People of the Nightland (North America's Forgotten Past) [Mass Market Paperback]

W. Michael Gear (Author), Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Author)

Book Description

Series: North America's Forgotten Past | Publication Date: February 5, 2008

It has been a thousand years since Wolf Dreamer lead his people up through the dark hole in the ice to a rich, untouched continent bursting with game. But the world has changed. Most of the magnificent animals are gone, and the last of the great glaciers is melting, forming a huge freshwater lake in the middle of the world. Over the centuries the People of the Wolf have split into two clans. The People of the Nightland live in the honeycomb of ice caves that skirt the glacier. The People of the Sunpath live in hide lodges to the south, hunting the few remaining mammoths, bison, giant sloth, and short-faced bear.

When a young orphaned boy named Silvertip receives a vision from Wolf Dreamer that their world is about to end, no one believes him--no one except a jaded war chief and a little girl. Led by Silvertip’s dream, the three of them must convince both people to leave the land of their ancestors and flee eastward as fast as they can before the Ice Giants destroy the world.

This is the sweeping saga of a visionary boy who led his people out of the path of one of the worst catastrophes in the history of the world, and the brave little girl who loved him enough to believe in his dream.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest installment of the Gears' popular and long-running First North Americans series (after People of the Moon) is a timely saga of environmental catastrophe and misguided hubris. As the ice age is ending, 13,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians of the Great Lakes region of North America face an apocalyptic crisis: even as the ice dams holding back the flood waters from melting glaciers near capacity, the local tribes are locked in a desperate war. The Nightland People, who live on the edge of the retreating glacier and worship the god Raven Hunter, seek to destroy their neighbors, the Sunpath and Lame Bull Peoples, who worship Wolf Dreamer. As the fighting rages, Raven Hunter sends a guide to lead the Nightland People to paradise through a hole in the ice. Meanwhile, Wolf Dreamer taps a young orphan, Silvertip, to save the Sunpath and Lame Bull Peoples by leading them away from the catastrophic flooding. With time running out, Silvertip and his allies race to escape both the Nightland warriors and the looming natural disaster. Drawing on their backgrounds in archeology, the Gears vividly recreate Paleolithic America in this enchanting and instructive novel. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The Gears, archaeologists and best-selling authors, continue their stellar North America's Forgotten Past series with another fascinating installment that combines history, geology, and anthropology with a crackerjack story. As the Ice Age begins to wane, two clans--the People of the Nightland, cave dwellers, and the People of the Sun, lodge inhabitants--are united by an orphan's vision of the future. Although young Silvertip's warnings of imminent disaster initially go unheeded, he joins forces with a war chief and a young girl in an effort to convince the clans that the ice giants are plotting to destroy the world. Set against a backdrop of global warming foreshadowing the collapse of the mammoth glaciers and the flooding of the Great Lakes region, this adventure yarn not only reaches back in time to illustrate a largely forgotten prehistoric era and culture but also resonates with contemporary climatic themes and fears. An authentically detailed evocation of a world and a people on the verge of an epic transformation, and certain to attract the readership other titles in this series have enjoyed. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Thus edition (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765352958
• ISBN-13: 978-0765352958
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

W. Michael Gear has co-written 23 international bestsellers which have been translated into 21 languages. His novel People of the Raven won the Golden Spur Award in 2005. Michael's solo novel Morning River was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1998. In addition to writing both fiction and non-fiction, the Gear operates an anthropological research company called Wind River Archaeological Consultants, and raises buffalo on his ranch in northern Wyoming.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at these native people, March 20, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: People of the Nightland (First North Americans) (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Success, November 13, 2007

By 

Leslie Guelcher (Erie, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: People of the Nightland (First North Americans) (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Every book has something new..., December 29, 2007

By 

C. Allan (Olympia, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: People of the Nightland (First North Americans) (Kindle Edition)

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!