Rendezvous: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Skye's West 9) [Hardcover]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997

In 1826, Barnaby Skye, a 20-year old pressed seaman, deserts his Royal Navy Frigate at Fort Vancouver and makes his way into the Columbia River country alone and determined to be a free man. There he meets legendary mountain men Jebediah Smith and Jim Bridger--and the beautiful Crow girl Many Quill Woman Author publicity. Online promos.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A Spur Award winner tracks the early days of a favorite character, whose plans to attend Harvard get waylaid.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

After eight fine westerns detailing the exploits of Barnaby Skye as a mountain man during the 1850s and '60s, old pro Wheeler (Sierra, 1996, etc.) fills in the blanks in his colorful protagonist's background--beginning in 1826, when the frontiersman- to-be arrived in North America, through his backwoods apprenticeship in the Rockies. Shanghaied by a press gang off the streets of London at age 14, Skye spends 7 years aboard a Royal Navy frigate before he's able to jump ship at Fort Vancouver. Evading both the British sailors and Hudson's Bay Co. minions directed to bring him back alive, the seaman makes his way to the Columbia River basin. Once slated to attend Cambridge like his merchant father, young Skye hopes to reach Boston, enter Harvard, and secure the education that will ensure him his birthright. Along his wayward way, however, he falls in with friendly Shoshone Indians who conduct him to a so- called Rendezvous, an annual trappers' fair in the Cache Valley, safely outside Canadian jurisdiction. While at this hinterland jamboree, Skye wins the respect of such high-country legends as Jim Bridger and Jebediah Smith; he also encounters Many Quill Woman, the Crow lass who will soon become his wife. Still bent on reaching the New World's Cambridge, Skye then sets out on his own for St. Louis. Soon relieved of his horses and kit by marauding Blackfeet, he has little time to link up with a crew of freelance nimrods before hard snows hit the mountains. After further adventures, he joins forces with his new associates in the Yellowstone area, helps make the beaver trapping season a financial success, and winters with the Crows. Eventually finding the call of the wild a whole lot stronger than the lure of the classroom, Sky marries his dusky maiden and, come spring, sets out with his westering comrades on another hunt. A promising start in what appears to be an absorbing, authoritative series. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1 edition (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312863195
• ISBN-13: 978-0312863197
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,244,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Wheeler began a late-in-life career as a novelist at age fifty, and by his seventy-fifth year had written seventy novels. He began life as a newsman and later became a book editor, but turned to fiction full time in 1985.

He started by writing traditional westerns but soon was writing large-scale historical novels and then biographical novels. In recent years he has been writing mysteries as well, some as Axel Brand. His Lieutenant Joe Sonntag series occurs in 1940s Milwaukee, and focuses on life in a big, smoky industrial city just after World War Two.

He has won numerous awards, including the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West, and also six Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. He has received more Spur Awards than any other living author.

He grew up in Wisconsin and migrated West, holding newspaper jobs in Phoenix, Oakland, Carson City, and Billings. His wife, Sue Hart, is an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.

He has been focusing more and more on biographical novels. One of these, published in March, 2010, is called Snowbound, and is about the explorer John C. Fremont's tragic fourth expedition. It won a Spur Award.


For a quarter of a century he's largely made his living from writing fiction. That reality astonishes him. In his mid-seventies now, he is still dreaming up new stories.

Note: There are other Richard Wheelers writing books. One is an historian of the Civil War, and another writes histories of the Marine Corps, and another is a social scientist. Richard S. Wheeler is the novelist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History -- in living Color!, September 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rendezvous: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Skye's West) (Mass Market Paperback)

From the time that Skye deserts the British vessel holding him captive to his meeting with the mountain men and Indians, I was held captive and felt as if I took each step into this new world with him. Mr. Wheelers use of historical facts and people, ie: the Hudson Bay company, Jim Bridger etc. just added to the overall effect of the story. I feel as tho I have gained a little more insight into the way the early trappers lived and faced death on a daily basis.

I will look forward to reading his previous novels on Mister Skye -i backward order to see just where he went from this point on. Anyone who enjoys the historical novel will enjoy this one. Thanks for a trip into the past!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MISTER SKYE'S WEST, CIRCA 1826, February 26, 2009

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Rendezvous: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Skye's West) (Mass Market Paperback)

RENDEZVOUS is the 9th book in the Barnaby Skye western saga. As the title indicates the location of the action is at rendezvous, Cache Valley, July, 1826, where 100 men of the mountains plus numerous Indian tribes, Crow, Shoshone, Nez Perce, etc., but never Blackfeet, met yearly or semi-yearly to relax and replenish the supplies they have exhausted during the previous months. The items they traded pelts or 'plews' for had been transported from St. Louis, Missouri, and were measured out with set rates of barter. One horse, for instance, could cost as much as $150.00 or 150 pelts, with similar cost for rifles. The traders always returned to St. Louis with much profit in their poke. One of the better selling items was the trade whiskey, made from pure grain alcohol some river water, & some chewing tobacco, vile stuff at best, normally concocted on site that very day. These rough men, white and Indian, did the aging process within their stomachs with blinding headaches to follow.

This 9th volume sets a new direction for the saga of Barnaby Skye in that the previous 8 volumes described him when he was at the zenith of his profession during the years 1850s and 1860s. Now with this 9th volume we are taken back to 1826 when Mr. Skye first landed in North America or the unknown American West. Traveling from Fort Vancouver he makes his way along the Columbia River alone, attempting to reach Boston, Mass., however, he has no idea how many thousands of miles to the east is the city of Boston. Traveling eventually with the Shoshone, Snake, Indians he arrives at rendezvous meeting various characters of history such as Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, and General William Ashley. Of all these men, it is Jedediah Smith who truly befriends Barnaby.

Until Mr. Skye meets "the beautiful Crow girl Many Quill Woman" to fall in love, he will retain his desire to reach Boston. Naming Many Quill Woman "Victoria" he begins a romance that will not only save his life but wed him to her. As Skye says at novel's end, "You know, Victoria, marrying you was the best thing I ever did". And between the 'bear medicine' and the 'magpie' these two march forward working their way to the 1850s and 1860s.

Great reading for anyone with the least interest in the trans-Mississippi west of the 1820s through the 1860s centered on the fur trade.

Helpful note to newcomers of this series, listed below in order are the first 8 books in this saga. A saga that now in 2009 contains 17 books.

Sun River, Bannack, The Far Tribes, Yellowstone, Bitterroot, Sundance, Wind River, Santa Fe, and Rendezvous.

Semper Fi.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Epic Adventure, December 14, 2001

By 

kregg P.J. Jorgenson (Burien, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rendezvous: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Skye's West) (Mass Market Paperback)

Richard S. Wheeler's Skye's West: Rendezvous and his character Barnaby Skye...eh, make that Mister Skye! offers a reading treat for anyone who wants something out of the ordinary with their adventures.
Besides providing a good story Wheeler's writing is grown-up good as it leads us into an historical realm and offers a well- crafted look, convincing dialogue, and characters who breathe.
It's easy to see why Wheeler has won the SPUR Award for his western writing and easy enough for a reader to be spurred on with his stories.
There's only a handful of talented writers in this genre out there and Wheeler is one of them.