Shaman, published in 2013, was a striking departure for Kim Stanley Robinson, a multiply-honored author of several super-realist science fiction books, notably including the Mars Trilogy. Instead of once again imagining society in the future, in Shaman he recreates the world of prehistoric man, from about 30,000 BCE. At the book's outset, the protagonist, Loon, is an orphan who is adopted by his clan's shaman, Thorn, thus becoming his apprentice shaman. Loon does not like the cranky Thorn and resists this relationship and this future as much as he can. The book is an account of Loon's growth into a man, and his eventual reluctant acceptance of this role, set against the backdrop of the difficulty of surviving in a hostile world full of predators and enemies.
This book has a special place in my heart; Noah did not read much, but I nevertheless gave it to him, feeling that Loon's embrace of nature, his quirky playfulness, and his love of women and dance would capture Noah's interest, but he never got around to reading it. For me, reading it after Noah's death was joyful and heartrending.
