action and adventure | Myths of the Mirror

Jacqui Murray has a new book on the shelves. I’m a huge fan of her Prehistoric fiction, and my review is below. You did it again, Jacqui, transported me back in time 1.8 million years.

A boy blinded by fire. A woman raised by wolves. An avowed enemy offers help.

Summary

In this second of the Dawn of Humanity trilogy, the first trilogy in the Man vs. Nature saga, Lucy and her eclectic group escape the treacherous tribe that has been hunting them and find a safe haven in the famous Wonderwerk caves in South Africa. Though they don’t know it, they will be the oldest known occupation of caves by humans. They don’t have clothing, fire, or weapons, but the caves keep them warm and food is plentiful. But they can’t stay, not with the rest of the tribe enslaved by an enemy. To free them requires not only the prodigious skills of Lucy’s unique group–which includes a proto-wolf and a female raised by the pack–but others who have no reason to assist her and instinct tells Lucy she shouldn’t trust.

Set 1.8 million years ago in Africa, Lucy and her tribe struggle against the harsh reality of a world ruled by nature, where predators stalk them and a violent new species of man threatens to destroy their world. Only by changing can they prevail. If you ever wondered how earliest man survived but couldn’t get through the academic discussions, this book is for you. Prepare to see this violent and beautiful world in a way you never imagined.

A perfect book for fans of Jean Auel and the Gears!

My Review

I read the first book in this series a while ago, and it was great to travel back in time again (1.8 million years to be exact) and catch up with Lucy and her group of primitive humans. This book starts where the last left off, so I’d recommend beginning the series with book one, Born in a Treacherous Time, which blew me away, btw.

What I’ve enjoyed most about Murray’s prehistoric fiction has been consistent across her trilogies—the way she brings the time period to life with some meticulous research and well-educated guessing. The characters and their lives are fictional, but the primordial setting, the prehistoric human and animal species, migration patterns, and anthropological details about life had me fascinated.

The plot of this installment isn’t complicated. Lucy and her small group of “Man-who-makes-tools” are searching for a home-base after their larger group was attacked by “Man-who-preys.” They face natures challenges in a number of forms: freezing tempertures, seismic Earth changes, treacherous landscapes, animal predators, aggressive tribes, and hunger. Survival is a daily struggle.

The story is primarily in Lucy’s point of view, but there are two parallel tracks told by other characters: Ahnda, a subadult from Lucy’s original group who has escaped captivity, and Xha, one of the “Man-who-preys” who is tracking Lucy as she searches for a safe home. A later addition to the pov characters is a female named Wild who was raised by the large canines (Canus) of the time.

One of the clever aspects of the storytelling is the way Murray’s characters view, think about, and describe their world without a scientific and conceptual understanding of what they’re seeing. Naming, as you might have noticed in this review, is descriptive based on what is observed and learned through experience. Details such as these are immersive.

Book Two comes to a partial conclusion, but the books aren’t standalone reads, and the hunt for a home-base continues. Highly recommended to readers of prehistoric fiction who enjoy man versus nature stories and descriptive details that transport a reader back in time.

Book information:

Title and author: Laws of Nature

Series: Book 2 in the Dawn of Humanity series

Genre: Prehistoric fiction

Editor: The extraordinary Anneli Purchase

Available print or digital) at: Kindle US Kindle UK Kindle CA Kindle AU Kindle India

Author bio:

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular prehistoric fiction saga, Man vs. Nature which explores seminal events in man’s evolution one trilogy at a time. She is also the author of the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers and Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. Her non-fiction includes over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, reviews as an Amazon Vine Voice, a columnist for NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Natural Selection, Winter 2022.

Social Media contacts:

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Jacqui-Murray/e/B002E78CQQ/

Blog: https://worddreams.wordpress.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacquimurraywriter/

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/jacquimurray

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher

Twitter: http://twitter.com/worddreams

Website: https://jacquimurray.net

Happy Reading!

I’m a cheapskate.

I’m also technologically impaired.

So when it came to making a book trailer for Sunwielder’s audiobook pre-release hype, I resorted to the old familiar standby from my years of selling office furniture – MS PowerPoint. The program’s been updated over the past 2 decades, but I still figured it out with some trial and error. And error. And a little more error.

The main thing I learned is regarding sequence:

1. Start with your text: Keep it pithy. I used my book blurb and pared it down to its bare essentials. That gave me about fifteen slides to populate with images.

2. Then add images: I took advantage of Pixabay’s royalty-free, attribution-free images for this one, frequently mashing them together to create a scene. Remember to check copyright details for the images you decide to use.

3. Add transitions: Don’t get too zany, but have fun. Timing is the hardest part. Just keep viewing and adjusting until you’re satisfied.

4. Add animation: Same as the above.

5 Add music: Once your presentation is done and the timing close to finalized, find a piece of music. I searched for royalty-free music about the length of the slideshow since editing music is beyond my brain’s ability. Again, check the copyright details. I added a slide at the end for the required attribution.

6. Tweak about 50-100 times.

7. Export from PowerPoint as an MP4 file.

8. Upload to Youtube, Goodreads, and Amazon.