Wilderness Fiction

Peter Dunstan is a big rancher who wants to become bigger, to control more land. So when he buys Dr. Henry Morgan's ranchland that has been unsuccessfully converted to farming, it is his intention to return it to open range. The only stipulation the doctor makes is that Dunstan must retain Sandy Sweyn, who has more or less been Dr. Morgan's ward. Though the man is of age, he is generally considered a half-wit, even by the doctor. Still, Sandy has a fabulous gift: He can communicate with animals.

Rodney Locust is finally twelve, the age his dad says he must be to attend the annual deer hunt on his family’s allotment in the hills of eastern Oklahoma. But there's a lot of work to do before Rodney can grab his rifle and step foot in the woods, starting with hunter safety.

Twins Harley and Rhiannon Hummingbird have always been competitive. But there's one thing the siblings can agree on—they can't wait to travel from their Oklahoma home to their grandparents’ new cabin in northern Wisconsin. Both Harley and Rhiannon are looking forward to a week of swimming, boating, and most importantly, fishing.

While on her way to Arizona to teach school, beautiful Margaret Earle suddenly finds herself lost in the wilderness. When a ragged man happens across her in the middle of the night, she believes help has arrived--but he turns out to be even more threatening than the wilderness, and Margaret runs from him in desperation. Lost once more, besieged by the elements, terrified by the howling of wild beasts around her, Margaret wonders how she will survive.

Lincoln Atwood survived the contagion that wiped out nine-tenths of humanity. As the last survivor in a secret government bunker, he knows that the other survivors are scared, angry, and dangerous, just like him. After weeks alone with the mummified bodies of his colleagues, he escapes the bunker. But the world outside has changed. Among the crumbling ruins of civilization, he loses himself to the wilderness in his soul. When he sees Caroline, a fellow survivor, she is vision of light in a world gone dark.

When her emotionally-abusive ex flees the country to escape arrest for blackmailing other politicians, it’s actually a relief—a chance to reclaim her life. But retreating to the mountain house gifted by her mother, she’s met by hostility from the nearby town. The locals blame Erin for her ex’s corrupt actions that led to the construction of a private prison, drawing gangs, violence, and death.

Albert Birnbaum was once one of the biggest political talk show hosts around, but these days he’s watching his career enter a death spiral. A stranger offers a solution to his woes, promising to put him back on top. It’s everything Birnbaum wants, but is there a catch? And does Birnbaum actually care if there is? "A Voice in the Wilderness" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. Thoreau's literary style combines the observation of nature with personal experience, symbolic meaning, and historical lore. His books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes.

Jimmy Benge is excited to celebrate his thirteenth birthday with an ice fishing adventure in northern Minnesota. He's even allowed to invite his best friend, Ryan, to spend winter break at the family’s lakeside home. The two boys learn a lot about ice fishing and catch a few panfish but decide to fish for something bigger: Northern pike, the alpha predators of the lake.

Thirteen-year-old Juniper is full of excitement when she’s offered the chance to visit her aunt and uncle in Alaska and take part in a hunt in the Tongass National Forest. Juniper has plenty of experience hunting mule deer at home in Colorado, and she's sure she’ll be ready for whatever Alaska can throw at her. But Southeast Alaska isn’t quite what Juniper expected.

Akari Takahashi is brilliant and beautiful. She's also in desperate need of a good, hard spanking. Her father and mine have apparently made it their mission to arrange a marriage for us, but out here in the wild, a city girl like her doesn't just need a husband. She needs a firm-handed daddy who will take her over his knee with her cute little panties down whenever she's been naughty. A daddy like me.

3:47 a.m. That's when they come for Wren Clemmens. She's hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who've gone so far off the rails, their parents don't know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.

After being placed in foster care, Rhi is hungry for a fresh start and begins working at the Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve. While in the woods, she stumbles upon a surreal sight: a pack of wolves guarding four feral and majestic girls. After Rhi gains their trust, they reveal that they’re princesses from another land, raised by a magical prophet they call Mother—and they're convinced Rhi is their lost fifth sister. Unsure what to believe, Rhi ushers the girls to civilization, where they’re met with societal uproar and scrutiny, dubbed “The Wild Girls of Happy Valley.”

"Wilderness," a darkly intriguing short story first published as an e-book original, was written as prelude to Dean Koontz’s novel of mystery, suspense, and strange wonder - Innocence.

Mallory Reynolds is a driven woman fueled by her passion for photographing wild animals in remote locations. Every year she makes a trek deep into Alaska, but this time the unthinkable happens: she crash-lands after her plane stalls out in a storm. Injured, vulnerable, and threatened by the very creatures she loves, Mallory fears the worst - until she’s rescued by Michael Bradley, a mysterious mountain man living in self-imposed exile. Unfortunately, neither of them can leave Michael’s secluded cabin until spring. Mallory’s stuck with a stranger for months.

Joseph Malcom is asked to safely guide beautiful Monti Bergeron through the mountains to help minister to a local Indian tribe. As Monti settles into her ministry, Joseph finds his wandering feet drawn back to the Indian camp. Monti’s focus on God is more unsettling than he’d like to admit. Add to that her beauty which tests his willpower at every turn, and she’s made it crystal clear she doesn’t want a husband. But when his determination to keep distance between them puts Monti in danger, protecting her might require something Joseph might not be able to give.

The Cold Creek Highway stretches close to five hundred miles through British Columbia’s rugged wilderness to the west coast. Isolated and vast, it has become a prime hunting ground for predators. For decades, young women traveling the road have gone missing. Motorists and hitchhikers, those passing through or living in one of the small towns scattered along the region, have fallen prey time and again. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice.

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin's been taken, or if she's even alive. The only clue to both her aunt's disappearance and her father's murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book - an item unheard of in her illiterate society.

For better or for worse, Sarah Anderson has it all: a thriving career, a nice home in Ottawa, two young kids…and a marriage coming apart at the seams. Then her husband, Matthew, vanishes without a trace during a family vacation up north. Sarah and her children are nearly lost among the slumbering lakes, treacherous cliffs, and brooding forests of the Canadian Shield. A glacier-scraped realm of ancient beauty and terror, it’s a world away from the safety of the suburbs. And a big storm is brewing.

Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program.