Customer Reviews

Godmother's web

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"The Godmother's Web" is the third in a series of godmother novels penned by Elizabeth Scarborough. Cindy Ellis, who appeared in the original "Godmother", has become a bit disenchanted with her relationship to Raydir Quantrill, the king of Alloy Rock. When Raydir leaves for a road trip Cindy decides she needs some time to think things out and tacks a job training a trail horse by riding it through the wilder parts of Arizona.

Cindy's first indication that the trip was not going to go according to plan was when she picked up an older American Indian woman whom everyone called Grandmother. Shortly thereafter, Cindy discovers that her hitchhiker had a slightly different voyage in mind and had no intention of letting Cindy get rid of her easily. Grandmother seems to be concerned about the pain and anger caused among the Hopi and Navaho by a recent land partition. By no means a political activist, Grandmother is intent on providing wisdom to her many grandchildren.

Among her extended family we will find Carl Loloma, a drug counselor, his daughter Sela, and her boyfriend Wiley Smiley. Also playing major parts are Michael Blackgoat, on a quest for a horse, Dr. Maria Chee, who has come back to the reservation to help her people, and Alice and Martha Tsosie, two sisters who are split over how to deal with land partition.

I shouldn't leave out an ill-intentioned Navaho witch, several representatives of a power company who intend to take advantage of the political situation to advance their own cause, and some other unpleasant `bad guys.' Confronted with inter-tribal anger and misunderstanding, horse theft, witchcraft and assassination, Grandmother has her work cut out for her.

Not only does Scarborough write one of her best tales ever; she shows a grasp of Hopi and Navaho culture that is truly astounding. She weaves legend, myth, culture and politics into the story without missing a step and never lets the story get bogged down by all the details. I learnt as much about these to American Indian cultures in a book intended for entertainment as I have reading books on the same subject. Because of this excellent mix of story and cross-cultural information I would recommend "The Godmother's Web" for everyone, young and old, short and tall.

this book was a wonderful way to escape into the world of the native americans and they problems they have faced in the past and are facing now in the present and future. The langauge mrs. scarborough uses is very humouristic and keeps your hooked. I can certainly recommmend this book. For the absolute experience you should really read the other 2 books about the fairy godmothers.

Ms.Scarborough again shows her talent for weaving so many apparently unrelated lives into one wonderful united tale. This third book in The Godmother trilogy takes place in modern day Southwest American Indian reservations and is full of their history, fables, and way of life past and present. I came away from this book more knowledgeable and that made this book an even better read. As in her previous books, the writing is clean, smooth and the characters are well written. I'm sad this trilogy has ended!

Two gripes about _The Godmother's Web_:

(1) Cindy must be the dimmest heroine I've seen in a long time. First of all, what on earth does she see in Raydir? He only appreciates her when she's gone. Second, and more importantly, why must she spend chapters upon chapters upon chapters NOT realizing that Grandma Webster is supernatural? Cindy has met a real-life fairy godmother; it's not like she's never seen magic before. And here she is, traveling with a little old lady who nonetheless has boundless energy and physical fitness, whom everyone in the entire Southwest seems to know personally, and who has food that regenerates itself. After a hundred pages of this, you'd think it would have dawned on Cindy that Grandma is a little bit more than the average nursing-home escapee.

(2)...In _The Godmother_, though the characters frequently break into political rants, the speeches take a back seat to the story, but this book seems to be one long political speech about the plight of the Hopi and the Navajo. It doesn't matter how worthy the cause is; it doesn't matter whether you agree with her views or not. I agree with almost everything she says, and yet I don't appreciate being sledgehammered with a moral when I sit down in my chair looking for a good story. There are shining moments of good story--my favorite is the weaving scene, where Grandma manages to get a feuding family to see each other's worth again--but overall this reads more like a political tract. Gimme a break.

Horse, Cindy(rella), Hopi and Navaho stories, and another wonderful Godmother, masterfully worked into a modern fantasy that has been WONDERFUL to read!

If you like the grandmother series, this will be interesting for you. I leaned a bit about Grandmother Spider from this. I am now looking into learning more about her.