Customer Reviews

People of the Nightland (First North Americans)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this First North Americans series by the Gears, a husband-and-wife team of archeologists and writers. This fourteenth novel, People of the Nightland, is like all previous novels in that it is a stand-alone and readers need not have read any of the other works.

I'm fascinated how the Gears get these stories to work. Without using familiar Indian tribes (like the Sioux, the Ouachita, the Cherokee), the Gears create tribes and bands of Native Americans and give readers a realistic account of these characters as living humans. The details are authentic and leave nothing to stereotypical other Native American-based stories.

In this book, the Indians live in and on the ice glaciers. Two clans, People of the Nightland and People of the Sunpath, have split from their original belief that the glaciers were paradise. One band still clings to the old ways of Wolf Dreamer, who led his people to this untouched paradise over a thousand years ago through a hole in the ice. The land was rich with game. But now the mammoths and other game are in short supply, the glaciers are melting, and the people are becoming desperate. The other band is following Wolf Dreamer's evil twin, Raven, who has supposedly come to the tribal idiot with another vision of Paradise. But who is really controlling Ti-Bash, the Idiot? Is he the new Guide, the new Prophet, who will save his people when the glaciers melt? Who should the people believe?

People of the Nightland is an important story of global warming, trust, vision, and leadership. I had a hard time getting into this book and became confused by the characters. There's a Keresa, Karigi, and a Kakala. There's also Wolf Dreamer and War Chief Windwolf, However, once I could differentiate the characters, the reading experience was rich as a Gear novel always is.

You will learn about glaciers and Indian life in fascinating ways and will ponder our own fate as our remaining glaciers melt. Like all the other Gear books, People of the Nightland, will stay with me and keep me thinking for along time.

Armchair Interviews says: It's a little hard to get into, but if you stick with it, you will be rewarded for your effort.

People of the Nightland (First North Americans)

I've read the entire series, and this one is as excellent as the rest. I love that I learn new things about the makeup of North America in each title. In this one, I had no idea that there was an inland sea stretching down and through what is now Lake Ontario. The majority of the book takes place around the area where I live (Erie, PA) so it held special interest.

I love the People of the... series of books. Can't wait until another comes out. The formula for the books are all pretty similar, but the descriptions of different tribes, the historical evidence that is put in, and the anticipation of what is going to happen next is well worth the wait and the read. Every one has somethign slightly different which gives you more perception on a new region, or time period in the early North American History its fantastic!

The ice age ended when the glaciers began receding 20,000 years ago. All was normal for the next seven millennia, as the earth warmed and a Great Lake formed from the receding ice near where Wolf Dreamer brought his people to live.

A thousand years have passed since Wolf Dreamer led his followers to the Promised Land, but his clan has split into different sects. The People of the Nightland live on the edge of the ebbing glacier worshipping the god Raven Hunter; the Sunpath People live in pelt lodging to the south while worshiping Wolf Dreamer as their God. With the great animals dying out and the waters threatening to flood both people, hostilities break out between the clans. Raven Hunter dispatches a leader to take his followers through a hole in the ice; Wolf Dreamer transmits dream messages to a child, the orphan Silvertip to take his People east away from the flooding and encroaching Ice Giants while the Nightland fighters want to complete their ethic cleansing before entering their new paradise.

The latest First North American "People" saga is a superb Paleolithic America thriller that provides the audience a glimpse of two competing conflicting lifestyles during the Younger Dryas Interval. Using archeological facts and theories, the authors are in first gear throughout this exhilarating prehistoric saga with seemingly paranormal elements that some might deduce as beliefs driving the two rival clans. Educational yet excitingly entertaining, PEOPLE OF THE NORTHLAND like its Ice Age predecessors (see PEOPLE OF THE WOLF) is a superior chronicle.

