| Title | : | People of the Earth (North Americas Forgotten Past, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1559271906 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781559271905 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Audiobook |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published February 15, 1992 |
People of the Earth (North Americas Forgotten Past, #3) Reviews
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The First North Americans series is a prehistoric fiction series written by the husband/wife team of Michael & Kathleen Gear. People of the Earth is the third book in that series, and actually the best one I've read out of the first three.
White Ash was kidnapped as a child from the Earth people by a man of the Sun people. Which was actually ok with her. Her adoptive parents were much nicer than her original family. But hostile tribes are attacking the Sun people now and they are being forced to fight or move South. White Ash also has to deal with the strange dreams she's been having and the unwanted attentions of a man who claims he's been to the camp of the dead. And her only help is in an unlikely, mild mannered man with only one good arm.
Both White Ash and Bad Belly are great characters. They aren't perfect, or even overly strong. They are regular people who have been called out to do something special. Bad Belly especially is inspiring. I like how humble he is and that he has tranquility despite being made fun of. White Ash isn't quite as humble, in fact she's a little neurotic, but she still is much more human than some of the other "almost perfect" characters in the previous books have been.
This whole book is about struggle. Whether it's with inner demons, other tribes, disabilities, and everything else, someone is having a struggle. And the goal is to overcome that. There was a lot of mystical lore and activity going on in this book as well. And I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I know I'd probably prefer a book that's just about the lives of these people during the time period without the magic, but at least it is used to tell a good story. Like the other books, this one does have violence, rape, and other harsh topics.
Definitely the better book out of the first three. They still aren't edge of your seat fantastic, but they're interesting reading. On to book four!
People of the Earth
Copyright 1992
587 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at
www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com -
Zeer mooi boek uit deze reeks. De hoofdpersonen zijn Witte Es en Stil Water, en ook Windrenner en Dappere Man zijn belangrijke figuren. Witte Es en Dappere Man zijn Dromers, en staan tegenover elkaar zoals vroeger Wolfdromer en zijn broeder. Er staat Witte Es een zware taak te wachten zo moet het volk van de Zon en het volk van de Aarde samen Dromen, en dat gaat niet zonder dat ze eerst vele gevaren moet overwinnen, in het gezelschap van Stil Water, om dan de ultieme geestelijke strijd aan te gaan met Dappere Man.
Nadat het vorige boek een beetje tegenviel, wist dit verhaal me weer helemaal in de ban te houden en me veel leesplezier te geven. -
Once again we are taken back through time, to another era of climate change and the movement of whole peoples across the land. The life and death struggle to survive is always the focal point of the "First Americans" series. Once again Power forges a leader to lead the people along the path to new lands and a new life. If there is a degree of predictability in the "First Americans" series then it is easy to forgive. We are drawn into the struggle of a people who are tied to the land but are also constantly struggling to survive. War is not uncommon and the tribes have their great warriors and their disastrous defeats. We are drawn into the tale as we watch "ordinary" people live in peace among their own but then, through the forces unleashed, prove to be more than "ordinary". It takes a strong leader to bind them together and to lead them with vision. As tribes move south, away from starving lands to more fertile grounds, like a set of dominoes being knocked over, change becomes the way forward.
I enjoyed this tale but am a little wary, as always, of the spirit world that is also conjured up. Our true heroes become like Shaolin monks, meditating and losing themselves in the One... and at times what is such an earthy tale, with its love for the land and those that live upon it, loses itself in fantasy. -
This novel, based on the archeology of authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear as well as others, explores the mythology and relationships between native peoples living 5000 years ago in what is now Montana and Wyoming. I was thoroughly engrossed. Character driven novels enthrall me.
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4,25 stars - English Ebook
Quote: White Ash shook her head, the smile on her lips bittersweet. Three years ago things had begun to change. Rumors had circulated down the trail that the other clans were beginning to move south, seeking new territory. The White Clay warriors had strutted among the lodges, thumping their chests, growling threats about what they’d do if the other clans came near.
Then the Black Point clan attacked the camp on the Fat Beaver River and caught everyone by surprise. The White Clay had fled in horrified confusion and come unraveled, splitting into three factions. Defeat after defeat had thinned what remained of their ranks. But the people had never been as desperate as they now were. War visited them again, bringing death and privation. Hunger stalked the camp, reflected in the gaunt faces of the children and elders.
The cold seemed to intensify, rending their bodies with talons of ice. Hope had fled with the ghost of summer.
Hope? How can I hope? What have I done to deserve this? What hope will there be for White Ash? She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to escape the images in the Dreams. She forced herself to relive the days when she and Wind Runner and Brave Man had laughed and told each other what they hoped for the future.
