The Year the Horses Came [Paperback]

Mary Mackey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2004

Volume One of The Earthsong Trilogy evokes the moment in pre-history when marauding nomads brought horses, male gods, and war to a goddess-worshipping Europe that had known peace for thousands of years. Against this perilous backdrop, a passionate, dangerous love develops between Marrah, a gifted priestess, and Stavan, one of the invading warriors."A researcher's precision combined with storytelling magic."-Marija Gimbutas, author of The Civilization of the Goddess"Vivid, dramatic, compelling."-Marge Piercy, author of Woman on the Edge of Time

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

The author of 20th-century heartstring dramas (Season of Shadows, 1991, etc.) travels back to prehistory (as in The Last Warrior Queen, 1983) to center her exemplary heroine in the Brittany of 4372 B.C.--and in the heart of Earth Mother goddess worship. To the east of the peaceful, creative peoples, however, are the patriarchal tribes of the steppes, where women--and life itself--are little valued. Doom is on the way, and lovers from two cultures find themselves in the thick of horror. It is on her coming-of-age day that Marrah finds and rescues the odd-looking stranger who's lying on the beach, almost drowned, after his boat has sunk. Eventually, the language barrier overcome, Marrah learns that this young, blond man, Stavan, is the youngest son of the Great Chief of the Hansi, horsemen and warriors who roam the Sea of Grass, killing and conquering. Marrah is amazed by the Hansi's lack of egalitarian, life-giving values: ``...slaves, wars, concubines...your people sound horrible.'' Yes, indeed, and Stavan warns that they are on the way west. Now, Stavan, in love with Marrah and respecting her people, offers to try to deflect the Great Chief; Marrah and younger brother Arang will also journey--to warn other of the matristic peoples. The journey takes them through welcoming villages, forests, and religious places, but then disaster strikes, and Marrah and Arang are captured. There's an orgy of violence and cruelty, leading to a (literally) graveside escape. Mackey's message concerning patriarchal bloody swords vs. matriarchal plowshares sounds like a rallying trumpet. Certainly the Earth Mother worship--consisting of ``eating well, singing beautifully, enjoying themselves and making love,'' imagined from rose-colored mists of the past--is appealing. Overall: a competent adventure, with characters chatting easily in a modern idiom, for the Bradley/Auel readership. (First printing of 100,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mary Mackey has published eleven novels and four books of poetry. Her works, which include A Grand Passion, The Year The Horses Came, The Horses At The Gate and The Fires of Spring, have sold over a million copies and been translated into eleven foreign languages. She writes comic novels under the name ?Kate Clemens.? To learn more, visit: www.marymackey.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 394 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (March 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595311164
• ISBN-13: 978-0595311163
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,110,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Related through her father's family to Mark Twain, Mary Mackey graduated from Harvard and received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. During her twenties, she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. Her published works include thirteen novels and six collections of poetry.

For a number of years, she has been traveling to Brazil and incorporating her experiences into her fiction and poetry. Four of her novels (The Widow's War, The Year The Horses Came, The Horses At The Gate, and The Fires of Spring) incorporate some of the rituals of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble. In 2005 she took a boat up a tributary of the Amazon, traveling over two thousand miles through flooded jungle. In June 2009, she made another trip to one of the headwaters of the Amazon on the Rio Tocantins

Her works have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and been translated into twelve foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, and Finnish. A screenwriter as well as a novelist and poet, she has sold feature-length screenplays to Warner Brothers as well as to independent film companies. John Korty directed the filming of her original award-winning screenplay Silence. The film rights to her comic novel The Stand-In were recently optioned by director Renee De Palma of OneMotion Pictures. Three times, Garrison Keillor has read her poetry on The Writer's Almanac.

At present, she lives in northern California with her husband Angus Wright, and is Professor Emeritus of English at California State University. To learn more about her you are invited to visit her webpage at: http://www.marymackey.com You can also find her on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/marymackeywriter?sk=info

For more biographical information about Mary Mackey, also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mackey

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When is the Movie Coming?, December 14, 1999

By 

Karen I. Olsen (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year the Horses Came (Paperback)

I have also read the work of Marija Gimbutas, have done pencil tracings of many of her illustrations and am working on a few ceramic miniatures and computer artwork using some of the Neolithic decorative motifs. I have also completed a short story set in Neolithic Europe. Mary Mackey, however, is a far better and more involving storyteller than I probably will ever be. Anyone longing for a better, more peaceful and egalitarian world cannot help but become emotionally involved in all three volumes of the Earthsong Trilogy series. One minor quibble: the front cover illustrations of the smaller paperback editions are utterly absurd. Mackey clearly states that Marrah's (the heroine/priestess') deerskin dress came down to "about mid-calf"; the illustrator has it coming to about mid-thigh, making it awfully tricky if one ever had to bend over. The front covers of The Horses at the Gate and The Fires of Spring are even sillier; nobody could survive a winter on the Ukrainian steppes dressed like THAT (see the cover of Horses at the Gate); and the young woman warrior's costume on the cover of The Fires of Spring owes more to Xena than anything Neolithic people would have actually worn. But the storytelling is marvellous; in fact I would love for these stories to be filmed, and I would like to take part in writing the musical scores for any films that come of these stories. If this may be coming in the future, please contact me at [e-mail] to discuss.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I was "wow-ed"!, July 29, 2000

By 

Spydo Staxxe (Malabar, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year the Horses Came (Paperback)

A great read- one of those books you rush home from work to continue reading. The author gives a poignant account of an Earth-worshipping culture as it clashes with a male-centered culture of destruction and death. As a Wiccan myself, these battles are still being fouight today, so it seems all too real at times.

The book is not without it's problems- it ends abruptly, perhaps to leave the reader hungering for the sequel? Also it seemed targeted at an 18-year-old female reader, who might typically love horses, and be enchanted with adventure and heroic male characters. At times the character development seemed to center around the two romantic characters, at the expense of Marrah's brother and other Goddess figures who seemed most interesting but were not well developed.

All of that not-withstanding, I still found it a great read and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel from Amazon.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting, romantic and beautifully written, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Year the Horses Came (Paperback)

I fell in love with the characters. Her description of the places and events was such, that I could see the places. The story was so romantic and touching. I cried and cheered. Thank you, Mary.. there was one problem with the book.. it had to end. I could have continued reading it on and on.