Annal:1975 Batchelder Award
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Batchelder Award in the year 1975. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
An Old Tale Carved Out of Stone
- 1975 Batchelder winner
- Score: 10.25
A noted Soviet archeologist has written this story about a tribe living four thousand years ago in Neolithic Siberia. When the shaman's responsibility for finding fish and game falls to seventeen-year-old Liok, he accepts it reluctantly, knowing that he has never seen Roko, Friend of the Hunters, or heard the spirit voices which are the proof of a true shaman.
Relying on his own observation and ingenuity, Liok successfully finds game for the hunters, and for a while all but the elders are convinced that his power is real. Liok's unconventional ways puzzle his people, however, and when they discover a token he has carelessly lost from his necklace, Liok flees inland.
As a weapons maker for a more advanced tribe, Liok gathers flint in an area forbidden by custom. This time his flaunting of tradition causes his wife to be sacrificed, and grief-stricken Liok begins the long journey home, hoping his people will accept the new ways he has learned which are based on reason rather than magic.