The sun had been brighter then. The meat racks had bent under the weight of rich red slabs. The White Clay had been whole, powerful. Smiling faces peered at her from the past—faces of people dead or vanished with the breakup of the clan. Faces now as remote as those of her native Earth People.-
Set five thousand years ago and ranging through what is now Montana, Wyoming, northern Colorado, and Utah, People of the Earth follows the migration of the Uto-Aztecan people south out of Canada.
It is the unforgettable tale of a woman torn between two peoples and two dreams, of the two men who love her and the third who must have her, and of the vision given to the peoples long ago by the spirit of the wolf.
Once again we are taken back through time, to another era of climate change and the movement of whole peoples across the land. The life and death struggle to survive is always the focal point of the "First Americans" series.
Once again Power forges a leader to lead the people along the path to new lands and a new life. If there is a degree of predictability in the "First Americans" series then it is easy to forgive. I was drawn into the struggle of a people who are tied to the land but are also constantly struggling to survive.
War is not uncommon and the tribes have their great warriors and their disastrous defeats. We are drawn into the tale as we watch "ordinary" people live in peace among their own but then, through the forces unleashed, prove to be more than "ordinary".
It takes a strong leader to bind them together and to lead them with vision. As tribes move south, away from starving lands to more fertile grounds, like a set of dominoes being knocked over, change becomes the way forward.
I enjoyed this tale but am a little wary, as always, of the spirit world that is also conjured up. Our true heroes become like Shaolin monks, meditating and losing themselves in the One... and at times what is such an earthy tale, with its love for the land and those that live upon it, loses itself in fantasy. -
Sometimes difficult to follow with all the talk of Power and the One, this is still a series I really enjoy. You learn a lot about the early peoples who inhabited our world, and so many interesting characters are introduced.
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This is 3rd in the series of North America's Forgotten Past.
The story starts out in the present when a company's bulldozer unearths a skeleton. They decide to hide it because of the ramifications of what it would mean--the shut down of their project and a bunch of dirt diggers taking over.
The past starts with the Earth People who live in the earth, their homes are made of dirt and they collect plants as well as kill game to live on. One little girl seems to be shun by the rest--she dreams. White Ash is told to get water and that is when she is take captive by Sage Ghost-he has dreamed of taking a child since all his children have died.
White Ash has learned the ways of the White Clay and feels love for Brave Man. But something happens to Brave Man--he claims to have run from the Camp of the Dead and now has Power.
Bad Belly is from Round Rock clan and is also not in favor of the group. He only has one good arm and the other is maimed. When his best friend begins to die, his friend tells Bad Belly to search for the dreamer. So Bad Belly leaves and finds White Ash who is the dreamer.
This is the story of the battle between Brave Man and White Ash to bring the new life through the Spiral.
I like reading the history of primitive man especially around the Wyoming and Colorado area. -
Got to page 30. Had to stop. It follows the same plot and over used cliches as People of the Wolf.
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An unforgettable gallery of characters makes this ancient saga of North American Indians come alive.
The year is 5000 B.C. Somewhere in the West, ancient Indian tribes are battline for supremacy, lead by competing "Soul Fliers" or shamans, each with a radically different vision for the ages yet to come in North America.
BRAVE MAN -- the power-mad psychopath, whose twisted Vision leads him to kill and rape while dreaming uncanny prophecies of the untold might of the Aztec Empire!
WHITE ASH -- the mother of the people, a vulnerable young woman who was kidnaped as a child, raped repeatedly by enemy warriors, yet nevertheless has the compassion and love for all living things needed to Dream a new way for all the people.
BAD BELLY -- the lovable, crippled misfit who leaves his home village with his dog Trouble, seeking only a way to belong. Instead he discovers danger, terror, and enduring love beyond his wildest dreams.
WIND RUNNER -- the warrior with a heart of gold, he leaves his clan to make a place among strange tribes, only to face a heart-breaking choice between love and honor.
All of the books in the "People" series are unique and different. This one is special because it is the most mystical of the books. All the stories mention Power, the creative force that shapes all living things and is the source of both good and evil. But in this book Power is actually the main character, and all of the action is defined in terms of concepts like the Spiral and the One.
