Royal Blood
By Bruce Woods; Knox Robinson Publishing; $27.99.
What it's about: Meet Paulette Monot, whose European adventure goes awry after she's recruited by Sherlock Holmes, financier Cecil Rhodes and actress Lady Ellen Terry (what better disguise for London's vampiric ruler than that of an ageless theatrical beauty?). This meeting sends Paulette to Africa. Over the course of many adventures, she learns much about the ways of the world, and discovers there is more monstrousness in humanity than in the storied creatures it fears, and more dishonesty in civilization than in the crudest of societies.
"Royal Blood" by Alaska author Bruce Woods is a vampire story, a steampunk tale, an (occasionally) erotic romance and a historical novel in one.
Excerpt: It was with the former of these creatures — immense, bi-horned, and seemingly lacking in both acute eyesight and patience — that our little group had an encounter that, given its aftermath, is perhaps worth recounting.
We had established a camp near a slightly less-than-odious waterhole and, with full darkness upon us and confounding the vision of most of my companions, had settled there for the evening. I was in my tent attending to the recordings that allow this narrative. The Great Hunter was, I think, stealing a moment of sleep, and the boys were seated around the sputtering campfire exchanging stories before giving in to slumber themselves.
It was Shaka, ever at the periphery of our assembly, who first gave the alarm, and shortly thereafter I heard the distinctive steam-engine huffing and whisper of grasses indicating that a large animal was approaching our camp at great speed. Though I had never been charged by one before, I immediately identified our adversary as a rhinoceros, for if ever a sound painted the picture of its maker, this one did.
Shouting at Thomas to build up the fire, I was out of my tent in an instant, my suddenly insubstantial-feeling Gibbs clutched firmly in my hands. My admonition came too late, however, for, trampling right through the glowing remnants of the coals, the monster made directly for Melissa. Not a little surprised by the attack, I think, my horse managed to sidestep the upward hook of the creature's horned snout, which punctured one of our precious water skins and carried off, as well, a bundle of dried kudu meat.
Selous was by my side now, his own little Gibbs unshouldered and shouting to Thomas and Michael to bring up the larger double-barreled Express rifles. Once it was determined that we all had escaped without physical injury, the Hunter announced that we could not let this attack go unpunished, as the loss of the bundle of meat might mean the failure of our entire enterprise.
Wisdom Keeper
By Ilarion Merculieff; North Atlantic Books; $14.95.
What it's about: Ilarion Merculieff weaves the remarkable strands of his life and culture into a fascinating account that begins with his traditional Unangan (Aleut) upbringing on a remote island in the Bering Sea, through his immersion in both the Russian Orthodox Church and his tribe's holistic spiritual beliefs. He recounts his developing consciousness and call to leadership, and describes his work of the past 30 years bringing together Western science and indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge and wisdom to address the pressing issues of our time.
Excerpt: The Unangan, an advanced seagoing people, used their 17-to-20-foot kayaks, called iqyaxes (one-hole kayaks) or oolooxtahns (two-hole meat boats), to travel to the South Pacific islands, the Russian coast, southern California, and throughout the Bering Sea and North Pacific for weeks. These highly advanced sea kayaks were considered the "second wife" of the Unangan hunter and fisherman, and used to hunt whales, walruses, sea otters, porpoises, Steller sea lions, and northern fur seals. Ingenious methods were designed to catch large halibut from the kayaks, using seaweed rope and V-shaped bone hooks that ensured that the halibut never got loose once hooked. The sea lion hide-covered kayaks one made of driftwood, shaped over nearly a year's time, to create an incredibly quiet, swift, and durable high-seas craft. To this day, Unangan kayaks are considered some of the best open-sea kayaks in the world, designed to take high seas coming or going with amazing stability. The kayaks are built in such a way as to move with every nuance of the sea, as if they are part of the sea. Unangan kayaks are the first high-seas craft known to have a form of ball bearings, made of ivory, to allow every critical part of the craft to bend with the movements of the sea.
A friend and I built an iqyax one year. It took us nine months, the same amount of time that it takes for a baby to be born. From building this craft, I was amazed to learn how my people knew the sea. We built the iqyax as closely as possible to the original way it was done. It was 17 feet long and 22 inches wide. A split bow prevented the craft from submarining in rough seas — the sea would go through the split bow and lift it up so the craft did not submerge. The rear was of such a design that it helped maintain control of the craft in a following sea when the craft is moving down a swell, no matter how large the swells of the sea. The "ball bearings" would allow the craft to move with every movement of the water, making one feel as "one with the sea."