Review of The Strange Land
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Betsy House Mills
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Review of The Strange Land
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Strange Land" by Jennifer Mugrage.]
The story of the Tower of Babel is found in Genesis 11:1-9. It is such a short passage of scripture that covers the creation of many languages so as to scatter the people “over the face of the whole earth.” The Strange Land (The Scattering Trilogy Book 2) by Jennifer Mugrage is the sequel to The Long Guest, The Strange Land. Book 2 picks up and follows the tribe of Enmer as it travels east through Beringia. This tribe is just one of the many tribes that were scattered over the earth.
I have often wondered what happened to those people and how they got to the different countries where they lived with the people who spoke the same language as they did. So I was eager to read this book even though I realize it is a fictionalized story. The author provides a map at the beginning of the book that shows an ice-free corridor presumably leading from Beringia to North America. Supposedly, this path becomes the Bering Strait as we know it.
This ice-free corridor is the goal that Enmer’s tribe is traveling toward. They are guided by Ki-Ki, a young shaman, who has visions and keeps reminding them that their promised land is to the east. He has apparently replaced Tiras, who was the shaman in Book 1, who told the tribe he had the same visions. This is the only negative I have about this book–I wish I had read the first book before I read this one. There are references to things that occurred in the past that are never fully explained. The book follows the tribe through trials and tribulations, love and violence, suicide and horrible deaths. It also provides a picture of the everyday life of the tribespeople. The characters are well developed, each with their own distinctive personality. If you get lost as to whom a person is related to, there is a family chart in the front of the book explaining which family the main characters belong to.
In the online version of the book that I read, words have run together without a space between them. However, I don’t believe that is an editing error, but something to do with the publishing or the displaying of the book through my reader. It did not detract from the enjoyment of the book, so I did not count that against the rating. The rest of the editing was flawless. I liked the storyline and the premise of the book, filling in the gap after the Tower of Babel was destroyed. Therefore, I gave this book a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. I previously mentioned the only minor negative, referring to things from the first book, but since that did not keep me from enjoying the book, I did not deduct a star.
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The Strange Land
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The story of the Tower of Babel is found in Genesis 11:1-9. It is such a short passage of scripture that covers the creation of many languages so as to scatter the people “over the face of the whole earth.” The Strange Land (The Scattering Trilogy Book 2) by Jennifer Mugrage is the sequel to The Long Guest, The Strange Land. Book 2 picks up and follows the tribe of Enmer as it travels east through Beringia. This tribe is just one of the many tribes that were scattered over the earth.
I have often wondered what happened to those people and how they got to the different countries where they lived with the people who spoke the same language as they did. So I was eager to read this book even though I realize it is a fictionalized story. The author provides a map at the beginning of the book that shows an ice-free corridor presumably leading from Beringia to North America. Supposedly, this path becomes the Bering Strait as we know it.
This ice-free corridor is the goal that Enmer’s tribe is traveling toward. They are guided by Ki-Ki, a young shaman, who has visions and keeps reminding them that their promised land is to the east. He has apparently replaced Tiras, who was the shaman in Book 1, who told the tribe he had the same visions. This is the only negative I have about this book–I wish I had read the first book before I read this one. There are references to things that occurred in the past that are never fully explained. The book follows the tribe through trials and tribulations, love and violence, suicide and horrible deaths. It also provides a picture of the everyday life of the tribespeople. The characters are well developed, each with their own distinctive personality. If you get lost as to whom a person is related to, there is a family chart in the front of the book explaining which family the main characters belong to.
In the online version of the book that I read, words have run together without a space between them. However, I don’t believe that is an editing error, but something to do with the publishing or the displaying of the book through my reader. It did not detract from the enjoyment of the book, so I did not count that against the rating. The rest of the editing was flawless. I liked the storyline and the premise of the book, filling in the gap after the Tower of Babel was destroyed. Therefore, I gave this book a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. I previously mentioned the only minor negative, referring to things from the first book, but since that did not keep me from enjoying the book, I did not deduct a star.
******
The Strange Land
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Advent of Time by Indignus Servus
