People of the Songtrail
by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal GearPublished on May 26th 2015
Pages: 352
On the shores of what is now northeastern Canada, a small group of intrepid settlers have landed, seeking freedom to worship and prosper far from the religious strife and political upheaval that plague a war-ridden Europe . . .
500 years before Columbus set sail.
While it has long been known that Viking ships explored the American coast, recent archaeological evidence suggests a far more vast and permanent settlement. It is from this evidence that archaeologists and early American history experts Kathy and Michael Gear weave their extraordinary tale.
I never know quite how to characterize the Gear books. Historical fiction with magic? Magical realism? Historical fantasy?
The authors are archeologists. They start with the archeological details of pre-Columbian American sites and build adventure stories from there. This book is set on the east coast of Canada during the time of the Vikings. A group of boats has sailed together from Greenland but were separated in a storm. They make landfall up and down the coast. The different groups have different experiences of contact with the Native Americans.
There have been Viking raids previously. The Native Americans are rightly hostile to any landing on the shore. Children have previously been taken as slaves. These slaves have taught a few Vikings the language so they have translators. One group talks to the Native Americans. Another sets off a massacre of a village.
Now one boat with a judge on board tries to convince the Native Americans to trust him to deliver justice to them for the crimes committed against them. Yeah, I wouldn’t have believed him either.
This isn’t my favorite of their books. There is so much going on that it is hard to focus on a main plot. There are political dealings in Scandinavia and England. There is a Danish witch and a Native American spirit worker getting together to fight the bad guys. There is fighting among the Vikings.
I think I would have liked this one more with a little more historical detail and less magic. Those aren’t words that I say very often. I was interested in how these groups of people interacted. With all the magic flying around I knew that it didn’t go like that in real life. No one was resurrecting people by riding into the afterlife on eight legged horses.
Read this one if you are in the mood for a historical fantasy that compares and contrasts Native American and Scandinavian spirituality and mythology. Look elsewhere if you want to know what really happened.