Harriet Klausner

What I love about all of the books in these series is the glimpse into how archeology and the study of cultures of long ago can piece together stories of what might have been. It is great the way they start at a dig site with charachters trying to figure out a mystery that's been unearthed. Then lead into the story itself. It's also a great glimpse into what prehistoric life might have been like.

It's getting harder to pick up a book that isn't part of some series, it seems. Luckily, I had no problems picking this one up without having seen any of the others yet. I definitely will read more though!

The story is a novel but woven with actual historical findings about the cultures and geological events of the era. Though set in 11,500 BC, the humanity of the characters is timeless and universal. Epic conflicts between good and evil, hope and reality, past and future all play out in this well told tale.

As mentioned in other reviews, it does take a little work to straighten out all the similar sounding names of people and tribes, but I view that as actually a good mental exercise anyway. There is also a nice map provided to visualize the geography.

The only things that keep this from a five star review for me are:
- there is some very graphic violence, including towards women and children. It supports the vile nature of the villians, but believe me, I would've already thought poorly enough of them without this stuff. Particularly one towards the end of the book.

- there is a intro chapter set in modern times about two archeologists finding the ancient site - and then never goes back to them. I don't know if they're common to the series or what, but there was already a foreward discussing the climate change, and then this bit of modern fiction, then the novel. I at least expected an epilogue or something that got back to those two, but it's a mystery to me.

Obviously the first objection is going to turn off more readers than the second. If you can read the novel without letting that bug you, it's a great read.

I heartily recommend these books subject to the following caveats.

Gear, man and wife, like J. K. Rowling, have succeeded admirably in creating an alternate universe and inhabiting it with very complex and interesting people. Unlike Rowling the Gears represent their literary universe as not only reasonable but perhaps a likely representation of life as it existed on the North American continent in ages past. In large, especially in details of culture, reconstruction of social relations, interpretation of climatic and geologic effects, etc. they have done a fine job. In a couple of areas they overstep reasonable limits but always maintain their narrative excellence.

In the Gears' cosmology, men and spirits inhabit the universe and there is significant inter-penetration between the two. Rowling treats magic as fantasy. The Gears treat it as a fact of life. If the story lines had confined themselves to how the ancient Native Americans thought in terms of spiritual beings, how they attributed natural phenomena to their moods and actions, and how they sought to placate or enlist them, there would be no room for criticism. No one doubts the spiritualism of the ancient tribes. The problem, at least for me, was that these works do not stop there. In these stories, the spirits live, show themselves and interact with, enlist and use, the characters in the story. They are not portrayed as fantasy, i.e. Lord of the Rings, but as possible representations of actual historical events.

Further, the characters and tribes of this book are essentially modern in their humanity. That is not to say that ancient peoples were sub-human or that they did not inherently face life with the same emotions, the same wonder, the same fear, etc. as we. However, it is one thing to be inherently human in potential, and another to have that potential realized. In these books the people converse in abstract terms and at deep levels with a bountiful and complete vocabulary at their disposal. It is difficult to believe that an ancient pre-literary, pre-historic people could have a conversation of such complexity and subtlety as do the characters in this story.

Still the books grab the reader's attention and the plot line compels interest. We enter into a world where the god Raven Hunter is in competition with his brother Wolf Dreamer and the sphere of their conflict is the circumstance and life of the people. Of the two books I have read, each is built on this central theme and each works out its progress under a sense of deterministic ultimacy. The gods will have their way though men and women play their parts. Good requires evil to be in balance. Torture has its place and its necessity though not to be considered as a positive good. It is simply the way things are.

All this being said, these stories are well worth reading. The detail and representation of ancient cultures and artifacts are always delighting the reader and the story line... well, .... it's the stuff of legends.

All of these books in the series are wonderful and addicting. Just waiting all of the time for the next release!!!

The hard work and research that Michael & Kathleen go through to write these books not only bring history to life, but also the pleasure of reading back

This book was easy to follow, well written and I never was bored. I could not stop reading til I finished the book and was upset there wasn't more.