Customer Reviews

Time Beyond Beginning (First Americans Saga)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As with all of the First American books I have really enjoyed this one. I was a little disappointed at first hoping to continue in the lives of the people from the second five books, as I was also disappointed when I didn't find the first people in the second set of the series. But what I want to know is were is the rest of the series. I am ready to read them now. And by the way, the story synopsis that is on here is not the story that I read. Get it together people.

Sarabande has set this dark, tragic tale of struggle and survival on the northeast coast of North America during the final days of the last ice age. To the paleo-Indian people of the day, the pace and magnitude of climactic change must have seemed powerful and frightening. Mammoths and mastodons remained but were obviously so well on the path to extinction that they had been elevated to enormous symbolic religious importance. Even for elders, wise shamans and the most accomplished hunters, knowledge such as migratory routes of critical food and resource supplies like caribou, beluga and geese must have seemed fleeting and frustratingly inconsistent. Cree and Inuit people from the Arctic and the unforgiving barrens of northern Quebec and Labrador, the beginnings of the Ojibway, Algonquin and Iroquois nations that found themselves more at home in the woodlands of southern Ontario and Quebec or upstate Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, plus the eastern maritime ancestors of the Micmac tribe meet, intermingle, mate and breed, battle for territorial and cultural supremacy, trade, pray and make offerings to their gods, kill or help one another, and live and die.

Sarabande fills in her panoramic, complex canvas with all the attention of the most assiduous realism painter. Tiny, single brush strokes are made with the greatest of care and no detail is too small to be included in her exquisite portrayal of this pre-historic North American landscape - the slate gray colour of the sky during a powerful late winter storm; the sickly, smell of rotting meat on the hoof as a dying mammoth searches for a final resting place; the rich, sweet colour and taste of sap rising in spring maples; the incredible development of the bow and arrow as a weapon capable of striking from a distance, terrifying hunters who know only the lesser power of a stone-tipped spear; the first hesitant use of metallic copper in weaponry, commerce and art; tattoos, jewellery and all the finery of aboriginal costumes.

In the foreground of this stunning canvas, she paints the portrait of M'alsum - a venal, self-important, cowardly, almost psychopathic headman. M'alsum abandons his youngest brother, Ne'gauni, trapped in a deadfall, dying of wounds sustained in an attack by a tribe of northern hunters foraging far out of their regular territory in the barrens. In the same raid, his mate, Hasu'u, is kidnapped and forced to serve as wet nurse to a motherless infant. M'aslum, adds self-pity, self-doubt and avarice to his list of failings and murders his two other brothers whom he sees as competitors to his position as chief.

Sarabande's description of a woodland tribesman's courageous stand against the charging mammoth and M'alsum's cowardly flight from the same beast ultimately leading it by chance over a steep embankment to its death was absolutely breathtaking. The development of the characters of the Old One and her grand-daughter, Mowea'qua, as members of a very hairy, bone-deep ugly race on which modern native werewolf mythology might have been based is essentially a whimsical flight of fancy but, frankly, I found it particularly charming.

Other reviewers have commented that they thought the story particularly cruel or savage. In an unapologetic afterword, Sarabande herself suggests that if her portrayal was harsh, it only reflected her genuine beliefs of what life was like at that time based on her extensive research into the findings of archeologists, historians, anthropologists, geologists and meteorologists. She goes on to suggest that it is perhaps to our credit that we are shocked and appalled when we read of such things. I'm inclined to agree and I, for one, found the story exciting from the opening page.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the First American series, until this book. The book develops slowly, dwells on details far too long, and has no real characters to identify with until later in the book. Those that one is later drawn to are glossed over in the early part of the book, or become so muddled with details, that I found myself speed reading. Over half way through Time Beyond Beginning seems to fall into the style of the other First American series. From that point it becomes entertaining.

I've read the entire First American series up to this book, I started the series as a filler while I waited for Jean Auel's fifth book to be published (still waiting). The series, so far has been entertaining and has certainly kept my interest. The characters for the most part are well developed and in previous books are even likable in a brutish way. I've enjoyed the spirituality of the series. Time Beyond Beginning, however is a disappointing departure from Sarabande's earlier work. It's as if the characters in this book have regressed through time and become increasingly more loathsome, savage and mean. The plot is boring, dark and depressing. Unlike the earlier works where Torka and Lonit, Cha-kwena and Maree had to endure a harsh climate and overcome many difficulties, including conflicts with several nasty characters there was always an uplifting spiritual quality to their struggle for survival. I had to put this book down along with the rest of the series in search of a more uplifting read. I would not recommend this book.

I thouroughly enjoyed the newest book in the "First Americans" saga. Madame "Sarabande" has again given us rich characters, psychological insights and a glimpse of what our ancestors may have been like in "time beyond beginning." Although I found the ending to this book a little bit rushed, I still believe that "Sarabande" writes the way Jean Aul should write. Too bad Sarabande's books are only published in paperback.

The summary of the story line is not correct. This is a very well-written book and is well worth reading. I've read all of "Sarabanade's" series of books and this one was no disappointment to me. I really enjoyed it.

WOW, a woman huh! Cool! This person whether she is man or woman - has written some of the best stuff I've read in all kinds of genres. The 1st series was the best and I sorely miss Torka and the rest but the 2nd series grew on me somewhat and it got better. But this new one took me a little bit also until I got into it. Some of the characters do very unexpected things and thats part of the reason I like this womans writing because you just never know what these characters of hers turn into sometimes. Her descriptions of the past ages is the best I have ever read in this genre. Whats next kemosabe!

This book was added to my collection of W. Sarabande books. I can't wait until the next book hits the stores.

As I continue to read this series, I find myself asking,more and more often, when will it stop? Each book has had good points but they are coming farther and farther apart. The first books got you interested in the characters (the character development tends to take more than one book-though they tend to have major personality changes between books!) and then suddenly jumped through time and space, leaving our characters flapping in the breeze. So then we get another bunch of characters going and 'WHOOOSH' another jump in space and time (and more breeze flapping characters). Now we are into another bunch of characters and I've got to say...each bunch is less appealling than the last. I find I don't much like these people--nasty attitudes, nasty habits, just not the kind of folks you care about. I've noticed that the story-lines are now tending to repeat...some have been pretty hard to take the first time, recycled are really bad. I feel somewhat the victim here. Once I start a book, I simply can't stop reading it (it's a character flaw). As these books tend to blend from one to the next, I am unable to not keep going in the series-it is like one book that never ends. I hope it ends soon, I am trapped!

Oh, yeah, that synopsis is totally WRONG! Some one needs to get on that.

The book was never received and Betterworldbooks provided no way to contact them about it that I could find.