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| View Larger Image | Dance of the Tiger: A Novel of the Ice Age
by Björn Kurtén
| | List Price: | $22.95 | | Price: | $20.65 | | You Save: | $2.30 (10%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 173877 | | Studio: | University of California Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 280 | | Publication Date: | October 10, 1995 | | Publisher: | University of California Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Björn Kurtén's compelling novel gives the reader a detailed picture of life 35,000 years ago in Western Europe. One of the world's leading scholars of Ice Age fauna, Kurtén fuses extraordinary knowledge and imagination in this vivid evocation of our deepest past. This novel illuminates the lives of the humans who left us magnificent paintings in the caves of France and Spain. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 11 reviews)
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A very educational and enjoble novel 
The Neandertal people were the sole inhabitants of Europe for 65,000 years, starting from 100,000 years ago. With the arrival from the South of modern man, the Homo sapiens, the Neandertals rapidly vanished - a mystery to this day. The Dance of the Tiger offers one plausible model of the interaction between these two peoples during their crucial encounter era. The author does this with the explicit admission that we actually know little about how or even if this encounter took place and what happened. As such, the novel is a thought experiment. But it is also an action novel and murder mystery made very engaging through its rich cast of characters: intelligent animists, tested leaders, warriors, shaman, shysters, artists, etc., as the two groups vie for their place in primeval Scandinavia. The plot contains interactions and intrigues as nuanced as any set in modern times. And unlike a book of a similar ilk - The Clan of the Cave Bear, this novel focuses accurately on the rich natural world at this period of ice age thaw, and sets the story into a sharp unsentimental focus.
To criticize - I would say the plot for me, despite its crafting, was fairly predictable. Ironically, more attention was given to weaving it, than to providing complexity in the many minor characters, who seemed almost contrived to serve the plot. I also ended up doubting the model attempted by the author to solve the overriding mystery (would people continue this practice once the result quickly became evident, and where then are the commingled bones?).
What do we take home? Something very nice. We are allowed to imagine a past where there are two very different types of intelligent peoples interacting, who each see the world clearly, and perhaps even more directly than do we, and further, who are in a more immediate way involved in forging the future. I recommend it as highly enjoyable and entertaining read.
Get the version if possible with the introduction by Steve Jay Gould. It is a brilliantly written piece. Gould raises these points: The encounter between the Neandertal (no longer believed primitive and brutish) and Homo sapiens was unprecedented in the history of Earth - never before had two such alien peoples encountered each other. Second - that the sort of tale Kurten tells is the best way for a scientist to layout such speculation - such a novel is the most productive way to explore exploratory science.
June 27, 2008 | |
Anthropology Lite 
This novel reads so fast it comes dangerously close to being considered light reading. However, it's author Björn Kurtén was a real-life anthropologist and he formed this "paleofiction" (as he called it) from his hypothesis of how the Neaderthals lost out to the Cro-Magnon. The result is fun -- with surprising ideas. And with a scientific grounding that can't be found in Jean Auel's works.
September 15, 2007 | |
Great novel...
A story set in the Ice Age, a love story and a mystery. The setting is greatly detailed, as it should be, being written by Bjorn Kurten. While first printed in 1980, it has not really become outdated. Nothing in the book could be countered by fresh data and much of it is guess-work anyway. And a easy read.
The introduction by Stephen Jay Gould just adds to the book, like icing on a cake.
April 30, 2004 | |
A little too science/fantsy like for me. 
This book didn't really appeal to me as a work of historical fiction, didn't come across as realistic or even plausible.
December 01, 2002 | |
DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS BOOK, READ SOMETHING ELSE
I HAVE BEEN READING MANY PREHISTORIC NOVELS IN THE LAST YEAR AND
HAVE ENJOYED JUST ABOUT EVERY BOOK. THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK THAT
REALLY WASTED MY TIME. I SOMEHOW THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD GET BETTER
AND THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT KEPT ME READING BUT WAS I EVER WRONG. THE CHARACTERS WERE HARD TO REALLY LIKE AND THE STORY LINE
HAD NOTHING INTERESTING TO KEEP MY INTEREST. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOME REALLY GOOD PREHISTORIC NOVELS TRY LINDA LAY SCHULER, CHARLOTTE PRENTISS, LYNN MCKEE OR JOAN WOLF. (I HAVE NOT READ JOAN WOLF'S BOOKS YET BUT HAVE HEARD EXCELLENT REVIEWS!!)
August 13, 2002 | |
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