Bristlecone Peak

As Dave Brown establishes in his author's note at the beginning of this the first book in the Legend of the Golden Feather series set in the late 1800s, this is a "pure fantasy in a real settings. Its purpose is to . . . escape the colossal horrors of the present day"; we must accept that premise otherwise what follows may seem beyond belief. The two star characters, Jake Brady and Wiley Gray are each in their early twenties, handsome, strong and in superb physical form with beautifully muscled bodies. They also each long to find a life long partner of the same sex. Wiley is from Philadelphia, dark haired and hirsute, he is intelligent and well educated having attended university, very fast with a gun, and an excellent tracker. He is part Indian, his late Grandpa Gray Feather being an Iroquois. Wiley is also something of a mystery, we do not know exactly what his profession is, although we might hazard a guess, other than the fact that he is making his way to Alma, Colorado, in search of a certain Mr Billingsly. Jake is a complete contrast, he is an uncomplicated decent Kentucky farm boy, blue eyed with tousled collar length blond hair, and illiterate, his education of necessity having ceased in the third grade. He has a love of the Bible which his mother whom he loved used to read him as a child. His father on the other hand had no time for him, mistreating him and calling him dumb and a sissy. Both his parents are now dead and he runs the farm alone. Jake knows he is different recognising that he likes men as other men like women, and was happily and eagerly seduced as a teenager by a passing soldier. Jake too is on his way to Alma although he might not know it yet; he is simply escaping the threat of a shotgun wedding after he has is accused of having got his neighbour Seth Harris's daughter Sara Jean pregnant. Jake and Wiley inevitably meet up in Alma and instantly take a liking to each other, the majority of the inhabitants of the town of Alma also taking a liking to the handsome couple after they openly and unashamedly declare themselves blood brothers in the local saloon. However all is not well, Jake is still being pursed by Seth Harris and his sons, of whom little good can be said, excepting of course Zeke the youngest at nineteen years, who secretly loves Jake, for Jake used to "fool around" with him and taught all the things his father failed to. They also have to contend with the local corrupt and greedy lawyer and opportunist Mr Billingsly and his cronies, who variously want them alive or dead. Being such a likeably couple though, Jake and Wiley instantly win the approval of most of the locals and make a number of staunch allies along the way, and so they have no shortage supporters. They also appear to have protection from a more mysterious source, a seemingly ageless Indian with golden feathers. While not pretending this is literature of the first order, it is generally well written. It is unquestionable well researched, and

It took my wife and I by surprise when Andrew told us he was gay. It took me a few years longer than Lisa to accept it. I became very scrutinizing of the things my son read. I couldn't help it, I'd scour his room for porn. Then, one evening I found a book on the coffee table. It had two cowboys sort of embracing. Why did Andrew leave this book here? He usually hid his gay books.I was determined to read it! Andrew was being corrupted by gay literature! I forced myself to read Bristlecone Peak. I know now why Andrew left it on the coffee table. If Andrew turns out like Jake or Wiley, I have nothing to worry about. This book is a breath of fresh air in a hateful world. One thing I have to say about Bristlecone Peak (and Dave Brown)is that this book is written in a very simple, easy to read style. I don't need the dictionary. And, Dave Brown doesn't put on "airs" about writing style,language or even description. While reading this book, I used my imagination for the first time since college. That's something to say for a "sitcom addict."I know why Andrew liked this book. He asked me for it back while I was in the middle of it, then Lisa came downstairs that night and asked me if I was coming to bed. I looked up from Bristlecone Peak and mumbled, "In a minute. I have to finish this chapter."I loved the way the book ended. Like a mini-series "to be continued" type of thing. The end made me teary eyed, but I knew more was to come. I asked Andrew if he had the next book. He grinned, searched his room, then handed me his copy of The Protectors. I laughed and kissed his forehead. We both laughed.I've since met some of Andrew's best gay friends. I love them all.Andrew's friends, and Lisa and me, gather some nights and read out loud selected parts of Dave Brown's books. Since they are fantisy, we relate which of the characters we feel we are like. Lisa takes to Rachel Harrington. I like to be Jimmy Ratchett. Andrew, with his muscles, likes to think of himself as Frank. No one has ever thought they were either Jake or Wiley. Those characters seem to be role models for all of us.Enough said.

