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    Coming of the Storm
    Coming of the Storm
    Coming of the Storm
    Audiobook13 hours

    Coming of the Storm

    Written by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear

    Narrated by Kevin Orton

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Of best-selling husband-and-wife writing team W.Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Booklist proclaims that "nobody does Native Americana better than the Gears." Coming of the Storm launches a series featuring Black Shell, a Chicaza-clan trader, and his struggles with Hernando de Soto, an invader intent on spreading Catholicism at the point of his sword.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 30, 2011
    ISBN9781501992858
    Coming of the Storm
    Author

    W. Michael Gear

    W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear are the New York Times bestselling authors of Coming of the Storm, Fire the Sky, and A Searing Wind in the Contact: Battle for America series, as well as more than fifty international bestsellers. In addition to writing both fiction and nonfiction together and separately, the Gears operate an anthropological research company, Wind River Archaeological Consultants, and raise buffalo on their ranch in northern Wyoming. Visit their informative website and read their blog at Gear-Gear.com.

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    Reviews for Coming of the Storm

    4.5/5

    7 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Coming of the Storm by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal GearBlack Shell and Pearl Hand, Native Americans, discover that the “Kristanos” are not quite what they seem. This story addresses the clash between the disparate cultures of Europe and America. The violence and storm is seen through the eyes of the Native Americans as opposed to the often typical portrayal seen thorough the eyes of the “heroic” invaders. Black Shell isn’t just a stereotyped noble savage but a living breathing, empathetic human being who has been raised in a culture that is certainly different that both my own and that of the now recognized barbaric invaders. The Gears are hard to categorize. I couldn’t put down The Warriors of Spider series or The Forbidden Series. Both books were die in the wool, hard core, how much do I love it, SciFi. This book is good, it is a dramatically different genre but the essence of all their books is the distilled essence of humanity. The Gears depict humanity as well or better than anyone else regardless of the time or planet. I highly recommend the book.
    • 3/5
      The husband-wife historical fiction writing duo Kathleen O’Neal and Michael Gear are best known for their First North Americans series. Each of these novels tells the tale of prehistoric people and their beliefs based on modern archeological finds. The Gears have given life and emotions to people we knew existed, but know next to nothing about; created deep beliefs out of artifacts long forgotten; and developed Technicolor pictures of a world before civilization.Coming of the Storm: Book One of Contact: The Battle for America is remarkably different. The events and many of the characters in Coming of the Storm are part of our recorded history; we know the outcome of the European explorers’ visit to North America. Far from Disney’s version of John Smith’s encounter with Pocahontas, this story does follow Black Shell and his strong willed mate Pearl Hand as they learn about the strange Kristianos people and realize that they bring only death to the tribes and must be stopped.I am a huge fan of the First North Americans series, but I didn’t love Coming of the Storm as much. The story was interesting, but the supporting characters were underdeveloped and the dialog was so modern that it kept pulling me out of the settings. It almost felt like a novel created for teens.
    • 3/5
      I'm a very big fan of conquest-era historical fiction. Gary Jennings' "Aztec" series is as strong as it gets. There are a smattering of other Aztec, Maya and Inca-based stories, but I've never read anything by the Gear husband and wife team who've written numerous books on early American cultures. "Coming of the Storm" is the first in a series of books focused on Hernando de Soto's exploration and conquest of the American southeast."Coming of the Storm" is an okay story. It's not great, but I'm not giving up hope that the series will live up to its potential. There's little enough conquest-based historical fiction and since the Gears are also trained archaeologists, I'd like to believe they'll continue doing a nice job on the "historical" part of historical fiction.The story centers around Black Shell, a Chicaza trader who's roaming around what's now central Florida with his pack dogs. He meets the beautifully enigmatic free spirit of Pearl Hand, and after a couple of early adventures fall in love and vow to chase the Spaniards until they leave their land.The Gears incorporate a good amount of Native American spirituality, but it borders on supernatural and, at times, takes the story from the realm of historical fiction into something more alternative-fiction or even historical science fiction.The Spanish characters are extremely one-dimensional, and de Soto himself is in very little of the actual story. The Native American characters are drawn more boldly and with deeper characterizations, however there's very little nuance to their relationships and core characteristics. Much time is spent on the characters describing their feelings and motivations.The Gears have written a dialogue that utilizes both an expected use of certain terminology like "thundersticks", but also an odd mix of modern terminology that would too often leave me shaking my head wondering why A-Team vernacular was making an appearance in early 16th Century Florida.There are enough action sequences to drive the plot along at a good pace. And while 530+ pages feels long, I read the book in only a few days, in no small part because I'm not very familiar with de Soto's story and I was interested to see where the Gears would take things.There were times when I felt the book could rate 4-stars, and times when I felt I was going to have it give it 2-stars. I'm giving "Coming of the Storm" the benefit of the doubt that these two authors know their history, and using the actual archaeological record to form the basis of their story. I definitely plan on reading the rest of the series, but I'm not feeling the urgency to buy in hardcover.
    • 4/5
      I’ve been meaning to get into the Gear’s books for a while, me being a student in anthropologist and all. Since this series is on audio I decided to start with this one. The two authors didn’t fail my expectations. I only know the basics of which conquers came to America and less of the different tribes in America at the time, especially around Florida. I bet if I knew more I could get more out of this book, but my limited knowledge didn’t harm my reading. The Gears did well with introducing new tribes and customs. The writing style was engaging but not too complicated with jargon most readers wouldn’t understand. It’s easy to follow. The subject matter may affect different people in different ways because some of the plot does focus on humanity and how some people (Europeans) do not treat others (Native Americas) with anything close to consideration. Sometimes it sickens me to read about it. But it is history. And sometimes it’s better to be aware so you don’t make mistake like that as well. If you like Native American or North American history I recommend this book.