The Bird Shaman

Holy Ground #3

by Judith Moffett

The long-awaited conclusion of the Holy Ground trilogy! Occupation of Earth is now in its 27th year, and relations between humanity and the dictatorial Hefn have never seemed shakier. The aliens mission is to save the planet from its human abusers; and the Baby Ban imposed by mass hypnosis has made Earth a cleaner, wilder, less crowded place. But the Ban has now lasted so long, and provoked such hatred, that when a spark is struck the situation explodes into worldwide riots on one side and retaliatory mindwipings on the other. Years of effort by the eco-spiritual Gaians, who mediate between humans and Hefn, have been destroyed. While the Gaians regroup and brainstorm frantically in an atmosphere of doubt and danger, one obsessed Hefn and one young woman begin a radical experiment. Pam Pruitt has discovered a growing ability to acquire information by non-rational means. Childhood suffering has empowered her, in a way once understood by hunting and gathering peoples -- an understanding lost with that lost lifeway -- to communicate with mysterious forces through strong to function as a shaman on behalf of her community, the human race.

460 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2008

About the author

Judith Moffett was born in Louisville in 1942 and grew up in Cincinnati. She is an English professor, a poet, a Swedish translator, and the author of twelve books in six genres. These include two volumes of poetry, two of Swedish poetry in formal translation, four science-fiction novels plus a collection of stories, a volume of creative nonfiction, and a critical study of James Merrill's poetry; she has also written an unpublished memoir of her long friendship with Merrill. Her work in poetry, translation, and science fiction has earned numerous awards and award nominations, including an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, an NEH Translation Grant, the Swedish Academy's Tolkningspris (Translation Prize), and in science fiction the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for the year's best short story. Two of her novels were New York Times Notable Books.

Moffett earned a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, with a thesis on Stephen Vincent Benét's narrative poetry, directed by Daniel Hoffman. She taught American literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities, including the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the University of Kentucky, and for fifteen years the University of Pennsylvania. She has lived for extended periods in England (Cambridge) and Sweden (Lund and Stockholm), as well as around the US, living/​teaching/​writing in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In 1983 she married Medievalist Edward B. Irving, Jr., her colleague at Penn. Widowed in 1998, Judy now divides her year between Swarthmore PA and her hundred-acre recovering farm in Lawrenceburg KY, sharing both homes with her standard poodles, Fleece and Corbie.

Reviews

[Kevmcveigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This conclusion to the Holy Ground trilogy is in so many ways more intense than the early parts. Yes, even the 'Tiny Tango' section of The Ragged World.
Moffett's focus on environmental, sexual, religious and political issues is more entwined than ever, but combined to with a stronger poetic aesthetic. Her mentor & friend James Merrill is obviously a touchstone, but a 4 page critique of Wordsworth's Prelude, repeated allusion to Yeats and Kipling, fill the novel.
Then there are the meetings, the discussion that you might find elsewhere only in Kim Stanley Robinson, that move the ideas and the plot skilfully together.
The ending? no spoilers, it's unexpected, and appropriate and well... different.
That's why Judith Moffett is such an important but unsung SF writer.

[TheWearyWanderer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third and final book in the Holy Ground series. I couldn’t find this book in print at a reasonable price so I ended reading my first ebook.

Really not sure how to rate this book. If you have made it through the first two books, it means you are buying in to her message of “Mother Earth” or you appreciate her dive into homesteading and dealing with one’s sexuality. There are aliens (Hefn and Gafr) who are the harbingers of the dying earth and have given humanity the ultimatum of “clean it up” or else. The or else, was a 99% sterilization of the human race.

In this book humanity has one year to show that they have become good earth stewards or the “baby ban” remains in place and humanity must rely on the 1% not impacted by the ban to repopulate the earth. This is the back story for most of the book but it doesn’t dominate it. There is a continuation on the discussion of sexuality identity and sexual trauma, and though this was an awkward element (for me) in the first two books I thought that the author did a fantastic job of dealing with these “not talked about topics”.

The author minimizes her “Quaker mentality” (from the first two books) and introduces the idea of shamanism and being able to see the future. This was a rough area for me. I had a hard time getting into it. The aliens have machines that allow them to see into the past, but don’t have the ability to see into the future. Half way through the book, it becomes very important for Pam to be able to develop this ability. The author tries to establish that Pam’s visions could determine the fate of mankind. I don’t quite follow this since the future can (and does) send a message back in time to Pam’s present stating that aliens and humans can live together. I felt that the shamanism was just another way for the author to talk about Mother Earth. It’s ironic, I bought the first book, because of the environmental message, but I quickly discovered (in book 1 and the rest of the series) that my personal views are naively optimistic. I am far too accustomed to the conveniences of the modern world to get on the Gaian boat. I found most of her discussion on this topic to be a bit preachy making me uncomfortable, annoyed and depressed.

So how can I give this book 4 stars? Despite being preachy and a bit dry at times, the author paints a clear picture with well established characters. I enjoyed watching the tumultuous relationship between Pam and Liam and the introduction of Lexi. And though I thought the alien element, in general, was under utilized I was curious (and satisfied) with the reasoning for their actions.

This book is definitely not for everyone, but if you enjoyed the first 2 then you’ll probably appreciate the conclusion.