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The First Americans #10
Time Beyond Beginning
Dark forces are at work within the realms of earth and sky, and a savage new dance of life and death is about to begin....the internationally acclaimed saga of the First Americans continues in this long-awaited novel from bestseller William Sarabande.
As the Ice Age draws to a close, the men and women living on the northeast coast of the North American continent struggle to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. Ancient cultures clash as warriors battle for vital hunting territories. When a mammoth is seen in a forest, the shaman, who is also brother to the headman, conjures wondrous and terrifying visions for his imperiled band as he goads them to hunt a beast that may be the last of its kind. Although an ancient legend promises death for the People on the day that the last mammoth dies, the shaman counters with a legendary promise of his own--that those who dare hunt, kill, and consume the flesh of the mammoth will be made invincible in battle. The hunt is successful but the headman is killed--and the shaman comes to power and takes possession of his brother's woman and daughter. Although he has no suspicion of his uncle's treachery, the eldest son of the former headman must live with the fear of the charging mammoth that caused him to feign injury rather than risk his own life to save his father's. Now, as the last mammoth walks the land, a young warrior who has lost nearly everything to his enemies must learn new ways, or die in a world where men, women, and even children dare not be less than heroes.
As the Ice Age draws to a close, the men and women living on the northeast coast of the North American continent struggle to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. Ancient cultures clash as warriors battle for vital hunting territories. When a mammoth is seen in a forest, the shaman, who is also brother to the headman, conjures wondrous and terrifying visions for his imperiled band as he goads them to hunt a beast that may be the last of its kind. Although an ancient legend promises death for the People on the day that the last mammoth dies, the shaman counters with a legendary promise of his own--that those who dare hunt, kill, and consume the flesh of the mammoth will be made invincible in battle. The hunt is successful but the headman is killed--and the shaman comes to power and takes possession of his brother's woman and daughter. Although he has no suspicion of his uncle's treachery, the eldest son of the former headman must live with the fear of the charging mammoth that caused him to feign injury rather than risk his own life to save his father's. Now, as the last mammoth walks the land, a young warrior who has lost nearly everything to his enemies must learn new ways, or die in a world where men, women, and even children dare not be less than heroes.
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
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About the author
William Sarabande
22 books116 followersWilliam Sarabande is a pseudonym of Joan Lesley Hamilton Cline.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 14, 2023
Paleo-Indian life at the close of the last ice age!
Sarabande has set this dark, tragic tale of struggle and survival on the northeast coast of North America during the final days of the last ice age. To the paleo-Indian people of the day, the pace and magnitude of climactic change must have seemed powerful and frightening. Mammoths and mastodons remained but were obviously so well on the path to extinction that they had been elevated to enormous symbolic religious importance. Even for elders, wise shamans and the most accomplished hunters, knowledge such as migratory routes of critical food and resource supplies like caribou, beluga and geese must have seemed fleeting and frustratingly inconsistent. Cree and Inuit people from the Arctic and the unforgiving barrens of northern Quebec and Labrador, the beginnings of the Ojibway, Algonquin and Iroquois nations that found themselves more at home in the woodlands of southern Ontario and Quebec or upstate Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, plus the eastern maritime ancestors of the Micmac tribe meet, intermingle, mate and breed, battle for territorial and cultural supremacy, trade, pray and make offerings to their gods, kill or help one another, and live and die.
Sarabande fills in her panoramic, complex canvas with all the attention of the most assiduous realism painter. Tiny, single brush strokes are made with the greatest of care and no detail is too small to be included in her exquisite portrayal of this pre-historic North American landscape - the slate gray colour of the sky during a powerful late winter storm; the sickly, smell of rotting meat on the hoof as a dying mammoth searches for a final resting place; the rich, sweet colour and taste of sap rising in spring maples; the incredible development of the bow and arrow as a weapon capable of striking from a distance, terrifying hunters who know only the lesser power of a stone-tipped spear; the first hesitant use of metallic copper in weaponry, commerce and art; tattoos, jewellery and all the finery of aboriginal costumes.
