Shaman

by Kim Stanley Robinson

Paperback, 2014

Call number

SPEC FICT ROB

Publication

Orbit (2014), Edition: Reprint, 480 pages

Description

A saga of life thirty thousand years ago during the Ice Age depicts the lives of the shaman Thorn, an outsider named Elga, and Loon, the next shaman, who is struggling to find his own path in a treacherous and uncertain world.

Media reviews

This detailed study of where we came from, including our rivalry with our Neanderthal predecessors, offers insight into who we are, wrapped in a fascinating tale about a boy coming into manhood.

User reviews

LibraryThing member cdogzilla
Love it unreservedly.

There's a passage in "The Gold Coast" where Jim and his friends try to imagine, generation by generation, a rough sketch of the lives of the inhabitants of a Greek island, ticking off with each leap back in time who they would've been governed by, the language the inhabitants
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would've spoken, until the arrive at roughly the time the island would've first been inhabited by a group of friends and their families, spreading out from the village where they would've been born to make a living together on a likely looking patch of land where they could imagine making it work. That passage has stuck with me through the years and this novel is almost like an extended riff on the idea -- imagining how the earliest humans would've found a place to eek out a living and increased their numbers until there was a little group ready to break away and make a go of it a little further upriver, or in the next valley over, keeping ties (here: sharing a shaman who's just come of age), but creating a new village. Near the dawn of humanity, when homo sapiens and neanderthals lived side-by side, this story feels more than possible; sure, it's imagined history, speculation, extrapolation, poetic license taken, and yet knowing that we still feel like Stan has told it way that it had to be so.

There are other notes hit here that strike me as mining some of the same rich vein as "The Gold Coast," which, in case it's not obvious, is one of my favorite of Mr. Robinson's novels, if not my favorite. Loon may not be a pre-historic Jim McPherson, but he's not far off. Loon's relationship to Sage and then Elga doesn't map precisely to that of Jim to Virginia Novello and Hana Steentoft but it's another echo.

But this is by no means of pastiche or just a re-shuffling of elements we've seen before. It's beautiful, and haunting, and epic (in a way, but small and deeply personal, too), and tense, and earthy and gross, and spiritual, and it stands alone.

If the storyteller is our shaman, then in the parlance of this novel, we have a good shaman. (Which is just another way to say this is a beautiful story well-told.)
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LibraryThing member timjones
I had a hard time rating this book - the second half was grippingly interesting, but after a strong beginning, the first half didn't always hold my attention. However, the good bits are so good that I felt they justified a high rating for the novel as a whole.

"Shaman" is structured as a classic
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coming-of-age story: the character coming of age in this case being Loon, a teenager who is being trained as a shaman, mostly against his wishes, for his Ice Age tribe. The key events in the story are two journeys Loon undertakes - the first provides the strong beginning, and the second triggers off a second half to the book that is both exciting and moving.

Kim Stanley Robinson's great strength as a writer can also be his chief weakness: he knows and loves his material so well that he sometimes clogs up the story with it. At times, that happens in the first part of the story - and unlike his Mars books, in which I will happily read any amount of exposition because the material is so interesting to me, I didn't always find the raw material of this novel as interesting. But with that reservation, I recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in prehistory, KSR's work, or a good story.
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LibraryThing member AlanPoulter
Well, on the good side, the first section of this novel is excellent. Loon, the central character, is left out at night, naked in the rain, at a distance from his tribe, on his 'Wander', his initiation. His trials and and tribulations are minutely and accurately described. As the author is a keen
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outdoors man (see many of his other novels) this is convincing. And there is a powerful twist.

If the story had stopped there, it would have been a great piece of short fiction. But it continues with lots more wilderness survival lore, a romance with a girl from another tribe, some reaching out to Neanderthals, introduced earlier as enemies, but now revealed as fellow travelers on the hard path of life, and more. As to being science fiction, the "technology level" described is scratching a living rather than anything grander. This does not work for me.
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LibraryThing member LancasterWays
There are no dragons in Kim Stanley Robinson's ice age novel Shaman. There are no elves, no spaceships, no magic. Rather, Robinson achieves the fantastic by showing the reader that's what old is fresh, and what's new is timeless. The magic of Shaman is found in humanity's quest for continuity and
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meaning.

