Sue Harrison (1)Besprekingen

“A man is what he himself does, what he thinks, what he learns, his own skills.”
― Sue Harrison, My Sister the Moon

3.5 stars.

I adore books on Indian History and culture. This one is part of a series but I read it as a stand alone.

To be honest..I wasn't crazy about it. I was deeply touched and thought the writing was terrific. But it was a bit different then I'd thought it would be although that is on me for not reading the first book in the series.

My Sister the Moon is told during Prehistoric times and my main positive is reading about how people lived then. And the main character, .Kiin is a sassy and strong female and I both deeply liked and respected her and was interested in her story.

But the book is just so painful at times. Her story is not a happy one. In fact, this is one of those books where the bad things just keep piling on. It does not let up through the whole book. Kiin is treated terribly by many of the men in her life, especially and including family members. What I did not like was all the violence..so much of it..through the story. Kiin must do a great deal of outwitting of her enemies.

I read much Historical Fiction and in many of the books I read there is tragedy. And darkness. In this book...and this is not really a spoiler as it happens early on..Kiin is kidnapped and horribly assaulted by a family member. I should say this aspects of this book could be a trigger. Misogyny, abuse..it is alot.

I cannot say I was not deeply touched by the story. Still it was a tough one to read as bad thing after bad thing happens. I did love Kiin though. Her strength and resilience was inspiring and I wanted to see where her story would go.

SPOILERS:

The book ended on a sort of abstract note I did not love but I think there are more books to follow. Honestly, I doubt I will go on in the series. While I did not dislike My Sister the Moon, it is not a book I fell in love with although I liked getting to know this strong and clever woman.

Recommended to Historical Fiction lovers.

I always enjoy historical fiction and find it to be quite a good read as long as you remember that it is someone's interpretation of the past and should not be taken as 100% true fact. The writing style of this series is quite good and I really felt invested in the characters and their personal stories. I find this series to be a perfect summer beach read.

I always enjoy historical fiction and find it to be quite a good read as long as you remember that it is someone's interpretation of the past and should not be taken as 100% true fact. The writing style of this series is quite good and I really felt invested in the characters and their personal stories. I find this series to be a perfect summer beach read.

I always enjoy historical fiction and find it to be quite a good read as long as you remember that it is someone's interpretation of the past and should not be taken as 100% true fact. The writing style of this series is quite good and I really felt invested in the characters and their personal stories. I find this series to be a perfect summer beach read.

I picked this book up from a free library while traveling in South Africa, and had never heard of it and would likely never have picked it up in the shop. There is a bit of fun in reading something that is very much out of your wheelhouse, chosen for you by happenstance.

This is a tale of life on the Aleutian Islands of 7000 BCE at the end of the Ice Age. The story is very intimate and tightly focused on the many trials and tragedies of Chagak, a young woman who suffers from some very difficult and cruel losses early in her life. I was quite surprised by many of the specific events that occurred, Harrison doesn't shy away from showcasing violence and general misery. Interestingly, Chagak's people and most of the other tribes of the islands are largely peaceful, and aren't prepared in the least for the arrival of the Short Ones, a tribe who have adopted a novel culture of raiding and murder (a strange activity that other people, mystified, refer to as "hunting men"), a shift that unfortunately seems to point towards developments in the future of humankind.

The book has a strong feminist streak throughout, but in a more realistic and nuanced manner than something like [b:The Clan of the Cave Bear|1295|The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1)|Jean M. Auel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385331302l/1295._SY75_.jpg|1584694] for instance. Chagak is a strong and resilient heroine, but she is definitely constrained by a culture that values men much more highly than women, and where she must constantly deal with male power in her life. Harrison does a great job of looking at the (fictional/hypothetical) details of a late Ice Age life which is strongly influenced by modern Aleut life (in fact, other than the element of the Short Ones violent raiding culture being a new development, there doesn't particularly seem any reason that this book is set in 7000 BCE rather than at any time prior to European contact many thousands of years later).

Overall this was an enjoyable, engaging read... Happy I happened to pick it up!

Sobre la vida de los indios americanos de hace 9.000 años

Continuation of Harrison's prehistoric Alaska trilogy. In this one, an abused girl discovers strength and hidden talents as she becomes a woman, a wife, and a mother.

This was not as compelling as 'Mother Earth Father Sky', the first entry. Part of it that is the inherent weakness of middle parts of trilogies, but part is that the main character, Kiin, is kind of the original hard-luck kid. Abused by her father (who wanted his first-born to be a son), married to the brother of the man she truly loves, kidnapped, raped -- is there anything this poor girl isn't going to be subjected to?

