Richard S Wheeler and TOR/FORGE Team Up to Respond to Reader Demand

One of the most loved series in the fiction of the West is now back in print. Tom Doherty Associates has reissued Richard S. Wheeler's Skye's West novels as trade paperbacks.

(PRWEB) August 2, 2004 -- Wheeler's Skye West novels, feature mountain man Barnaby Skye, his two wives--Victoria of the Crows and Mary of the Shoshones--and his cantankerous horse Jawbone. The first book was released in the mid-1980s, with thirteen titles currently in the series.

Wheeler says, "I receive more mail about the Skye's West series than all the rest of my novels combined. Readers often ask when the next Skye's West novel will appear."

For an author who has published more than fifty titles, including several other series, this is quite a testament.

The Skye's West series typifies Wheeler's unique talent of writing about the diversity of the people who came West, and the remarkable native people who already lived there. His character, Barnaby Skye--once a pressed seaman in the Royal Navy--builds a new and adventurous life in the wilderness of North America in the mid-nineteenth century, which includes taking two unique wives. He becomes a guide operating from Fort Laramie, leading adventurers, sportsmen, scientists, traders, and missionaries into the unknown and untamed west often at great peril.

The first eight novels were originally issued as mass market paperbacks. The series received such acclaim that a 2001 Kirkus review of DOWNRIVER (the twelfth book in the series) queried: "Is a damned well deserved hardcover reprinting of Skye's early paperback originals a-borning? Let Forge paint Skye with a golden sunset." Well, Forge has done just that.

Now the early books are available as trade paperbacks from Ingram as well as at online retailers. The remaining five in the series were published as hardbacks and later as mass-market editions; they are still in print. With the reissue of the first eight books, librarians and aficionados can now obtain the entire 13-book series in their western collections.

The Skye's West titles reprinted in trade paper are: SUN RIVER, BANNACK, THE FAR TRIBES, YELLOWSTONE, SUN DANCE, BITTERROOT, WIND RIVER, and SANTA FE. All have been reissued with their original covers, including art by the legendary Royo.

Other series titles include: RENDEZVOUS, GOING HOME, DARK PASSAGE, DOWNRIVER, and THE DELIVERANCE. And it doesn't end there; Barnaby Skye lovers can rejoice.

"I'm pleased to report," Wheeler says, "that I have contracted for two more Skye books, which will appear beginning in 2006."

Contact TOR/FORGE for more information: natasha.panza@tor.com
Visit Wheeler's web site at www.richardswheeler.com to find out what else is on the horizon from this prolific writer of historical fiction.

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