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    Shaman's Blood
    Shaman's Blood
    Shaman's Blood
    Ebook385 pages6 hours

    Shaman's Blood

    By Anne Petty

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    When a hungry Quinkan steps into an Australian conjure-man’s ritual circle deep in a Queensland cave in 1880, the results are hellish and far-reaching. Stuck like a wasp to flypaper, the shape-shifting terror of Dreamtime legend clings to the sorcerer’s unlucky descendants down through the centuries until now, in a modern southern town, Alice Waterston and her daughter Margaret, the last of the bloodline, confront the demon from the Outback shadows. Can Alice figure out how to send the dimension-hopping Quinkan back where it belongs before it makes its final desperate move? Her long-dead father may have left her the means, if she has the nerve to use it!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJournalStone
    Release dateAug 1, 2011
    ISBN9781936564224
    Shaman's Blood
    Author

    Anne Petty

    P. V. LeForge lives on a horse farm in north Florida with his wife Sara Warner. He is the author of four books of poetry as well as several novels, plays, and story collections. In addition to writing, he does farm chores, plays music, and shoots target archery. Check out his other books in both ebook and paperback from your favorite online retailers.Anne Petty was the author of three horror/dark-fantasy novels, three books of literary criticism, and many essays on writing, mythology, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Before her death of cancer in July, 2013, she was an active member of the Horror Writers Association and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. In 2006, she founded Kitsune Books, a small press specializing in literary fiction and book-length poetry collections.

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    Reviews for Shaman's Blood

