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Fred Stenson

Autor von The Trade

18+ Werke 242 Mitglieder 17 Rezensionen

Werke von Fred Stenson

The Trade (2000) 74 Exemplare
The Great Karoo (2008) 64 Exemplare
Lightning (2003) 24 Exemplare
Who By Fire (2014) 22 Exemplare
Thing Feigned or Imagined (2002) 15 Exemplare
RCMP: The March West (1999) 10 Exemplare
Lonesome Hero (2005) 6 Exemplare
Waterton: Brush and Pen (2006) 5 Exemplare
The Story of Calgary (1994) 3 Exemplare
Working without a laugh track (1990) 2 Exemplare
Last one home (1988) 1 Exemplar
Teeth (1994) 1 Exemplar

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World of Horses: Season 1 (2011) — Writer — 2 Exemplare
World of Horses: Season 2 (2011) — Writer — 1 Exemplar

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Who by Fire is a powerful, passionate novel about the march of "progress" and the environments, families, and ways of life destroyed in its wake.
The heart of this moving story belongs to Tom Ryder--a man whose expectations for the future and assumptions about his own strength and power are persistently and devastatingly undermined by the arrival of a sour gas plant on the border of his southern Alberta farm in the early 1960s. The emissions from the plant poison not only his livestock but the relationships he has with his family, most especially with his wife, Ella. The family is left without viable legal recource against the plant, and Tom must watch his farm dwindle away, his sense of himself dwindling away with it.
The novel moves into the present with the story of Tom's son, Bill, who reacts to his father's disappointments by rising through the managerial ranks of an oil company in Fort McMurray, hiding from his guilt in the local casino. Bill pushes himself towards a crisis in conscience through a relationship he has with a Native woman whose community is threatened by the actions of his company.
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heritagebook | 1 weitere Rezension | Dec 26, 2016 |
The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson tells the story of Frank Adams, a Canadian cowboy, who enlists in the army and is sent off to South Africa to fight in the second Boer War (1899 – 1902). Dispensing a lot of information along with a pretty good story, I learned a lot about the Boer War from this book, and in particular, the part that Canadian soldiers played.

I did find this to be a rather slow read, mostly as there is a lot of story to tell and the author layers this with factual information about the war. As Frank becomes one of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, there is a lot of information about the treatment and condition of their horses, which at times I often found quite heartbreaking. I was surprised at the patriotism that these Alberta cowboys felt for the British Empire, but this patriotism was again shown in the numbers of Canadians that enlisted to fight in the first World War some dozen years later.

Although I was never totally drawn into this story, the author certainly painted a vivid picture of the wartime conditions and experiences of these young men. The Great Karoo was a good historical read with, for me, an interesting slant.
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DeltaQueen50 | 12 weitere Rezensionen | Jan 4, 2015 |
I received a free copy of Who by Fire from Netgalley. This book very much grew on me. Stenson tells the story of a farm family in Alberta starting from the 1960's, and the effects that a newly built gas plant next to the farm has on them. The story takes place in two time periods -- from the parents' point of view starting in the 1960s, and today from the point of their son Bill. It's not a particularly complex story, but the characters feel very human and the writing is nicely straightforward. I found the parents' story particularly compelling and it rang emotionally true -- so much so that I found myself getting teary a couple of times. The son's contemporary story didn't work quite as well for me. His anger and recklessness feel exaggerated, and not really tied to his childhood as the book tries to suggest. But this is a minor flaw. It's tricky to write environmental fiction without being preachy and portraying characters as unidimensional. Stenson pulls it off nicely.… (mehr)
 
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Eesil | 1 weitere Rezension | Oct 20, 2014 |
In the briefest of synopses, main character Doc is a cowboy pining for many years for a long lost love. The books in split into large sections where we follow Doc through different stages of his life. In the first section we follow him in forward-moving time on a cattle drive headed through the western states towards Canada and in flash-back time as he reminisces of his early years as a cowboy when Doc is learning the ropes, falls for and eventually loses his girl, and acquires a life-long enemy. In the next sections Doc is the lead ranch hand on an Alberta ranch and then we follow his adventures as he helps a fellow lost soul find stability and Doc settles into his own place and settles the score with his enemy.

Although the beginning was a little slow, once I caught onto the story, I was hooked. Stenson wrote a thoughtful, interesting, and unique portrayal of cowboy life before the west was heavily settled. I strongly recommend this book.
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starboard | Jan 4, 2013 |

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Werke
18
Auch von
2
Mitglieder
242
Beliebtheit
#93,893
Bewertung
½ 3.6
Rezensionen
17
ISBNs
32

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