Wind Follower
Carole McDonnell
Juno Books

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The reader is drawn right into the tale as we meet Loic who is speaking. Loic tells us he will tell us first how Krika died. Kirka’s shaman flather brought Kirka before the elders at the Spirit Shrine, the sacrificial mound called Skull Place by the clan. He was bound, the skin of his face had been flayed away, he was weeping and crying out for mercy. While Loic was surprised, he forgave Kirka, who could bear such pain with weeping. Kirka has disobeyed his father’s demand that he pay obeisance to the spirits and now he will be sacrificed as part of the monthly sacrifice ritual. Kirka lay where he had fallen beneath a hail of stones.

"Wind Follower" is centered on Loic tyu Taer and Satha tya Monua a married couple from different tribes. The various major tribes mentioned in the tale are set apart both by race and color. Tribes include white skinned, light skinned and dark skinned clans. It is not just skin color which sets the various groups apart, each tribe or clan is directed by its own set of fairly rigid and ironclad, collective mores, distinctiveness, social customs and even physical appearance beyond light or dark skin.

One group brings to mind an Asian influence, another appears as African, while a third seems to be a blend of more than one group. Plus, there is a mystical clan made up of a throng of beings who intermingle with the native peoples in diverse manner, some benign, some seemingly without merit and some not entirely munificent.

Loic is from the light skinned clan while Satha is quite dark.

Writer McDonnell draws upon her extensive research into ancient African tribal customs to set down an explanation of the rituals, customs and personalities of the various groups and present a clash of societies where cultural mores and customs are absolute law. To break a social more might well lead to individual death, or even to war among the factions.

When the wealthy Doreni Pagatsu son of the king's First Captain first sees Satha, a gentle, dark skinned beauty, from a poor Theseni clan in the marketplace he knows that he wants her to be his wife. Satha’s kindness extended towards some members of Loci's clan is viewed resentfully by various of the clan and will direct to her being brutally raped. The assault causes the death of first child. Loic and Satha will be forever at odds emotionally, psychologically, and finally physically because of the loss.

Filled with fantasy overtones "Wind Follower" is a story of ancient African cultures and their mores, ethnicity and way of life in which the thesis of ancestor and spirit veneration are entwined with a compelling Christian message. Writer McDonnell does not shy from issues religion, class or of race. The setting of the narrative coming in the form of fantasy; serves to cause the tale to be even more out of the ordinary.

First person accounts can be thorny to pull off with integrity. Not only does Writer McDonnell employ first person as her protocol for getting this narrative chronicled, but, on the pages of "Wind Follower" she interweaves the separate stories of the two main characters: Loic and Satha "and" manages to use first person effectively not once but twice. Loic and Satha each recount their own portion of the narrative. That McDonnell is a capable writer and master storyteller is obvious as she adroitly manages to give each character their own unique voice.

The various societies, settings and characters as portrayed by writer McDonnell are credible. "Wind Follower" is a chronicle that attracts the reader, draws the reader right into the striking, fully developed and even at times catastrophic setting of Ibeni, Doreni, Thesini.

Loic is a man on a mission when he sets out to locate and kill the man who violated his wife. Tragedy strikes Satha once again during the time her husband is battling dark forces in his search to find Noam. Satha is seize and sold into slavery. Loic too has much the same fate as the pair depair, not knowing the fate of the other, whether they will ever reunite or if they will even again return to their homes.

"Wind Follower" is a sociologist’s dream novel. The book sets down cultures, with all their qualities and persona in a compelling read that brings the reader to understanding more of social more and importance of taboo and cultural dictates without sounding preachy or causing the reader to feel overwhelmed in the minutiae.

Not for everyone, happy to recommend for those who enjoy a novel that brings about some thinking as well as reading