A tale about a blind little girl in an ancient village, that can sense the pre earthquake tremors. A story about a horrid shaman leader and prejudices. A sci-fi fantasy type book based over 8000 years ago.

The Téuta's Child: A Breathtaking Novel of Ancient Civilizations by S.G. Ullman

312 Pages
Publisher: The Book Whisperer
Release Date: October 20, 2022

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Strong Women Characters

Twelve-year-old Kaikos was born blind. People in the community wanted to kill her immediately after her birth. They believed she was cursed and by living would curse the village. She and her mother, Chaisa, were relocated far outside of the village walls. Even though Kaikos cannot see with her physical eyes, she uses her second sight to see. She notices changes to the earth and asks her mother about them. Her mother tells her to keep it a secret. After the earthquake and flooding, the shaman blames Kaikos. She and Chaisa leave their home and find a cave to stay. Chaisa does not realize that they may have to stay longer than planned and is concerned about the food storage. She returns to the village and her life is threatened if she does not lead them to Kaikos. Now Kaikos is alone in the cave. She travels further into the mountains looking for her great-grandfather, Welo, the giant. He too was thought to be cursed and was banished from Teuta.

The book is based 8,700 years ago, the characters are developed, and it is written in third person point of view. The author does an amazing job writing the emotions and fears of the village people. Although modern people understand how and/or why people are different, there are still prejudices against those that are different. At the end of the book, the author provides historical references to the people, the land, and housing from that era. If you like historical sci fi & fantasy stories, you will enjoy this book.

A very unique read with interesting characters.
Many thanks to The Book Whisperer and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I think you need to be in the proper mood for this story to work its magic on you. This week of all weeks of the year, it's the time to read about the fates of those Different and what simply living their lives can demand of them.

It's not like there's a lack of evidence that we're responding the same ways now as we did then.

Author Ullman tells his tale at a deliberate pace. There's not a single moment that he shorts its proper attention. And that is, in this story, a strength. He's making a world for us that isn't like the one outside. The people, now...they're always just people. But in response to stresses and pressures that we don't really experience the same way in the modern world, they use the same tools out of the same toolbox that we do.

This isn't a knock on the author's choices, it's a compliment...I'm noting for you the best thing a read can do: Make the Other into a familiar figure by taking us, the readers, outside our little compartments of mind. Among the pleasures of fiction is this one, this shock of the novel tempered into explorations of the nature of novelty. I recommend this for a long, comfortable reading in the Solstice's cold days.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

While this book was not my cup of tea, I did find this book not only thoroughly researched and wonderfully written, I did find myself struggling to read this book. I am one of those that does not like to leave a book unfinished, so I pushed through to the end.

I rate this three stars, as there are some parts that I did find interesting. There are those who will definitely enjoy this book a lot more than I would,

Ultimately, this was a good book, but the first third or more was mostly exposition and explanation, and very little actually happened during that part. Once the novel got past that, it was a good story.

Set 8200 or so years ago, this novel is the story of Kaikos, a girl born blind, but with an extra sense, which she calls bholos (steam), which allows her to sense what may or may not be auras, a sense she uses in place of the sight she's never had. Kaikos is considered cursed because her blindness, and is therefore shunned by most of the inhabitants of her village, the Teuta. She is also considered cursed because of Welo, her great-grandfather and the last person known in the Tetua for having that other sense, who tried to warn the village that something bad was going to happen - but no one believed him, and the bad thing, an earthquake, occurred, and Welo was blamed for it, causing him to be cast out. Kaikos lives with her mother, Chaisa, who does her best to teach Kaikos how to be self-sufficient - but will it be enough when, like her great-grandfather, Kaikos foresees another earthquake?

If you enjoy fiction set in prehistoric time, this novel will appeal to you. The details of day-to-day life are interesting and appear accurate, as do the attitudes toward a member of the community who was born different in a time when people did not understand the world or causality, and were very superstitious.

The Teuta's Child is historical fiction, set in the neolithic era. Kaikos was born blind and ostracized from the Tueta village for that reason, and for being the descendant of Welo, a supposed giant who destroyed the old village. However, her life is a fairly happy one, until she is blamed for causing a devastating earthquake and cursing the village. Can Kaikos overcome everything transpiring against her and find her place in this world?
I absolutely loved this novel. I've never read anything set during this time period, so that already had me interested. Kaikos is such a sweet protagonist- you can't help but root for her. The characters were well written and the spiritual sense that Kaikos has was such an innovative idea, and intriguing to read. Definitely recommend this one.

Title: The Téuta's Child
Author: S.G. Ullman
Release Date: October 20th, 2022
Page Count: 312
Start Date: October 17th, 2022
Finish Date: October 21st, 2022

Review:
Story: This story is loosely based on a girl that lived five centuries ago or so. She was born blind. Her entire village thought she was a curse to them. That her being born blind was a curse. They thought her grandfather was cursed too because they considered him a giant. I really found this story very enjoyable. I think the only thing that would have made this book better would have been to have illustrations sprinkled throughout the book.
Characters: I really just adored Kaikos. She’s a very unique character. There were times I was really frustrated with her thought process. Then I had to remind myself that this is a time long ago and they didn’t think the way we think now. I loved her mother and a few of the guards as well. They did everything they could to protect the girl and make sure that nothing bad happened to her.
Critiques: None that I can think of right now.
Final Thoughts: I was really hesitant about this book when I first started it. I thought it would be on the dull or bland side. That’s mean. I don’t mean it to be mean. At least I was wrong. This is far from boring. The characters and the story are very complex and exciting to read. I fully recommend it to anybody who likes reading historical type stories.

The writing is decent enough in this imagining of life in the neolithic, 8,000 or so years back, but I couldn't get past the blatant anachronisms. It seems to me that the author had a pretty good idea for a book, but then failed to do even the bare minimum of research required. And that's a shame, especially today when all the information needed is a click away. So I really can't give his book more than 3 stars, And I was being generous, at that.

That said, a less picky reader might really enjoy this otherwise decent romp into an age undreamed of... It tells the story of a blind child born into what the tribe already considers a cursed family. She grows up, despite the group's shaman wanting to kill her, and the rest is a pretty good tale of redemption.

I'm definitely the problem more than the book is, though I'll wager I'm not alone in getting upset over lazy researching by writers.

Ullman is a fine storyteller. His characters are well drawn, and the writing is sufficiently interesting to sweep the reader into his tale and to feel submerged in his historical time frame. Kaikos and Chaisa
are remarkable characters, and I felt absolutely back in time (6000s BCE) without jarring modernisms thrown in. I like archeology and read about it, so I appreciated Ullman’s extensive explanation at the end as to how he decided to create this world. Most historical fiction conflates times and artifacts to make the tale more interesting to readers, and he does as well. Also, with a setting such as this, where we “know“ very little about the culture and physical environment, some things must be borrowed from a later era that we know a bit more about. I loved how he came up with the names for the characters, and think overall this is a very good read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the book Whisperer for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what an amazing book. I loved the characters, plot, and was impressed by Ullman’s knowledge of the times.

The Teuta’s Child is a fictional story that takes place approximately 8200 years ago. It told of the environmental disasters that were causing death and destruction among one group living at that time. There were numerous earthquakes, flooding, and cliffs falling, causing loss of food and life.

Kaikos was a 12 year old child born blind. She was the descendent of Welo who the community felt was a giant causing all these disasters. Because of this, they believed both Kaikos and her mother Chaisa were cursed and should be done away with so the disasters would stop. They go into hiding but the tribe comes looking for them. Kaikos flees, wondering into the mountains to find Welo. Chaisa turns herself into Raghe, a Shaman, who spoke to the gods and was to offer her up to appease their anger. He believed was causing everything.

The book follows Kaikos’ search and finding of Welo, who is her great great grandfather. They flee together into the caves and mountains. They are chased by the ones Raghe sends to kill them. They live together as family for years until the tribe splits up and Chaisa and several of the other members come to find them. Welo is old, dies, and Kaikos is left alone until the others come. They all set upma new civilization.

8200 years ago what was happening in the world was not so different than what goes on today. Climate changes, countries break up and fight each other and families stick together and protect each other. The book is the author’s vision of what might have happened back then. It is not a true accurate account.

I could not put the book down. The characters and what they went through was fascinating. I highly recommend it. Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this pre-release in exchange for my honest review.

This was wonderful! Thank you so much for the ARC.
I loved this tale of an ancient village and an amazing blind child finding a way to survive. I loved every single character. I didn't want to put it down.
I found this to be a wonderful reminder that we are not any different from our ancestors even the ones from 8000 (or more) years ago.
We might have technology and medicine but we still fail to understand children with disabilities. We still let corrupt people lead us. We still have close bonds with our families and friends.
And we still love babies.

Fantastic, wholesome tale of family and what bonds us together. I loved the thoughtful use of research masterfully woven into this novel of the art of Neolithic paleontology and Detective-like sleuthing the author used to convey a story we should all easily find relation to. The set time of the novel was absolutely fascinating amd so rarely portrayed in todays literature.- it gave the comforting, ancestral feeling as if reaching for Clan of the Cave Bears again for the first time.

** Thank you to NetGalley and The Book Whisperer for an advanced copy of The Tétua's Child in exchange for an honest review. **

Though S.G. Ullman himself writes that he is not an archeologist, it is clear that he did considerable research to write this book. The Tétua's Child opens with an acknowledgment that the main character, Kaikos, was inspired by ~5,700 year old Neolithic remains found in modern-day Denmark. The story then follows Kaikos' imagined life in neolithic times. As a former museum employee, the book reminded me a lot of conversations I had with colleagues about what they referred to as forensic anthropology or forensic paleontology, where scientists use clues left in the remains of humans or non-human animals/plants, respectively, to piece together ancient life and the incidents that led to the animal (human or otherwise) to it's death. This story reminded me a lot of that, where Ullman is piecing together neolithic life (with a few artisitic liberties) using facts that we do know and are verifiable based on the archeological record. Would recommend The Tétua's Child to anyone with an interest in stories about family, with an interest in anthropology or ancient history, and who are ready for an immersive adventure into human history.