The Horsemasters

by Joan Wolf

Overview

In the lush green valleys of southern France, long before the mists of time, as humankind takes its first defiant steps to tame the earth, one special tribe among the Kindred is ruled by the Priestess Arika. But a feared change is coming, for the distant thunder of hooves brings terrifying whispers of a fierce race of conquerors whose astonishing horsemanship gives them the power of conquest…a power that threatens to enslave Kindred women, murder their men, burn their villages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888600047
Publisher:	Untreed Reads
Publication date:	11/10/2022
Series:	The Reindeer Hunters , #2
Pages:	460
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Award-winning author Joan Wolf began writing her first novel when she was 11. It was about a boy and a horse living in Wyoming. At the time she was living in New York City. Even at 11 she was interested in writing about people whose backgrounds were different from hers. Since then she has written 53 novels ranging throughout time, with the Regency period one of her favorites.

Editorial Reviews

Despite its ambitious and imaginative subject, Wolf's second novel set in a prehistoric era is disappointing. Beginning 50 years after Daughter of the Red Deer , it investigates the Magdelenian culture of Paleolithic Southern Europe through the story of Ronan and his bittersweet struggle for survival. His mother Arika, Mistress of the Tribe of the Red Deer, spurns Ronan at birth, foreseeing and fearing the authority he could grow up to wield over her people. Cast from his community, Ronan begins a fight for the preservation of his life and that of his Kindred, a quest that will carry him through treacherous mountain passes, across snow-laden valleys and along a River of Gold to a final encounter with the deadly Horsemasters. Unfortunately, the novel is pedestrian both in its uninspiring themes and in its repetitious, cliche-laden prose, which features stilted dialogue that tends to blur the characters, since they all sound the same. Numerous (if sometimes predictable) plot developments and a touching relationship between Ronan and his wife Nel provide some motivation to finish the book, but overall this is an uncompelling read. ( May )

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With The Horsemasters , Wolf continues her saga of paleolithic people begun in Daughter of the Red Deer ( LJ 9/15/91). Set 50 years after that work, this new book tells the tale of Ronan, the charismatic son of the Mistress of the Red Deer, who is falsely accused of blasphemy and exiled from his tribe. Ronan faces two challenges: to form a tribe of his own with other misfits and outcasts and to weld this group into a fighting unit capable of leading the mountain tribes against a new threat--fierce tribesmen from the north whose mastery of the horse enables them to conquer at will. Characters have less depth here than in Wolf's previous title but are likable and easily carry the story forward. The well-constructed plot is suspenseful, and an appealing romance--a Wolf trademark--also adds interest. Fans of Jean Auel and Sue Harrison as well as readers of Daughter will enjoy this.-- Beth Ann Mills, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y.

Library Journal