The great race

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Esther M. Friesner

This is NOT a mermaid book! (The title is a quote from Christopher Columbus's diary.) In this disturbing book, mythical king Prester John's ship is racing against Columbus to the New World. If he gets there first, all of the mythical creatures such as unicorns, fairies, pixies, selkies, etc will be saved and stay on earth. If not, they will be gone forever. This ship also carries a pregnant girl. She may or may not be a virgin, and may or may not be carrying a Savior, or just a human baby. ====== REVIEW WARNING: This book ends with a bloody atrocity worse than many war crimes. I am a Friesner fan, and did not know she would do this. If you are looking for a typical fantasy story, skip this dark book.

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Bruce Greenfield

In Narrating Discovery Bruce Greenfield chronicles the development of the antebellum Euro-American discovery narrative. These narratives depicted the Euro-American advance westward not as a violent intrusion into occupied territories but as an inevitable by-product of science and civilization. Despite the centrality of indigenous peoples in the frontier narratives, the landscape was nevertheless sketched in biblical terms as "a terrestrial paradise ... unpeopled and unexplored," as writers insisted upon seeing "emptiness as the essential quality of the land." Beginning with the British writers Hearne, Mackenzie, and Henry, Greenfield then traces the early American narratives of Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Fremont, demonstrating how these agents of the first New World nation-state brought a distinct imperial mentality to the frontier, viewing it both as foreign and as part of their home. But Romantic writers such as Cooper, Irving, Poe, and Thoreau felt ill at ease with the colonialist discourse they inherited, and Greenfield shows how to varying degrees each altered a discourse openly based on subjugation to one highlighting profoundly personal and aesthetic responses to the American landscape. The book concludes with an illuminating discussion of Thoreau, who transformed the discovery narrative from its origins in conflict and institutional authority into the "expression of personal identity with the continent as a symbol of American potential." Written with clarity and insight, Narrating Discovery brings a fresh perspective to current debates over who "discovered" America and recovers the complexity of frontier experience through a searching look at some of the vivid narrative accounts.

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Shirley Greenway

Describes the history of exploration of North America, from the first Norsemen voyages to the discovery of the continent by Columbus, the colonization of North America, and the search for the Northwest Passage.

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James L. Newman

""Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" The man who uttered those famous words was compared with Christopher Columbus in his day and became one of the late nineteenth century's most newsworthy figures. Yet, one hundred years after Henry Morton Stanley's death, his accomplishments in Africa have largely receded from public memory or have been discredited as epitomizing the wrongs inflicted by the scourge of European colonialism and its "scramble for Africa." While numerous writers have attempted to describe the man, sometimes through highly speculative means, our understanding of the most notable aspect of Stanley's life, his relationship to the African continent, isn't much more advanced than it was a century ago." "To fill this void, James L. Newman re-creates Stanley's seven epic African journeys, explaining why he made them, what transpired en route, and what resulted. He highlights Stanley's determination to succeed despite incredible odds and his relationships with the various people who enabled him to accomplish his objectives. And while he acknowledges Stanley's less admirable traits, such as his penchant for stretching the truth, his capacity to be ruthless, and his tendency to demean others, Newman refuses to engage in facile speculation. Instead, he focuses on the words and remarkable deeds of a man who played a major role in shaping today's Africa, viewing him in the context of the era in which he lived." "Imperial Footprints features research in the newly public "Stanley Archive" at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, as well as never-before-published photos and detailed maps depicting each expedition."--Jacket.