Shaman Audiobook By Kim Stanley Robinson cover art

Shaman

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Shaman

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
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Audie Award Finalist, Science Fiction, 2014

There is Thorn, a shaman himself. He lives to pass down his wisdom and his stories - to teach those who would follow in his footsteps. There is Heather, the healer who, in many ways, holds the clan together. There is Elga, an outsider and the bringer of change. And then there is Loon, the next shaman, who is determined to find his own path. But in a world so treacherous, that journey is never simple - and where it may lead is never certain.

Shaman is a powerful, thrilling and heart-breaking story of one young man's journey into adulthood - and an awe-inspiring vision of how we lived 30,000 years ago.

©2013 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2013 Hachette Audio Contemporary Fantasy Fiction Historical Fiction Paranormal & Urban Shamanism Paranormal Heartfelt Thought-Provoking
Immersive Worldbuilding • Authentic Historical Details • Masterful Narration • Emotional Depth • Vivid Descriptions
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I admit, I almost didn't finish listening to Shaman. The first third of the book is very slow-going. Hours of description, both of the exterior world and Loon's thoughts about his environment and his body (ahem), almost defeated me. It was kind of like hanging around a thirteen year-old who has one topic of discussion: him or herself. For hours.

But, I slogged on and by the break between parts one and two, you couldn't have pried my iPod out of my clutching fingers. I was hooked. This is not a fast read, but it is good - if you can make it that far.

Recommend.

Slow until it gets you!

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takes awhile to get into, but we'll worth it
highly recommend 8th you enjoyed mats stores

great story, first time I enjoyed nature writing,

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If you could sum up Shaman in three words, what would they be?

Garden of Eden

Any additional comments?

Robinson is a master of fleshing out a world as it evolves through time. I have read some of his future histories such as the Mars trilogy and enjoyed them. Shaman takes us back to some period before history began and illuminates it with a realism that is engaging and rewarding.

Historical fiction

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Readers are split on this book, and I understand why. I am an armchair naturalist/zoologist/anthropologist, recently back from our third trip to Africa, which we find mesmerizing on so many levels. This book reads like immersing oneself in a similarly exotic (for us) place, its people, it’s history, it’s geography, it’s climate, etc. And while Shaman is located in a time and place that is totally alien, it feels like home in so many ways. But it’s not a “page turner,” with complex character development and surprise twists. It is a work of prehistoric fiction with characters whose life is agonizingly simple and repetitive, with very basic annual cycles that reflect the simplicity of their lives: stay alive. Store enough food to make it through winter/spring until the animals emerge or return and the plants and herbs grow from the emerging landscape. Avoid being eaten. Avoid being enslaved by other tribes. Live to have children, and hope to live to the ripe old age of 40. Along the way relationships form (some very odd), and change. There’s the coming of age of one character and the slow decline of another. There is inter-tribe politics. And while it is all very simplistic, it foreshadows life in our own culture. Perhaps “thin gruel” for some, but I couldn’t put it down.

The narrator might drive some crazy, with an unchanging cadence. But it is a masterful piece of weaving the story together, in that it perfectly matches the reality of life: there are few surprises in life, and there’s not much people can do about it. Life comes, people prosper one year, freeze or starve or both the next. People have children, pass along what knowledge they can, and die, from starvation or exposure or other violence from other tribes or old age.

I loved it. And if you are new to Kim Stanley Robinson, as I was until recently, don’t miss “Ministry for the Future,” set in the future rather than the past, and wholly engrossing.

Spellbinding

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It’s not a story I expected based on the title. It’s an interesting historical fiction story and I enjoyed it. I was interested in a stronger emphasis on a shaman’s journey among the pack but the story is broader than that.

Not a story about shamanism, though a good story

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what was it like to be a shaman in a Stone age society during an ice age? this book gives some interesting insights and is quite an exciting read at times

interesting look into stone age society

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Robinson has made a very empathetic depiction of life in the Stone Age by modern humans, alongside the remnants of older variants of humanity like Neanderthals. Animals are seen as brothers and sisters of Mother Earth. Very concrete examples of survival techniques are explored. There’s even a compelling plot to keep it all moving.
If you like a bit of nonfiction mixed in with your fiction, and if you enjoy the genre, you should enjoy this novel.

Amazing look at survival in the Stone Age

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I had almost given up on Kim Stanley Robinson. Although I love the Mars Trilogy (warts and all), his subsequent work seems to have degenerated as his brilliant ideas are too often let down by plotless pontificating and lengthy passages that read as though he is typing up his research notes. After the execrable disappointment of "2312", I had sworn off him.

But the good reviews of Shaman made me take a risk - and it is indeed wonderful, one of the best things Robinson's done in a long time. Although this is not a book with a lot of plot, and much of the writing is clearly based on immense amounts of research, the structure is clear and focused, and the descriptive writing is always clearly tied to developing the relationships between the characters. The novel plunges you into an alien world and all the myriad details serve toward making that world feel intensely real. And the central relationship of Loon and Thorn is a sensitive and moving depiction of the value of passing on knowledge.

Having read other attempts at depicting this period - "Clan of the Cave Bear" and "The Inheritors", I found this one by far the most convincing and absorbing. I particularly liked the way Robinson rendered the Neanderthal character - he's succeeded in creating a figure that is intelligent and humane and yet not *quite* human.

I recommend that readers watch Werner Herzog's documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" before reading, as the book is clearly inspired by it and it will enrich the cave-painting scenes.

The narrator is so good and makes the novel flow so effortlessly that I cannot thing of anything to say about him - the highest compliment possible!

Wonderful

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a Spring Break treat and a wonderful meditation on what life may have been like 30,000 years ago. Listening for a second time, few years since the last, I could still feel the hopelessness of that fateful trek home. Well done by both author and narrator.

Loved it the second time too...

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This is a beautiful and powerful story. long details swirl around years, presenting images of humanities past from 30,000 years ago.

A beautiful powerful story

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