Customer Reviews
- - By: S. Holt, 06 Oct 2007 
After reading Theresa Thomlinson's Moonriders, moving onto The Foretelling is an easy jump for someone eager for some historicallly-rooted Amazon fiction. The differences are clear - the time period in Hoffman's book is much earlier than in Thomlinsons. The Amazons are more ruthless, crueller, cuthroat. There is an earthier feel to their world, a binding, an inescapable tie to the tribe. It is against these bindings that Rain begins to explore. Admittedly, I personallly could have done without the romantic subplot, but overalll an excellent historical tale with a contemporary angle on change & revolution.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too - By: TeensReadToo.com, 14 Oct 2006 
In this intense yet complicated fantasy story, Rain attempts to gain her mother's notice & acceptance by being the best of warriors in their Amazonian tribe. The product of a rape when her mother, Alina, wasn't much more than a child herself, it is hard to gain the Queen's approval. Although Rain knows that she's been raised by Deborah, the wise priestess, to one day be Queen herself, she also pays attention to Deborah's promises of a much grander destiny.
Rain doesn't totallly understand the Queen's desire to so thoroughly destroy her enemies, even though her own cousins, Astella & Asteria, are two of the fiercest warriors in the tribe. When Alina takes Penthe as her companion, & Penthe's daughter Io seeks to be Rain's sister, matters become even more complicated. Rain wants nothing more than to ride her horse, Sky, to garner her mother's approval, to earn the place as rightful Queen that will someday come upon her.
On her first journey alone, Rain comes upon a bear cub, which she takes back to camp. She names him Usha, & together with Io the two girls raise the cub as if he were a horse. Although Rain & Io soon discover the mistake of doing so, it's too late--
THE FORETELLING is a coming-of-age story set in a fantastical land of the Amazons. Rain is a compelling character who, although she tries so hard to be vicious & fierce like her fellow tribe-members, always leans more towards peace for alll men & compassion towards her enemies.
Not to be missed by lovers of fantasy stories!
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