Shaman is set during the ice age, and its premise is simple: a boy, Loon, is apprenticed to his tribe's shaman, Thorn. Loon reluctantly pursues the shaman's path and grows into a man. There are a lot of animals and trees.

The story works. Shaman begins with Loon's "wander," his initiation into manhood through two weeks of solitary living in the wilderness. It's not giving anything away to say that he succeeds. Loon's wander is a life-altering experience, a rite that will shape the rest of his life. Just weeks after his return, Loon watches his tribe from a hilltop and wishes that he could have stayed on his wander "forever," rather than hearing his people say the same things over and over again.
Robinson successfully captures a sense of what life might have been like for our ancient ancestors. He describes the various tasks that took up their days, mostly oriented around gathering sufficient food for survival. Processes like painting or crafting snowshoes are described in minute detail. Rather than boring the reader, though, these discourses demonstrate the boundless potential for creativity shared by all people, ancient and modern.

Robinson makes evident that there is a connection between humanity's past and its present. Loon's maturation reveals a process of discovery common to all people across time. Loon defies his elders, he enjoys first love, he starts a family. Though for humanity as a whole all is old, the individual experiences things anew. It is the duty of people to pass their knowledge on to the young, as Thorn makes clear to his apprentice.

Nature figures prominently in the book, of course. Robinson lavishes great detail on the landscape and weather, influences from which modern people have insulated themselves, but which were matters of survival for ancient humans. Animals are almost characters in their own right, perceived as brothers and sisters by the men who hunt them. "Thank you!" the hunters cry after making a kill. Loon interprets as a blessing the siting of a horse at the end of his wander. Here are people in tune with the land.

What according to Robinson is the nature of shamanism? It is not spirit quests or dancing or chanting. Rather, shamans are people who take upon themselves the role of storyteller. By constructing narratives, shamans pass knowledge on to their people. They ensure the continuity of the human experience. They make meaning. In that sense, Kim Stanley Robinson is a shaman.

Shaman is a wonderful book. Robinson provides great detail about the natural world and the lives of ancient people. There is no (or very little) magic or mystery here; Shaman is about the wonder to be found in very real human experience. Some readers may be put off by the level of detail or pacing in some parts; try to persevere.
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LibraryThing member FarmerNick
Interesting book set in pre-history of the life a shaman. Not classic science fiction. Sort of in the vein of Jane M. Aurel, but with a more modern sense of prehistory and a little less "he just ended up inventing everything we know and use today.' It was a little fustrating that the culture was so
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understandable. I think that there should have been a little bit more shock in the culture shock afforded by so much time elapsing since the setting of the story.
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LibraryThing member TheLostEntwife
Let's talk about survival for a moment before I get into this review of Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson. No, I'm not talking about the reality television show - I'm talking about honest-to-goodness survival. Think about this scenario. You are a young man or woman, it's freezing cold - arctic even,
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you have no supplies, no clothing, no anything - just you and your naked body. Now, take that image and place it in the middle of the wilderness where you have to survive until the brand new moon has reached its full point. Do you have that image placed firmly in your mind? If you have absolutely no idea what you would do in such a situation then you need to pick this book up and find out how Loon, the protagonist of Shaman, copes with that impossible situation.

Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Oct. 4, 2013.
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LibraryThing member capiam1234
i really enjoyed the first half. The description of a day in the life back then was perfect. The length of various parts did concern me though and a third of the way to go it started to weigh heavily with traces of boredom, and I hated myself for this because I really wanted to love this story. The
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problem perhaps is that this should have been more a novella rather than a full novel. If it was just a tad shorter some of the parts wouldn't be as boreing.
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LibraryThing member stellarexplorer
It may not be as inventive as 2312 or as well imagined as the Mars Trilogy -- in fact it's not SF, it's a novel set in the Paleolithic Era -- but it has heart. Not worth citing the inevitable quibbles: it's a good tale, with likeable characters that matter. Worth a read. If you like KSR's writing,
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I suspect you'll like this.
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LibraryThing member dougb56586
The story of a boy named Loon growing up in the last Ice Age. The location might be Europe or Asia – my limited knowledge of geography prevents me from recognizing the clues that the author probably provided. The story begins with the boy's initiation into a life as the tribe Shaman as he his
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sent out on his “wandering” in which he must survive on his own for several weeks before returning to his tribe. This was the most interesting part to me because the pace was much quicker than later. But the writing is very good throughout the book, and a lot happens after the first section. The pace is just a little slower for the most part. The book is a very believable and creative recreation of what life might have been like in the Stone Age. The people are shown to be similar to people today, but living under conditions in which day-to-day survival is uncertain. Preparing for and surviving the long, cold winters is the focus of much of their energy. Neanderthals (called “the old ones”) and Homo Sapiens coexist, but due to inability of most to learn each other's language, interaction is limited. There is some tolerance and cooperation between the two species, but also a lot mistrust. Loon is the narrator most of the time. Once in a while, his “spirit” or what today would be called his subconscious, speaks to the reader directly. There are also a few short diversions told from an animal's point of view. This was done convincingly (in my opinion) and helped emphasized that this was pre-civilization, and the psychic distance between humans and the rest of nature was much less than it is today with Civilized Man. My only complaint is that sometimes the author dwelled too much on the details of Stone Age life, and in those parts the story seems to crawl along. But overall, it is a very good book. This book could appeal to Young Adults, at least the theme. However, the sexual content, which seemed appropriate to the story, might be such that the book can't be considered YA literature.
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LibraryThing member iansales
I originally intended this to be part of my Hugo reading, but I never got around to it at the time – not that it seems to have made any difference, anyway. And, to be fair, it would be stretching the definitions of science fiction and fantasy both past breaking point to categorise this book as
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either. It’s a year in the life of a twelve-year-old boy – a near-adult – in Europe some 32,000 years ago. The story was apparently inspired by the paintings in the Chauvet Cave, as filmed by Werner Herzog in his Cave Of Forgotten Dreams. I was mostly carried along by the story, although on occasion it didn’t quite convince. The Neanderthals were good, though.
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LibraryThing member seabear
Best airport book I've read for ages. I finished the opening passage just as the plane lifted off and it was quite fitting. Wow! (no spoilers). The book is about a Palaeolithic man (destined to become a sha-man) and his tribe and their life, basically. There are some dramatic plot points, but
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definitely no melodrama. Overall the writing felt alive to me. That sounds weird, but the author's words definitely made me feel the experience of being a human in the wild, with those particular focuses on food, duty, sex, the future, fear, and uncertainty, and pain. All very human things.

For me the Neanderthal thing was a nice addition, but far from the main point of the story, which I felt was about drawing the common ground between the experience of being a human in the Palaeolithic, and a human now. It's easy to read accounts of early humans and feel the foreign-ness of it, but this book slams home the commonality of it. They were modern humans too -- not just LIKE us, but they WERE us.
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LibraryThing member nmele
I probably missed some, but this is the first book I've read in a long time that deals with characters from pre-history, a sub-genre that stretches back at least to Jack London. Robinson's characters, geography and ecology are all wuite plausible and engaging. HHe even makes knapping stones sound
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relatively easy.
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LibraryThing member ecurb
The first third of this book was great, it was well paced and interesting.
I felt the ending two thirds were lacking both in story and pace. Overall I would like Robinson to return to this story line with another book
LibraryThing member Mithril
Evocative but long narration. Beautifully written but not for the harried.
LibraryThing member Pmaurer
Not nearly as interesting as the Jean Auel "Clan" tales of prehistoric life. Tedious passages of the young boy (Loon) being led by his mentor/adopted father (Thorn)and shown the ways of becoming a shaman.
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
Had to skip through this detailed account of life in the stone age. Written well but wallowing in detail does not necessarily make a narrative more interesting. And regular comments on 'spurting' from a penis does not make it more grown up. And two or three vague references to the narrator
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inhabiting and controlling the main character is not very illuminating either. Self indulgent of the author.
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LibraryThing member ajlewis2
I listened to the audiobook and I think that made this book more enjoyable than it would have been in print. The narrator set a fitting tone and brought out the nature of the various characters. I especially liked his presentation of "the third wind" and Heather, the medicine woman. The story goes
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very slowly. It is rich in description and the usual activities and short on fast-paced action. There is a LOT of emphasis on sexual organs which so many things in nature seem to remind people of, especially our main character. There is a bit of rather explicit sex, but it's not overly done in my opinion. I kept remembering that this main character is a teenage boy though this is easily forgotten as he rapidly takes his place as a man. The book gives us a feel for how life might have been back then with hunting, dealing with snow, medicine, and social interactions and activities. It is very realistic and seems to have been researched well. I enjoyed the sense of being immersed in the life and thinking of these people who lived more exposed to the environment and who felt more a part of it.

