Another good one if you like learning about native American history within a good story. This series is about the brutal way Hernado de Soto and other early Spanish explorers made there way through America by killing and en slaving thousands of natives. Not what the history books taught us about these people. ( )

This is the first book I've read by these authors, and I REALLY liked it a lot. Admittedly, it's the sort of book I like, but these folks did a fantastic job of telling it. I've now downloaded another of their books onto my Kindle, and will be getting to it soon..

Read my complete review at my website:

http://neilhanson.com/2011/book-review-coming-of-the-storm ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

"Coming of the Storm" was amazing! There's really no other way to put it. When it arrived, I decided I would just read a page or two (a chapter at the most) and then catch up on some work around the house. That didn't happen. I just couldn't put the book down! Page after page, I was lost in another place and time, and had no idea that hours had passed by. It was difficult placing the bookmark between the pages, and sitting the book aside.

I confess... I love historical fiction, and have read quite a bit over the past few year. I honestly have to say, this has probably been the best piece of historical fiction that I have read so far. The Gears brought Native America to life, and made Black Shell and Pearl Hand so vivid and lifelike. I felt like I had been transported back to their time, sitting around the fire with them, feeling the heat, tasting the food, and feeling the fear and anger; all as if I was really there witnessing everything.

I recommend this book for older teens and adults, because of the graphic nature of what happened to the Native Americans during the time of de Soto's conquest. It was terrible and the horror will stay with you long after the book is finished. There is also a bit of sex involved, but most is lightly described. One particular incident is descriptive, however, it is in a dream, and can easily be skipped over since the dream is italicized, if that is a problem. ( )