Mary Mackey
Author of The Year the Horses Came
About the Author
Mary Mackey is Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at California State University, Sacramento.
Series
Works by Mary Mackey
Shameless hussy review number 5 2 copies
It Happened in Ellengowan 2 copies
Mackey, Mary Archive 1 copy
Multiply with Multi-Dye 1 copy
Last Warior Queen, The 1 copy
Associated Works
I Should Have Stayed Home: The Worst Trips of the Great Writers (1994) — Contributor — 188 copies, 5 reviews
She Rises Like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets (1989) — Contributor — 71 copies
ParaSpheres: Extending Beyond the Spheres of Literary and Genre Fiction: Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist Stories (2006) — Contributor — 65 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Mackey, Mary
- Legal name
- Mackey, Mary Lou McGinness
- Other names
- Mackey, Mary
Clemens, Kate - Birthdate
- 1945
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Michigan (PhD - Comparative Literature)
Harvard University (Magna Cum Laude) - Occupations
- writer
poet
professor (English) - Organizations
- California State University, Sacramento
- Short biography
- Mary Lou McGinness Mackey was born in 1945 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, where she raised. She is related through her father's family to Mark Twain. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. During the early 1970s she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. From 1989 to 1992 she served of Chair of PEN American Center, West. Currently, she is a professor of English and Writer in Residence at California State University, Sacramento.
Mary Mackey published novels and books of poetry and have sold over a million and a half copies. They have been translated into eleven foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, and Finnish. While her poetry has mainly centered around the traditional lyric themes of love, death, and nature, her novels have ranged from the Midwestern United States to Neolithic Europe, from comedy to tragedy. A screenwriter as well as a novelist, she has sold feature scripts to Warner Brothers as well as to various independent film companies. John Korty directed the filming of her original screenplay Silence which starred the late Will Geer and which won several awards.
She has lectured at many places including Harvard and the Smithsonian. Additionally, she has contributed to such diverse print and on-line publications as The Chiron Review, Redbook, and Salon. She also writes comedy under the pen name "Kate Clemens". - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Places of residence
- Costa Rica
California, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Getting to see the author's version of ancient life was fun at first, specifically getting to see Marah's life and her people's daily life and customs. Things started to get so much worse (in an interesting way) once she started on her way to bring her warning to others of her people, though it was still fun getting to see the different
Stavan's people are the epitome of savages. Their customs of beating their women and the common practice of raping just about any woman they want really horrified me and made it really difficult to finish the book. The author didn't go into too much detail, other than the screams and pain, but it hurt to read.
Marrah (and Arang) were such great characters to see the world through. She was strong, though she lost herself to fear and anger at times and I truly feared for her when she first got captured by the Hansi people.
The ending really had me on the edge of my seat, beginning mostly when Arang was announced as heir to the Hansi chief. I began to grow nervous for his character when we saw how he grew more accustomed to the Hansi practice of horse riding and spear throwing and bow shooting, and I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when Marah and the other escapees rode up to Zuhan's tent to find him (Arang) packed and ready to leave. I felt terrible when Akoah died because she died lost to terror and I felt just as bad when the nameless Tcvali girl died.
I definitely need to see about getting the sequel because I want to see how/if the escapees make it through the winter and spread their warnings/return home.
This book was quite an interesting read. It's set 4,000 years ago, so obviously most of it is made up (and probably romanticized/overly-brutalized).
Getting to see the author's version of ancient life was fun at first, specifically getting to see Marah's life and her people's daily life and customs. Things started to get so much worse (in an interesting way) once she started on her way to bring her warning to others of her people, though it was still fun getting to see the different show more customs.
Stavan's people are the epitome of savages. Their customs of beating their women and the common practice of raping just about any woman they want really horrified me and made it really difficult to finish the book. The author didn't go into too much detail, other than the screams and pain, but it hurt to read.
Marrah (and Arang) were such great characters to see the world through. She was strong, though she lost herself to fear and anger at times and I truly feared for her when she first got captured by the Hansi people.
The ending really had me on the edge of my seat, beginning mostly when Arang was announced as heir to the Hansi chief. I began to grow nervous for his character when we saw how he grew more accustomed to the Hansi practice of horse riding and spear throwing and bow shooting, and I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when Marah and the other escapees rode up to Zuhan's tent to find him (Arang) packed and ready to leave. I felt terrible when Akoah died because she died lost to terror and I felt just as bad when the nameless Tcvali girl died.
I definitely need to see about getting the sequel because I want to see how/if the escapees make it through the winter and spread their warnings/return home. show less
Getting to see the author's version of ancient life was fun at first, specifically getting to see Marah's life and her people's daily life and customs. Things started to get so much worse (in an interesting way) once she started on her way to bring her warning to others of her people, though it was still fun getting to see the different show more customs.
Stavan's people are the epitome of savages. Their customs of beating their women and the common practice of raping just about any woman they want really horrified me and made it really difficult to finish the book. The author didn't go into too much detail, other than the screams and pain, but it hurt to read.
Marrah (and Arang) were such great characters to see the world through. She was strong, though she lost herself to fear and anger at times and I truly feared for her when she first got captured by the Hansi people.
The ending really had me on the edge of my seat, beginning mostly when Arang was announced as heir to the Hansi chief. I began to grow nervous for his character when we saw how he grew more accustomed to the Hansi practice of horse riding and spear throwing and bow shooting, and I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when Marah and the other escapees rode up to Zuhan's tent to find him (Arang) packed and ready to leave. I felt terrible when Akoah died because she died lost to terror and I felt just as bad when the nameless Tcvali girl died.