The background of First Peoples cultures in the Aleutian Islands, remains fascinating and scrupulously researched.

Interesting novel about First People of the Aleutian Islands, ca. 7000 BC. Harrison creates a believable culture with nicely drawn characterizations.

After witnessing a massacre that destroys her village, a young woman struggles to reach her mother's family on another island, but the journey takes a path she didn't expect.

Unfortunately, the cover illustrator apparently didn't read the manuscript. It shows a young woman of First People stock, but her clothing and her boat appear to be of the style of 17th-century Great Lakes tribes, and the seal swimming alongside it has nothing to do with the story. Nor does the male figure standing on the shore, who appears to be of European stock and is dressed in 17th-century garb.

Ignore the cover. Enjoy the book.

I first read this book in 6th grade (looong time ago) and there’s something about it that stuck with me. I learned a lot about prehistoric Aleutian life and about a culture that I have zero connection with, but still find fascinating. It’s a smooth read that is easy to get through and difficult to put down.

According to goodreads, I first read this book in 2008. It's why, when I first started reading my copy from netgalley, the book seemed so familiar to me. I wouldn't have requested it from netgalley if I had realized it was the exact same book I read years ago, but I didn't review it five years ago, so it doesn't hurt to reread and review now.

Mother Earth is a well written "prehistory" book - a time period I was fascinated by when I was a teenager / young adult. The dawn of time... dawn of civilization and of humanity, how can one not be intrigued?

Chagak's story is compelling, well written, well researched, and is the start of a series. There's a great cast of supporting characters, but not so many that you can't keep track of them (a pet peeve of mine in other series books).

It is important to note that this book is intended for young adults / teenagers - the plot is slower than Jean Auel's series, but it's supposed to be. I find this more readable and in the end, more likeable (even though I had originally forgotten that I had read this years ago).

7 Jahrtausende vor unserer Zeit

Mother Earth Father Sky is the first book in a trilogy that takes us into the lives of an ancient North American people in Alaska. If that sounds boring, don’t be fooled.

To be honest, I hardly know what to say about this book. At the writing of this review, having just finished reading it I’m barely back to the here-and-now, and the story of Chagak is still fresh in my mind. To say that Sue Harrison wrote an amazing prehistoric fiction novel scarcely describes what she masterfully accomplished. Over the course of nine years she studied, researched and lived in her creative mind the tale of a long ago culture in Alaska, focusing on one Aleut woman’s struggle to survive and overcome a very harsh reality. That woman, Chagak, lived in a primitive time consisting of warrior tribes, legends, crude customs, myths, and magic, but also love, family ties, and community. The author made it all come alive through the power of the written word in a very easy-to-read style. I was held from the beginning of this book to its last page – left wanting to read more about the people I had come to know.

This book is not newly released but was published in 1990. I was fortunate to be gifted a copy and I’m so glad to have received it. If you come across Mother Earth Father Sky and you are not offended by the cruel reality and graphic descriptions of the belief system of prehistoric man, then do grab the opportunity to read this book.

Love this when I was a teenager

This book starts in violence and then it seems to drag from there. The reader is introduced to K'os as she returns from following visitors to her village. They discover her and abuse her. She never really recovers - at least not inwardly. She returns to the scene to find a baby and she thinks he is a gift from the gods. He goes on to become her people's storyteller.

Now in a time of suppressed violence between tribes the storyteller is going to the neighboring tribe to marry the chief's daughter to cement peace. But his presence is the last thing that tribe wants and he is the last person to bring peace.

I didn't love this book as much as I loved Ms. Harrison's other book, Mother Earth Father Sky. It didn't draw me in the same way. The characters weren't as compelling to me. I found myself putting it down and going back to it. I do marvel at the research and attention to detail in the story and did find myself truly seeing the world Ms. Harrison created for her people.½

I have never really gotten into cave people historical fiction. Despite my love for the HF genre, and despite my majoring in Anthropology as an undergrad, I just have never been that drawn to prehistoric heroines. I suppose I've always suspected it would feel false: I'm impatient enough with Regency heroines being modern, so I'd inevitably hate my cave heroine, right?

Yeah, no. (And mostly because this book has a cave hero, not heroine, but even then, there was nothing for me to hate in this book!)