    3.5/5

    84 ratings38 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was a really good book. It got me excited towards the end and that's where the problem lies. It got me excited towards THE END. It was dragging. Most of the time I stop reading because it made me so sleepy. The author has a lot of repetitions. I did not read the 1st book in the series but based on the this one I got a fair idea what happened because it was on repeat. She takes her time with story-telling. This book has a lot of promise but maybe she can be more concise and less dizzying.
    • 4/5
      I found it to be a good read. Although second in a series, it does a pretty good job of making the story be understood without necessarily having to read the first one.
    • 4/5
      I was very excited to read this book. The characters were very engaging. As a college student, I MADE time to read this book.
    • 4/5
      A gripping urban fantasy that makes good use of the supernatural elements of cultural mythology.This is a definite page turner. The story unfolds over three separate generations, each bringing a different experience and point of view to the evens happening around them. The mystery element blends well with the supernatural creepiness, leaving readers trying to work out exactly who's who and what happened to each of them… and more importantly, why.One thing I definitely enjoyed about this book was the respect the author showed to the many difference cultures mentioned and explored in the story - the youth culture, in Margaret, the modern and not so modern Southern US culture (and I defy anyone to tell me there is no such thing - I'm married to a Southerner and I would say they're definitely a unique group of people), and of course the Australian Aboriginal culture that underpins the story. It provided a fascinating glimpse into the mysteries surrounding those ancient peoples.Well written throughout, with seamless transitions between sections that make sense for them to occur where they do, this book kept me turning pages to find out more, to take a step closer to the answers and to share the nightmarish journey of the main characters in their search to uncover the truth about themselves, their past, and how to right the wrong that was done in the first place. I therefore found myself only a little bit disappointed when there was not complete resolution at the end of the novel, but I suppose the author must leave something for her characters to do in the next book.Speaking of which, although this is the second book in a tetralogy, I had no previous knowledge of the events in the first book, and did not find my understanding was in any way lacking because of this. The required foreknowledge seems to be seamlessly integrated into the telling of the second tale, (without the pitfall of the infodump that could have been an easy trap to fall into). The overall result is an enjoyable and gripping supernatural mystery that kept me turning the pages until the very end.
    • 3/5
      I took me a while to get interested in the book, but once I got into it I had to finish it. It was, however, incredibly creepy (definitely not my typical read). I must say the author has quite the knack for suspense. If that's your cup of tea, you will love this book!
    • 4/5
      The story stood up well on its own for a second book in a series. Until I read some other reviews, I would not have known. It is a good story, told well with a good use of flashbacks to keep a good tie between the two main characters. And good enough to make me want to find the rest of the series.
    • 2/5
      This novel is a multi-generational story that takes the reader from the bayous of the Florida Everglades to the barren rock of the North Australian bush. It traverses the drug-fueled trance visions of the sixties to the cyber chat rooms of the present day. Along the way the reader will encounter snake-handling churches, ritualistic blood magic, Australian Aboriginal Dreamland mythology, and miscellaneous monsters galore. The story is told half in the past and half in the present. It explains how Alice and her teenage daughter Margaret became haunted by evil Australian spirits. Alice's father, Ned, whom she never met, is part of a long line of shamans. Somewhere back in the family, a wrong was done to the Dingo clan and as a result Ned's family line is cursed and pursued by avenging monsters. Only when a stolen artifact is returned will Alice and her daughter be able to get on with their lives. This is the second book in a series, so there were a lot of things I didn't understand and a lot of things that didn't get wrapped up. Even taking that into consideration, I just didn't enjoy this book. The writing was alright but the characters were flat and the plotting was overly scripted and sometimes abrupt. More than that, nothing really happens in this book. We learn about Ned's life and (eventually) about how he became cursed and what he must do. Meanwhile we learn about Alice and her search to uncover the truth about her family. But no action is taken and no progress is made. The curse has yet to be broken and all this book does is set up the final book. Also, I felt like Ned's story line just dragged and dragged. It could have all been summed up in a few pages but instead it probably took upwards of a hundred or more. It just seemed extremely futile and unsatisfying. In the end, reading this book did not make me want to read either the first book or the next books in the series.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed this book but annoyed by the ending? Too much of a cliff hanger.
    • 3/5
