People of the Earth Book

Once again we are taken back through time, to another era of climate change and the movement of whole peoples across the land. The life and death struggle to survive is always the focal point of the "First Americans" series. Once again Power forges a leader to lead the people along the path to new lands and a new life. If there is a degree of predictability in the "First Americans" series then it is easy to forgive. We are drawn into the struggle of a people who are tied to the land but are also constantly struggling to survive. War is not uncommon and the tribes have their great warriors and their disastrous defeats. We are drawn into the tale as we watch "ordinary" people live in peace among their own but then, through the forces unleashed, prove to be more than "ordinary". It takes a strong leader to bind them together and to lead them with vision. As tribes move south, away from starving lands to more fertile grounds, like a set of dominoes being knocked over, change becomes the way forward.
I enjoyed this tale but am a little wary, as always, of the spirit world that is also conjured up. Our true heroes become like Shaolin monks, meditating and losing themselves in the One... and at times what is such an earthy tale, with its love for the land and those that live upon it, loses itself in fantasy.