Pillar of the Sky

A complex novel about the transition from one type of tribal living to another, brought about by one persons vision to create what we know today as Stonhenge. But in order to build it, Moloquin, the outsider, must reshape his people to suit his increasingly meglomaniacal ideas.

Great novel about the overturning of the established order by a charismatic outsider. Set in the Stone/Copper/Bronze Age in southern England near the site of Stonehenge; technology travels slowly when it has to go by foot. The central character is Moloquin, who we first meet as a boy and an outcast, and who becomes a son, a slave, an avenger, a saviour, a husband, and a tyrant. The book is from Holland's middle period, so it covers decades and has many characters, all striving and struggling, frequently against each other. The village has scientists, engineers, both civil and military, and historians, in its own prehistoric way.

Moloquin upends the established order of things in part by the modification of existing technology; he show more introduces a larger, more efficient mill for grain, and turns the grinding of grain into a technology controlled by him and depended on by those who grow the food. He deliberately breaks the old mill stone and throws it into the river in the most symbolic action in the whole book. He creates a workers' village near Stonehenge, just as the Pharoahs in Egypt created a workers' village near the valley of the kings. show less

Truthfully, I did not finish this book. I tried twice, but stalled repeatedly at the 2/3 mark. I can't say exactly why; although I felt like the author was trying to make the book about too many things--the conflict between Moloquin and Ladon's leadership. The transition from female to male rule, the change from stone to metal tools, and the building of Stonehenge. It seems like the stage is too crowded.