Ramona > Status Update

Knobil meets seafolk, and the great "monsters of the ocean" killer whales...by the description. The seafolk are loving people, happy, boisterous, much different from the herdsfolk...maybe because they are around so much water.

This is a strange story...trying to get through it "this" time.

young Knobil does not realize until he is older that he looks like the "angel" that visited his mother....blond haired and bright blue eyes.

Walnut colored skin were the herds people, while the angels were blond and slight of build.

huge lakes dwindle in size as the summer weather continues, until they are nothing but puddles, in Knowbil's life. His father is a big man...the size of two of his 6 wives. He has long dark flowing hair and a beard that protect most of his upper body from the sun.

a map shows forests, deserts, wetlands, ice, grasslands, with the sections marked by names of our months.

Herdfolk--tribes whose lives are divided into 5 stages. They are watched over by "Angels" not the angels we would know. Life is difficult, dangerous.

prestidigitator? a new word for me. There are both patriarchal and misogynist societies that may ruffle some female feathers. Interesting that the bible scripture Psalms 90 is partially quoted at beginning. Perhaps to let us know that we are all mayflies, dust in the wind, ants in the universe and our days are numbered no matter what world we live in.

(the following is in part, portions of the introduction in the book) "Dave Duncan''s 6th book. Set on a world called Vernier, its rotation ends with part of the planet facing the sun for hundreds of years....crazy supposition that this would support human life. " Hinged on chronology, the life of a single person, the regions of the planet are named after units of time." An intense book, not for the lazy reader.