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jessicajernigan 's review for:
Shaman
by Kim Stanley Robinson
There's no point in avoiding a reference to Clan of the Cave Bear, so here it is: This book definitely offers some of the same pleasures, while being a very different book. Shaman has a sense of humor and lightness that Jean M. Auel's narrative lacks, and, while this makes for an easier entertainment, it also makes for a book that feels slight and that didn't pull me in quite the way Clan of the Cave Bear did. I enjoyed Shaman, but I didn't inhabit it.
Also, this book would have benefited mightily from an editor wielding an ice ax. I skimmed vast swathes, especially towards the middle. The fact that I didn't give up entirely is some sort of testament to the novel's charms.
I'm sure specialists of various kinds would be driven mad by many of Robinson's choices, but he creates a world that's plausible enough for general readers. And I'll just add that Auel's decision to have Homo sapiens and Neanderthals encounter each other and even interbreed no longer seems dubious. Science has caught up with fiction on that one.
Also, this book would have benefited mightily from an editor wielding an ice ax. I skimmed vast swathes, especially towards the middle. The fact that I didn't give up entirely is some sort of testament to the novel's charms.
I'm sure specialists of various kinds would be driven mad by many of Robinson's choices, but he creates a world that's plausible enough for general readers. And I'll just add that Auel's decision to have Homo sapiens and Neanderthals encounter each other and even interbreed no longer seems dubious. Science has caught up with fiction on that one.