      Interesting read. I didn't know it was a part of a series as other reviewers have said. I'd like to read the parts before it so I could understand it better. Still a good book. I recommend it especially to those who like realistic Fantasy as I do!
    • 3/5
      This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.When I received this book, I was unaware that it was part of a series. Had I known beforehand and read the first book before this one, my review might be better. I also wonder if I received a truncated version as all of the book details I've seen mention 272 pages, and my copy only had 188 pages.The story makes superb use of alternating timelines and point-of-view characters between Ned Waterston, his daughter Alice, and her daughter Margaret, each of whom are psychic to varying degrees. The family is further connected by a shared demon from Australia's Aboriginal Dreamtime, the quinkan, which is affecting their waking lives as it attempts to make them break the curse that holds it to their world.The Australian and supernatural aspects of the book are a bit one-dimensional as though the author were unfamiliar with Australian culture, white or aboriginal, and had simply wished to bring some new variant to American horror fans. On the one hand, I'm all for experiencing new cultures; on the other, I'd have much preferred an author more familiar with aboriginal (or at the very least, white Australian) culture and beliefs about the Dreamtime. Other reviewers have mentioned that the aboriginal aspects are somewhat less than wholly accurate. Regardless, readers equally unfamiliar with the culture will probably enjoy it, but those more familiar may wish to pass (or at least be prepared).While starting with book two didn't hurt my enjoyment over-much, the book definitely felt as though it were missing an ending. As mentioned previously, this may be due to a truncated version, but other reviews have led me to suspect I may have felt this way even with all 272 pages. I can't really recommend this book (even to readers wholly unfamiliar with the Australian/aboriginal culture) unless the reader already has books one and three, at least. As it seems there are plans for this to be a quartet, it might even be best to wait until one has all four.
    • 5/5
      I received a copy of this book from a LibraryThing member giveaway free of charge in exchange for my honest review.When I won this book, I wasn't aware that it was the second in a series. A lot of times that doesn't really matter, and you can read any book in a series and still know basically what's going on, but I have to say that that is NOT the case here! I was very lost and had trouble following the story line, but I was definitely intrigued by the aboriginal dreamtime aspect of the book, and decided that I wanted to read it. I bought the first book in the series, Thin Line Between, and enjoyed it immensely! Thin Line Between sets up the story, but Shaman's Blood really delves into the meaning behind the aboriginal dreamtime visions that the characters have, and explains the back story by actually telling two stories in one: the present day tale of Alice and her daughter, Margaret, and the story of Ned, Alice's father, and his quest to find the truth back in the 1950's and 60's. While Shaman's' Blood does jump back and forth from the past to the present and back again, it is not as confusing as it sounds, and I found it quite easy to follow which time period I was reading about. I really like how book two fleshed out the story of how Alice's family acquired their Quinkan!! There were lots of surprises regarding this, let me tell you!The writing was, as usual for Ms. Petty, impeccable! The characters were totally three dimensional, even the supporting characters. The world building was awesome, with exceptional descriptions that made you feel like you were looking at the aboriginal cave drawings right along with Ned and Suzanne. I thought the pace of the story was even smoother than it was in Thin Line Between. All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I do recommend reading Thin Line Between first, although I have read other reviews where they thought it wasn't necessary. It's just my personal opinion, of course, but I don't think I would have appreciated Shaman's Blood as much as I did had I not read Thin Line Between first. After reading so much about werewolves, witches and vampires lately, it was nice t
    • 2/5
      It took me a long time to get through this book. It was slow going in the beginning and then ended abruptly. I didn't realize it was part of a series. I found the Aborigne mythology interesting but it seemed out of place coming from Florida. Doubt if I will look up the other books
    • 3/5
      This did not keep my attention. I had a hard time following the story and the charactors seemed very one dimensional.
    • 2/5
      This book took too much to get into. I struggled through it for over a month. Although it had a decent plot and story line, there was no character development. It also did not pick up until about 3/4 through the book. A lot of the language was unfamiliar also.
    • 3/5
      Well.... This was a review book from "Library Thing" which I only requested to see if I would get it and not because I actually paid any attention to what it was. I kind of had to groan a little when I saw the cover. I don't do snakes. I have a rather pathological fear of them. As in I have snake nightmares at least once or twice a month. But... I enjoyed this book. It was kind of cool to read something different for a change, something I never would have picked out myself. The Australian mythology was especially cool. Aus is one of those places I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever, but reading this book made the place a little more interesting for me. I still won't go there - too many snakes - but I like that it has a rich culture that I never actually considered before.
