Coming of the Storm
Book One of Contact: The Battle for America
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Discover the first in the epic trilogy by New York Times bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Sun Born, Morning River), which vividly recounts the devastating clash of cultures that occurs when Native Americans and Europeans make first contact.
The pale, bearded newcomers who call themselves “Kristianos” fascinate Black Shell, an exiled Chickasaw trader, and not even the counsel of Pearl Hand, the beautiful, extraordinary woman who has consented to be his mate, can dissuade him from interacting with them. Only after a firsthand lesson in Kristiano brutality does Black Shell fully comprehend the dangers these invaders pose to his people’s way of life.
While his first instinct is to run far from the then, Black Shell has been called to a greater destiny by the Spirit Being known as Horned Serpent. With Pearl Hand by his side, Black Shell must find a way to unite the disparate tribes and settlements of his native land and overcome the merciless armies of the man called Hernando de Soto.
Using archeological data, ethnographic records, and historical journals, the authors bring to vivid life the beliefs, technologies, and daily experiences of lost American civilizations.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In their first book of a planned epic series about the European explorers' conquest of the Native Americans, the archeologist husband-and-wife bestselling writing team (People of the Thunder) follow Black Shell, a wandering, mystical trader of the Chicaza clan who in 1539 first clashes with Hernando de Soto and his Conquistadors invading south Florida. Enslaved and cruelly mistreated by de Soto, Black Shell is soon freed by his extraordinary mate, Pearl Hand. Emboldened by his powerful "Spirit dreams," Black Shell, aided by wily feminist Pearl Hand, swears revenge for the atrocities committed against the Native Americans and vows to defeat the brutal de Soto. De Soto obsesses over acquiring gold and spreading Catholicism in his armed scuffles with Black Shell and his intrepid band called the "Orphans," a struggle cast as a traditional good versus evil showdown. The rich historical details and keen characterizations are offset by the graphic depictions of battlefield violence and social cruelty in this smooth, brisk-paced narrative that should generate wide appeal to American historical fiction fans.
