Books with author Michael Walter

Named “Best Book of 2017” by the Wild West History AssociationCutting through 160 years of mythmaking, best-selling historian Michael Wallis presents the ultimate cautionary tale of America’s westward expansion."WESTWARD HO! FOR OREGON AND CALIFORNIA!"In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream," this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada.We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. Now, celebrated historian Michael Wallis―beloved for his myth-busting portraits of legendary American figures―continues his life’s work of parsing fact from fiction to tell the true story of one of the most embroidered sagas in Western history.Wallis begins the story in 1846, a momentous "year of decision" for the nation, when incredible territorial strides were being made in Texas, New Mexico, and California. Against this dramatic backdrop, an unlikely band of travelers appeared, stratified in age, wealth, education and ethnicity. At the forefront were the Donners: brothers George and Jacob, true sons of the soil determined to tame the wild land of California; and the Reeds, headed by adventurous, business-savvy patriarch James. In total, the Donner-Reed group would reach eighty-seven men, women, and children, and though personal motives varied―bachelors thirsting for adventure, parents wanting greater futures for their children―everyone was linked by the same unwavering belief that California was theirs for the taking.Skeptical of previous accounts of how the group ended up in peril, Wallis has spent years retracing its ill-fated journey, uncovering hundreds of new documents that illuminate how a combination of greed, backbiting, and recklessness led the group to become hopelessly snowbound at the infamous Donner Pass in present-day California. Climaxing with the grim stories of how the party’s paltry rations soon gave way to unimaginable hunger, Wallis not only details the cannibalism that has in perpetuity haunted their legacy but also the heroic rescue parties that managed to reach the stranded, only to discover that just forty-eight had survived the ordeal.An unflinching and historically invaluable account of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny, The Best Land Under Heaven offers a brilliant, revisionist examination of one of America's most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes. 50 illustrations

***Sale! The entire Alliance Trilogy box set for 99¢, or free in Kindle Unlimited!*** amazon.com/Alliance-Trilogy-Michael-Wallace-ebook/dp/B081TFR96P Captain Jess Tolvern of HMS Blackbeard is leading a Royal Navy expedition across long-dormant space lanes toward Old Earth when an alien fleet ambushes her battle cruiser. The aliens are Adjudicators, an ancient race whose ethos is to judge other species and reduce their survivors to a stone age existence.Tolvern sends a desperate message back to headquarters and retreats with her damaged ship to friendly systems. By the time she returns, the aliens have already invaded Alliance territory with a powerful fleet of star fortresses and accompanying dragoon ships, trapping and laying siege to the allied fleet.While repairing her ship, Tolvern cobbles together a squadron of damaged allied warships, former raiders, and the local survivors of an Adjudicator attack to drive off the alien fleet.

"Vivid, Comprehensible . . . cuts through decades of mythmaking." ―Texas Monthly Popular culture transformed his memory into “Davy Crockett,” and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. In this surprising New York Times bestseller, historian Michael Wallis has cast a fresh look at the flesh-and-blood man behind one of the most celebrated figures in American history. More than a riveting story, Wallis’s David Crockett is a revelatory, authoritative biography that separates fact from fiction and provides us with an extraordinary evocation of not only a true American hero but also the rough-and-tumble times in which he lived. 16 pages of illustrations

For over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery. Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In Planet Narnia he demonstrates that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles), Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - - Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn - - planets which Lewis described as "spiritual symbols of permanent value" and "especially worthwhile in our own generation". Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles so that in each book the plot-line, the ornamental details, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance', the atmospheric essence of a story, everywhere present but nowhere explicit. The reader inhabits this atmosphere and thus imaginatively gains conna�tre knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody. Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized, whose central interests were hiddenness, immanence, and knowledge by acquaintance.

"Vivid, Comprehensible . . . cuts through decades of mythmaking." —Texas MonthlyPopular culture transformed his memory into “Davy Crockett,” and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. In this surprising New York Times bestseller, historian Michael Wallis has cast a fresh look at the flesh-and-blood man behind one of the most celebrated figures in American history. More than a riveting story, Wallis’s David Crockett is a revelatory, authoritative biography that separates fact from fiction and provides us with an extraordinary evocation of not only a true American hero but also the rough-and-tumble times in which he lived.

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From the Corner of Your Eye to the Focus of Your FearTampa Fire Rescue paramedic Andrew Tate thought he had put all of his father’s crazy nonsense behind him. Twenty years ago, John Tate had been the respected dean of biology at the University of Tampa, a coolly intellectual researcher and devoted family man. Certainly not the type prone to outbursts of hysterical dementia. Then one summer afternoon he returned home covered in blood, ranting about bizarre creatures hiding in plain sight and declaring his intention to move out in order to protect his wife and son from the horrors now stalking him. For the past two decades, the senior Tate has lived at the periphery of his son’s life, making only occasional contact while conducting what he calls “research” into his discovery. It’s an uneasy relationship, but Andrew is thankful his deranged father has chosen to remain at arm’s length.All that changes, however, after Andrew is drawn into a hostage standoff. During the course of a tense negation with the captor, he beholds something that seems to validate his father’s claims: a living nightmare exposed for all to see and yet strangely camouflaged, both there and not there. It will be the first in a series of unwanted discoveries that will lead Andrew to the realization that a barely-glimpsed world exists at the edge of our awareness, a shadow ecosystem populated by terrifying denizens lurking in the light, awaiting the return of something vast and ancient and malevolent.Flavored by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, Periphery is a family drama at heart with a similar thematic tone as Stephen King’s The Shining or Pet Sematary. It also shares the creature-centric sensibilities as The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, The Terror by Dan Simmons, and Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. For readers who value originality, vividly realized characters and a tight, captivating plot that pulls back the hem of the ordinary to reveal something darkly fascinating beneath, Periphery is an absolute must.

Chad Lett is a mute witness to an attempted murder. He suffers from total paralysis, locked within a prison of his own mind. After years of silence, he establishes contact with a young nurse's aid through a single blinking eye, but then she is abducted and a staff member begins to administer dropperfuls of cleaning solution into his communicating eye.A heart-pounding thriller that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned, the Devil's Deep travels from the hell of a long-term care facility to the rain forest of Costa Rica. And a crime committed under tropical waters, the dive known as El Bajo del Diablo—the Devil’s Deep.Books in the Devil's Deep Series:Book #1 - The Devil's DeepBook #2 - The Devil's PeakBook #3 - The Devil's Cauldron

After Captain Tolvern and the sentinel battle station fight off a ferocious Apex assault, Admiral Drake sends her into Hroom territory to repair the wounded HMS Blackbeard and collect a fleet of Hroom warships.While Drake probes the deep void searching for the main enemy force, Tolvern and the Hroom spaceyards are assaulted by a massive Apex battleship that intends to harvest Hroom and human alike for its bloody rituals.