    • 2/5
      Appalling. How can someone just 'acquire' the sacred myths and legends of a people who hold them dear? The stories of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia are for the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. To have them basically used and abused in this manner horrifies me. And the writer doesn't even thank anyone for the use of the traditional stories.That being said, the story itself is decent enough, modern fantasy that doesn't use European-based mythology is uncommon and this was written well. I just wish the author had a bit more sensitivity in regards to her material.
    • 1/5
      I'm having trouble finishing this book - not so much because of the storytelling, but because I feel uncomfortable at the thought of how upset many Elders would be at having stories used by a non-Aboriginal person in this way. (I think it was Garth Nix who had to remove concepts of Aboriginal spirituality from a short story because no Australian publisher would touch it otherwise.)
    • 5/5
      The best stories don't burst from the author's mind fully-formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus. Rather, they are in our DNA, nurtured over the centuries by successive generations, until the simple seed of an idea has grown into an archetype to which we can all relate. In her excellent book, Shaman's Blood, Anne Petty continues the time honored tradition of dipping into these foundational stories and crafting a modern story of her own. But what makes her book even more remarkable is that she chooses as her inspiration the legends of aboriginal Australia, something of which most of her readers are probably unfamiliar. It's a risky move, but Petty so easily and seamlessly integrates these legends into modern America that our lack of familiarity with them is not jarring. Rather, our ignorance only adds to the darkness and the mystery that surrounds the main characters, as we travel with them into the unknown.Fundamentally, Shaman's Blood is the history—past, present, and future—of a family. Petty plays with time throughout the novel, traveling back and forth between periods as distinct as ancient Australia, turn of the century Florida, San Francisco in the 1960s, and the present. By doing so, as we learn about Alice and her daughter Margarette, we also come to understand Alice's father, Ned, and the horror that drives the hostility that Alice's mother, Suzanne, feels towards her. But it's not all domestic drama. An ancient evil stalks Alice's family, one driven by the crime of an ancestor she never even knew existed. And if Alice can't right this wrong, committed decades before she was born, that evil will not only destroy her, but her daughter as well.I enjoyed so many of the things Petty does in Shaman's Blood that it's hard to know where to start. The horror itself is fantastic, drawing upon many of our darkest terrors, including that ancient and fairly universal fear of snakes. Her knowledge of Australian mythology is voluminous (Or else she does a very good job of faking it). Perhaps more importantly, she never overwhelms us or confuses us with that mythology. Rather, she slowly works it into the narrative in a way that feels natural and easy. The characters are complex and interesting, with personalities and flaws all their own. I found myself rooting for them because of those flaws more than I would if Petty had simply given us hero stereotypes. I was also interested to learn this is a sequel to Petty's earlier Thin Line Between. I am happy to report that no prior knowledge is required to enjoy Shaman's Blood, though if you are like me, you'll probably want to check out Thin Line Between when you finish.All in all, Shaman's Blood is a fascinating and entertaining journey into ancient legends and cultures. I recommend it highly. Just watch out for snakes. --Brett Talley, author of the award-winning novel, That Which Should Not Be.
    • 5/5
      Shaman’s Blood by Anne PettyCadjer Harrow was a wicked half blood Australian Aboriginal Shaman who lived in the nineteenth century. He was also a thief. Harrow stole a clan tjuringa or totem and transported it to Florida where he founded a small church which burned and another was built in its place. This church, although not mentioned often in the book, underlies much of the story. Harrow was not without descendants and each of these bore the curse he had harvested into the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The curse demanded that the tjuringa be found and brought back to Australia and to its clan. The problem is that none of the descendants know this. They are haunted for generations in one state of consciousness or another, and in ignorance, by a demon or Quinkan which was loosed by the theft.Anne Petty is a J.R.R. Tolkien scholar whose work encompasses mythology. She knows both the joys and horrors contained in folklore and she applies this knowledge to Aboriginal Dreamtime. It works.The characters, and their horrific backgrounds, are developed by moving back and forth through space, time, and individual. Early in the reading, this may be a little difficult for the reader but it is good training for understanding how Dreamtime works. As the haunting passes through the generations of Harrow’s bloodline, it too passes through time, distance, and the minds of his descendants…tormenting them. Petty takes the reader through the dread, terror, and insanity they feel because the offspring have no idea why. The haunting is by snakes and she knows how to make us feel afraid from words right into the reptilian center of our hind brain. She takes the reader directly to the snakes