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 People of the Sea by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
reviewed by Underview
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 9, 1995
People of the Sea is the sixth in a projected ten book series about prehistoric life in North America. But don't let the numbers put you off. This is a novel that stands totally by itself, without any need for reference to the previous five in the series, nor does it contain references to previous books.
People of the Sea is the tale of Sunchaser, a dreamer who has lost his way into the other world, the world where his deepest spiritual and practical questions are answered. The surrounding coastal tribes all look to him for advice and guidance, but not even Sunchaser can determine why the Mammoth seems to be dying out. Without the Mammoth, whose hides shelter them, whose bones form tent-poles and weapons and whose flesh feeds them, the entire way of life of the tribes will be altered, possibly destroyed. Sunchaser's position is envied by Catchstraw, a false dreamer who would supplant him and one who uses Sunchaser's problems with dreaming as evidence that his power is dead.
It is also the story of Kestrel, a woman driven beyond the limits of her endurance by an abusive husband. Having been caught in the arms of another man by her husband, Lambkill, she escapes from her village, heavily pregnant, pursued by Lambkill and his brother. Inexorably the paths of Kestrel and Sunchaser converge. the dreamer is not allowed the company of women. The woman is an outcast whose life is forfeit to her husband should he catch her. She is encumbered in her escape attempt at first by her pregnancy and then by the child she bears. When Sunchaser and Kestrel are thrown together it becomes necessary for the dreamer to make a choice between his duty to his people and saving the woman and her baby. It also becomes a pivotal decision with regard to his won survival and that of the tribes which rely on him; one which appears initially insoluble to him and all who surround him, including Kestrel.
Michael and Kathleen Gear are not only talented storytellers they are also respectively a physical anthropologist and an archaeologist/historian. People of the Sea is not only a great story it is also a wonderfully easy introduction to American pre-history. It is astounding how sympathetic and understandable they can make their totally alien characters feel. How few novels there are of any genre that can so effortlessly blend entertainment and education. I just hope that Macmillan decide to rectify their strange decision to launch this series more than half way through by making the previous books available to a European readership.
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