The Necromancer’s Daughter Book Tour: Day 7

Welcome to Day 7 of The Necromancer’s Daughter’s Book Tour!

I hope you enjoy:

~ A lovely community of bloggers. My hosts are bloggers who are always willing to lend a hand, share a laugh, and build a friendship.

~ My favorite book from my host’s list, along with my review.

~ Something to make you smile.

~ Something short and different about The Necromancer’s Daughter (follow the link below).

~ Leave a comment on my hosts’ sites, and your name will be entered in an end-of-tour drawing for a $50 Amazon gift certificate. The more tour sites, the more entries!

Day 7, here we go!

Jacqui Murray’s Blog: Word Dreams

Jacqui’s popular blog is a wonderful resource for writers. She’s a voracious reader and reviewer of indie books, and she posts all kinds of writing tips including technical solutions, genre information, and lists of descriptive words, to name a few.

She’s also a writer, and though she’s written modern-day suspense novels, she’s since found her niche in the fascinating genre of prehistoric fiction with trilogies taking place at 850,000 and 1.8 million years ago. Her research shines and the stories are nothing like anything I’ve read before. Needless to say, I’ve read all of her books!

I’m currently reading an advanced copy of Natural Selection (Dawn of Humanity, Book 3). Here’s my review of Book One and a great place to start:

Born in a Treacherous Time by Jacqui Murray

My Review: Move over Jean Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear) for Jacqui Murray. I went to bed right after dinner last night because I had to finish this book and would have stayed up all night to do it. What a fabulous read.

Born in a Treacherous Time takes place at the very start of mankind’s development – we are inventive, communal, thoughtful, emotional beings, but still deeply rooted in our animal origins, fully integrated into the harsh volcanic landscape and with the creatures who share our world. Survival is an ongoing challenge and hunger a constant companion. Overlaying the struggles of daily life is the threat of man-who-preys, the next generation of mankind.

The story follows Lucy (Woo-See) through a period of years. She’s a strong character, a healer, and a hunter who’s eager to learn new skills that make her an asset to her group as well as an outsider. There are a number of compelling characters, fully developed and distinct, with a wide range of personalities.

No doubt, Murray did her research, but so little is known about this time, that I’m certain she had to employ her imagination as well. The world-building is meticulous. Murray deftly presents a world as seen through the eyes of those who inhabit it. She created words (and hand signals) to describe the landscape based on the characters’ observations: “Night Sun” instead of moon, “Fire Mountain” instead of volcano. Her attention to creating a logical and detailed reality is stunning. I was honestly enthralled.

The world-building extends to characters as well, and I loved that none of them had “modern” sensibilities that would have tainted the story’s believability. No one is squeamish about raw food or bodily functions, and death is viewed as a natural occurrence. The characters have many of the natural abilities and acute senses of the animals living around them, yet unlike their animal cousins, their understanding of the world grows with each experience.

Best of all, as a reader I became quite attached to these primitive humans, empathizing with their struggles, losses, and choices. There is a depth of emotion, spirit of community, and generous nobility that stretches through the hundreds of thousands of years to our current lives. A captivating book that I recommend to any reader who enjoys adventures, exquisite world-building, or works of historical fiction and prehistory.

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