The Bird Shaman (Holy Ground, Book 3) [Paperback]

Judith Moffett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2008

The long-awaited conclusion of the Holy Ground trilogy!

Occupation of Earth is now in its 27th year, and relations between humanity and the dictatorial Hefn have never seemed shakier. The aliens mission is to save the planet from its human abusers; and the Baby Ban imposed by mass hypnosis has made Earth a cleaner, wilder, less crowded place. But the Ban has now lasted so long, and provoked such hatred, that when a spark is struck the situation explodes into worldwide riots on one side and retaliatory mindwipings on the other. Years of effort by the eco-spiritual Gaians, who mediate between humans and Hefn, have been destroyed.

While the Gaians regroup and brainstorm frantically in an atmosphere of doubt and danger, one obsessed Hefn and one young woman begin a radical experiment. Pam Pruitt has discovered a growing ability to acquire information by non-rational means. Childhood suffering has empowered her, in a way once understood by hunting and gathering peoples -- an understanding lost with that lost lifeway -- to communicate with mysterious forces through strong dreaming: to function as a shaman on behalf of her community, the human race.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...worth the wait...Unlike most works of SF or science-fantasy on this scale, [The Bird Shaman] continues to portray [its] people in very human terms, with major characters who don't become avatars, demigods, or even heroes with a capital H. ...Moffett provokes you to think and feel." --Locus Magazine, October 2008

About the Author

Multiple-award-winning author Judith Moffett taught creative writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop, the University of Kentucky, and for many years at the University of Pennsylvania. Her previous books include science fiction, poetry, literary criticism, creative nonfiction, and Swedish poetry in her translation. She was born in 1942 in Louisville. Moffett is the author of ten previous books in five genres, four of them works of science fiction. Her first published story, Surviving, won the first Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction story of 1986, and she received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1988. Three of her stories have appeared on the final ballot for the Nebula and one of these, Tiny Tango, was also on the Hugo ballot. The first two volumes of her Holy Ground trilogy, of which this novel is the third, were New York Times Notable Books for their years of publication; the second, Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream, was shortlisted for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Widowed in 1998, Moffett lives with her standard poodles, Fleece and Feste, in Lawrenceburgy KY. and Swarthmore PA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Bascom Hill Publishing Group, Ltd.; 1 edition (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980245540
• ISBN-13: 978-0980245547
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #470,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judith Moffett was born in Louisville in 1942. She is an English professor, a poet, a Swedish translator, and the author of eleven books in five genres, including four science-fiction novels and a Pulphouse Press story collection. Moffett earned a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught creative writing for fifteen years. Her first published story, "Surviving," won the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for best science-fiction story of 1986, and she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1988. Three of her stories have appeared on the final ballot for the Nebula; one of these, "Tiny Tango," was also on the Hugo ballot. Her novels The Ragged World and Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream (Volumes I and II of her Holy Ground Trilogy; the third volume is The Bird Shaman) were New York Times Notable Books for their years of publication, and Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream was short-listed for the Tiptree Award in 1995.

Moffett has received a number of awards outside the science-fiction field, including two Fulbright Grants to Sweden, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship Grant in poetry, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Translation Grant. Moffett divides the year between Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and her hundred-acre ex-farm near Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Widowed in 1998, she lives with her standard poodles, Fleece and Corbie.

Note: the author photo appears courtesy of Mark Kidd Studios.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bird Shaman Is a Winner, August 9, 2008

By 

William Unger "omnivore reader" (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bird Shaman (Holy Ground, Book 3) (Paperback)

This is not only a magnificent conclusion to Moffett's Hefn trilogy but is a truly satisfying read in its own own right--that is, if you haven't read the first two books, you can still love this one. As always, Moffett's prose style is of the highest quality, and she combines it with psychological examinations of characters you'll come to care deeply about, although you may not always like or approve of them. Moffet continues her examination of what it might mean should an alien race attempt to force us to save ourselves, and our environment, from ourselves and combines it with a fascinating look at the strengths and weakness of Mormanism in relation to community. The shamanistic rock paintings found throughout the Southwest play a significant role in the novel and add considerably to its depth. This book is science fiction, no question of that, but, unlike so many works in that genre, "The Bird Shaman" is no piece of hackwork escapism. It's a true work of literature that will move you and make you think while giving you hours of enjoyable reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Maybe Not Peace, but Harmony, August 29, 2008

By 

M. K. Melloy (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bird Shaman (Holy Ground, Book 3) (Paperback)

With Book Three of her Holy Ground trilogy, Judith Moffett draws together the universal and the personal in ways seldom seen in literature. The Earth is under the not-entirely-benign rule of aliens who have made it impossible for most humans to reproduce; the aliens want humanity to learn to live in balance with nature, but nature and human nature seem to be innately at odds.

Enter Pam Pruitt, a "Gaian," which is to say, a human who works with the aliens to educate humans and guide them toward a sustainable existence. Even though the Gaians are doing humanity a huge favor in trying to help reclaim the human ability to have children, they are hated as collaborators by a planet full of resentful people.

But Pam seeks to find a way past human prejudice; indeed, past human hard-wiring to survive and prosper by pillaging the world's natural resources. Despite a quarter century of almost zero births, the situation has grown critical: eco-balance has reached a tipping point, and so has the aliens' patience. Humanity is told that as a species they have one final year to shape up, or face near-extinction.

As Pam works furiously to maximize humanity's chances for survival, she finds that part of the key to the salvation of all lies with her own personal salvation: she begins to explore a new, previously unsuspected ability as a latter-day shaman, and to access wisdom, and healing, from what very well may be a higher plane of existence.

This book is rich with literature, archaeology, anthropology, and literate insight. Its message is that harmony and peace are not necessarily one and the same, and that inner struggle can be transformative. For the reader, this novel (which stands alone from the earlier books quite well) is an object lesson in the rewards of a story that doesn't predigest every single point the author wants to make. There's plenty were to enjoy right off, and plenty to mull over for a long time to come.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dazzling and insightful, August 10, 2008

By 

Vicki Mahaffey (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bird Shaman (Holy Ground, Book 3) (Paperback)

The Bird Shaman is not only a mesmerizing story about Mormons, Aliens, time travel, child abuse and ecological danger, it is also a psychological thriller about what lies beneath the layer of consciousness. Its treatment of dreams alone would make it a tour-de-force, but it doesn't stop there: it ranges into science, history, primitive rock art, and religion as well. The characters are so rounded that they come across as people you have known for years, from the former child prodigy who lost her gift, to her grumpy former lover helplessly searching for his dead best friend in his sexual partners, to the beautiful Mormon TV child-star fleeing from a predatory grandfather, and finally to the hairy and implacable aliens who have banned all further reproduction on earth. This is science fiction written by a poet, and it reads like a dream. It is The Time Machine of the twenty-first century, a meditation upon what it actually means to "plant" and tend a future in flesh and on earth. Buy it for everyone you know!