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The People Eaters by Neil Bockoven

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to visit a natural history museum that features exhibits of the earliest humans, especially Neanderthals, you may have wondered if they got it right. Did groups huddle in caves and hunt in groups? Did people live with family or extended communities, or both?

In his second book in the Earth Peoples series, The People Eaters (Rare Bird Books), author Neil Bockoven gives the reader a glimpse into what the lives of our early ancestors might have been like as they embark on a seemingly simple journey to grandma’s house. 

EARLY HUMANS PREPARE TO SURVIVE THE WINTER

From the first page, Bockoven gives us a preview of what’s to come when he drops the reader into the middle of the action and terror that is central to the novel. People are gathered around the fire where food is being cooked. It is quickly revealed that that food is people. Here we meet Nuri, a young pregnant woman, terrified that she might be the next course.

After that glimpse into the future, the readers are taken back to a few days before these events. We again see Nuri, but this time with the main character Moctu, who is her partner and the father of her baby. They are visiting a friendly tribe. It’s a bit of a family reunion — Moctu’s daughter is there, as is her grandmother. They are planning to trade with other tribes and to hunt as they prepare for the coming winter. The action of the novel is set into motion when the hostile, cannibalistic Shiv set a trap during a trade and storm the camp to steal food and collect prisoners.

Through those attacks, we get to know the four tribes of the story: the Nerea and Lion People, who are Homo sapiens, and the Krog and the Shiv, who are Neanderthal. Alliances between tribes have been formed based on trade and relationships. Men and women are both willingly and unwillingly paired, and the resulting offspring forge bonds or battles, depending on the tribes. 

WELL-RESEARCHED PORTRAIT OF THE ICE AGE

A major component of the characters struggle and of the novel, which is aptly titled The People Eaters, is that the Shiv are cannibals. They eat others not out of hunger or desperation — the author explains that research has shown this to be the norm — but rather as a means of eliciting fear and exert control.

The novel follows the other characters as they search for kidnapped family members in a desperate effort to save them before they are killed. At the same time, we follow the captives, and their brave efforts to outsmart their captors as they too work to be reunited with their kin. There are battles, love and loss.

The People Eaters paints a picture of the challenges of living nearly 43,000 years ago, dealing not only with the complexities of finding food and shelter, but also with the changing societal norms around friend and foe. This well-researched novel is fast-paced and will draw you in from the first page and hold you until the final scenes. Readers will be eager for the next book in the Earth Peoples series.

 

About Neil Bockoven:

Neil Bockoven is an award-winning PhD geologist, journalist and author who earned his doctorate in geoscience from The University of Texas at Austin.

His current interests center on the interaction between Early Modern Humans and Neanderthals during the Paleolithic Age and the amazing related discoveries being made through archaeology and ancient DNA analysis.

Neil has been the featured speaker at geological and anthropological societies all over the USA. His Facebook page at authorneilbockoven has more than 17,000 followers and, by posting to other archaeological pages, his posts reach an average of 4.2 million people each week, placing him among the top posters of archaeological information on Facebook. His Paleo Human Mysteries video series has come out recently on YouTube. In addition to his two novels, Moctu and the Mammoth People and The People Eaters, he has also published a related children’s science book titled When We Met Neanderthals.

The People Eaters by Neil Bockoven
Author: Neil Bockoven
Laura McCafferty

Laura McCafferty has been an avid reader since she was a little girl reading with a flashlight under the covers. Today, she is part of a book club that has been together for more than 18 years and has read well over 200 books. When she's not reading, she works as an executive in corporate communications and spends her free time gardening, traveling and spending time with her family and pets.

One Comment

  • Shelly Hegeman says:

    I loved the Mammoth Hunters series from years ago. This books sounds very interesting. I often, while drifting off to sleep, wonder about the ancient ones. I can’t wait to read this book The People Eaters.

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