Customer Reviews

Time Beyond Beginning

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I find it very annoying to have to read dialog like this. Add to the fact that the story line is dark, cruel and boring and a tired take off from the rest of this enjoyable series. Really not a good read, don't waste your money.

This book was added to my collection of W. Sarabande books. I can't wait until the next book hits the stores.

I've read the entire First American series up to this book, I started the series as a filler while I waited for Jean Auel's fifth book to be published (still waiting). The series, so far has been entertaining and has certainly kept my interest. The characters for the most part are well developed and in previous books are even likable in a brutish way. I've enjoyed the spirituality of the series. Time Beyond Beginning, however is a disappointing departure from Sarabande's earlier work. It's as if the characters in this book have regressed through time and become increasingly more loathsome, savage and mean. The plot is boring, dark and depressing. Unlike the earlier works where Torka and Lonit, Cha-kwena and Maree had to endure a harsh climate and overcome many difficulties, including conflicts with several nasty characters there was always an uplifting spiritual quality to their struggle for survival. I had to put this book down along with the rest of the series in search of a more uplifting read. I would not recommend this book.

As I continue to read this series, I find myself asking,more and more often, when will it stop? Each book has had good points but they are coming farther and farther apart. The first books got you interested in the characters (the character development tends to take more than one book-though they tend to have major personality changes between books!) and then suddenly jumped through time and space, leaving our characters flapping in the breeze. So then we get another bunch of characters going and 'WHOOOSH' another jump in space and time (and more breeze flapping characters). Now we are into another bunch of characters and I've got to say...each bunch is less appealling than the last. I find I don't much like these people--nasty attitudes, nasty habits, just not the kind of folks you care about. I've noticed that the story-lines are now tending to repeat...some have been pretty hard to take the first time, recycled are really bad. I feel somewhat the victim here. Once I start a book, I simply can't stop reading it (it's a character flaw). As these books tend to blend from one to the next, I am unable to not keep going in the series-it is like one book that never ends. I hope it ends soon, I am trapped!

Oh, yeah, that synopsis is totally WRONG! Some one needs to get on that.

This book was a great book. It told the story of prehistoric American Indians wonderfully. All though the story line was well after the events of the rest of the series, it was rivoting. I couldn't put it down! Unlike some reviewers, I felt that Sarabande did a great job with portraying how women were treated in Prehistoric times. These books were written from extensive research and I think that William Sarabande did and excellent job! Kudos to you!

Had the book been about one third the length, the author might have had a chance of making it go. As it is, it is simply boring. A waste of time.

...a book I disliked intensely - that is, until I was persuaded to plunk down my change for this book, because I'd heard so many raves about Sarabande from so many other fans of prehistoric fiction. And truthfully, I found this book a complete waste of my money (and I bought it used!).

I agree with the reader above, who found the fact that Sarabande is a woman, considering her writing style, disturbing. I think Sarabande DOES "write like a man" and that is NO compliment. Her characters are repellent, the men are macho louts and the women doormats used for sex and hard work. Again, the previous reviewer TrueGeo's mention of Lonit falling for Torka, in 'Beyond the Sea of Ice', despite the fact that he rapes her is telling. Any woman ought to be ashamed to write such a scene! Women don't fall in love with their rapists. Any woman can tell you that. Yet Sarabande has women characters who adore their men despite the bad treatment their men mete out. Sarabande's characters seem to delight in violence, rather than tenderness. That this is a "true picture" of prehistoric Native American life is doubtful.

Aside from the fact that the female author seems to work the worst sort of macho-male-adventure cliches into her work, it appears she hasn't studied the works of female Native American historians such as Paula Gunn Allen (author of "Sacred Hoop"). If she had, she would realize that *most* Native American societies, even the warlike ones, accorded women the highest respect. Sarabande doesn't do prehistory any good by buying into the tired old Lionel Tiger-ish "Man the Hunter" cliches.

I can't remember when I've ever been more disappointed with a book that I've looked forward to reading. I wish I had my money back. If prehistoric North America is your cup of tea, do yourself a favor and read Sue Harrison instead.

Sarabande can't write a bad book. Read them all. They just get better and better. Can't wait for the saga to continue.

WOW, a woman huh! Cool! This person whether she is man or woman - has written some of the best stuff I've read in all kinds of genres. The 1st series was the best and I sorely miss Torka and the rest but the 2nd series grew on me somewhat and it got better. But this new one took me a little bit also until I got into it. Some of the characters do very unexpected things and thats part of the reason I like this womans writing because you just never know what these characters of hers turn into sometimes. Her descriptions of the past ages is the best I have ever read in this genre. Whats next kemosabe!

...but ever since I learned that WS was in fact a woman, I have found these novels utterly impossible to read. I mean, their general worldview, and view of relationships in particular, seemed a bit peculiar, but I could have sort of written that off if we were talking about a bloke. But if it's a woman...look at the first First Americans novel: Torka basically rapes Lonit, but (in the dubious tradition of Ayn Rand), she enjoys it and they fall deeply and permanently in love. Now, if a guy writes something like that, you can sort of just roll your eyes and write it off to a general, sort of oafish cluelessness--not a capital offense, however. But finding out that this scene was in fact written by a woman really bothers me--what sort of bizarre value system does Ms. Sarabande (her real last name escapes me) adhere to? Still, I suppose if nothing else it's made me question my assumptions and prejudices (this is off the subject, but why are there never any gay characters in her work, eh?) , if perhaps not in the way she'd intended. This series does have some fairly powerful imagery, but as of late I find it very troubling indeed.