Sorceress

This is the sequel to Witch Child, continue the story of Mary, but this time viewed through the eyes of Agnes Herne who has powers of her own and "sees" some of the things that Mary went through. She is befriended by a university scientist who is also studying Mary's history.

She goes to visit her aunt, a medicine woman in her own right, who has some things that actually belonged to Mary. That part of the story is the central axis around which the vast majority of the novel, more things that happened to Mary, revolve.

This is a very realistic story, showing that Mary was able to achieve some happiness, but also had to undergo even more suffering. For anyone who wants a really good look at how the early Native Americans and white settlers interacted, this is a good book. It helps to show that the Native Americans never really stood a chance of stopping the white settlers from eventually driving them out of their ancestral lands. The sheer numbers of the whites and the level of their technology proved to be too much for the Native American tribes.

One of the terrible things that happened historically is also shown, in that the Native Americans did not have immunities to the diseases the settlers brought with them, especially smallpox, and the result was a terrible loss of live for the Native Americans. Later this fact would be used as an example of biological warfare when blankets filled with smallpox germs were given to Native American tribes on purpose so they would become ill and less able to resist the military effort to drive off ancestral lands and on to small reservations.

This is a very, very good set of books and one that you should definitely read.


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