| Title | : | Raven's Lament, Stillwater Runs Deep Series, Book One: |
|---|---|---|
| Author | : | Frank Talaber |
| Release | : | 2011-05-16 |
| Kind | : | ebook |
| Genre | : | Mysteries & Thrillers, Books |
| Size | : | 406289 |
| What if a native legend came back to life and was saddened by the destruction of his people, their culture and their environment? What if that legend was the Haida creator god Raven and he spirited away the girl you were falling in love with? What if you didn’t believe in native spiritualism and found yourself battling Raven with only a shaman to help you? Inspired by true events in the Queen Charlotte Islands, Raven’s Lament centers on a journalist who investigates a killing tied into the destruction of old-growth forest and becomes tangled up in a spirit war. He finds love and meaning to his life when he meets tour guide, Chelen Davidson. In protest of logging the rare Golden Spruce is cut down, releasing Raven and Haida Prince Kiidkayaas. Brook Grant sets out to investigate. Years ago he’d kayaked to Ninstints, where he learned the oral story behind the last totem erected there. This totem depicts Raven and Prince Kiidkayaas locked in the confrontation that traps them in the Golden Spruce. That story is retold during the novel. Raven, transformer and trickster in Haida legend, awakens to much change since the old gods were active and begins to return things to the way they were before the white man arrived. But Raven has lost his immortal stone, stolen from him by the prince. Without it the native God begins to age rapidly. The released prince is absorbed into the earth where he experiences the death of the forests and its affect on the planet. When Brook arrives on Haida Gwaii he has an eerie sense of returning home and, at the same time, of danger. Dealing with an inferiority complex instilled in him by his father and with the break-up of a long-term relationship, Brook is drawn to, but wary of, involvement with Haida museum guide Chelen Davidshaw. He hires her to lead him on another kayaking expedition to Ninstints. Chelen has her own fears about starting a relationship with another white man after her fiancé abandoned her to find work on the mainland. Mourning the recent loss of her grandmother, Chelen has seen a rare albino raven, a sign of impending change in her life. Brook persuades Chelen and her uncle, shaman Charlie Stillwaters, to go to the cut down Golden Spruce. There Brook discovers a striking lapis lazuli; Raven’s stone. Charlie goes into a trance and discovers that Raven has returned. Brook later encounters Raven in disguise, who tries to retrieve his stone, only to be stopped by Charlie. On their journey to Ninstints Brook begins to have weird past life regressions. Chelen and Brook release their feelings for each other. Raven abducts Chelen and retrieves his stone. Left for dead, Brook, now desperate to win Chelen back, joins with Charlie to battle Raven, even though he believes the shaman to be crazy. The prince returns to help them trap Raven in a new golden spruce sapling. With Raven gone, Chelen returns and all seems well as Brook decides to leave his job and come to live on the islands with Chelen. Only they discover that Raven is not defeated. Ever the creator and trickster, he has found a way to help his people in these modern times by re-growing acres of clear-cut land with new golden spruce trees. Perhaps his greatest trick of all. |