and their venom. Petty is terrific. One of the cursed people is Alice Waterston, a member of the penultimate generation, and a curator of art for a Florida Museum who takes an interest in Harrow out of curiosity and for the protection of her own mind. She is able to unravel the many twists and turns of Dreamtime where the navigation aids are all in the heads of Aboriginal Senior Men. She discovers not only what the tjuringa is, but where it is hidden. I am not quite sure where Petty is at her strongest: making one feel the dread that Dreamtime can place in someone else’s head, or presenting the bits of information that need to be pieced together, then doing just that for the reader, and for Alice. These two rudiments are the wonderful substance of the book, and what made me embrace it with each reading.The story ends suddenly with Alice’s discoveries, strongly suggestive there will be a sequel because things still have to be done to eliminate the curse. Who will do them? Well, there is Alice and her fourteen year old daughter. We are also left with the nature of the entity governing all of this of which there are only hints in this story. I await the sequel and suspect that Tolkien would.
    • 3/5
      I hadn't realised when I started this book that it was the second in a series, which may have coloured my initial impressions of it. I found it very difficult to get into at first, partly because of the repeated references to earlier events that were never actually explained - it wasn't until I realised that there was an earlier book in the series that these began to make sense.Once I'd got past the first few chapters, I enjoyed the book more. It starts off very slowly, but once the story picks up it becomes a bit of a page-turner. I liked the use of the Aboriginal dreamtime legends to pin everything together - it made me want to learn more about Dreamtime!I wasn't overly impressed with the language of the book - some of the descriptions seemed a bit laboured and heavy-handed to me. There were areas where the dialogue didn't quite ring true either - notably in the chapter told from the POV of the protagonist's teenaged daughter. Teenage vernacular is difficult for any writer to get right, and I just found it a little cringeworthy to be suddenly reading sentences like "He was so made of win she could hardly stand it".Overall, I did enjoy Shaman's Blood, and while I'm not quite motivated enough to go back and read the first in the series (I think I can pretty much work out what happened from this book), I will probably read the next one when it's published.
    • 4/5
      This was an interesting read - the complicated double-strand, multi-perspective structure, multiplied by a story line that moves between levels of reality, could so easily have collapsed into an unreadable lump, but is instead deftly handled to draw the reader in - this was a real page turner. I've read a couple of books which have tied to do something similar with the use of Aboriginal Dreamtime and this was by far the most successful - disorienting sometimes, but anchored in its own logic, and well balanced with the very solid-feeling well researched historical and contemporary scenes. I didn't realise at first that this is the second in a series - it didn't stop me enjoying the book, although the rather rapid wrapping up of threads at the end does feel more like a pause to close Book 2, rather than the end of the story.
    • 3/5
      Shaman's Blood walks the reader through an interesting family line. It takes you through different time periods and provided a unique perspective on hereditary Shamanism. The writing style is quite descriptive.  I felt that it was overdone at some points in the story. My first impressions of this story were not great. The writing style takes some getting used to. Once I was able to get over the multitude of commas, I enjoyed the story. I also found it particularly interesting that I finished reading it on the date of the last Chapter: Thursday September 8, present day. 
    • 3/5
      Shaman's Blood is an okay read. It is a good book but nothing outstanding or spectacular. Any person who finds himself interested in the tale of a dark family with a curse/demon and mystical skills should give this book a try. My favorite part of the book was Petty's style of writing that consisted of chapters occurring at two separate lifetimes to share a tale of family and how each life affects a later one or is in turn affected by an ancestor.
    • 2/5
      Shaman's Blood is split between 2 time periods. In the 1950s-60s, Ned is the orphaned son of a young man beset by fits and visions and his wife - an older pseudo-seer who uses her own son's blood for her potions. He is on a quest to find out what inhabits him and to find the woman in one of his visionary drawings. In present day, there's Alice, who never knew her father and whose emotionally difficult mother has just passed away. Alice and her daughter Margaret are also haunted and hunted by visions and Aboriginal demons. While it sounded like it could be kind of fun and interesting, in execution it just wasn't well written. This affected my overall impression of the book so early on it became difficult to overcome. In the right hands, descriptive writing and a broad vocabulary become something lyrical and wonderful to read. Not here, where sentences are burdened with an unnecessarily over-used thesaurus and awkward similes. The author tries to use local dialect and language for the time and place (e.g., the 60s sections are peppered with 'groovy'; the present day young daughter Margaret uses lots of text-speak and phrases like 'epic WIN'), but it feels forced and inauthentic. At times, it was like reading mediocre teen fiction, but then there was too much else about it that wouldn't make it appropriate to categorize that way."By the time the whisky slammed into his cerebellum big time, Ned knew he'd made a cold, hard mistake, the kind there was no backing away from, because he felt it coming at him full tilt." (p. 35)Ugh. After that, it was a matter of finishing and moving on. I didn't read the book prior to this, and this one clearly sets up a sequel. I don't feel the need to read either.
