Shadow of the watching star - The First Americans

Informationen zum Autor Joan Hamilton Cline is the real name of William Sarabande, author of the internationally bestselling First Americans series. She was born in Hollywood, California, and started writing when she was seventeen. First published in 1979, Joan has been writing as William Sarabande for eleven years. She lives with her husband in Fawnskin, California. Klappentext A magnificent new novel in the bestselling series set in prehistoric North America. Ravaged by tribal fighting and abandoned by their sacred spirits! the People find their only hope across a sea of ice! led by a young shaman named Cha-kwena! who alone will determine whether his race is to flourish in a new age of bounty and hope--or perish in savage conflict. PROLOGUE "So she sang, 'A young man would be wise. A young man would be brave. He left the place he knew. He came to death's valley . . . He broke the living stone . . . He slew my friend the bear . . .' "And Iya said, "Ho, sing what you will. It is your death song and it is music that will make my heart glad.'" --Bad Wound (Taopi-sica) Lakota Myth by James R. Walker "Shaman!" The spirit of the wind called from the black depths of the Ice Age night. It moaned across the storm-savaged highlands, keening in the way of a wild beast mourning a lost mate until, at last, the sleeping boy's eyes opened in cold darkness. Warakan's heart was pounding, and his thoughts ran as wild as the wind. It has returned to the forest, the thing that cries in the winter dark! The sad-voiced spirit that clothes itself in the invisible skin of North Wind as it haunts the abandoned village of the dead to which Jhadel has forbidden me to return! Knuckling the residue of dreams from his eyes, the boy remained flat on his back upon the jumble of dried ferns, feathers, and strips of crudely cured animal skins that served as his mattress. He held his breath and listened, trying not to be afraid as he remembered, All that is bad comes from the north . . . all that is dark and cold . . . all that has to do with death and danger. Beside him lay the sleeping old shaman and the orphaned cub of the tawny she-bear whose thick, shaggy pelt now clothed his own thin, furless hide. Beyond the vaulted confines of their hide-covered, sapling-braced lodge of bark and brushwood, North Wind was no longer moaning; it was howling through the forest like a gut-wounded dire wolf. The lodge creaked, straining against its hardwood anchor pegs, then trembled violently. Warakan trembled, too, but although he was wary of the rising wind, he did not fear the storm that spawned it. His shelter had endured worse weather since White Giant Winter had come down upon the world. The size of the lodge was nothing to boast of, but its location on a bench of broken woodland beneath an overhanging streamside bluff would grant protection from the full fury of the storm. He and Jhadel had dug the broad, circular foundation of the lodge knee-deep into the skin of the earth, surrounding it with bark and brushwood to prevent the intrusion of all but the most tenacious drafts of cold air; even these were baffled by a ring of heavy stones that held the bottom edges of the lodge covers in place. Now, snug as a wood rat in his winter den, Warakan was confident that his shelter would survive this latest onslaught of weather; but he was less sure of other things, or more elusive things potentially far more dangerous. Of these intangibles he was afraid. He lay motionless in the dark, breathing softly as he listened for the spirit to call again. Moments passed. Outside, North Wind continued its rampage through the trees, but if it spoke in the language of men, the boy could not understand its words. He closed his eyes, as though by depriving himself of one sense he might sharpen another, and gradually he became aware of othe...

About the author

Joan Hamilton Cline is the real name of William Sarabande, author of the internationally bestselling First Americans series. She was born in Hollywood, California, and started writing when she was seventeen. First published in 1979, Joan has been writing as William Sarabande for eleven years. She lives with her husband in Fawnskin, California.

Product details

• Authors: William Sarabande
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.05.1995
• EAN: 9780553560299
• ISBN: 978-0-553-56029-9
• No. of pages: 495
• Dimensions: 105 mm x 175 mm x 25 mm
• Series: FIRST AMERICANS; First Americans
• Subject: Fiction > Science fiction, fantasy