People of the Songtrail: A Novel of North America's Forgotten Past (North America's Forgotten Past, #20)

by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear

People of the Songtrail is the saga of the first European settlers to land on the shores of the New World. It is a story, like so many in America's history, of the swift and violent clash of cultures, and of extraordinary men and women on both sides who were brave enough to work for the fragile hope of peace. 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. Vikings, the first European settlers to land on the shores of the new world, intend to make it their home-- in spite of the Skraeling barbarians who stand in their way. In their swift and violent clash of cultures, there are men and women on both sides who are brave enough to work for the fragile hope of peace.

• ISBN10: 0765337258
• ISBN13: 9780765337252
• Publish Date: 26 May 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 31 August 2021
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

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.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story