelled to hold myself to a challenge made up on the spur of a moment a year ago.
As I neared the end of the list, I read more about Bower herself, and learned that her second husband was also an author. Bertrand Sinclair was his name, and here is part of what Wiki has to say about him.
"At age 14 Sinclair ran away to Montana and became a cowboy for the next seven years. In 1903 he left Montana for Seattle and San Francisco, but returned to Montana, living in Great Falls for the next three years. In 1905 he first published stories. Also in 1905, he married author Bertha M. Brown, better known under her pen name (using her first husband's last name): B. M. Bower. Bower, a very prolific novelist, taught him to write "productively" and to employ a formula."
I looked to see if any of his books were at Gutenberg. They were, so I thought it might be fun to work my way through his (much shorter) list in order of publication. I read the first one, Raw Gold (1908), in December of 2017 as a test: would I like it, would I want to read more?
Yes and yes. Now here we are in September and I have finally gotten around to the second book, The Land Of Frozen Suns. It starts off good, when we are introduced to Robert Sumner, who was the son of a Texas rancher.
"I cannot remember seeing a town when I was small. The world to me was a place of great plains, very still, and hot, and dry, a huddle of cabins, and corrals, and a little way to the south Red River slinking over its quicksands—except in time of storm; then it raged.
So that when my father bundled mother and myself off to a place called St. Louis, where great squadrons of houses stood in geometrical arrangement over a vast area, I had already begun to look upon things with the eyes of cattleland. I recollect that when we were settled in a roomy, old-fashioned house I cried because my mother would not let me go out to the corral and play. “There are no corrals in a city, dear,” she explained—and I cried the harder. I could conceive of no joy in a place where I could not go out to the corrals and have some brown-faced cowpuncher hoist me up on a gentle horse and let me hold the reins while the pony moved sedately about."
Robert skims over his St. Louis years until a week after his 20th birthday when he and his mother received the news that Dad (who had continued to spend time on the Texas ranch) had been killed in a riding accident. The news shocked Robert's mother into a fatal heart attack, and left Bob heir to the ranch and in need of a guardian. He arranges things with his Dad's banker and decides to go visit the ranch, since he has a few months before time to head off to college.
Here is where our Robert begins to change from The Hero to a mere narrator. Events still take place directly to him, but more on the lines of silly things that would not have happened to an older, more worldly wise man. Well, of course, because where would be the story otherwise, I guess. But due to a series of silly things, Robert ends up in Canada in the company of one of those worldly wise men who can handle anything.
And after that the story begins to get dull and predictable, at least in my opinion. I kept going to the end, but I was not nearly as pleased with this one as I was with Raw Gold, and I have decided not to read any others by Sinclair, at least at this time. I might come back to them someday, but there are so many other shiny objects on my lists that I do not feel compelled to hold myself to a challenge made up on the spur of a moment a year ago.
October 28, 2019
A fairly interesting story set mostly in the frozen Canadian north country, at the time when the Hudson’s Bay Company had a monopoly on the fur trade. Four very diverse characters take center stage in the dangerous schemes and adventures that take place. Wonderfully read for LibriVox.org by Roger Melin.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews