The harsh post-glacier landscape is the setting for the fifth novel in the series about native American prehistory, in which the pregnant Kestrel flees westward from her vengeful husband after witnessing her lover's murder. 75,000 first printing. Tour.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As they have in past works ( People of the River ; People of the Earth ), the Gears illuminate American prehistory by focusing on a personal story. Here, the setting is coastal California 12,000 years ago. Melting glaciers are causing the waters to rise, the huge animals that once populated the area are disappearing and the human inhabitants have to learn to adapt to the changes. Sunchaser the Dreamer, powerful spiritual leader of the People of the Sea, is tormented by his inability to explain or correct recent adverse events, including disease and the disappearance of food sources, when a strange woman wanders into his shelter. Kestrel is pregnant by her lover and, pursued by her vicious husband, has fled from her native inland marshes toward the sea, hoping to find a home among her lover's people, the Otter Clan. Kestrel and Sunchaser fall in love, and together they make their way to the Otter Clan village, whose residents are on the verge of falling under the dangerous influence of an unscrupulous Dreamer, Catchstraw, whose desperate search for power threatens everyone. The Gears, integrating a tremendous amount of natural and anthropological research into a satisfactory narrative, have again produced a vivid and fascinating portrait of early human life in America.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-A story that depicts Native American life about 11,000 years ago in the area now called California. The setting and conflict revolve around a world that is changing too quickly. The glaciers are melting, the weather is changing, the mammoth are disappearing. The clans in the area rely on the seer Sunchaser to Dream into the Spirit World and to find answers. But for unknown reasons, Sunchaser suffers from diminished Power. Meanwhile Kestrel, a fugitive from a clan in the Marsh region, is seeking protection from an insane husband who wants to kill her and her baby, and Sunchaser offers her first protection and then love. This novel combines adventure, survival, romance, and fantasy all painted on a historical canvas. The flawed protagonists are credible and the plot is exciting, but the greatest strength of the novel lies in the detail and description that immerse readers in prehistoric culture, providing a view of religious ceremonies, burial rights, and food and medicine preparation. Demonstrating the most rewarding trait of good historical fiction, the story transports readers into another time and place. People of the Sea will have immediate appeal to YAs who enjoy this genre, and the cover will attract that audience. The mysticism and "other world" atmosphere may also interest fantasy fans. Booktalk this novel to both groups!-Sue Davis, Cedar Falls High School, IA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good exercise bike read.,
This review is from: People of the Sea (The First North Americans series, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
I liked this one. It's a charming saga of prehistoric peoples somewhere in California. Our heroine gets afoul of her husband for adultery, and decides to run off instead of facing the death penalty allotted to her. Her angry husband and his brothers follow her for weeks with murderous intent. During her escape we read of her many exploits trying to throw them off her trail, the birth of her baby alone in a cave, and how she manages to cross a raging river with the newborn. Always heading west, finally she's taken in by a coastal tribe. Meanwhile the coastal tribe has their own problems. The mammoth migration has declined in recent years and they are forced to look elsewhere for a home. The angry husband eventually shows up and a deadly confrontation results. I found the story readable. The battered wife, angry husband confrontation is a bit overdone. Do we really believe that he would spend a year and risk death to find and kill a adulterous woman who ran off and kept going? I didn't believe it. The disaster that befalls the coastal tribe is a little overboard too, but I guess it's almost believable. With those exceptions it's a good entertaining read for the hot tub on an afternoon.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More inventive storytelling from the Gears.,
This review is from: People of the Sea (The First North Americans series, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
Pregnant and fleeing from her abusive husband, Kestrel is in grave danger. When Sunchaser, a Dreamer who has lost his way, finds her they unexpectedly fall in love. At a time when mammoths are being driven to extinction, Sunchaser must hold his people's faith steady and save his lover from her husband and enemy. How can he possibly complete these difficult tasks when Power has abandoned him? Set in the Sierra Nevada's of the Ice Age, their world was in a dramatic state of environmental flux which affected the lives of all living things.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not one of my favourite People books,
By A Customer
This review is from: People of the Sea (The First North Americans series, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
I have been reading my way through the People series, and this is the 5 in the series and the 5 that I've read. Of all of them so far this one was my least favourite. I have found the others in the series to be so believable and engrossing. This one was less believable and the characterization was not as finely drawn. I intend to read the rest and I hope that they are more like the other 4 books in the series. So far my favourite has been People of the Earth.
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