Eclipse of the Midnight Sun (The Rule of Ranging, #2) / The Rule of Ranging (ePub)

Even those waging the fiercest battles that span age and place have hard, fast rules that separate the soldier from the savage. And when one man's home is destroyed beyond restoration, it's up to him alone to forge a code and carve a new place to live in peace. The first book of a trilogy, Eclipse of the Midnight Sun is the epic action-adventure drama by Timothy M. Kestrel that follows the fearless Finn on a journey paved with bloodthirsty aggressors, mysterious women, and the rough terrain of a fledgling America. At once grave and uplifting, it's an absorbing flight of fancy and derring-do.
Set in the eighteen century, Eclipse of the Midnight Sun is a work of historic fiction that relives the most perilous days of the French & Indian War. The story begins in Finland, just as a young boy named Finn witnesses the complete annihilation of his home village, and the brutal slaying of his family by marauding Russians. He barely manages to escape, chased by a ruthless Hessian mercenary, Johan Kopf, nicknamed Totenkopf. Following his dying mother's wish to find a mysterious woman named Columbia, Finn's course takes him to England and then to North America. Crossing the Atlantic, he befriends a slave named Gus, and buys his freedom.
On their travels in this brave new world called America, the two make their way through the majestic Hudson Valley in New York. There, they soon encounter Marcus Fronto, a curious vagrant and unexpected philosophical mentor; Daniel Nimham, a fierce Wappinger chief and warrior; and beautiful Catherina Brett, who is striving to find a place for herself in a man's world after her brother is killed by hostile warriors. Together with his band of newfound companions, Finn decides that the only course of action for this crew of underdogs is to join forces with Robert Rogers Rangers, and fight against the French in Fort Edward, New York, during the Hudson River campaign in the 1750s.
Action-packed and rigorously researched, Eclipse of the Midnight Sun offers a rare vantage of a crucial time in this country's coming of age that is at once funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, and thrilling. Mining the depths of love, freedom, greed, and loyalty, it's a page-turning, heart-pounding read that is at once scholarly and scintillating. Anyone who relishes a shrewd story steeped in fascinating history will be enthralled by the death-defying antics of a hero for the ages.