Joan Dahr Lambert
CIRCLES IN THE SKY, a prehistoric novel, is a tale of adventure, a love story, and a journey of compelling drama, tragedy, passion and courage, all rolled into one. The novel begins at the end of the first book in the Mother People Series, CIRCLES OF STONE, when the young Zena huddles alone and defenseless after an earthquake traps her in a tiny cave and buries her companions. Her mother is dead, too, as are most of the others in her tribe; she knows that intuitively. Though hardly more than a child, she also knows that it is up to her, as the next Zena, to find a new home for her people and to keep the ways of the Mother alive - the ways of love and compassion and respect for the earth that sustains them., This second Zena is an appealing heroine, a girl who lives in her mind as much as her body, but she also has a unique ability to combine common sense and imagination with mystical visions of the future that come to her from the Goddess. She finds many ingenious solutions to the challenges that face the small band of survivors as she struggles to lead to the new home the Goddess has promised them - like entrapment by the men with knives and the flooded river they must somehow cross to escape the danger. But when Zena loses Lupo, the young wolf who has befriended her and given her confidence, she is bereft. All her new-found courage seems to vanish when she realizes she may never see her beloved companion again. A near-fatal illness strikes, and only the mysterious appearance of an ancient and memorable healer saves her life, though Zena's body retains a permanent reminder of the illness., Other memorable characters abound in CIRCLES IN THE SKY: the old story teller who keeps the history of the Mother People alive; the crippled child who saves their lives, the young man whose chest is marked by a butterfly, symbolizing regeneration; the man who once killed his father in a fit of rage but who makes beautiful music on his bone flute, and the fiery young woman whose arguments about mating with the man who loves her disrupt the tribeâ€™s stability. Zena watches the turmoil and is afraid, of the disruption within the tribe, of the men with knives who are still on their trail, of the fate of the small children who are mysteriously disappearing from Mother People tribes. But most of all, she fears a menace she senses hanging over them all that she cannot name but knows she must face before the tribe can continue their journey to the new home surrounded by a great moving sea she has envisioned. There, they will finally be safe., Then, when Zena least expects it, when she is alone with no one to defend her, she sees the unknown menace standing in front of her in the form of a woman so embittered by life that she has become the embodiment of evil. Her name is Veeta, and she has vowed revenge on all the Mother People and in particular on Zena. The scene that follows as Zena and Veeta finally come face to face will sear itself into your memory and tear at your heart, as wrenching and unforgettable as it is powerful. It is good and evil struggling for dominance in a prolonged battle of wills and mental strength, and all the advantages are on the wrong side. With Veetaâ€™s knife at her throat, Zena's only hope is to use the solution she glimpses in pictures sent by the Goddess. All her senses rebel, but she knows that only she can do what must be done. This time, the survival of the Mother People as well as her own life, are at stake.,CIRCLES IN THE SKY is the second novel in the Mother People series, which began with CIRCLES OF STONE. A third novel, ICE BURIAL, will follow., 
CIRCLES IN THE SKY