This is a genre that fascinates me. How did our very early ancestors live? What kind of value system did they use, and how did they communicate it? Author and blogger, Jacqui Murray explores these questions, and more, in the first book of her new Crossroads trilogy, Survival of The Fittest.
At the centre of the story is Xhosa, a young tribes-woman. ‘”Females weren’t warriors”, but Xhosa has hidden skills and a driving ambition, and in a world where only those who are strong survive, that’s just as well…
Five tribes. One leader. A treacherous journey across three continents in search of a new home.
Chased by a ruthless and powerful enemy, Xhosa flees with her People, leaving behind a certain life in her African homeland to search for an unknown future. She leads her People on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands but an escape path laid out years before by her father as a final desperate means to survival. She is joined by other homeless tribes–from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant—all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, danger, tragedy, hidden secrets, and Nature herself, Xhosa must face the reality that this enemy doesn’t want her People’s land. He wants to destroy her.
Question about the book for Jacqui: How did Xhosa count?
Xhosa and her People also had no need for counting. This is true even today with primitive people. Many count only to two (which is the method I’ve adopted for Xhosa). Beyond that, numbers may be described as handfuls or how much room they occupy in relation to something else. Counting people was unnecessary because all Xhosa had to do was sniff, find everyone’s scent, or notice whose she couldn’t find.
Book information:
Title: Survival of the Fittest
Series: Book 1 in the Crossroads series, part of the Man vs. Nature saga
Genre: Prehistoric fiction
Cover by: Damonza
Available at: Kindle USKindle UKKindle CAKindle AU
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Quest for Home, Summer 2019. You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
Cath Humphris 
you know, it never occurred to me that in those times, people couldn’t do something as simple as counting to ten. Great question and Congratulations to Jacqui!
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Yes, congratulations indeed. This is such an engaging read.
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Even primitive tribes (circa 1850s ish) often didn’t count past 2. There just was no need. They could tell by looking if everyone was there. And knowing there were 100 attackers rather than 105 didn’t matter. To them, it was simply ‘many’.
I found that really intriguing.
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Fascinating indeed and, for an author, what scope it can offer since the usual sources for historical reference are very limited if not non-existant. One to go on my list. thank you Cath.
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I struggled with lots of parts of this series–and why it took over 20 years to publish. Even at the Library of Congress, with their great librarians, it took a long time to find what I needed.
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It’s almost like a reverse sci-fi, isn’t it? We have to worldbuild without technology, strip everything and anything we know away. Ooooor did they have those things, and the global flood started us over?
Lovely post, Cath, as always. And it reminds me of Terry Jones’ neat documentaries about ancient inventions. So often we forget that things like make-up actually served very important functions when they were first invented!
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Reverse sci-fi? What a great way to categorise it. Yes, all those things we take for granted, even going right back to the basics of the foods and drinks we take for granted, let alone language. That’s a lot of world to build.
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Indeed!
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I have often thought of my prehistoric fiction as world-building. We really don’t know what that world was like. Rocks and artifacts can only tell us so much. Thanks for visiting, Jean!
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You’re most welcome–congratulations on your latest story!
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