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Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, but strange--and hard to evaluate.
Review: Maurice Shadbolt, a New Zealander, has written a stirring novel of the mid-19th century wars there between the indigenous Maori and the British army and colonists who were determined to deprive them of their land and heritage. In fast-paced prose and thoroughly involving scenes of both warfare and domestic life among the Maori, Shadbolt recreates the tragic and bloody battles which took the lives of thousands of British and countless numbers of outgunned and outmanned Maori. Shadbolt is terrific in recreating scenes in which the war strategies and ensuing battles of the real Maori leader Titokowaru come horrifically to life. Through the eyes of Kimball Bent, also a real person, we see the body count rise, feel the privations and hardships of the Maori, understand the ferocity of the British officers, long for the safety of innocent wives and children, and sympathize with the Maori fight for self-preservation. Bent, an American from Maine, was dragooned by the British and defected both to help the Maori and to wreak his vengeance against sadistic British officers. What seems so strange to me (especially after just completing Potiki by the Maori writer Patricia Grace) is that, except when they are warring, the Maori here feel like caricatures. I almost gave up on the book in the first 50 pages or so because it seemed so Monty Pythonesque--Maori wearing black suits and bowler hats, carrying walking sticks, and using British slang and obscenities, all the while muttering wry and sardonic comments on history, religion, and the current state of affairs a la John Cleese. While there probably were some Maori who did become acculturated by the British, the satirical attitude with which they are depicted as a group just doesn't seem to jibe with the respect one feels for them in the face of their desperation and the years-long dedication with which they faced their foes in warfare.
Rating: 
Summary: Live and breath the history of this land
Review: Shadbolt is the consummate storyteller without erring from historical facts. The beauty is that he finds a way to weave the oral hisotry of New Zealand into a narrative that encourages an imaginative and emotional engagement with the past. The newly touched landscape of the time drips with water on ferns and mud underfoot for any reader who wants to pace through a period of significant change with a master.
Rating: 
Summary: just a note on grammar to Mr. Kirkus
Review: the plural of Maori is Maori. (ie. not Maoris). Please
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