Book Review of #2 The Horses at the gate by Mary Mackey

Name of book: The Horses at the gate

Author Name: Mary Mackey

ISBN: 0-451-40723-7

Publisher: Onyx fiction

Type of book: Adult, pre-historical fiction

Year it was published: 1995

Part of a series: The Year the Horses Came, before, Fires of Spring afterwards

Summary:

In the year 4368 BC, Marrah, daughter of the peace-loving shore people, has fled captivity from the nomad warrior horde who have a lust for carnage and conquest that is alien to her. Across a landscape of frozen steppes and trackless forest, she and her companions must evade the horsenemn before they reach her beloved homeland by the sweetwater sea. Making escape even more dangerous is hte presence of her lover, Stavan, who has abandoned his place of honor among the nomads to join her in her flight and ally himself wiht the Mother Goddess. Marrah is forced to puer convictions and courage to the supreme test-as she risks everything she and her people hold dear-in a struggle that will change the prehistoric world forever...

Characters:
Unfortunately I don't remember too much about the characters in the book. I remember the battle at the end, that Stavan came around, and Marrah accepted her destiny whether she liked it nor, but beyond that nothing memorable about them. (To be honest when it comes to books, I don't have bad memory, but its just that its hard to remember books that you don't care for much.)

Theme
The theme seems to be stooping down to the enemy's level so to speak to defeat them, or fighting for what you believe in. I also personally think that the author should have left off with this book and not gone farther in writing the sequel to it. (More about that later...)

Plot
Before reading this book, its a pretty good idea to read the first one in the series because this one continues where the other has left off with little or no background story from the first one.

Author information:

Mary Mackey is the author of six novels, including A Grand Passion, THe kindness of strangers, and season of shadows. A poet, screenwriter, and critic, she cofounded the Feinimist Writers' Guild and is a professor of ENglish and Writer-in-residence at California State University, Sacramento.


Opinion
If I remember right, this tells of the aftermath that Marrah and others have to face when they return back to the Motherlands. This was not as interesting as the prequel and was boring in some parts I have to admit. I am not sure of what else to say about this book. Out of the series I got this book first but read it second. This also details the actions of nomads after Marrah and Stavan escape, also mentions how Stavan's brother controls and rules. Unfortunately this is a little too biased because the author focuses a lot on the positives of the Motherlands, while too much negativity on the nomads.

3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)