Set in 6th millennium BC in the southeastern part of Alaska, Harrison's novel opens brutally: K'os, a young girl, is assaulted by men of her tribe, and revenge and malice bury themselves in her. Days later, K'os finds an abandoned baby, perfect save for one malformed foot, and raises him. Chakliux, now grown up, is a gifted storyteller, rumored to be an animal-gift from the gods, part otter. His arranged marriage to a beautiful girl from another tribe is meant to cement peace between the two peoples, but in Shakespearean fashion, things shake out quite differently. By page 50, there have been murders, a family secret revealed, and inter-tribal treachery.

While Chakliux is one of the central characters to the story, there's actually a half dozen other players shaping the narrative, members of two tribes struggling to survive in the harsh Alaskan world, the balance of peace or war teetering. Against that great pressure is the more mundane challenges these tribes face: the fight for resources, tribal cohesion, desire for things versus real need (this mostly shakes out in terms of romantic/sexual partnerships -- everyone is yearning for someone else!).

In many ways, I reminded of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, which featured the many perilous ways sheep could die (among other plot dramas), and Harrison doesn't stint on the harsh details -- there's no romantic view of indigenous people here. The feel of the story is very family saga-ish, and I think those who enjoy that kind of sweeping narrative will like this one. There's a rather bittersweet end to the novel, more bitter than sweet, and I'm dying for the second book.

Despite the length (over 480 pages!), I found the narrative raced; even with the large-ish cast, I was able to keep everyone straight with a few quick notes (remembering who was married to whom, that kind of thing). This e-book has great extras: an Author's Notes which includes some information about her language choices and use of Native American words in the story; a 4-page glossary of Native American words; a map; and a 4-page Pharmacognosia, an annotated list of the plants mentioned in the novel.

Another great re-release by Open Road Media, and I'm looking forward to digging into the rest of Harrison's novels. Those who like Jean Auel's series might want to start this one as well as anyone who likes unusual historical fiction -- this is a place and era you don't often see!

Mother Earth Father Sky takes place in a time long ago but as you read it you wonder if people have changed all that much. It is centered in the area around the Aleutian Islands and involves a series of tribes living mostly in peace as they hunt seals, otters, and whales to survive and trade. The novel centers around a young woman, Chagak who was off gathering grasses and enjoying a peaceful, beautiful day when horror comes to her tribe. The balance of the story is how Chagak deals with the changes to her life and faces the new life she is forced to create for herself as she moves forward.

I have to say that I had a hard time putting this book down. It wasn't overly complex or written with a convoluted, suspense type plot. It was more the characters that drew me in and made me not want to leave their world. Chagak was strong; she had been deeply hurt by more than one incident and yet she kept striving forward. The Ivory Carver, whom she meets as she tries to escape the horror wrought upon her village was a fascinating man with much to share and he was a perfect balance to Chagak's force.

The research Ms. Harrison did was evident in the story and not in a lecturing way; more in the easy and smooth way that the information was woven into the details of the day to day lives of the people living at the time. I found myself more than once lost in time, thoroughly enjoying my visit to prehistoric "Alaska." I would love to go back and continue Chagak's story. It's a story that certainly enthralled me and I'm sure the two other books in the trilogy would be just as fascinating.

Her father wanted to kill her at birth because she was not a boy. Her Chieftan stepped in to claim her life for his son - who would need a wife one day.
Forced to name her, her father called her "Who?"

Now, young Kiin is on a journey to answer the question of her name...if she can survive it!

Very interesting book, I had no idea what this book was about and once I started it I had trouble putting in down until I was finished with it

Yksissä kansissa Isä taivas, Äiti maa, Sisar kuu ja Veli tuuli. Viihdyttävää paleohömppää vuodelta 8000 e.a.a.

Ambientada en las islas Aleutianas, alrededor del año 7.000 a.C., Madre Tierra, Padre Cielo narra la terrible peripecia de Chagak, una joven cuyo pueblo de cazadores es aniquilado por un grupo de invasores sanguinarios. Chagak se aventura al mar en una frágil embarcación. El destino la lleva al encuentro de Shuganan, un anciano que vive en soledad en una playa remota. Shuganan, que posee el don de tallar figuras humanas y animales y participa del poder de los espíritus, la acoge y protege. Sin embargo, muy pronto la tragedia vuelve a rondar la vida de Chagak: un joven y brutal cazador la posee por la fuerza y deja su simiente en las entrañas de la joven. Desesperados, Shuganan y Chagak cometen un acto extremo en defensa de sus vidas, sin imaginar las terribles consecuencias del mismo.