    • 4/5
      Overall, I enjoyed Shaman's Blood. I knew from early on that Petty was a good writer, and that kept me going through a plot that initially felt contrived. I really felt that I should have found and read the first book in the series so that I could understand what was going on here in book two. But as I began to understand how all of the pieces fit together, I focused less on construction and became caught up in the story. Petty's use of the aboriginal spiritual world was new and intriguing to me, and made the novel unique. That is definitely a plus in a genre currently filled with vampires and werewolves. My main criticism of the book is that it doesn't function very well as a stand-alone novel. The back story is too complex to gloss over, and the end isn't really an ending. The story undergoes a quick deflation in the last few pages, rather than having a proper conclusion. It essentially cries out for a sequel. If/when Petty produces a follow-up, I look forward to reading it.
    • 5/5
      I greatly enjoyed this book and tore through it. It was a pain reading a PDF format but the quality of the plot and character development made me soon forget that problem. The story is successfully told by changing story lines from the past and present. This creates a definite "page-turner" experience as the reader cannot wait to find out what happens next. A highly recommended book. I am really looking foreword to more from this author!
    • 4/5
      This was a review copy from the author, read on my Kindle.Anne C. Petty has done a nice job of blending today and yesterday with the beliefs of the Australian Aborigine People. A very interesting story line with well developed characters. I did not realize this was part of a series, until I read an another reviewers comments. It was easy to pick up, in what turns out to be the middle of a series, and find my way through the story. You are definitely left wanting to find out how the story ends. I'll be interested in reading the previous story and look forward to the sequel.I'm rating 4-Stars for a good read, that I'd consider re-reading sometime in the future.
    • 4/5
      Okay. This is the second part. It was okay but at times distracting going back and forth. I will read again later.
    • 4/5
      This is not the first book in the series, but I found that it was rather easy to jump in to the things that were happening just as they were written. I think that many will be able to pick up this book and fall quickly into The Dreamtime, guided by the book's beautiful imagery and imaginative telling.Shaman's Blood is the story of one family's struggle to rid themselves of a demon that began haunting them deep within the roots of their family tree, but it is told in parts, through time so that the reader's interest is kept even more intently on the story. What do these people have in common with those in Australia? What relationship do they have with each other? Why are snakes and other things plaguing them so? These and many more questions come up and are answered with each turn of the page, a little at a time, until all is revealed.There is most obviously going to be another book to follow this one, as much is left hanging, but that only makes the story more intriguing. I found the winding of Aboriginal Australian culture into the American family home to be very interesting. Many Americans think they know their histories, many know that there are gaps, but do any of us really know the story behind our ancestors? How does a light skinned family in Florida have roots with their dark skin "neighbors" or the native peoples in Australia?Very well written in each time period, kept me turning the pages all the way through.Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it. I also give bonus points for Text To Speech enabling on Kindle format.... but that also wasn't a factor in the above review.
    • 4/5
      Shaman’s Blood by Anne C. Petty is a story of a family who has been cursed because of something done by an ancestor. In the Outback of Australia the Aboriginal tribe of the Dingo Clan had their sacred object, the tjuringa, stolen by Minister Harrow. He took this sacred tjuringa to Florida and used it for evil purposes that caused a curse to be placed on him and his descendants until someone rights the wrong that has been done. The problem is that his descendants are so removed from the Australian Outback that they know nothing of the legends of the Aboriginal tribes and their spirit world, nor do they understand what is happening or how to solve the problem. Will Ned be able to find out why he has strange seizures and dreams and be able to stop them? Will Alice be able to stop the Quinkan from harming Margaret? Will someone be able to finally put the curse to rest once and for all?I found this story riveting to say the least. I spent the whole weekend reading it, practically non-stop. The story was believable, the settings realistic and the characters well developed. Ms Petty knows how to tell a good story. This story is not the type of story I usually read. I usually read SF/Fantasy but the description caught my attention and I decided to try it. I am glad I did.

    Book preview

    Shaman's Blood - Anne Petty

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