Homer Hickam official Web site - October Sky/Rocket Boys, The Keeper's Son.

READING GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS FOR HOMER HICKAM'S BOOKS:

Red Helmet
The Far Reaches
The Ambassador's Son
The Keeper's Son
Sky of Stone
The Coalwood Way
The Coalwood Triology
Rocket Boys
Torpedo Junction
Teacher's Guide to Rocket Boys/October Sky
Soon - "We Are Not Afraid" Discussion Questions

PERTINENT ORDERING INFORMATION

The Far Reaches (hardcover)
HOMER HICKAM
St Martin's Press/Thomas Dunne
ISBN 0312334753
June 2007

The Far Reaches

NOTE

We hope these discussion questions help you enjoy The Far Reaches. This is the third in a Josh Thurlow series that began with The Keeper's Son and continued in The Ambassador's Son. See the Books page for more information on each and how to get autographed copies.

SYNOPSIS

The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cruel and cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand for the invasion of Tarawa as the United States Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific. As blood colors the waters around Tarawa, Josh flounders ashore through a floating graveyard of dead Americans and joins the survivors, determined to somehow wrest victory from disaster. Gravely wounded, and nearly driven insane by the heat, blood, and carnage of the desperate battle, Josh expects to die. Instead, he is spun off on one of his greatest adventures when Sister Mary Kathleen, a young and pretty Irish nun, nurses him back to health, then shanghais Josh, sidekick Bosun Ready O'Neal, and three American marines to a group of beautiful tropical islands invaded by a brutal Japanese warlord. Josh and his little band must decide whether to help the Sister fight the battle she demands, return to Tarawa and the "real" war, or settle down in the romantic splendor of the South Seas. Hickam expertly weaves the adventures of these hot-blooded characters tighter and tighter until the Sister's secrets and sins are finally revealed during a horrific battle in the lair of the warlord. With an incredible eye for historical detail, edge-of-your-seat writing, and the talent of a master storyteller, Homer Hickam delivers another, page-turning tour de force.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Hickam sends his recurring hero, Josh Thurlow, to the World War II invasion of Tarawa and then off to an edenic atoll with a few stalwart troops and a complicated Irish nun who hopes he will carry out her own battle plan. Introduced in The Keeper's Son (2003), U.S. Coast Guard Captain Thurlow, sea-savvy native of the Outer Banks, operates independently under the mandate of Navy Secretary Frank Knox, sending back private reports and analyses providing the Secretary with unfiltered information on the successes and failures of the Navy's mission. The invasion of Tarawa, with which this rouser begins, threatens to be a disaster of the first order. The American strategy of island hopping has brought the fleet to a low-lying string of islands well defended by Japanese troops prepared to fight to the death. The emperor's forces have prepared earthworks that seem impervious to the Navy's giant guns, and the day the Marines have picked for invasion is cursed by a tide that will send the invasion craft straight into murderous reefs. Thurlow, seeing that the Marines have no idea what they are getting into, joins the troops and is quickly involved in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. He, his fellow Outer Banksman Bosun Ready O'Neal and a handful of Marines make it out alive, spirited off to the islands of the Far Reaches. They have been rescued by a band of islanders led by Sister Mary Kathleen, who has already escaped the Japanese once and is dead set on going back to settle things with her former captors. When the outriggers land the little fleet on the Far Reaches, it takes no more than a few minutes for them to succumb to the charms of the islands and the islanders. But Sister Mary Kathleen, with whom O'Neal is hopelessly in love, will not let anyone forget her mission to invade the main island where she endured captivity and fell from grace. Excellent war and, when the guns aren't firing, equally fine peace.

SUGGESTED READING GROUP DISCUSSION IDEAS

Below are some ideas for discussion in your group. Please contact Homer's assistant at LterryNOSPAM@Hiwaay.net to let them know when you're meeting. Schedule permitting, Homer might even be able to answer your reading group's questions via telephone!

The book opens with the battle of Tarawa. Had you ever heard of this battle? What would you think would be the American public's reaction today to so many of their troops killed in a single battle?
Did this novel make you want to read a non-fiction book about Tarawa?
What's your opinion of Josh Thurlow? What did you like about him? What did you dislike?
Who was your favorite character in the novel? Why?
Homer calls this novel, like all his Thurlow novels, a story of love in a time of war. Do you agree with that, in this case? What kind of love is portrayed in this novel?
Why do you think Ready loved Sister Francis Marie? Why do you think she shunned him for so long?
What did you think of Sister Francis Marie? If she was sitting in this group, what would you ask her?
The Sister has a secret sin she cannot reveal to anyone but a priest throughout most of this novel. Did you guess what it was? Or was it more than one?
Do you understand why she acted as she did after being captured by Colonel Yoshu?
Why do you think Colonel Yoshu wanted Sister Francis Marie back? Do you think he loved her? Was he in any way a sympathetic character?
What do you think of some of the metaphysical aspects to the story? The talking corpses on Tarawa, Purdy the Pelican, Dave the Megapode? What do you think the author was trying to reveal with these moments?
Why didn't the people of Tahila just pack up and leave when they knew the Japanese were going to attack them?
Why do you think Josh got so drunk when he arrived at Tahila?
Josh and Colonel Burr clearly have a past that has led them to dislike one another. Why do you think living on Tahila seemed to make them more friendly?
Would you like to live on Tahila and in their culture?
Did you like the way the story ended? How would you have liked it to end?
Did this story have a moral?
Would you read another Josh Thurlow novel?

BIOGRAPHY

HOMER HICKAM is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rocket Boys, which was made into the acclaimed movie October Sky. A respected amateur historian, he is also the author of the military history best-seller Torpedo Junction, the definitive account of the U-boat wars along the American coast during World War II, along with the popular historical novels The Keeper's Son and The Ambassador's Son. With a total of nine books to his credit, including the award-winning memoirs The Coalwood Way and Sky of Stone, and the techno-thriller best-seller Back to the Moon, Hickam's talents clearly span many writing genres. He is a Vietnam combat veteran, a scuba instructor who has led underwater exploration teams across the world, a retired rocket scientist, and, recently, has become an avid field paleontologist, with two T-rex finds so far. More than anything else, he loves to write. He is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist, who is also his assistant. They share their time with their cats between homes in Alabama and the U. S. Virgin Islands.