Shiva: An Adventure of the Ice Age

Shiva #1

by J.H. Brennan

A Cro-Magnon tribe is forced to confront its collective fear of the Neanderthal people they call ogres, when a young girl of the tribe, Shiva, befriends an ogre boy, and when Hiram, a young hunter from the tribe, is captured by ogres.

Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Prehistoric, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

James Herbert "Herbie" Brennan is a lecturer and the author of over one hundred fiction and non-fiction books for adults, teens, and children.

His works have been translated into approximately fifty languages, he has also written books on the Occult and New Age. He initially trained in esoteric teachings and Qabalah with the Fraternity of the Inner Light, and later became associated with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and the Servants of the Light.

In 1995 he contributed two novels to the Horrorscopes series under the house pen name Maria Palmer.

In 2003, Brennan published the children's book The Book of Wizardry: The Apprentice's Guide to the Secrets of the Wizards' Guild under the pseudonym Cornelius Rumstuckle.

Reviews

[Rick Hribko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for middle schoolers. I teach Social Studies, so I am going to see if I can interest any students in reading this one. Interesting take on female power in the nomad tribes of the Ice Age.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My fiance picked this up at the library for us to take turns reading aloud while the other one was cooking. I think the title, Shiva: An Adventure of the Ice Age, appealed to his tendency to be tickled by kind of dopey 1980s middle grade adventure books. Basically, Shiva is set somewhere in Europe about 30,000 years ago and relates how prejudice between a tribe of Cro-Magnons and a clan of neanderthals nearly leads to war. The book effectively shifts between tribe and clan viewpoints, showing how differently each group communicates and views the world, which I think would make this a great book for introducing kids to the concept of cultural relativism. For example, the tribe is led by women while the clan is led by men; the tribe's government relies on mysticism and group discussion where the clan's government is controlled by the strongest individual; and, most importantly, each group sees its own kind as true human beings and the other group as monsters. So that was cool.

That said, the book is . . . well, as I said at the beginning, it's kind of dopey.

Also, it's ridiculous that the main character, a girl named Shiva, is described as having short hair and "brown skin" on the third page, but is pictured as a fair-skinned, long-haired blonde on the cover of every edition of this book I've seen online.

If you liked or didn't like this book but are looking for a good 80s-90s middle grade series, I recommend the My Teacher is an Alien series or the Magic Shop series by Bruce Coville.

[Books Kids Like · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Shiva gathers firewood, she smells wolf scent on the air and sees that the wolves are stalking her. Shiva charges the gray bitch with her bone club and ends up fighting wolves on every side. Suddenly an ugly, hairy boy jumps astride one of the wolves; he sinks his teeth into the wolf's neck and kills it. As Shiva skins the wolf, some Shingu hunters from Shiva’s tribe find them. They capture the boy and take him back to camp. The tribe soon learns that their prisoner is Doban, son of the ogre chief, Thag. Heft the Hunter and chief Thag track Doban to the Shingu camp. When they discover that Shiva has set Doban free, they capture Hiram, a Shingu warrior. Meanwhile, Shiva leads Doban away from camp. She is thinking about finding a good hiding place when a rhino charges her. Shiva runs away, falls down an old animal burrow, and finds the skull of Saber. She knows that is contains powerful magic so she takes it with her. Emerging from the burrow, she is discovered by Heft the Hunter and taken back to the ogre camp. Once there, Shiva learns that Hiram has been sentenced to death and uses the sabertooth tiger skull to save his life.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com

[Nicole C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is for fifth graders as well, and deals with the story of Shiva, an eleven-year-old girl (who is Cro-Magnon, but this is not spelled out until the afterword) who encounters a little boy "ogre" (Neanderthal) when he saves her from a wolf attack. He follows her back to her camp, where her people lock the boy in a cage. Shiva realizes how unfair the situation is, and attempts to save the boy. Meanwhile, the Neanderthal people know the boy is missing, and they plan a war against the Cro-Magnons. It was a very interesting book.

[Miara Farnsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great children's novel. I remember loving this as a kid, and rereading it now was just the same!