Time Beyond Beginning (First Americans Saga) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ William Sarabande (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dark forces are at work within the realms of earth and sky, and a savage new dance of life and death is about to begin....the internationally acclaimed saga of the First Americans continues in this long-awaited novel from bestseller William Sarabande.

As the Ice Age draws to a close, the men and women living on the northeast coast of the North American continent struggle to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. Ancient cultures clash as warriors battle for vital hunting territories. When a mammoth is seen in a forest, the shaman, who is also brother to the headman, conjures wondrous and terrifying visions for his imperiled band as he goads them to hunt a beast that may be the last of its kind. Although an ancient legend promises death for the People on the day that the last mammoth dies, the shaman counters with a legendary promise of his own--that those who dare hunt, kill, and consume the flesh of the mammoth will be made invincible in battle. The hunt is successful but the headman is killed--and the shaman comes to power and takes possession of his brother's woman and daughter. Although he has no suspicion of his uncle's treachery, the eldest son of the former headman must live with the fear of the charging mammoth that caused him to feign injury rather than risk his own life to save his father's. Now, as the last mammoth walks the land, a young warrior who has lost nearly everything to his enemies must learn new ways, or die in a world where men, women, and even children dare not be less than heroes.

From the Inside Flap

Dark forces are at work within the realms of earth and sky, and a savage new dance of life and death is about to begin....the internationally acclaimed saga of the First Americans continues in this long-awaited novel from bestseller William Sarabande.

As the Ice Age draws to a close, the men and women living on the northeast coast of the North American continent struggle to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. Ancient cultures clash as warriors battle for vital hunting territories. When a mammoth is seen in a forest, the shaman, who is also brother to the headman, conjures wondrous and terrifying visions for his imperiled band as he goads them to hunt a beast that may be the last of its kind. Although an ancient legend promises death for the People on the day that the last mammoth dies, the shaman counters with a legendary promise of his own--that those who dare hunt, kill, and consume the flesh of the mammoth will be made invincible in battle. The hunt is successful but the headman is killed--and the shaman comes to power and takes possession of his brother's woman and daughter. Although he has no suspicion of his uncle's treachery, the eldest son of the former headman must live with the fear of the charging mammoth that caused him to feign injury rather than risk his own life to save his father's. Now, as the last mammoth walks the land, a young warrior who has lost nearly everything to his enemies must learn new ways, or die in a world where men, women, and even children dare not be less than heroes.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553579061
• ISBN-13: 978-0553579062
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #108,379 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where is the next book?, July 31, 1999

By	K. M. Cleaves "Scorpie" (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, November 5, 2001

By	"jib_ho" (Framingham, MA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paleo-Indian life at the close of the last ice age!, July 2, 2005

By	Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.