I definitely need to see about getting the sequel because I want to see how/if the escapees make it through the winter and spread their warnings/return home. show less
This book was quite an interesting read. It's set 4,000 years ago, so obviously most of it is made up (and probably romanticized/overly-brutalized).
Getting to see the author's version of ancient life was fun at first, specifically getting to see Marah's life and her people's daily life and customs. Things started to get so much worse (in an interesting way) once she started on her way to bring her warning to others of her people, though it was still fun getting to see the different show more customs.
Stavan's people are the epitome of savages. Their customs of beating their women and the common practice of raping just about any woman they want really horrified me and made it really difficult to finish the book. The author didn't go into too much detail, other than the screams and pain, but it hurt to read.
Marrah (and Arang) were such great characters to see the world through. She was strong, though she lost herself to fear and anger at times and I truly feared for her when she first got captured by the Hansi people.
The ending really had me on the edge of my seat, beginning mostly when Arang was announced as heir to the Hansi chief. I began to grow nervous for his character when we saw how he grew more accustomed to the Hansi practice of horse riding and spear throwing and bow shooting, and I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when Marah and the other escapees rode up to Zuhan's tent to find him (Arang) packed and ready to leave. I felt terrible when Akoah died because she died lost to terror and I felt just as bad when the nameless Tcvali girl died.
I definitely need to see about getting the sequel because I want to see how/if the escapees make it through the winter and spread their warnings/return home. show less
Getting to see the author's version of ancient life was fun at first, specifically getting to see Marah's life and her people's daily life and customs. Things started to get so much worse (in an interesting way) once she started on her way to bring her warning to others of her people, though it was still fun getting to see the different show more customs.
Stavan's people are the epitome of savages. Their customs of beating their women and the common practice of raping just about any woman they want really horrified me and made it really difficult to finish the book. The author didn't go into too much detail, other than the screams and pain, but it hurt to read.
Marrah (and Arang) were such great characters to see the world through. She was strong, though she lost herself to fear and anger at times and I truly feared for her when she first got captured by the Hansi people.
The ending really had me on the edge of my seat, beginning mostly when Arang was announced as heir to the Hansi chief. I began to grow nervous for his character when we saw how he grew more accustomed to the Hansi practice of horse riding and spear throwing and bow shooting, and I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when Marah and the other escapees rode up to Zuhan's tent to find him (Arang) packed and ready to leave. I felt terrible when Akoah died because she died lost to terror and I felt just as bad when the nameless Tcvali girl died.
I definitely need to see about getting the sequel because I want to see how/if the escapees make it through the winter and spread their warnings/return home. show less
I heard about this book on LT. I am a big fan of historical fiction, and really wanted to love it. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me on several levels.
It was written very simply, too simply for my taste. Almost like a fairy tale. It is YA, but that doesn't mean it has to be dumb, and thats how it came across. Perhaps the author was trying to channel the ancientness of the tale and thought fewer words did that, but for me it lacked depth.
The other issue for me was the main character, show more Inanna. She is supposed to be the last warrior queen and she comes across as passive, selfish, and stupid. Again the author may be trying not to project the sensibilities of a modern woman into the text. But lets face it, 5600 years ago, in a matriarchal culture, we don't know what the women were like.
I think she went too far in the 'old fashioned' direction. If I am reading a book where the main character's name becomes associated with the goddess Ishtar, and who is supposed to be a warrior queen, then I expect her to be made of better, sterner stuff. To be fair Inanna cames from a patriarchal culture, but if she is going to lead a great matriarchal city she needs more on the ball than to continually fall into the right place and the right actions (except when she screws up). I think there is a space between passivity and super hero and that would have made the story more interesting.
The final issue is the pacing of the story. The book is titled The Last Warrior Queen. Inanna spends most of the book being ordinary. She doesn't become queen until almost the end of the book, and her battle that makes her a warrior queen is the end of the book more or less. There is some future vision that lets us see the eventual outcome hundreds of years away, but the actual battle is a letdown and not worth naming the book for.
It wasn't terrible, but it was disappointing to me, and it was a bit of a slog to read. show less
It was written very simply, too simply for my taste. Almost like a fairy tale. It is YA, but that doesn't mean it has to be dumb, and thats how it came across. Perhaps the author was trying to channel the ancientness of the tale and thought fewer words did that, but for me it lacked depth.
The other issue for me was the main character, show more Inanna. She is supposed to be the last warrior queen and she comes across as passive, selfish, and stupid. Again the author may be trying not to project the sensibilities of a modern woman into the text. But lets face it, 5600 years ago, in a matriarchal culture, we don't know what the women were like.
I think she went too far in the 'old fashioned' direction. If I am reading a book where the main character's name becomes associated with the goddess Ishtar, and who is supposed to be a warrior queen, then I expect her to be made of better, sterner stuff. To be fair Inanna cames from a patriarchal culture, but if she is going to lead a great matriarchal city she needs more on the ball than to continually fall into the right place and the right actions (except when she screws up). I think there is a space between passivity and super hero and that would have made the story more interesting.
The final issue is the pacing of the story. The book is titled The Last Warrior Queen. Inanna spends most of the book being ordinary. She doesn't become queen until almost the end of the book, and her battle that makes her a warrior queen is the end of the book more or less. There is some future vision that lets us see the eventual outcome hundreds of years away, but the actual battle is a letdown and not worth naming the book for.
It wasn't terrible, but it was disappointing to me, and it was a bit of a slog to read. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 567
- Popularity
- #44,117
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 17
- ISBNs
- 79
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 1