Walkers of the Wind by William Sarabande

Yikes, this book was pretty much glorified violence.  But we'll get back to that.  "Walkers of the Wind" is the fourth book in the First Americans saga by William Sarabande.  This is a series meant to be read in order, so you need to go start at "Beyond the Sea of Ice".

Torka and his band have lived in the Eastern lands for awhile, and they have lived well.  With him as headsman, life has settled into a routine and they have been able to watch their children grow.  But that all changes one day when a prairie fire sweeps the land.  Some of his band are injured and they must move, ever onward, and ever eastward.  Things are further complicated when both of his twin sons want the same girl and jealousy rises between them.  And considering the girl has brought nothing but trouble, Torka isn't sure how to handle the rising animosity between the members of his band.

Torka was actually better in this book.  He made firm, level-headed decisions.  Lonit, sadly, was again mostly in the background.  She went from being such a strong character to being only a mother, and while that's an important job, she only gets that role to show off her unique qualities.  She's more than that.  Naya, the troublesome girl who both twins like doesn't have any redeeming qualities.  We're supposed to dislike her for most of the novel, and that is very easy to do.  She's the equivalent of a spoiled brat kid who can never get enough new toys in today's world.  Larani, her playmate, on the other hand is another strong character who faces a lot of hardships and overcomes them.  I could probably detail out the rest of Torka's band for you, but if you read the series, you'll get a chance to know them.

While I was glad to see the continuation of the series and what happened to Torka's band, there was a lot of upheaval in this book.  And it ended in a way I didn't really expect and made me wonder what the next book would cover.  The writing was descriptive, as usual.  But the problem is this time it was too descriptive when it came to the violence and hard things.  Sarabande always has hard topics in this series.  But there was a lot of rape in this one.  Including an overly descriptive rape scene of a child that I had to skim over because it was too hard to read.  And there's not much that is too hard for me to read, so I'm telling you, this was bad.  As said before, it just seemed like glorified violence, like Sarabande was trying very hard just to shock people.  It kind of ruined the book for me.

I'll still continue reading the series, mainly because I have more books sitting on my shelf, but I hope that a few changes are made.  I enjoy reading about the life and journies of the people in this book, but I don't enjoy violence that is meant to shock rather than improve the quality of the book.

Walkers of the Wind
Copyright 1990
420 pages

Forbidden Land by William Sarabande

Forbidden Land is the third book in the First Americans series. That means, if you haven't read the other two, you should turn back now. These are books that have to be read in order.

Having gone into the Corridor of Storms, Torka is now the headman of a small band. Because his ways are so different though, when his woman, Lonit, births twins and refuses to set them aside, the band turns against them. One child is taken out and left in the wilderness, where it is scooped up by the Wanawut (I still haven't figured out if this is a Bigfoot or Neanderthal), who the band considers a wind spirit. The other one they manage to hold on to, but are drove from the band with only a few other followers. Headed further East, they must trust in Life Giver, Torka's totem and a real life mammoth, to show them the way to better land.

Ok, first off, it took over a hundred pages before we figured out what happened to Zinkh, from the first book (actually I'm still not sure what happened to him, but that's when he's finally mentioned again). There were just new random names and no familiar ones, except for Torka's immediate band, and it was kind of disorienting. Torka is still proud, strong, and not always the best decision maker. Although he does do better in this book. Lonit kind of takes a back seat for most of this book. It seems she is resigned to raising children and not to independent thought, which is slightly disappointing. Cheanah, was a deplorable stupid man, and like most of Sarabande's bad guys, easy to dislike. And then there was Karana, he just had numerous problems this go around, and for being the wiseman, he wasn't very wise.

The plot was actually ok in this one. It covered several years and didn't rehash the events or borrow the same plotline from the first two books. There was still violence, rape, and a multitude of other sad things, but it wasn't as gleeful as in the first two books either. This time it was more focused on hunting and staying alive, although Cheanah had a particularly odious little son, and he created a lot of problems and violence. The usual description of everything else was there though and it made for nice steady reading. It's the kind of book you can dig into and then want more.

Which is why I'll be headed to the next book soon. I'm eager to find out what happens to Torka and his band.

