Here is a video from Best Selling author Herbie Brennan on the "3rd kind of magic" of which I spoke in my last post. This type of magic will only be alluded to in the stories, and it will be left entirely up to the reader whether real magic or the belief in superstition is being portrayed. However, there is much evidence of the things of which Herbie speaks, and it is by no means limited to only eye-witness accounts. More on that later.
This is a better than average cartoon skit by an artist who has been doing Caveman Comics from the same series for over 15 years. I know you'll enjoy THIS!!
Here's a neat little animated cave man film I thought you prehistorians might like- innacurate but funny as all gittout of course. Just click the thumbnail of the cartoon at the bottom left of the following site:
Elmer Fudd in the Ice Age?
Shiva by Herbie Brennan
In this one book for young adults, Herbie Brennan melds the genres of fantasy and prehistoric fiction with a skillful pen. Unlike other works in the prehistoric fiction genre, this book does not forget that character developement, imagination, and an original plot line are even more important than the relation of theories on prehistoric culture. Though Brennan takes great care to make the society of the Cro-Magnon's realistic and believable to even those who are familiar with current archeological and anthropological knowledge, he does not dwell needlessly on the exact minutaie of every little action that his characters take (like Aule and others do), and hence his work is much more enjoyable.
It is true that his portrayal of the ogre-neanderthals is somewhat dated (they are stooped, hairy, and at least as tall as the Cro-Magnons), but his characterization of them is profound. Unlike many other writers in the genre, he recognizes the fact that neanderthals were several times as strong and powerful as Cro-Magnons, and had an equal though alien intelligence.
His descriptions of the wild and barbaric Ogre Chief Thag are some of the most exciting reading I have enjoyed in years. Thag is probably a bit dumber than any neanderthal chief that ever lived, seeing as how they had bigger brains than any living human. But still the characterization of him is highly articulate and well thought out. The interaction between this leader and his mate makes for fascinating reading, and Brennan does a great job of empowering his female characters in a believable way without turning them into scantily clad superhuman warrior women.
The growth that Shiva goes through is also quite well crafted, and during the course of the 180 or so pages you actually feel like you've gotten to know her, as well as her friend Hiram and the ogre boy Doban (though he almost never talks, the boy comes strikingly to life through Brennan's vivid descriptions).
At the end of the book there is an Epilogue in which Brennan conveys that his descriptions of Neanderthals are somewhat out of date, and suggests that his ogres are more like "Ginganthropithecus" than neanderthals. He states that ogre legends come from encounters with real creatures, but that he now believes that they weren't neanderthals but probably an earlier form of hominid or man-ape. I disagree; though neanderthals weren't as primitive as they were being portrayed by science at the time of the writing of this book, they were still very much like the descriptions of ogres, trolls, and Norse dwarves in ancient legends. Their faces and heads were totally alien to us and most likely very ugly to us, they were shorter than us, and they were much stronger. They were also more primitive than cro-magnon, though they did indeed have a superior technology to the ogres in this book. I think it's highly probable that this race was indeed the impetus for troll and ogre legends, and I've thought so for a long time. It's a shame that I had to search so long for a book that allowed me to know that someone else in the world is thinking along these same lines.
There are speculative aspects of the novel which almost threw me off at first, for instance the role of women in the tribes of cro-magnon (though women were definitely reverred in cro-magnon society and maybe even the leaders, it's hard to believe that they were ever war chiefs, given that sexual dimorphism was even more profound then than it is now)or the idea that cro-magnon couldn't visualize well but neanderthal could (interesting but hard to justify), Brennan gets props for experimenting with the genre while relating plausible theories without becoming to scholastic in the telling.
In fact, Brennan's refusal to write in an academic, politically correct way helps to make this the best prehistoric fiction book that I have ever read, despite its flaws (and I've read alot of prehistoric fiction books; ALL of the bestselling ones I might add).
He doesn't settle for a generic, safe, and unimaginative term like "The Others" when describing the races, and he gives real names to his culture's gods (instead of Bear or Wolf or something simple and patronizing like that).
I do wonder why prehistoric authors insist on such clarification as calling a knife a "flint" knife (a fantasy or western writer isn't predisposed to put the adjective "steel" or "bronze" before the word "knife" each and every time he spells it), but this is a matter of personal preference and I've noticed that ALL prehistoric writers tend to do it. My dislike of the practice has more to do with the way I myself would like to present prehistoric fiction than with the merits of the authors. I also dislike using the word "chief" when talking of primitive leaders. The Hobbit's goblins were every bit as primitive as Brennan's "ogres," or Aule's Neanderthals, and yet Tolkien gets away with having a Goblin King instead of a Goblin Chief. If goblins can have Kings, why can't native americans........ and even neanderthals? I mention this to remind readers that the perseption is often influenced by the way the object is presented. Before Columbus found the Native Americans, the word "chief" did not possess the primitive connotation that almost everyone now associates with it.
All in all Brennan has written the most exciting and intriguing prehistoric fiction book to date, and I can't wait to read the others in the series. It is an absolute shame that these books are out of print.
An especially superior example of Brennan's writing talent is the chapter entitled "The Crone." Here Brennan proves himself as a master of suspense and artful writing, and I will be reading it over many times to glean the secrets of the craft.
