Shaman Author:Kim Stanley Robinson A powerful, thrilling and heart-breaking story of one young man's journey into adulthood, a coming of age for Loon, a shaman’s apprentice during the Ice Age, and an awe-inspiring vision of how we lived thirty thousand years ago, following Loon as he goes through the rhythms of life. Loon’s world is as terrifying as it is won... more »derful. For every spectacular vista or view, there are dangerous predators or Neanderthals.
Everything that can be eaten is eaten. Along with the meat, there's the fat, kidneys, intestines, the tongue, marrow. Nothing is wasted. Once the season becomes warm, it is a race to collect enough resources to survive the next winter and spring, which is the hardest because summer is within reach, but winter won't leave just yet.
Loon struggles with his understanding of the world, and his adopted parents, Thorn the shaman and Heather the herb woman, shares with him the wisdom of a hard lifetime. As befits youth, Loon rails against his teachers, but eventually discovers many of their truths to be correct, and erroneous as well, while discovering some of his own truths. Vividly experience his all-consuming misery in the cold -- the flick of the shaman's finger on an ear -- and the equally consuming moments of small pleasures, the thud of spear in the flank of a bison.« less