Forbidden Land
Copyright 1989
431 pages

The Corridor of Storms by William Sarabande

Corridor of Storms is the 2nd book in the First Americans series.  If you haven't read the first book, I highly suggest you go start there, otherwise you'll be a bit lost in this book.

Torka and his band (3 women, a boy, and some children) have been living in a sheltered valley for about three years.  However, when one of the women is having a troubled pregnancy, he knows they must leave their valley and search out the gathering of other tribes.  The boy, Karana, is not at all happy about this excursion. He remembers the violence of other people and when they reach the gathering, there are some there who like Torka and some that would do anything to see him dead.

Torka, for all that he is brave and bold, does not have a lick of good sense.  Constantly he is warned not to do something, only to do it anyway thinking it is in his women's best interest.  And since Lonit is normally such a strong character, it is surprising to see her so wimpy and simpering in this book.  Karana is about the only one with sense, and even he is a little too brash at times.  Then there's the bad guys, especially Navahk.  He is pure evil.  There really is no redeeming goodness in him.  Which kind of makes it too easy to dislike him and wish the worst on him.  The best bad guys have an ounce of humanity that can confuse the reader's feelings.

And then there's the fact that this plot is almost identical to that of the first book.  Torka living peacefully and happily in the small band but then wanting to find other people.  Torka finding other people and life goes all wrong before he finally strikes out on his own again.  You'd think he'd have learned after several repeated mistakes.  This book, like the first, is very violent too.  And there is a lot of sexual violence in this one.  So much that it even disturbed me a bit and I'm normally pretty unflappable when it comes to reading stuff like that.  The amount of hate and anger and description can be hard to take at times.  Consider yourself warned even if you do normally have a strong constitution for stuff like that.  Aside from the violence, Sarabande is a descriptive writer for everything else.  That is the redeeming quality of this book.  He's able to bring the prehistoric world to life.

Not as good as the first book but I'll still continue reading the series.  My hope is that it will bounce back and redeem the characters.  Two and a half stars for this one though.

Corridor of Storms
Copyright 1988
420 pages

Beyond the Sea of Ice by William Sarabande

Beyond the Sea of Ice is the first book in a prehistoric series by William Sarabande.  As the first book, it is of course where you should start reading, as it introduces all of the characters.

Lonit, Torka, and Torka's old father (Umak, who is 45 and considered old by the prehistoric standards) are the only survivors of a tribe who encountered an enraged mammoth.  Together, they have to survive and seek out a new place to live if they wish to get back on their feet again.  But they have a hard road ahead with dangerous people and animals everywhere.  Not to mention Torka is grieving his wife and children and looks at Lonit with revulsion now.  But Lonit is used to that, because of her strange eyes she's always been considered ugly, she just hopes to be useful so she can continue to travel with the two, as it is her only hope for survival.

I like Lonit.  She's a bit moony over Torka and he can be a jerk sometimes, but her heart's in the right place and she's a hard worker.  It's hard to realize that in this book she is only in her early teens as she seems so much older.  Especially in the second half.  And she goes through quite a bit that no young child should have to go through.  Torka is a strong, steady, mostly decent man who has a few flaws.  But he's loyal to a fault and that speaks in his favor.  And Umak, well he's got a bit of an ego and can be superficial, but deep down he too has a good heart.  Karana, a little boy they meet in their travels, is probably the most interesting character though because of his backstory and abilities with nature.

This book kind of puts a spin on the prehistoric genre because it deals with a lot of death of tribes instead of having them advancing and discovering things.  Sure there are a few inventions thrown into the mix to make life better, but largely, this book is just about survival.  And because of the topic of survival, there is a lot of death and violence in this book.  And also rape, sex, and other things that tend to bother people when they're reading.  So if you can't handle that stuff, stay clear of this book.  Really, my only complaint about the book would be the romance between Lonit and Torka.  They start out at very opposing odds and then out of nowhere it changes.  I kept going back to see if I accidentally missed a few pages (I didn't) but I just couldn't see the chemistry there.

A good series and I'm eager to get a start on the next book.  This is definitely one that fans of the Gears or Jean Auel would probably enjoy.

Beyond the Sea of Ice
Copyright 1987
370 pages