In the foreground of this stunning canvas, she paints the portrait of M'alsum - a venal, self-important, cowardly, almost psychopathic headman. M'alsum abandons his youngest brother, Ne'gauni, trapped in a deadfall, dying of wounds sustained in an attack by a tribe of northern hunters foraging far out of their regular territory in the barrens. In the same raid, his mate, Hasu'u, is kidnapped and forced to serve as wet nurse to a motherless infant. M'aslum, adds self-pity, self-doubt and avarice to his list of failings and murders his two other brothers whom he sees as competitors to his position as chief.
Sarabande's description of a woodland tribesman's courageous stand against the charging mammoth and M'alsum's cowardly flight from the same beast ultimately leading it by chance over a steep embankment to its death was absolutely breathtaking. The development of the characters of the Old One and her grand-daughter, Mowea'qua, as members of a very hairy, bone-deep ugly race on which modern native werewolf mythology might have been based is essentially a whimsical flight of fancy but, frankly, I found it particularly charming.
Other reviewers have commented that they thought the story particularly cruel or savage. In an unapologetic afterword, Sarabande herself suggests that if her portrayal was harsh, it only reflected her genuine beliefs of what life was like at that time based on her extensive research into the findings of archeologists, historians, anthropologists, geologists and meteorologists. She goes on to suggest that it is perhaps to our credit that we are shocked and appalled when we read of such things. I'm inclined to agree and I, for one, found the story exciting from the opening page.
Paul Weiss
Sarabande has set this dark, tragic tale of struggle and survival on the northeast coast of North America during the final days of the last ice age. To the paleo-Indian people of the day, the pace and magnitude of climactic change must have seemed powerful and frightening. Mammoths and mastodons remained but were obviously so well on the path to extinction that they had been elevated to enormous symbolic religious importance. Even for elders, wise shamans and the most accomplished hunters, knowledge such as migratory routes of critical food and resource supplies like caribou, beluga and geese must have seemed fleeting and frustratingly inconsistent. Cree and Inuit people from the Arctic and the unforgiving barrens of northern Quebec and Labrador, the beginnings of the Ojibway, Algonquin and Iroquois nations that found themselves more at home in the woodlands of southern Ontario and Quebec or upstate Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, plus the eastern maritime ancestors of the Micmac tribe meet, intermingle, mate and breed, battle for territorial and cultural supremacy, trade, pray and make offerings to their gods, kill or help one another, and live and die.
Sarabande fills in her panoramic, complex canvas with all the attention of the most assiduous realism painter. Tiny, single brush strokes are made with the greatest of care and no detail is too small to be included in her exquisite portrayal of this pre-historic North American landscape - the slate gray colour of the sky during a powerful late winter storm; the sickly, smell of rotting meat on the hoof as a dying mammoth searches for a final resting place; the rich, sweet colour and taste of sap rising in spring maples; the incredible development of the bow and arrow as a weapon capable of striking from a distance, terrifying hunters who know only the lesser power of a stone-tipped spear; the first hesitant use of metallic copper in weaponry, commerce and art; tattoos, jewellery and all the finery of aboriginal costumes.
In the foreground of this stunning canvas, she paints the portrait of M'alsum - a venal, self-important, cowardly, almost psychopathic headman. M'alsum abandons his youngest brother, Ne'gauni, trapped in a deadfall, dying of wounds sustained in an attack by a tribe of northern hunters foraging far out of their regular territory in the barrens. In the same raid, his mate, Hasu'u, is kidnapped and forced to serve as wet nurse to a motherless infant. M'aslum, adds self-pity, self-doubt and avarice to his list of failings and murders his two other brothers whom he sees as competitors to his position as chief.
Sarabande's description of a woodland tribesman's courageous stand against the charging mammoth and M'alsum's cowardly flight from the same beast ultimately leading it by chance over a steep embankment to its death was absolutely breathtaking. The development of the characters of the Old One and her grand-daughter, Mowea'qua, as members of a very hairy, bone-deep ugly race on which modern native werewolf mythology might have been based is essentially a whimsical flight of fancy but, frankly, I found it particularly charming.
Other reviewers have commented that they thought the story particularly cruel or savage. In an unapologetic afterword, Sarabande herself suggests that if her portrayal was harsh, it only reflected her genuine beliefs of what life was like at that time based on her extensive research into the findings of archeologists, historians, anthropologists, geologists and meteorologists. She goes on to suggest that it is perhaps to our credit that we are shocked and appalled when we read of such things. I'm inclined to agree and I, for one, found the story exciting from the opening page.
Paul Weiss
April 19, 2025
This is the tenth book that I have read in The First Americans series and it did not disappoint.. They are long and detailed but intriguing from start to finish!!
June 2, 2020
This series is SO GOOD! Now onto the final book in the saga, Spirit Moon. I don’t want it to end.
August 15, 2021
Good story but not a great story. The first half was interesting with murder and kidnappings but the second half was mostly early native mythology and history that didn’t interest me much.
January 17, 2013
The Ice age is coming to an end and times are changing. The story starts out with a small band of people of the forest, Malsum, head man, his wife Hasu'u,and Malsum's three brothers. They are traveling north to trade goods. Along the way, the band is attacked by raiders, Hasu'u's baby is torn from her grasp and thrown into the river. Ne'gauni, the youngest brother is speared and is carried away by the racing river and gets stuck under a tree in the river. Maslum and his two others brothers had gone on ahead and when they saw what was happening, hid in the woods. Malsum shows his cowardice and selfcenteredness by stealing of Ne'gauni's unconscious body his goods. The story continues. The raiders have stolen Hasu'u to be the milk women for that tribe's infant child. Ne'gauni is rescused by a girl of the Old Tribe and with her grandmother nurses him back to health even though he has lost a leg. Kinap, a giant of a man comes apon Maslum in the woods after Maslum has killed his other brothers and his burden woman to pulled the sledge of goods. He leads him to the area Maslum wanted to go. Maslum lied about his wife, his brothers and the killing of a mamouth but Kinap observed the whole thing. The story continues as Maslum continues his lies and deceit with the band he was to trade with on the coast. The story tells about each of these people and how thier paths cross and how Maslum is dealt with when his deceit is discovered.
June 10, 2015
What a welcome break from reading mystery novels! I do not mean to ignore wonderful tales of spellbinding horror of Stephen King and his ilk, or of different themed novels like "The Painted House". It is just nice to have an entirely different theme in an entirely different time and people so very different from any other novels.
It was very interesting to find, at the end of the book, that William is actually Joan. Although her author suggests that she "man up" for this series I think I would've enjoyed it a little more knowing a woman road. Call me sexist, if you will. Maybe that comes because I was such a fan of "The Clan of the Cave Bear" series.
It makes no difference. The fact remains that I found this novel quite enjoyable and will be looking for more... either by William or by Joan!
It was very interesting to find, at the end of the book, that William is actually Joan. Although her author suggests that she "man up" for this series I think I would've enjoyed it a little more knowing a woman road. Call me sexist, if you will. Maybe that comes because I was such a fan of "The Clan of the Cave Bear" series.
It makes no difference. The fact remains that I found this novel quite enjoyable and will be looking for more... either by William or by Joan!
September 21, 2013
First time I read a novel and didn't start from the beginning of the series. Time Beyond Beginning was a novel with strong descriptions, powerful storyline and memorable characters, especially the "giant" Kinap. I got slightly bored at times with the repetitiveness of the prose, the novel could have delivered the story better with slightly tighter editing. An enjoyable read especially for those interested in the time period.
Read
March 19, 2016I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. This book was very interesting. I like learning about the ways and customs of early Americans. The story is good, but as it got close to the end, I wondered if everything would be completed. It did, and Malsum got what he deserved. I was delighted that Hasuu found her way home and he decision at the end. A really good book.
October 16, 2013
I liked it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews