Western Exploration

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.

Trapped in a job he hated and up to his neck in debt, Guy Grieve’s life was going nowhere. But with a stroke of luck, his dream of escaping it all to live in remote Alaska suddenly came true. Miles from the nearest human being and armed with only the most basic equipment, Guy built a log cabin from scratch and began carving a life for himself through fishing, hunting, and diligently avoiding bears. Packed with adventure, humor, and insight, this is the gripping story of an ordinary man learning the ways of the wild.

The heroes left behind. Sass Collier and the Thrive vanished a decade ago to visit another star. Most of her crew stayed behind on their home moon. Ben Acosta, captain of the ringship Prosper, still joyfully plies the spaceways. Until his ex decides to head into space with an audacious plan. The Thrive crew reunites to test a faster-than-light breakthrough that could change everything. Experimental conditions may be adverse. Mileage may vary. Can Ben keep his decrepit ship flying, help his ex prove ground-breaking new physics, save innocents, steal priceless technology, and pay the kids’ ...

Thomas Jefferson, a naturalist and visionary, dreamed that the United States would stretch across the continent from ocean to ocean. The account of how that dream became reality unfolds in the stories of Jefferson and nine other Americans whose adventurous spirits and lust for land pushed the westward boundaries: Andrew Jackson, John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman, David Crockett, Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Kit Carson, Nicholas Trist, and John Quincy Adams.

This thoughtful examination of a century of travel writing about the American West overturns a variety of popular and academic stereotypes. Looking at both European and American travelers' accounts of the West, from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways, David Wrobel offers a counternarrative to the nation's romantic entanglement with its Western past and suggests the importance of some long-overlooked authors, lively and perceptive witnesses to our history who deserve new attention.

They thought Earth was dead. Captain Sass Collier can’t die. A century ago, the Colony Corps carried her away to the stars. Because Earth was doomed. She returns with tech advances from the colonies, hoping to restore the one best planet for humanity, and save isolated pockets of desperate survivors. Instead her motley crew from the boonies finds not one, but three surviving worlds — Earth, Luna, and Mars. And she’s with the invading aliens. Her homecoming starts with a bang. The Northern League tyrannizes Earth now. They capture Sass and her ship separately, to hold them hostage ...

In this fictionalized biography of the journey based upon the journals of Lewis, Clark, and other members of the team, an unheralded member of the Corps, Seaman, a 150-pound Newfoundland dog, is introduced to young historians. Seaman travels the long journey with the Corps, serving a key role in the expedition’s success, catching and retrieving game, and protecting the expedition team from wild animals and hostile Indians. Come along with Lewis, Clark, the Corps of Discovery, and Seaman!

Have warp, will travel! A three-world tour! Thrive Spaceways proved its new warp gate by saving Sass’s butt on Sanctuary. Now Ben and Copeland seek to turn their invention into a business. The Sanks hire them to visit the European theme world of Cantons. But first the reunited crews owe a whirlwind trip home for inventor Teke. After 15 years, how does Denali of the pterodactyls fare? Next stop is Sanctuary. Will the AI Loki let his people go? And then on to Cantons’ city-states of…pikemen and Renaissance wizards? Rejoin the motley crews of Prosper & Thrive for another space opera romp...

Sass versus AI! Sanctuary, high-tech paradise with small-town charm! Leave a message at the beep. In a flash of old-fashioned warp, Sass’s crew catches up in time to Prosper. Eager to greet a new world, instead Sass’s comms are blocked by an AI from hell. Sanctuary is refuge to the Colony Corps, who transported refugees from Earth to the stars. Compared to Thrive’s home moon Mahina, it’s a paradise. People are healthy. Their dome stretches over sports fields. Electric horses and fun three-wheelers are available to venture out, complete with breath mask. Robots do the work. Something...

In July 1776 a pair of Franciscan friars, Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, were charged by the governor of New Mexico with discovering a route across the unknown Southwest to the new Spanish colony in California. They had other goals as well, some of them secret: converting the indigenous natives along the way to the true faith, discovering a semi-mythical paradise known as Teguayo, hunting for sources of gold and silver, and paving the way for Spanish settlements from Santa Fe to Monterey. In strict terms, the expedition failed.

Thrive’s home system tour concludes on freaky Luna, where the hidden agendas of three worlds collide. Will their expedition end in triumph, or a rout? Sass and Ben team up to tackle Luna, final world of their Earth junket. Disgraced, Sass seeks redemption. Cautious Ben haggles for life-altering technology in exchange for saving Mars. Luna is the elder space colony, crowded and weird. Wage slaves scurry to pay air taxes, bombarded by augmented reality ads. Corporations rule, led by frail eunuchs old as Sass, cruel and cunning. Ben finds the jaded Loonies hard to relate to. Yet the team is ...

