Summer Light (Novel of Ancient Alaska) - Softcover

Guttenberg, Elyse

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0999204939 ISBN 13: 9780999204931

Publisher: Murphy Dome Press, 2018

Synopsis

A novel of life in Ancient Alaska, Book One.On the frozen shores of Alaska’s distant past, a young woman yearns to be a shaman.From award winning Alaskan author Elyse Guttenberg comes SUMMER LIGHT a pre-history alive with the magic that was abundant when time was new.Spirit Singer and Shaman. Elik was not like the others. She could not sew a seal skin with the tiny stitches that would make a kayak watertight. She could not set a trap as silently as drifting snow. Or throw the weighted strands of a bola into a flock of birds, or predict the weather. But this she could do: She could sing the Spirit Songs, almost like a shaman.This was a high calling for a young woman born into a poor family with a selfish father and Elik longs for the chance to prove herself. The Real People lived in a world of myth and magic, hunger, enemies and danger. A world where every animal and stone spoke to those who knew how to listen.Desired by a powerful shaman and in love with a stranger cast out of his home, Elik fights for a way to save her people and reach her destiny. But will the old shaman relinquish his claim? Will the spirits reveal their secrets? Revised and re-issued by the author, summer 2017. This book includes an Author’s Note highlighting research into the archaeology of the period around 100 B.C. plus accounts of the earliest ethnographers in Alaska and a brief non-fiction reading list. Also included is a preview from the sequel, DAUGHTER OF THE SHAMAN, A NOVEL OF ANCIENT ALASKA, BOOK 2.Elyse Guttenberg’s first novel, SUNDER, ECLIPSE and SEED, was shortlisted for Best First Fantasy by the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE FANTASTIC IN THE ARTS. She is the recipient of an Alaska State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Literature.Guttenberg’s attention to detail and lyric writing is remarkable for a historical novel with a setting 2000 years ago.“Summer Light is excellent, authentic and beautifully written. Reading it is a wonderful experience.” Sue Harrison, author of Mother Earth, Father Sky, and My Sister the Moon."Move over Jean Auel. There's a bright new entry in the prehistoric-fiction genre, and it's great." Alaska Magazine"Guttenberg creates a world based on the Paleo-Eskimo cultures of Alaska between 100 BCE and 500 CE and a young woman whose skills are less for sewing sealskin and setting trap than for singing the spirit songs. Guttenberg... includes a fascinating afterward about her research, which ranged from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, where she lives, to the Arctic ice fields." Feminist Bookstore NewsWatch for the sequel DAUGHTER OF THE SHAMAN, coming in paperback and eBook versions, 2018.

About this title

About the Author:

Elyse Guttenberg is an award winning Alaskan Author. She writes by day and at night wields her chain saw on 20 acres of discontinuous permafrost in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is the recipient of an Alaska State Council on the Arts Individual Fellowship in Literature and an Artists Initiative Award. Her first novel Sunder, Eclipse and Seed was shortlisted for the Crawford award for best first novel by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Summer Light and Daughter of the Shaman are Alaskan prehistories. Other work appears in The Women’s Press Book of New Myth and Magic; Spaceships and Spells; Faces of Fantasy, About Place Journal and other publications. With Jean Anderson, she is the editor of Inroads, an Anthology of Writing by Alaska’s Fellowship Writers.

Review:

"Anyone interested in Alaska's Natives will find much tolike in this book, and anyone intereated in good, factually correct fiction will find it irresistible." -- Alaska Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Murphy Dome Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0999204939
• ISBN 13: 9780999204931
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384