Title/Author: Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country (Zan-Gah #2) by Allan Richard Shickman
Publisher/Date published: Earthshaker Books, September 26th 2009
How I got this book: received it from the publisher
Goodreads summary: "The prehistoric saga continues in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, the sequel to the award winning Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure. In this story, Zan s troubled twin brother, Dael, having suffered greatly during his earlier captivity, receives a ruinous new shock when his wife suddenly dies. Disturbed and traumatized, all of his manic energies explode into acts of hostility and bloodshed. His obsession is the destruction of the wasp men, his first captors, who dwell in the Beautiful Country. When he, Zan-Gah, and a band of adventurers trek to their bountiful home, they find that all of the wasp people have died in war or of disease. The Beautiful Country is empty for the taking, and Zan s people, the Ba-Coro, decide to migrate and resettle there. But the Noi, Dael s cruelest enemies and former tormentors, make the same migration from their desert home, and the possibility develops of contention and war over this rich and lovely new land."
Ok, so I enjoyed the first book in this series and while I didn't LOVE it, it was enjoyable and I liked it.
And I was wondering what new adventures Zan and his brother would go on in the next book.
Well, let's say that while I did not enjoy this book as much as the first one, I did still like it. One problem I had was that I could not sympathize with Dael. I get that he has suffered a great loss and has been emotionally scarred due to what happened to him in the first book. BUT. He is kind of evil. And totally out of control. He is scary!
I did like the romance thing between Zan-Gah and she-who-shall-not-be-named. He is such a boy and doesn't really seem to understand her or why he's hurting her. So typical ;)
If any of you have read it: I thought the time it took for the whole tribe to travel to the beautiful country was off, since Dael and Zan traveled there in the book and it seemed to only take days, not months. But I could be wrong.
There were scenes who were really brutal! Except for the violent parts, I would classify this as Middle Grade, but the violence is very graphic! I don't remember if there were things like this in the books I read way back when, but I think this could probably have given me nightmares.
Anyway, I did like this book and I really liked Zan-Gah. While he is sort of naive when it comes to his brother and his love-interest, he is a GOOD guy. And I like good guys.
My rating: 2,5 stars
Hi Daisy,
ReplyDeleteIf you like good guys, you won't like Zan's twin brother Dael. And if he isn't scary, the book is a failure. Dael is a sick man (ptsd and depression), and his sickness produces bizarre things. The resolution of his problems is found in the third Zan-Gah book, Dael and the Painted People. I hope you will review it.
Allan S.
@Allan: no, Dael isn't exactly my favourite character in this book. I have already read Dael and the Painted People and he grows on me a little in that one. I'll probably be writing the review of it tonight, so it will be up soon.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, I kind of like the I've-been-made-evil-by-a-tragic-story kind of characters, so I may have to give these books a try. Thanks for the review Daisy!
ReplyDelete