I have read Auel's series beginning with _Clan of the Cave Bear_. To me, this book is not as good as her work. Comparing her first book to this one, I see the progression of her Neanderthal Shaman into those of Homo sapiens. We see the two species interact in this book as well.
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LibraryThing member Ron18
I really liked the idea of the book, and was excited to see how KSR executed it. The book itself would probably have been good if it were about 40% shorter. The padding was painful to read - almost like it was designed to be skimmed. I hope this wasn't bowing to a page count requirement, or some
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other lame art-sapping motive. The story at its heart was good. There were definitely areas of interest, though these were far outnumbered by predictable elements that were buried in pages upon pages of irrelevant repetitive description. The highlight is probably the bit of adventure around 60% in.
I chose this book as my introduction to Robinson - feeling that the Mars books would feel like a bigger commitment. I'm afraid it will be a while before I read him again, because this outing - while not bad - just wasn't quite worth the time it took to read it.
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LibraryThing member vladmihaisima
Fantasy about the life in the ice age. Tracks the adventures of a human, starting from his initiation rites, to finding and keeping a partner, to taking the place of the old shaman. There a lot of details about what the daily life must have been back then and we get the point of view of the
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character thoughts. The charm of the story comes from all the things that are missing as they are not yet present in the world at that time. This still does not diminish in any way the humanity of the characters and the fact that you end up caring for them.
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LibraryThing member PDCRead
Having made his mark in science fiction Robinson is now writing historical fiction. I have read Galileo's Dream before, which i really enjoyed, so was looking forward to this one.

This story is set in Palaeolithic times, when the glaciers set the northern boundary and is centred around a character
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called Loon, a 12 year old, learning to be a Shaman, and his small tribe of twenty of so people. At the very beginning he is set off on his 'wander' where he is released naked and has to rely on his training an intuition to survive for a number of days; part of the training of becoming a Shaman. He survives, and his training progresses.

At a meeting of tribes he meets with girl, who returns with him to his tribe where they marry. At the next gathering she is snatched back by her tribe and Loon follows. He is captured and is taken back to be used sa a slave. His mentor Thorn decides to try a rescue of Loon and Hega from the tribe.

Overall the story isn't too bad. It has reasonably well formed characters and moderate plot development. Robinson manages to convey really well just how tough it was for humans then, and just how close to starvation that they were on a regular basis. Where the book failed for me was the dialogue. Whilst humans have been capable of complex communication for thousands of years it seems like the dialogue was from the middle ages at times. Closer to 2.5 stars; and didn't take long to read.
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LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
Had to skip through this detailed account of life in the stone age. Written well but wallowing in detail does not necessarily make a narrative more interesting. And regular comments on 'spurting' from a penis does not make it more grown up. And two or three vague references to the narrator
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inhabiting and controlling the main character is not very illuminating either. Self indulgent of the author.
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LibraryThing member Book-Dragon1952
This novel takes place thirty thousand years ago during the ice age. We follow the tale of Loon and his pack trying to survive the very harsh environment of the ice age. He is destined to be the pack's next Shaman, or Medicine Man. This is not a position he wants, but has no real say about his
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place in the pack. As he matures and learns the knowledge from the old Shaman, he marries, has children, and looks to invent new and better ways to make life easier for his people. This was a long story and at times difficult to read because of the many hardships involved in that primitive era. It was a slow read in the beginning, but the pace picked from the middle to the end. I would give this novel 3 stars.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
A window into the ancient world. Slow paced, but the story draws you ever onward.

Awards

Audie Award (Finalist — Science Fiction — 2014)
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2014)

Pages

480

ISBN

0316098086 / 9780316098083
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