The latest installment of the Gears' popular and long-running First North Americans series (after People of the Moon) is a timely saga of environmental catastrophe and misguided hubris. As the ice age is ending, 13,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians of the Great Lakes region of North America face an apocalyptic crisis: even as the ice dams holding back the flood waters from melting glaciers near capacity, the local tribes are locked in a desperate war. The Nightland People, who live on the edge of the retreating glacier and worship the god Raven Hunter, seek to destroy their neighbors, the Sunpath and Lame Bull Peoples, who worship Wolf Dreamer. As the fighting rages, Raven Hunter sends a guide to lead the Nightland People to paradise through a hole in the ice. Meanwhile, Wolf Dreamer taps a young orphan, Silvertip, to save the Sunpath and Lame Bull Peoples by leading them away from the catastrophic flooding. With time running out, Silvertip and his allies race to escape both the Nightland warriors and the looming natural disaster. Drawing on their backgrounds in archeology, the Gears vividly recreate Paleolithic America in this enchanting and instructive novel. (Mar.)
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The Gears, archaeologists and best-selling authors, continue their stellar North America's Forgotten Past series with another fascinating installment that combines history, geology, and anthropology with a crackerjack story. As the Ice Age begins to wane, two clans--the People of the Nightland, cave dwellers, and the People of the Sun, lodge inhabitants--are united by an orphan's vision of the future. Although young Silvertip's warnings of imminent disaster initially go unheeded, he joins forces with a war chief and a young girl in an effort to convince the clans that the ice giants are plotting to destroy the world. Set against a backdrop of global warming foreshadowing the collapse of the mammoth glaciers and the flooding of the Great Lakes region, this adventure yarn not only reaches back in time to illustrate a largely forgotten prehistoric era and culture but also resonates with contemporary climatic themes and fears. An authentically detailed evocation of a world and a people on the verge of an epic transformation, and certain to attract the readership other titles in this series have enjoyed. Margaret Flanagan
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