Shaman

KSR always writes compelling science fiction; this is a bit of a departure — it’s historical fiction set in the Neolithic period in France, about a shaman’s apprentice in a time when early humans live alongside Neanderthals, and mammoth, rhinoceros, bison, lions, leopards and other now-extinct animals are a constant presence.

An intricately detailed novel, where Robinson attempts to depict what life would have been for a prehistoric tribe during the Ice Age. No explicit date or location is given, but context indicates it's about 35-40,000BCE. It's an impressive mental leap to get that far back in time and depict the early days of humanity, but the problem is that it often reads more as imaginative anthropology rather than a novel. Robinson often descends into morasses of description instead of plot, and this has the same issue: after Loon's wander concludes, very little happens in the first part of the book. Any novel like this is going to end up being compared to Golding's The Inheritors, and for me it comes up short in that respect. Golding's world felt stranger and rawer, this one becomes mundane too soon.