Are the boat nations Earth’s last hope? Stranded without her starship, Captain Sass Collier takes refuge in Earth’s criminal underworld. Her sole sponsor, Northern League agent Melkor, shelters them with family among the vibrant floating cities and cruise ship hulks of drowned Florida. But lively hurricanes at sea postpone pursuit only briefly. Because League ruler Voronin desires Sass’s pint-sized but powerful digital sentient, her robotic pet mink. The Russian controls his own weapon AI, a relic of dire wars. And he offers rich bounties to tempt Melkor’s gangster relations. Yet ...

Fresh world, first colony! Denali colony is failing. But a pristine Earth-like planet beckons - beautiful Sylvan! Sass Collier and Thrive escort the colony expedition. Woefully underfunded, understaffed, and ill-equipped, they’re settling the first new human world in a century. The expedition leader’s motto is Fail Fast. And they’re doing a bang-up job of it! But is the problem lovely forested Sylvan? Or sabotage? Join the motley crew of Thrive for another space opera romp across the sorry stars of the refugee diaspora on the wing and prayer plan!

Can Ben tame the monster AI? Evacuating the planet Denali brings Ben Acosta to his knees. Thrive Spaceways is bankrupt. His marriage is on the rocks. And his homeworld Mahina is in chaos from the deluge of offworld refugees. Pushy arrogant refugees. He’s disgraced. Fair enough — he blames himself. But another 40,000 will die on Denali if he can’t turn this around. Ben hatches a plan. The AI Loki is like a genie who grants wishes. A hostile, insane, ugly genie, with a track record for enslaving humans and building starships with asteroid-slicing guns. If he can harness Loki, Spaceways ...

Rayas offers a singular prize - the Dream. Last-settled of the Diaspora colonies, Rayas was privately funded by California refugees in Mexico. They couldn’t bankroll the immense settler ships that bore a quarter million souls apiece. And the terraformers were long gone. Instead they sent teens, trained en route using an AI, the Dream. This virtual reality teaches every science and technology, quickly. Students also relive Earth history first-hand as a video game. In Renaissance Florence, beat the Black Death and study under Michelangelo. Sail the Caribbean smuggling drugs, or master the ...

“Certainly I have known fear, many a time, sometimes almost panic, either on a steep mountain side, or crawling on my stomach over a snow bridge across a crevasse, or alone in the fly-infested northern muskeg, or running the rapids of an unknown river, or going out into a blinding blizzard. These things have brought me fear, but, as Hilaire Belloc says, a fear “steeped in exhilaration” and I realize now if I did not do so at the time, that if they did bring me a temporary thrill they brought afterwards a deep sense of satisfaction that was much more lasting than the momentary fear of ...

By the mid-15th century, the Byzantine Empire had collapsed and the various Crusades that had taken place in the region had largely disrupted the overland routes of the Silk Road and trade. Compounding the difficulties of trade was the rise of the Ottoman Empire in place of the Byzantines and the outbreak of the Black Death in Europe. This audiobook chronicles the early efforts by the Portuguese that helped initiate the Age of Exploration, and the ramifications the colonization had across the world.

A giant invasion ship abuilding. An envoy from Earth. And a relic from Earth’s AI Wars… Buffeted by advice, Ben refuses to fire on Moby Prick, as they dub the new colony ship. He won’t surrender his home world Mahina, either. There must be another way! Ben has time. Surely the Prick can’t reach Mahina for a decade? Two things are clear. They need more ships, and trained crew to fly them. Sass founds the new Colony Corps Academy, assisted by Ben’s space-resistant daughter Frazzie. Can Sass lure her namesake to the stars? As for the invasion, Ben has one slim hope. That between the ...

Cam was bored with her sex life, but while at the gym she met Taylor, a hard core lesbian who liked to play from the rear if you know what I mean. Taylor loved to turn busty young 'straight' girls into hard core lesbians and she had a special way to do it. Lot's of lusty taboo Lesbian action with backdoor play, toys, and more!

Thrive’s next generation is put to the test. Dark-humored Frazzie, and stolid engineer Tiktok, win rank and cadet berths on Sass Collier’s exciting mission to investigate the dead colony world of Aden. Eerie ruins nestle among Aden’s dark rugged canyons, and a quarter million settlers are gone. What destroyed Aden colony? Meanwhile Frazzie’s father, admiral Ben Acosta, migrates Rayas Colony. Cadets can transport the people. But the Rayans also need their precious space station transferred. That engineering feat requires Ben. Do they have the League’s blessing? No. Do they care? ...