I never imagined I would find someday something like this - a gay western romance! All the fantasies about gay cowboys and their life within the raw nature :-) I thought no one would ever write a book about it. But someone did - and he did such a wonderful job! "Bristlecone Peak" and its two sequels "The protectors" and "Home to Kentucky" center around two equally amazing protagonists, the life-experienced Wiley Deluce and the innocent, friendly Jake Brady, the latter fresh from Kentucky and in danger either to get killed or get married, in this case two comparable destinies ;-) These two strong, handsome men meet and within an hour it is clear to Wiley, Jake and the reader, of course, that they are meant for each other and have to stay together for life. And with this the adventure begins, including many dangers they have to face, many friendship they share with other wonderful characters they get to know and many quiet, loving moments they spend only in each others company.All this is so amazingly written, so exciting to read, the humour so enjoyable I am sure every reader will love them as much as I do after reading this first book in the authors "Legend of the golden feather" series. It ends with quiet a cliffhanger so you have to buy all three books but don't worry: it is worth every little penny :-))So buy it and then help me pestering the author to write more such smashing books!

What a ride! The "Legend of the Golden Feather" series, of which Bristlecone Peak is Book One (a fourth episode is in the works) is a well-written, gripping, homespun adventure right out of the old movie serials, or TV's Lone Ranger, Bonanza, Have Gun, Will Travel --- chock full of authentic Western history, locations and characterizations, but with one added twist. The heroes are gay!The Greeks have their myths, the Romans their commentaries, the medieval monks their hourbooks, the Japanese their tales of the shoguns, the Egyptians their books of the dead...and the Americans have the Wild West, a time and place of vigor, greed, virtue, vice, valor, deceit, and adventure. In other words, a microcosm of all human history.Until now an important aspect of that predominantly male society has been ignored, except for scholarly treatises buried in university libraries. The Old West was truly a place where men were men, where Puritan prudishness and prejudice (except towards the Indian) were often left on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River as men seeking a better life wandered westward. Yup, there were cowboys and wranglers and hostlers and miners and homesteaders and cattlemen who, if only for lack of female society, found spiritual -and physical- refuge in the arms of another man.Until Bristlecone Peak by Dave Brown, the West has been cheated of an undeniable part of its history, i.e. men with men, and in a way more intimate than just cowpokin'! But the book is no dry and serious study of old diaries or suppressed confessions, but rather a work of fiction based on the author's intensive studies, a rip-roarin' adventure sure to satisfy the modern adult grown cynical with age, tired of impersonal technology and its attendant social isolation. We live at a time that yearns after the innocence and carefree joy in life which seems to have vanished with adolescence. Dave Brown offers any reader the opportunity to escape the rat race and find the wonder of youth once more, but mixed with the passions and experience of a grown-up to offer a more stimulating involvement.The book's heroes, Jake Brady and Wiley Deluce, find one another in the Colorado mining town of Alma some 20 years after the Civil War. Their reasons for being there are quite different, as are their personalities. Jake is a 24-year-old Kentucky farm boy, full of youthful exuberance and wide-eyed wonder for the whole world and all that is in it. Wiley hails from Vermont. college educated in Boston, last residing in Philadelphia before his trip West, a man who has already at age 25 reached some cynicism in life, and who carries with him a shady past. Around the two protagonists author Brown weaves a tale of burgeoning friendship and love set against obstacles of trumped-up revenge, cattle-rustling, crooked lawyers, the fabled woman wronged, the injustices committed against Native Americans, all the while avoiding the Hollywood cl