My website Amazon Category:  Historical Fiction Publisher: Amazon, Smashwords ISBN-10:  1465921028 Type: Fiction Pages: 320 Copyright: July 17, 2011 ISBN-13: 9781465921024 By 1,250 AD the Great Mound of Cahokia on the Mississippi River was the center of the largest North American empire, populated more densely than the 13th-century London. A hundred years later the Great Mound lay abandoned. “The Cahokian” is a historical novel, based on the final years of that empire. The chief warlord of Cahokia - a magnificent center of the Mississippians - is embroiled in a dangerous political conspiracy.  An attempt to escape the consequences brings him northwards, up the O-hi-o River and into the lands of the powerful League of the Iroquois, where his life takes a very unexpected turn. Excerpt The river sparkled far below, gleaming lazily in the soft daylight. Fitting the harvest season, the sun had already lost some of its fiery heat, spreading pleasant warmth between the dwellings. The priest of the Thunder God made his way through the maze of the alleys. Without the ceremonial make-up and the impressive head-piece worn by the servants of the gods, his face appeared young and plain; however his slim body was clad in the priest’s robe and the passersby paid him respect befitting his status. “Will the Great God show us some mercy?” called out a woman from a one of the alleyways. She sat upon a mat, arms covered with a sticky bright mixture of clay, surrounded by unfinished vessels, as she worked and gossiped with her neighbors. He returned her a smile, not slowing his pace. “We are doing our best to appease the Great God. We hope to obtain His favor next season.” Behind his back he could hear her launching into a loud argument with her companions. As he turned toward the river, the countless rows of mats, piled with food and ornaments spread to his left and he picked his way carefully, eyeing the items, searching for oil required in the rituals at his beautiful temple. His eyes lingered upon a young girl. A long, shiny mass of a black hair streamed over her shoulders, hiding her face, but revealing the softness of the arms busy arranging small jars of sunflower oil in a flat-bottomed straw basket. He slowed his pace and stood beside her and she lifted her head and smiled. However her smile faded quickly. The wide eyes narrowed. “I need two jars,” he said, saddened by the gloomy expression that spoiled her beauty. Her frown deepened. “And one won’t be enough?” He shook his head patiently. “The Great God needs two jars of oil.” “And I need something to return home with! I didn’t work on all those sunflowers to give my oil for free.” “The God repays us with good storms and useful flooding. Without His water your sunflowers will not grow at all.” The girl bit her lip, knowing she had no choice – every need of the royal family and the temples was taken without compensation. That was the law. However her goods were expensive. She worked hard to produce those small amounts of oil, some of which went to pay for the jars. A wave of compassion swept over him. He cleared his throat, finding it hard to take his eyes off her fresh face. “I will bring the jars back,” he said in a low voice. Then, without knowing how to keep his word, he added: “I will refill them both with something else.” She gazed at him inquiringly, the large eyes widening. Then the lines upon her forehead vanished and a broad smile lit her face. It took his breath away and suddenly the noise of the market seemed to fade. The air stood still. But the girl’s face changed. Startled, she turned toward the river, and the magic was gone. Abruptly he realized that the ethereal silence surrounding him was real and had nothing to do with the wild pounding of his heart. All around him people leaped to their feet, their mats abandoned, craning their necks for a glimpse of the river. Its gleaming surface was clearly visible from this vantage point, now dotted with swiftly multiplying dark form, which kept appearing beyond the bend, ominously organized. “Canoes!” gasped terrified voices. “An entire fleet of them!” screamed someone, setting off a wave of panic. The traders scattered to collect their goods; the shoppers ran for their lives; the produce was trampled underfoot. The young priest stood still, staring at the river, unaware of the chaos raging around him. Now the canoes were seen clearly, ranged in lines of four, row after row, advancing steadily against the strong current. Most of the vessels were long and light, unmistakably war canoes, although he noticed that some of the boats were broader, shaped like these of the merchants. He tried to decipher the symbols that must have been engraved on the sides of the leading vessels but from this distance he could not make them out.

Loved it, great read!
This was a fast read for such a large book. I had never known anything about the Cahokian culture and this time period. The descriptions were excellent and sucked me right in. The story flowed well but it does remind you how brutal and cheap life was back then. You can loose your life in a gambling game, sacrificed to stop the bad weather, used as a pawn in a land grab battle for politicians, family power grabs or simply a macho duel of egos. This is was a wonderful and fascinating time period that has been greatly ignored. The author defiantly did her homework and kept a tough topic very interesting. I liked the characters and it was well edited. The ending wrapped up nicely and does not toy with the reader. I am looking forward to what Zoe comes up with next!

