Customer Reviews

The Kin

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is probably one of the best books I have ever read. It is about a small group of children who become separated from their Kin, Moonhawk (the Kins are tribes, each named after an animal, for example the Monkey Kin.) They set out to find Good Places, where there is food and water. But a number of terrifying perils face them, including volcanoes, enchantments, and evil demon men. This book is also fascinating. Not a lot is known about this era, and Peter Dickinson has pieced together an enchanting four-part novel from fragments of evidence and his own wonderful imagination.

After reading a few just so-so books, I really wanted to get lost in a great tome of a story. The Kin was just the ticket. The book is actually four novels published in one volume, weighing in at just over 600 pages. The story is paced really well, so I would look up from reading and realize I had just knocked out 50 or 75 pages in no time. I'm a huge history fan and have always been interested in the history of early mankind. Set in prehistoric Africa, this novel imagines what life was like for the clans of people surviving in the African deserts.

The stories of Suth, Noli, Po, and Mana are interspersed with Oldtales, or creation stories about the Kin's First Ones, which I found to be really interesting and illuminating as to how the characters behaved and reacted to life in the wild. Each First One is an animal, such as a monkey or a pocupine, and each Kin is named after a First One. The mixture of myth and history was just perfect and very entertaining.

A most interesting aspect of this book is how Dickinson imagined communication between speaking and non-speaking humans. The four children the stories follow belong to the Moonhawk Kin, which consists of highly verbal humans. Along the way, they encounter the Porcupine Kin, who are nonverbal but are still very communicative through sounds and gestures. Some of the Moonhawks say that the Porcupine Kin are not really 'people' because they can't speak words, but others, particularly Noli, are convinced that the Porcupine are just as human as anyone else even though they are different.

All in all, this novel is a very interesting and thought-provoking work of 'prehistorical' fiction.

This wonderful book used to consist of four smaller books describing the life of a tribe of early humans. I was lucky enough to come across a battered copy of Nora's tale in a used book store. After reading it I knew I had to get the other three books. The books were long out of print and I was unable to obtain any others until now. After rereading Nora's tale countless times, I was overjoyed to find a complete collection of the books in print. I was delighted with the story line which is an original historical fiction with a hint of fantasy. However, this book is by far Peter Dickinson's best. I was ghastly disappointed with all of his others.

The Kin is a fabulous book for those who wish to better understand prehistory. It follows a group of four children who separate from their Kin because food has run out. They travel to find others. Not only a coming-of-age narrative, but a great insight on how early people lived. The chapters are interspersed with folk stories about the creation of different animals in a storyteller's mode.

The "Reading Level" for this book is listed as Young Adult, but the content, style and level of complexity should not be thought of as aimed at or restricted to teens. This is an outstanding and thoroughly engaging book, carefully thought out and written. If you have an interest in early man - or even if you don't -, you will enjoy it. I am far from being a teen, but I have re-read it several times for pure pleasure.

The book held my attention from the first page to the last. I spent many late nights after my homework was finished to get in some reading time. I enjoyed reading the story from the perspective of different memebers of the group. The story was not predictible and was intriguing. I was left wondering if the people wore clothing, or shoes or slept on furs, so some information was left to the imagination. It was a volumous book but a very good read.

I read this book when I was finishing up elementary school and it changed my perspective of humanity. Big stuff when you're that age. It made me realise what people were like before civilisation better than any text book could. Not only that, it taught me to experiment with the way I write.

I would highly recommend it for anyone.

while looking up information on this series i came across this little tidbit of information and decided to share it here to help a previous person with a question that many seem to have.. why was it po and now ko?

~ cut and pasted ~
There were already five main characters. Four of them would in turn be the viewpoint figure of each of the books. Suth had already emerged as the practical one, and Noli the visionary, so Po was going to be the boy with dreams of glory, which left Mana to be the homebody. Tinu, the fifth, was the shy and inarticulate genius.

(Po, by the way, became Ko in England, to avoid confusion with the Teletubby. Dumb, I thought, but I decided I preferred Ko anyway.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so there ya have it! hope that clears things up for some of you (as it did for me).

I read a lot of books but, this was the first book I had pulled out of the "Teen" section at my local bookstore. I just have to say I wasn't disappointed it's a great book but, it could be improved(oh so now I'm the expert).

Lets start with Book 1 "Suth's Story". Peter Dickinson did a superior job in devoloping the character of Suth because he shows three sides to this teenage kin the first is his fatherly side the side that helps him raise Ko and Mana. He shows an adventurous side the one that makes him run away from his kin tribe and start his own life. The final side is that of a warrior this is shown when Suth kills the leopard and also when he attacks the cliff hawk in the very beginning! The main thing about "Suth's Story" is the Monkey kin and what goes on in the valley. I think this because that particular part shows the fatherly side of Suth when he is desperate to save his family.

Now for Book 2 "Noli's Story". This time Dickinson gives the main character (Noli) two sides and they are the "Day Noli" and the "Night Noli". The "Day Noli" is a regular kin woman she feeds Otan (her baby brother) she gathers crops and she cooks (not much more to be said about that). The "Night Noli" is the one that has visions of the "First Ones" like Moonhawk and Goma's "First One" I think this side is shown everytime Noli gets that spaced out look on her face. I think Noli is the most important character in the book.

I can't forget Book 3 and Book 4 which are "Ko's Story" and "Mana's Story". Ko and Mana are the exact oposites from ko's rambunctious ways to Mana's shy attitude.Ko has two sides and they are "Normal Ko" and "Dreaming Ko", the Ko that dreams is the central comedie of the story and normal ko is the perfect mirror of a young sugar-high boy. Mana on the other hand is "Shy Mana" and "Brave Mana", "Brave Mana" is the one at the end of the story who defeats the demon-man and that adds a nice twist to the ending.

There is one thing missing, another book, "Tinu's Story"

A wonderful storyteller, Dickinson brings the dawn of human civilization to life!

A wonderful tale of a small group of talking individuals who survive numerous death-defying encounters, both with natural disaster and with other humans and animals!

It is also a tale of coming-of-age for these youngsters, at a time when they should still have had the freedom of childhood.

Reminscent of the Clan of the Cave Bear series, The Kin brings us details about post-Neanderthal man's life, and the imagination for us to view and feel it as well.

I couldn't put this one down!

I give it five stars! And my Thumbs Up award!

***DISCLOSURE: This book was a private purchase and I was under no obligation to offer review.