Archive for the ‘Steve Cash’ Category
The Meq, by Steve Cash
Posted on: February 14, 2011
The Meq, by Steve Cash
published in 2005 by Del Rey
Where did I get it: Borrowed
why did I read it? good friend recommended, and kindly let me borrow it
In Steve Cash’s debut novel The Meq, he presents a rather compelling premise. It’s the late 1800’s, and young Zianno is travelling via train across the United States with his parents. He’s just turned twelve. His mother says she has something important to tell him, and moments later the there is a horrific accident in which his parents are killed. Orphaned and alone, Zianno, who goes by Z, is adopted by Solomon, a travelling merchant. Solomon knows right away there is something special about this kid.
Z learns the hard way that he is “Meq”, a race of people who don’t age after they reach twelve. Their minds age of course, but not their bodies. Meq know each other by their similar look and the special senses. Z is taken to a mountain village in the Rockies, where he meets others of his kind, and gets a tease as to what and who he might be. Z embarks on a quest to find some of the oldest Meq in existence to learn about his family and the truth of his people, before it’s too late.
For millenia, the Meq have lived in secret among us. Their cultural history is in the Pyrenees, speaking the Basque language. A smart little trick Cash pulls here, giving his hidden race a language that is connected to no other language spoken on Earth. The novel is sprinkled with Basque words as well, which sound deliciously alien when I attempted to pronounce them.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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