Ambition, honor, and culture clash in the ancient Americas
In the 13th century, the massive Great Mound of Cahokia in the Mississippi Valley supported a huge city and the accompanying civilization. In the following centuries, this complex civilization would collapse. The Cahokian follows the unexpected life course of a warlord, Acoto, of this expansionist culture. The author examines cross-cultural familiarity in her exploration of the common human traits of ambition, attraction, and adaptation, but also provides something fresh in that the story spotlights a culture that has received little coverage in fiction.

At the heart of the story is the aforementioned Acoto. A proud, ambitious man, he finds himself embroiled in political struggle that thrusts him far away from his home. The author uses him as the lens to explore both the Cahokian/Mississipian culture and the Native cultures of the Ohio River Valley. Acoto is well-developed, and the author does a fine job of presenting his motivations, justifying his actions, and making him sympathetic despite his violent occuptation. This is a particular feat as though there are various struggles presented in the course of the novel, his various foes, depending on circumstance, are far from evil, nor their actions not understandable. The Cahokian also does a good job of presenting two very different Native cultures of North America, allowing the reader to understand their mindsets, and also showing how ambition is a disease of all civilizations. Good secondary character development helps in presenting both the sympathetic and not so sympathetic people of both cultures.

I'm far more familiar with the Native groups of the west coast in recent centuries than the cultures of this time and region, so I can't speak to the total historical accuracy of everything in The Cahokian, but the fine level of detail certainly brought a strong verisimilitude to my reading experience. The novel seems well-researched. There are a few portions where, to my knowledge, the author has to fill in details, as our understanding of the Cahokian/Mississipian culture isn't as extensive as it perhaps should be, but none of it rings false, and it all fits in well with the more directly grounded elements.

While this extensive, at times educational, level of detail does a good job of taking the reader into the time and mindset of these ancient peoples, it also contributes to some of the weaknesses of the novel. There's a flagging tension in the second act as the book focuses more on cultural exploration. Depending on your tastes, this may not bother you, but it made portions of the second act feel slow to me. Even though the detailed discussion of the cultural differences was justified by the circumstances presented in the book, there were just a bit too many scenes where Acoto and others sit there and discuss the differences in their respective cultures. Thus, at times, it came off as more pedagogical than engaging. While such scenes were interesting from an educational standpoint, they damaged the pacing of the novel.

Similarly, there is such a thing as too much attention to detail, particularly linguistic detail when writing a story in a language other than the one used by the characters in the story. As someone who spent a number of years involved in linguistics and translation, I understand the urge of linguistic accuracy, but fiction is a different sort of beast. This sort of problem was a minor issue when it came to the rendering of certain Native names and places. There is a skill to rendering names from foreign languages in a story meant for general consumption. A reader otherwise unfamiliar with the language should be able to at least approximate all the sounds use. Several words were rendered partially with non-alphabetic symbols whose meaning was never defined or made clear. The overall result is that this fidelity to phonetic accuracy ended up being distracting more than enlightening.

Acoto, as a warrior and a warlord, is involved in more than his fair share of battles. One might question the relative tactical disparity sometimes displayed by others in comparison to Acoto, but all the battle scenes had a nice tension about them and successfully communicated both the excitement and fear of battle without being overwhelming or fixating on violence for the sake of violence.

Overall, anyone interesting in a story about a man learning more about himself as he bridges two ancient Native North American cultures would be served well by picking up The Cahokian.


An amazing trip into the lives and cultures of others
I was left with tears in my eyes at the intensity of the lessons learned by all involved in this wonderful novel. A tremendous achievement in terms of a historical novel. It was written with care and love. As though the author knew the terrain, loved the people.

Zoe Saadia managed to reel me in the very first chapter with sing song writing and delightful metaphors. Instead of Autumn or Fall, we hear of the season of falling leaves. I loved her writing. Loved the love story behind it all.

In the end I found the life lessons real and applicable in our modern times. We believe ourselves to be cultured, educated and scientific. Yet, when we meet other cultures that we deemed barbaric, we see that they are also people with their own merits and strengths.

I loved this book. A little sad that it ended.