Scan barcode
A review by weaselweader
Dance of the Tiger by Björn Kurtén
4.0
A cut above when it comes to pre-historical fiction
DANCE OF THE TIGER is set in what would ultimately become northern Scandinavia during a warm break in the Ice Age between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago.
Fossils have shown that mammoth and reindeer lived there at that time so it makes sense for Kurtén’s fictional story to be populated with a variety of ice age fauna including the saber-tooth tiger, elk and an abundance of birds. Like many novels in a very crowded field, DANCE OF THE TIGER describes the meeting of the two human species that lived together on the earth at that time – the Neanderthal and the Cro-Magnon. But what lifts DANCE OF THE TIGER above the field and makes it a more challenging, cerebral novel (even compared to such iconic titles as Jean Auel’s THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR) is its scrupulous attention to the best known science concerning the world of that time – glacial geology, ecology and behaviour of Ice Age mammals, the “neotenization” of Cro-Magnon adults compared to Neanderthals (an interesting tidbit for you to look up), the apparent inability of the Neanderthal vocal tract to produce all of the modern vowels, and much, much more.
Björn Kurtén is a teacher at the University of Helsinki with a reputation as the world’s foremost evolutionary paleontologist. Given such lofty academic credentials, a reader might be forgiven for being surprised by the power and eloquence of his prose. Ultimately, DANCE OF THE TIGER is nothing less than a plausible hypothesis as to the reason for the ultimate extinction of the Neanderthal species, leaving the Cro-Magnon behind as the sole representatives of humankind on the face of the earth.
Provocative food for thought wrapped up in a thoroughly enjoyable novel. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
DANCE OF THE TIGER is set in what would ultimately become northern Scandinavia during a warm break in the Ice Age between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago.
Fossils have shown that mammoth and reindeer lived there at that time so it makes sense for Kurtén’s fictional story to be populated with a variety of ice age fauna including the saber-tooth tiger, elk and an abundance of birds. Like many novels in a very crowded field, DANCE OF THE TIGER describes the meeting of the two human species that lived together on the earth at that time – the Neanderthal and the Cro-Magnon. But what lifts DANCE OF THE TIGER above the field and makes it a more challenging, cerebral novel (even compared to such iconic titles as Jean Auel’s THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR) is its scrupulous attention to the best known science concerning the world of that time – glacial geology, ecology and behaviour of Ice Age mammals, the “neotenization” of Cro-Magnon adults compared to Neanderthals (an interesting tidbit for you to look up), the apparent inability of the Neanderthal vocal tract to produce all of the modern vowels, and much, much more.
Björn Kurtén is a teacher at the University of Helsinki with a reputation as the world’s foremost evolutionary paleontologist. Given such lofty academic credentials, a reader might be forgiven for being surprised by the power and eloquence of his prose. Ultimately, DANCE OF THE TIGER is nothing less than a plausible hypothesis as to the reason for the ultimate extinction of the Neanderthal species, leaving the Cro-Magnon behind as the sole representatives of humankind on the face of the earth.
Provocative food for thought wrapped up in a thoroughly enjoyable novel. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss