03862cam a2200337 4500 606459570 TxAuBib 20200519120000.0 880122s1988||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 87043232 9780394569819 lim. ed. 0394569814 lim. ed. 9780394551548 0394551540 DLC DLC DLC OCoLC DLC ICrlF TxAuBib Michener, James A, 1907-, (James Albert.) Alaska / James A. Michener. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 1988. [2], x, [2], 868 p. : 2 col. maps ; 25 cm. The maps are on lining papers. Epic, as a description, is thrown around far too often these days. So often, in fact, that the meaning has been diluted down to where it is used only to describe a long story. Alaska, by James Michener is not just a long story. Rather, Alaska is an epic in the original sense - a story that is told over the course of epochs, involving generations of characters and genealogies. The story begins with the forming of the continent of North America and takes the reader through modern times. Along the way, the people who shaped Alaska are introduced and we follow their stories as they form the greater narrative. We meet the Russian and Inuit settlers, the captains of the great whalers, the politicians and gold miners who wanted to claim Alaska as their own. We meet the average people who, in extraodinary circumstances, become heroes and outlaws. We even meet the dogs and salmon who form such an integral part of Alaska's story. ichener writes with a clear, simple style. He weaves characters together with such deftness that the reader never questions the occasional use deus ex machina or coincidence to further the greater story. Thankfully, Michener is not overly wordy, else his thousand page stories would be double or treble their length. Instead, he is concise and not too verbose, describing places, events, and settings with a few words before entering it into the grand positions. Describes the lives and struggles of humans and animals in Alaskan prehistory and then leaps into the eighteenth century where the historical high points are vividly portrayed. Wilson's Fiction. Booklist. In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us through Alaska’s fierce terrain and history, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling present. As his characters struggle for survival, Michener weaves together the exciting high points of Alaska’s story: its brutal origins; the American acquisition; the gold rush; the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry; the arduous construction of the Alcan Highway, undertaken to defend the territory during World War II. A spellbinding portrait of a human community fighting to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic saga of the enduring spirit of a land and its people. Praise for Alaska “Few will escape the allure of the land and people [Michener] describes. . . . Alaska takes the reader on a journey through one of the bleakest, richest, most foreboding, and highly inviting territories in our Republic, if not the world. . . . The characters that Michener creates are bigger than life.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Always the master of exhaustive historical research, Michener tracks the settling of Alaska [in] vividly detailed scenes and well-developed characters.”—Boston Herald Michener is still, sentence for sentence, writing’s fastest attention grabber.”—The New York Times. Adult Follett Library Resources. Young Adult. Alaska History Fiction. Historical fiction. TXNAV