People of the Masks (The First North Americans, Book 10)

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	• People of the Masks (The First North Americans, Book 10) Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear Tor Books, 1999 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Another good story of the possible past

A huge surprise for me. I've always perceived the Native North Americans as a defeated people, on the brink of destruction (mostly because that was the way the today Americans presented the past). This book presents the unknown story of the florishing civillisations of the first Americans - as I've never seen it before. The tale is set in an farther past then that of the conquest - actually, in the period of the Viking discovery of the North American seashore (the Vinland, as they put it).
Two related nations, the Turtle and the Bear, covet the same power child - a dwarf boy named Rumbler, who is known as child of a forest spirit. But if the Turtle clan of "Paint Rock" loves and protects the boy, the Bear "Walksalong" clan - especially the war leader (not a little crazed by his own spirit-power) want the child to help them in war and hunting and will stop at nothing to have the boy.
They utterly destroy the boy's clan and kidnap him - but when warriors begin to die of unknown causes, the matrons of the Walksalong decide they don't want the child anymore and he has to be killed by starvation and cold.
Only a small girl stands by him and ultimately saves him, guiding him back to his relatives.
The fate of the Walksalongs, decided by a prophecy, comes true, despite their best efforts to reject it.
All the characters are profoundly human (or inhuman, in the case of the bad guys). That was superb writing (and the naive - sounding isn't so strong here as in "People of the Lightining"). I couldn't believe the power of this novel - and i'm hoping to get more of the novels of this series.

Highly recommended.

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Worthwhile read!

Once again this is another great book by the Gears. Although a work of fiction it provides insight on the culture and society of early Native Americans. Which I found well researched. Throw in a bit of the supernatural forces and you have another great book by this couple. I have enjoyed every book by them.

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Love this series

I can't ever wait until the next one comes out. This one didn't dissapoint, espeically since it was talking about my neck of the woods! The Gears are very talented at weaving the fiction and non-fiction together to make a great story.

People of the Masks (The First North Americans, Book 10)

I've loved everything I've read by the Gears and I've read just about everything they have published. Wonderful interposing of fiction onto the facts! They use their expertise as anthropologists and as story tellers to combine what really has been found about North American Indians and interpose a very believable story onto it. They really make the past come alive! The inclusion of what has really been found by anthropologists adds tremendously to the books!

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Consistent Entertainment

The Gears' continue to both entertain and enlighten with this latest in their series. The characters are as vivid and detailed as I have come to expect from this series and the environmental descriptions bring the reader to stand side by side with the characters. I continue to recommend this series to everyone I know who enjoys not only the past from an historical pov but also a darned good story!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

As the prophets have foretold, a child of power has been born unto the Turtle People of the Iroquois Nation. The Elders call him False Face Child, for he is the son of a powerful spirit. A living talisman, the child has inhuman eyes--black mirrors, ageless and deep--and all fear him.

All but Jumping Badger, the most powerful war leader of the Bear People. He destroys an entire village to take the boy to use as a spiritual weapon. But his triumph is short-lived. The Bear People suffer terrible visions and hear the voices of the spirits. Strange ailments and mysterious deaths take them one by one.

Though he is a seer, False Face Child is also a sad and lonely young boy named Rumbler. Twelve-year-old Wren befriends him and together they escape across the winter landscape of New York and Ontario with Jumping Badger close behind. He now fears the boy's power and seeks to kill him. Their only hope is to stay alive long enough to find Rumbler's legendary father, known only as The Disowned.

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