Hard to believe the crappy nitpicks one can get. But one persists in the vain attempt to create an idiot-proof statement. I am playing with it again today. Read on, dear hypothetical agent:
Southern Poland in the late Ice Age: The People are not your stereotypical cavemen. With a rich oral tradition, technology refined by long use, art woven into every fiber of daily life, they see themselves as the crown of creation. They take pride in what they do and who they are. And they have a great sense of humor. Well, most of them do.
A few of them have more magic than they can handle.
Radovin’s bad luck has hit bottom. Only he, a despised apprentice shaman with few friends and no family, can expose two murderers. That he is bound to one of them by an oath sworn on his life, is yet another sign of his ill fortune. Avenging spirits will shred him merely for leaving his master, never mind betraying him.
His childhood dream of becoming a shaman may have withered in years of abuse and scorn, but Radovin’s not in a hurry to die. One other obstacle holds him back; he doesn’t know the people he needs to tell or even where they now live. An ominous dream, coinciding with another murder, shatters his inertia. The manslayers must be stopped, no matter what the cost. He flees toward the site of this year’s tribal gathering, where he hopes to contact relatives of the first two victims.
His arrival kicks the soup pot of tribal politics into the fire.
A 121,000 word fantasy, A Drum Is Empty should please lovers of the distant past as well as those who enjoy magical adventure.