This was a great book, and I would recommend it to any one who is interested in Native Americans, spiritual quests, underdog heroes, or nature. The brutal rape scenes and the graphic violence make it less appropriate for younger readers, however. -
This is the sixth book by W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear that I've read and the third in the First American's Series. This book did not disappoint me. The Gears story of the early American Indian includes their culture, religious beliefs, food, cooking, and daily life interwoven with a cast of characters and adventure. Each book in the series could stand alone but the underlying theme of respect and reverence for nature threads through out the series. These books show the American Indian as a member of a complex culture with complex beliefs not as Indians are often shown on television. I throughly enjoyed the story and the education
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I have not been able to put this series down since I first found it a few months ago. It is written by a husband and wife who are both Archaeologists. They have written a series of books called The First North Americans, as well as each writing their own individual books. Though the stories are mainly fictional, they are supplemented by real archaeological and historical findings and facts. Very intense at moments and really sad at others, overall, an excellent read.
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A really great book and I enjoyed it completely. It is the 3rd. book in a series. I really enjoy this type of subject matter. It was written by a husband and wife team. (They were both arachaeologists).
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It was long ago when I read this book but I remember enjoying it. It had war, history, love and suffering. It is good historical fiction series.
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Interesting story about how the plains people spread out. I love the battle of power at the end.
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I have to hand it to the Gears- they do a wonderful job of combining story with history when it comes to Native Americans. They cite dozens of sources and describe a people's day to day life; from the huts they live in to the food they eat, and the clothes they wear. They do all this without getting overly wordy and losing their audience (see: Jane Auel). Their characters are always relatable and real. In this particular novel, we're focusing on the area of what is now Montana, and we're following four main characters; Bad Belly/Still Water, White Ash, Brave Man, and Wind Runner. Their stories and journeys are separate enough that whenever the authors shift character gears, you know exactly who you are following. I really loved White Ash and Still Water's story, and I was encouraged to keep reading mostly because of them. I can't say the same for the tribes and clans in general- there were so many that I lost track of who belonged to which clan, and where they lived, and who their leaders were. I found myself skimming over some of this information, as it wasn't always relevant and important to the main story. The other aspect that I didn't enjoy as much was rather integral to the plot, but I found it hard to reconcile- the dreaming. This is where that magical realism tag comes in. White Ash and Brave Man learn to "dream" and in doing so, see the future, speak with spirits, and see the power running through the world. Honestly, I would really have preferred less of this and more of what actually might have happened all those years ago. Native Americans and their culture is interesting all by itself- you don't need to add in power and magic. This aside, it was an interesting story, if slow at some points. I always feel like I learn something when reading these novels, and I can honestly imagine what the long ago past might have been like. The Gears weave a good story, even if they take some liberties. 3.5, rounded up to 4.
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3.5 stars
If I have to say one thing about this book, it’s that it’s really easy to get sucked in. When I started reading it I easily imagined it was the middle of winter 5000 years ago, but when I looked up I realized I was sitting in my living room in the middle of a pandemic. When I finished reading it, it was the middle o summer within the story, and I looked out my window expecting to see sunshine, only to see it snowing and gray. It’s really great if you’re looking looking for a book to escape into to forget everyday life for a while. I would definitely be open to reading other books by these authors.
I think, if it was done right, this could make a great movie. Some things from the plot would have to be cut, but i think cinematically it could be amazing. There are such rich descriptions of the landscape, as well as the descriptions of the dream visions.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of four different characters, although occasionally there’s an occasional switch to the point of view of more minor characters.
White Ash- a girl kidnapped from the Earth People as a child and taken to a clan of the Sun People. Her adoptive father took her on prompting from the Power after he and his wife lost all their children and were unable to have more.
Wind Runner- a warrior of the White Clay clan, a friend of White Ash from her childhood. He is in love with her but cannot marry her because her adoptive father is his uncle, making her his cousin. The rules against incest would not allow them to marry, even though they don’t share blood.
Brave Man- a friend of White Ash and Wind Runner, he too is in love with White Ash. When the clan was attacked by enemy warriors, he is supposedly killed, but he escapes the Camp of the Dead and returns to the living. However, after this he is changed, hearing the voices of Power in his head, although the voices are twisted.
Bad Belly- a member of one of the Earth People clans, he is regarded as useless by the people of his clan as one arm was permanently injured by a rattlesnake. He also tends to question the world around him, why things are the way they are and what makes things like that.
For me, my main issue with the book was that the climax felt sort of anticlimactic. It was built up for 500 something pages but I felt like it went too fast and was over too easily. It didn’t seem like it lived up to the promise of the previous pages.
Other things that are more personal preferences that irritated me include the long chapters and switches in point of view within the chapters. Most of the chapters took around 20-30 minutes to read according to my Kindle. I generally prefer shorter chapters, and I think these chapters could have been split up differently because there are switches in point of view within each chapter. The thing that annoyed me about this was that there was very little indication that this was happening, just some added white space between them. However, if the start of a new point of view fell at the top of the page on the Kindle edition, it was difficult to notice sometimes. Usually when authors switch point of view within a chapter there is some sort of visual marker and I found it irritating that there were none here because I would be reading and suddenly get confused and have to reread a bit to figure out there was a switch in the point of view. I also noticed quote a few typos and mistakes, such as writing smite instead of smile, missing quotation marks and a random apostrophe where it wasn’t needed. Not sure if this happened when the book was converted to the Kindle edition or what happened. That was more of a minor thing, though.
This book is sort of difficult to describe because it is focused so much on the cultures of the native peoples. I liked how there were differences between the Earth People and the Sun People, how they had different languages so they couldn’t communicate with each other and how they had different beliefs and traditions. Even within the Earth People and the Sun People there are different clans who don’t always see eye to eye, which I appreciated because it works against the common perception we tend to have of native peoples, which is that they are all basically the same and can be lumped into one group. I did have a bit of trouble envisioning what the Spiral was as well as First Man’s dream and The One, but I think I got the gist of it.
Spoilers!
What disappointed me most with this book was the climax/ending. I’ve found myself disappointed with the endings of other books I have read recently, so it could be just me. I felt like it went too fast, it was over to easily. White Ash goes into The One and Brave Man follows and gets lost in it and dies. That’s it. There’s not really a real battle of dreams or a back and forth between them. I had a similar complaint of another book I read recently. If it’s built up to this big face off or battle, I want to see that. The other thing that bothered me about the ending was how quickly Pale Raven backed down from her challenge to White Ash. I get that she saw that she was powerful from her confrontation with Brave Man, how White Ash escaped The One and Brave Man didn’t, but I thought that she would continue to fight. She doesn’t seem like the type to easily be cowed or back down, but that’s what she does here. Overall I just felt this whole moment was underwhelming and could have been done differently.
I also expected that because we began the book with a connection to the present day, we would end with one, but that wasn’t the case. Unless this is something that connects to the series as a whole that I’m missing, I almost felt like it wasn’t necessary. I guess it did ask the question of what the native peoples saw in that landscape, why they lived there, which the story answers, but I felt the story could have stood on its own without it. -
Uno de los mejores libros en cuanto a la comprensión de las deidades en la época de las migraciones del continente americano, la interacción entre las tribus es un verdadero deleite; el autor tipifica la figura del guerrero de manera muy tradicionalista, sin embargo, el rol del chamán es realmente atractivo por que escapa de los estereotipos, con una combinación de vidente y líder social, moderadamente el traductor de las ideas/propuestas de dichas deidades; cuenta con una historia original y la trama es dinámica.
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I'm always enraptured with this series, but hearing it in audio brings it to a whole new level of awareness. I am captivated by the characters and the voice of the reader. Within the first sentences, I'm transported into history and the people become real to me. I am swept up into the malignant mental illness of Brave Man, the gentle love of Still Water, the heartbreak and new love Wind Runner finds, and even the devious scheming of Larkspur.
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I was absolutely swept away by this story. I felt as if I was actually there among the prehistoric North American tribes. Emotions, tribe dynamics, landscapes, weather, and the characters themselves are described in engrossing detail. I felt as if they were real people.
Unfortunately, I give this three stars instead of four because of the unnecessarily graphic depictions of violence and rape. If this is a sensitive topic for you, I would advise against reading this book. -
I give the Gear books 5 stars (but for adults only). The raw sex and cruelty of the imaginary prehistoric beast called man is a little rough for younger readers. As an adult reader, I like to follow the authors line of imaginary thought as I read about a supposed advance of the creature called man from 15,000 years ago towards modern man. Excellent read!
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While it took me awhile to get into this story, once I did I was in love!! Incredibly rich writing that makes you feel as if you are experiencing the ways of the natives for yourself. I am very excited to read the rest of this series and HIGHLY recommend it.
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If you loved Jean M Auel's books you will love these books by W Michal Gear And Kathleen O'Neal Gear. They take you back to prehistoric times. They are extremely well written. They draw you in from the very first page until the end. The 1st book is still my favourite.
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Prachtige herlezing van een boek uit mijn tienerjaren. De serie begint steeds met een scène uit onze tijd en door het hele boek blijf ik maar denken hoe die verband houdt met het verhaal. Heel mooie personages en spannende gebeurtenissen.
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I'm loving this series so far. I appreciate how each book ties to the others, carrying the mythologies and histories along great spans of time. The stories are deeply human and relatable, the character development impeccable.
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Review of "People of the Earth" by John Lietzke
Fantastic story! Even though the story is fiction, it seems to depict lives of early North American natives very well. I liked it very well.
