Paperback
Published June 10, 2014 by imusti, Orbit.
KSR always writes compelling science fiction; this is a bit of a departure — it’s historical fiction set in the Neolithic period in France, about a shaman’s apprentice in a time when early humans live alongside Neanderthals, and mammoth, rhinoceros, bison, lions, leopards and other now-extinct animals are a constant presence.
An intricately detailed novel, where Robinson attempts to depict what life would have been for a prehistoric tribe during the Ice Age. No explicit date or location is given, but context indicates it's about 35-40,000BCE. It's an impressive mental leap to get that far back in time and depict the early days of humanity, but the problem is that it often reads more as imaginative anthropology rather than a novel. Robinson often descends into morasses of description instead of plot, and this has the same issue: after Loon's wander concludes, very little happens in the first part of the book. Any novel like this is going to end up being compared to Golding's The Inheritors, and for me it comes up short in that respect. Golding's world felt stranger and rawer, this one becomes mundane too soon.
After two bull's eyes in a row (Galileo and 2113) Shaman isn't exactly a miss but it is off centre. It's a deceptively long book, being a not alarming 456p until you notice the size of the print and realise you should add about 200p to get a fair comparison with your run-of-the-mill thriller paperback. Some of the problems relate to this length, one way or another. The most fundamental being that there is no plot worth mentioning for the entire first half of the book, making it fairly slow going. There are various events, or things mentioned seemingly in passing, where one thinks, oh! I bet that turns out to be important later! And they all do, but not until at least the half-way mark, some of them not until very near the end. So the set up just goes on and on. It's not boring but there is …
After two bull's eyes in a row (Galileo and 2113) Shaman isn't exactly a miss but it is off centre. It's a deceptively long book, being a not alarming 456p until you notice the size of the print and realise you should add about 200p to get a fair comparison with your run-of-the-mill thriller paperback. Some of the problems relate to this length, one way or another. The most fundamental being that there is no plot worth mentioning for the entire first half of the book, making it fairly slow going. There are various events, or things mentioned seemingly in passing, where one thinks, oh! I bet that turns out to be important later! And they all do, but not until at least the half-way mark, some of them not until very near the end. So the set up just goes on and on. It's not boring but there is nothing driving it.
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/921353/shaman-kim-stanley-robinson
