Michael and Kathleen Gear, bestselling authors and award winning archaeologists are famous for writing novels about prehistoric America that are fast-paced, steeped in cultural detail, and smart. Here, in their most ambitious work to date, they combine their distinctive trademark of high action with a rich psychological drama.
Four thousand years ago, in what centuries later will be the southern part of the United States, a boy is thrust into manhood long before he's ready. Young Salamander would much rather catch crickets and watch blue herons fish than dabble in the politics of his clan. But when his heroic brother is killed, Salamander becomes the leader of America's first city. He inherits his brother's two wives, who despise him, and is forced to marry his mortal enemy's daughter to forge an alliance for the trade goods his people desperately need.
But he's only fifteen winters old! Technically he's not even a man, and most people consider him to be the village idiot! Worse, each of his wives has secretly been ordered by her clan to kill him.
Cast adrift in a stark wilderness of political intrigue where assassins are everywhere, young Salamander has no choice but to become a man-and quickly. For his own greatest enemies are closing in, intent upon destroying him and his clan and taking over Sun Town for themselves. It would all be a simple matter if he could just run away, but he can't. He has three problems: Their names are Night Rain, Pinedrop and Anhinga. His wives. Despite what their clans have ordered them to do he loves them. And he loves the children they have given him. As the end draws close, he realized he has only one duty he cannot shirk-to protect his family. Salamander will do it. No matter the cost in blood.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
### From Publishers Weekly
Set in prehistoric northeastern Louisiana, this richly imagined 11th entry in the Gears' First North Americans series follows a juvenile warrior as he struggles to mature in time to save his Clan from annihilation. Free-spirited, vision-seeing 15-year-old Mud Puppy has no interest in power, but when his much-admired older brother, White Bird, is struck by lightning and killed (an event that Mud Puppy foresaw), he is next in line to be the Speaker for the Owl Clan. Christened Salamander at an immediate initiation-to-manhood ceremony, he sets out to defend and honor his family, always aware of the warring spirits Masked Owl (good) and Many Colored Crow (evil) who guide his path. Uncertainty, clumsiness and a reputation as an idiot in the village are hurdles in Salamander's quest for greatness and power, as are the three fierce women he marries. Pine Drop, Night Rain and finally Anhinga are persuaded to betray him by relatives who have axes to grind with the Owl Clan. Skirting deadly assassins at every turn and handling his wives preoccupies Salamander, but he's smarter than anyone anticipated and triumphs in the story's political, witch-hunting conclusion. Propelled by the Gears' spry storytelling, this sturdy epic skillfully navigates the ancient swamplands of Louisiana, with their lapping brown waters, hanging vines and brooding skies. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Michael and Kathleen Gear, bestselling authors and award winning archaeologists are famous for writing novels about prehistoric America that are fast-paced, steeped in cultural detail, and smart. Here, in their most ambitious work to date, they combine their distinctive trademark of high action with a rich psychological drama.
Four thousand years ago, in what centuries later will be the southern part of the United States, a boy is thrust into manhood long before he's ready. Young Salamander would much rather catch crickets and watch blue herons fish than dabble in the politics of his clan. But when his heroic brother is killed, Salamander becomes the leader of America's first city. He inherits his brother's two wives, who despise him, and is forced to marry his mortal enemy's daughter to forge an alliance for the trade goods his people desperately need.
But he's only fifteen winters old! Technically he's not even a man, and most people consider him to be the village idiot! Worse, each of his wives has secretly been ordered by her clan to kill him.
Cast adrift in a stark wilderness of political intrigue where assassins are everywhere, young Salamander has no choice but to become a man-and quickly. For his own greatest enemies are closing in, intent upon destroying him and his clan and taking over Sun Town for themselves.
It would all be a simple matter if he could just run away, but he can't. He has three problems: Their names are Night Rain, Pinedrop and Anhinga. His wives. Despite what their clans have ordered them to do he loves them. And he loves the children they have given him. As the end draws close, he realized he has only one duty he cannot shirk-to protect his family. Salamander will do it. No matter the cost in blood.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
### From Publishers Weekly
Set in prehistoric northeastern Louisiana, this richly imagined 11th entry in the Gears' First North Americans series follows a juvenile warrior as he struggles to mature in time to save his Clan from annihilation. Free-spirited, vision-seeing 15-year-old Mud Puppy has no interest in power, but when his much-admired older brother, White Bird, is struck by lightning and killed (an event that Mud Puppy foresaw), he is next in line to be the Speaker for the Owl Clan. Christened Salamander at an immediate initiation-to-manhood ceremony, he sets out to defend and honor his family, always aware of the warring spirits Masked Owl (good) and Many Colored Crow (evil) who guide his path. Uncertainty, clumsiness and a reputation as an idiot in the village are hurdles in Salamander's quest for greatness and power, as are the three fierce women he marries. Pine Drop, Night Rain and finally Anhinga are persuaded to betray him by relatives who have axes to grind with the Owl Clan. Skirting deadly assassins at every turn and handling his wives preoccupies Salamander, but he's smarter than anyone anticipated and triumphs in the story's political, witch-hunting conclusion. Propelled by the Gears' spry storytelling, this sturdy epic skillfully navigates the ancient swamplands of Louisiana, with their lapping brown waters, hanging vines and brooding skies.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
### From Booklist
In the tradition of Jean Auel (*Clan of the Cave Bear)*, the authors Gear offer another installment in their very popular First North Americans series, which takes readers on a richly detailed trip back to prehistoric times. The series began with *People of the Wolf* (1990), and now, in the latest volume, the Gears reconstruct life as led by the aboriginal inhabitants of Poverty Point in what is now Louisiana--and which was, as a matter of interesting fact, North America's first true city, founded 12 centuries before the birth of Christ. This settlement served as the center of a vast trading empire in the Mississippi Valley. The main character here is the warrior and shaman called Salamander, whose life and exploits we follow through every twist and turn. (Any reader who imagines that violence was not an everyday part of existence back then will soon realize the folly of such an idea.) The major calling card of these sprawling prehistoric epics is not to cozy up to characters contemporary readers can identify with but to provide fascinating information on the customs of past times. The Gears' novels are, indeed, lessons in life past, and all the facts they marshal are well integrated into a smoothly flowing story line. Expect considerable demand. *Brad Hooper*
*Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved*