I’m smack in the middle of rolling out several posts about my recent travels, but I just finished my friend Russ Cahill‘s new book and wanted to post a brief review.
In the tradition of epic story telling, Kolea takes the reader on a sweeping and dangerous journey among the Hawaiian Islands and eastward across the Pacific. Russ Cahill’s first novel demonstrates his deep understanding of Hawaiian culture and history as well as his knowledge and appreciation of native people of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. In particular, his descriptions of designing, building, sailing and navigating the great canoes are fascinating.
Because I’m a friend of the author (and grateful to be mentioned in acknowledgements), I’m only providing a brief review of Kolea, but I encourage you to read it. It’s available in paperback and on Kindle at Amazon, and also online in paperback from Barnes & Noble. If you are in the South Puget Sound area, you should be able to pick it up at Orca Books.
Next Monday, I’ll take you on a visit to my favorite neighborhood in London. Stay tuned!
The Blue Chair Blog 
September 8, 2015 at 9:08 am
Hmmm looks interesting. But what is the setting?
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September 8, 2015 at 9:12 am
Ancient Hawaii (especially Maui & Molokai), Southwest Alaska and the North Pacific coast of the North American Continent. Hope that helps!
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September 8, 2015 at 9:16 am
So is the plot a nail-biter or a bit more relaxed? (Sorry, just curios)
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September 8, 2015 at 9:26 am
It’s hard for me to characterize the book along those lines. There is plenty of action, but the rhythm is more what a traditional storyteller would use. It covers a lot of distance and several years. I’m afraid that’s as much as I can tell you, but feel free to contact Russ via his website (linked above) if you have more questions!!
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September 8, 2015 at 9:52 am
Oooh, thanks for the review. I bought Russ’ book, but have yet to read it.
I read all of anthropologist’s Hank Wesselman’s true stories about his Hawaiian quest into a spiritual world of magic, mysticism, and meaning and am eager to read more about ancient Hawai’i in the world that Russ paints for us.
P.S. I work with an engineer whose name is Kolea, but he’s eastern European 🙂
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September 8, 2015 at 9:58 am
Thanks for sharing this, Suzanne. Mr. Cahill’s life experience (I read his bio in the link) is a fascinating one. And the story he has written sounds very interesting.
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