Customer Reviews

Hunting the Ghost Dancer

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Having read a lot of "early man" novels, like Jean
Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, I was excited to see
Attanasio was taking a turn, but I forgot to expect
the unexpected! Attanasio turns the predictable into
the surprising in this novel as in his others. The
Ghost Dancer is not really the antagonist. In fact, he
is perhaps the most sympathic of characters, despite
his supernormal abilities! The more normal humans
take the roles of good and evil, while the Ghost Dancer
himself is the plot.
He is the last of his kind, and he seeks the immortality
due his species, but his quest brings him closer and closer
to the humans he fears and hates. Only a human girl can
help him reach his destination, and their trek together
teaches her that there is a morality above the survival
of the species. Her brother and her protector track the
Ghost Dancer and the girl, always dreading the worst.
Not until they reach the end of their resources do they
learn that their quest to rescue the girl has changed into
a battle to defend the Ghost Dancer against the legendary
hunter who eliminated so many of the Dancer's people.
Is this a novel about Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon? Is it
a novel about supernatural powers inhabiting and lending
strength to cave men? Or is it a novel about learning
to understand others in a world where all others are
strange and threatening.
The relevance to life in today's world is indirect but
substantial. This novel challenges and entertains,
entrances and horrifies, reassures and rewards. It
shows us how a great novelist can keep us questioning
and changing, until the plot resolution finally shows
what he can really do to bend your mind!

This was a book I picked up at my college library simply because there was no other book available. As is obvious I was least interested and was not even sure I wanted to finish reading the book. Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony - I simply fell in love with it and have been craving for more. I finished reading the book in no time even though it was exam time. This book is very atypical. You are to expect the unexpected. The story is set in prehistoric times - at the times of the last neanderthal man. The book takes you through the life of a confident (or arrogant) warrior who braves the odds to save his pride and loved ones by migrating to the north to join his long lost part of his tribe. The description of the wild landscape and magic conjured is beautiful.

If you like myths and love to be lost in nature long before the smallheads (read as modern man) destroyed it this is the book for you.

Thanks to Attanasio for such great work!

This story is just so...haunting. Who is the hero? The bad guy?Things were so clear at the start but...who is to say what is right and wrong.
The author really does a good job of keeping you off balance with all of the twists and moral judgements.