Shiva: An Adventure of the Ice Age [Hardcover]

J. H. Brennan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1990 | Age Level: 9 and up

A Cro-Magnon tribe is forced to confront its collective fear of the Neanderthal people they call ogres, when a young girl of the tribe, Shiva, befriends an ogre boy, and when Hiram, a young hunter from the tribe, is captured by ogres.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this novel set in prehistory, Shiva, an orphaned Cro-Magnon girl, encounters Doban, a Neanderthal boy, while hunting for food. While the two groups--known as "Ogres" and the "Weakling Strangers"--have avoided each other for generations following a battle for territory, the disappearance of Shiva and Doban brings them together again. Shiva's unusual psychic power separates her from her tribe and draws her to Doban. It is this bond that averts tragedy when a battle between the tribes seems imminent. Comparison to Jean Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear is inevitable, but Brennan's tale comes up short. Even for young readers, Auel's novel offers far more adventure, and Brennan's characters have little depth. Shiva's adventure is a minor one, and children eager for a glimpse of the lifestyles of these prehistoric people will have to look elsewhere. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-- Brennan has created a fully credible world with insight into the survival skills and ritualistic magic that primitive man used to make his place in a dangerous world. When Shiva, the orphan girl of a prehistoric tribe, is attacked by a wolf, she is rescued by a naked, hairy boy who leaps on the wolf's back and kills it with his bare teeth. He follows her back to her people, where he is recognized as an "ogre" and is taken captive. The story then shifts to Thag, chief of the forest people, whose son Doban has disappeared. As tribal leaders make plans that will force a confrontation, Shiva and Doban flee. Then Shiva makes a discovery that prevents renewed warfare. Brennan combines both know-ledge and theory in this tale. There are vivid descriptions of Cro-Magnon warrior rituals and ceremonies and many details of hunting and tracking techniques. The descriptions of Neander-thals seem a bit dated, however. When Shiva meets Doban, he is naked and she must show him how to skin the wolf he has killed. Current evidence suggests that although Cro-Magnon man had a greater variety of skills, both groups made tools, dressed in cured animal skins, and had primitive dwellings. Although it makes a good story, there is also no physical evidence to support the theory that Cro-Magnon man hunted the Neanderthal to extinction. Current studies support the theory of gradual intermarriage, an idea found at the end of the book as Shiva and Doban stand hand in hand as friends. --Eleanor K. MacDonald, Beverly Hills Pub . Lib .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0397324537
• ISBN-13: 978-0397324538
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,810,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Prehistory

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book, January 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shiva: An Adventure of the Ice Age (Paperback)

This book is one of the best I've read. Once you start to feel the adventure you just want the book to never end. I highly recommend this title.

5.0 out of 5 stars Finest Prehistoric Fantasy Yet, June 7, 2007

By 

J. Lyon Layden "Author: The Other Side of Yore" (Savannah, Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shiva: An Adventure of the Ice Age (Paperback)

In this one book for young adults, Herbie Brennan melds the genres of fantasy and prehistoric fiction with a skillful pen. Unlike other works in the prehistoric fiction genre, this book does not forget that character developement, imagination, and an original plot line are even more important than the relation of theories on prehistoric culture. Though Brennan takes great care to make the society of the Cro-Magnon's realistic and believable to even those who are familiar with current archeological and anthropological knowledge, he does not dwell needlessly on the exact minutaie of every little action that his characters take (like Aule and others do), and hence his work is much more enjoyable.
It is true that his portrayal of the ogre-neanderthals is somewhat dated (they are stooped, hairy, and at least as tall as the Cro-Magnons), but his characterization of them is profound. Unlike many other writers in the genre, he recognizes the fact that neanderthals were several times as strong and powerful as Cro-Magnons, and had an equal though alien intelligence.
His descriptions of the wild and barbaric Ogre Chief Thag are some of the most exciting reading I have enjoyed in years. Thag is probably a bit dumber than any neanderthal chief that ever lived, seeing as how they had bigger brains than any living human. But still the characterization of him is highly articulate and well thought out. The interaction between this leader and his mate makes for fascinating reading, and Brennan does a great job of empowering his female characters in a believable way without turning them into scantily clad superhuman warrior women.
The growth that Shiva goes through is also quite well crafted, and during the course of the 180 or so pages you actually feel like you've gotten to know her, as well as her friend Hiram and the ogre boy Doban (though he almost never talks, the boy comes strikingly to life through Brennan's vivid descriptions).
At the end of the book there is an Epilogue in which Brennan conveys that his descriptions of Neanderthals are somewhat out of date, and suggests that his ogres are more like "Ginganthropithecus" than neanderthals. He states that ogre legends come from encounters with real creatures, but that he now believes that they weren't neanderthals but probably an earlier form of hominid or man-ape. I disagree; though neanderthals weren't as primitive as they were being portrayed by science at the time of the writing of this book, they were still very much like the descriptions of ogres, trolls, and Norse dwarves in ancient legends. Their faces and heads were totally alien to us and most likely very ugly to us, they were shorter than us, and they were much stronger. They were also more primitive than cro-magnon, though they did indeed have a superior technology to the ogres in this book. I think it's highly probable that this race was indeed the impetus for troll and ogre legends, and I've thought so for a long time. It's a shame that I had to search so long for a book that allowed me to know that someone else in the world is thinking along these same lines.
There are speculative aspects of the novel which almost threw me off at first, for instance the role of women in the tribes of cro-magnon (though women were definitely reverred in cro-magnon society and maybe even the leaders, it's hard to believe that they were ever war chiefs, given that sexual dimorphism was even more profound then than it is now)or the idea that cro-magnon couldn't visualize well but neanderthal could (interesting but hard to justify), Brennan gets props for experimenting with the genre while relating plausible theories without becoming to scholastic in the telling.
In fact, Brennan's refusal to write in an academic politically correct way helps to make this the best prehistoric fiction book I have ever read, despite its flaws (and I've read alot of them; ALL of the bestselling ones I might add).
He doesn't settle for a generic, safe, and unimaginative term like "The Others" when describing the races, and he gives real names to his culture's gods (instead of Bear or Wolf or something simple and patronizing like that).
I do wonder why prehistoric authors insist on clarification such as calling a knife a "flint" knife (a fantasy or western writer isn't predisposed to put the adjective "steel" or "bronze" before the word "knife" each and every time he spells it), but this is a matter of personal preference and I've noticed that ALL prehistoric writers tend to do it. My dislike of the practice has more to do with the way I myself would like to present prehistoric fiction than with the merits of the authors. I also dislike using the word "chief" when talking of primitive leaders. The Hobbit's goblins were every bit as primitive as Brennan's "ogres," or Aule's Neanderthals, and yet Tolkien gets away with having a Goblin King instead of a Goblin Chief. I mention this to remind readers that the perception is often influenced by the way the object is presented. Before Columbus found the Native Americans, the word "chief" did not possess the primitive connotations that almost everyone now associates with it.
All in all Brennan has written the most exciting and intriguing prehistoric fiction book to date, and I can't wait to read the others in the series. It is an absolute shame that these books are out of print.
An especially superior example of Brennan's writing talent is the chapter entitled "The Crone." Here Brennan proves himself as a master of suspense and artful writing, and I will be reading it over many times to glean the secrets of the craft.