Shadow of the Watching Star

The First Americans #8

by William Sarabande

Ravaged by tribal fighting, cursed by their enemies, abandoned by their sacred spirits, the People wander, hungry and desperate, across a frozen and forbidding land. The leader who guided them, the vision that inspired them, the magic that moved them--all have vanished from their midst. Far away, across a sea of ice, alone and desolate, the young shaman Cha-kwena must make a fateful choice. While he yearns to return to his loved ones, he is sworn to protect the sacred herd of mammoth, the last of their kind. The path he now takes will determine the future of his whether they will perish in savage conflict or flourish in a new age of bounty and hope.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Prehistoric, Fiction, Prehistory

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

William Sarabande is a pseudonym of Joan Lesley Hamilton Cline.

Reviews

[66yoguy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it.

[Level6 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellence. Fastest I've read a book in a long, long time. (I only read at night, before sleeping.)

[Sallee · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books have a very complicated plot line where characters flee lands only to to return and flee again. Chakwena comes across his woman, Marale again and she leaves the old shaman Jhadel and Warakan to go off to the rising son with her shaman and his totem, the young white mamouth. Warakan who has raised the bear cub of the bear he killed comes to acknowledge that the bear will go off on his own. There are several instances where the bear turns on him and acts like a bear and then acts like Warakan's cub. Warakan is in possesion of the sacred stone of the First People and Jhadel works to teach him the role of peacemaker. Warakan still wants to kill the totem for the power he thinks it will give him and he hates Chakwena for taking Maralee away from him. Meanwhile, back at the cave in the Valley of Death, Jonlee, Chakwena's little sister comes to hate the people who were her band and left Maralee and Chakwena to return "home" again. While it appears they have been fully accepted into the tribe of the Watching Star, they have no idea it is all a plot and Josareh is being used to teach Tsana's men how to work stone into exceptional spear heads. They do not know that the Tsana plans to sacrifce Johlee to the Watching Star. Banya, thier preistess. a former tribe member of people of the Red Land who had been abandoned and then found by Tsana's tribe became mad when he killed her remaining twin son. While she is feared by the people it is really Tsana who calls the shots. These stories are very convouluted but still interesting. There are 3 more books in this series and the peoples' paths will continue to cross and recross with violence and savagery.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The whole series is a great read. Hard to put down. Want to read it again.