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guido_the_nature_guide 's review for:
Shaman
by Kim Stanley Robinson
An average rating for an average book. It starts strong with the "wander" of its protagonist, a late (Upper) paleolithic adolescent boy named Loon, a right of passage in which the young man must spend a fortnight in the wilderness, literally naked and alone. Upon his return to his clan, the book drops into neutral and never changes gear. I would compare it to driving across Nebraska with cruise control set five miles below the speed limit. Everything is conveyed too dispassionately. The only character I could work up any emotion for was the "old one" (presumably a neanderthal), whose entire vocabulary consists of "roop roop" and "tank oo". The use of modern profanities and lengthy adolescent sexual reveries I found a bit jarring. The setting is a late glacial period in southwestern Europe, possibly at Lascaux, although I could not match the geographical descriptions and rough distances to a contemporary map; I understand that the road signs may have changed somewhat in the last 30,000 years.