Survival of the Fittest – Blog Hop #newbookrelease #bookblast #prehistoricfiction

Welcome to an extra special blog post, celebrating the release of fellow Author Toolbox Blog Hop friend Jacqui Murray’s prehistoric fiction novel! Congratulations Jacqui 🙂 Read on to find out more about Xhosa and her world, including a Q & A with the author!

Five tribes. One leader. A treacherous journey across three continents in search of a new home.

Title: Survival of the Fittest (Jacqui Murray) Global Amazon Link

Book 1 in the Crossroads trilogy, part of the Man vs. Nature saga!
Genre: Prehistoric fiction.
Cover by: Damonza.

From the back cover:

Chased by a ruthless and powerful enemy, Xhosa flees with her People, leaving behind a certain life in her African homeland to search for an unknown future. She leads her People on a gruelling journey through unknown and dangerous lands, an escape path laid out years before by her father as a final desperate means to survival.

She is joined by other homeless tribes–from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant—all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, danger, tragedy, hidden secrets, and Nature herself, Xhosa must face the reality that this enemy doesn’t want her People’s land. He wants to destroy her.

Q&A with the author:

Could Xhosa (the main character of Survival of the Fittest) really have travelled with a wolf companion?

Dogs weren’t domesticated until about 10-15,000 years ago, long after Xhosa lived 850,000 years ago. But her understanding of man and animal were not what ours is. To Xhosa, the line between man and animal was blurry. She didn’t think of animals as lesser creatures. Why would she? As far as she knew, like her, they could plan, think, problem-solve, and display emotions just as she did.

So, for Xhosa to partner with a wolf made perfect sense.

Thanks Jacqui, and what a fantastic answer 🙂 Who doesn’t love stories where the main character has an animal companion?

There are more brilliant Q & A questions hosted at other posts in the hop, including How did Xhosa tell time and count and Did Xhosa have any type of culture: art, music, that sort? There’s a full list of questions on Jacqui’s book launch post.

The story is set 850,000 years ago, a time in prehistory when man populated most of Eurasia, where ‘survival of the fittest’ was not a slogan. It was a destiny. Xhosa’s People were from a violent species, one fully capable of addressing the many hardships that threatened their lives except for one: future man, a smarter version of themselves, one destined to obliterate all those who came before.

Written in the spirit of Jean Auel, Survival of the Fittest is an unforgettable saga of hardship and determination, conflict and passion.

The summary, and the amazing first chapter, (which you can read in full at fellow hop participant Diana’s blog: Myths of the Mirror), reminds me of that wonderful Dreamworks film, The Croods. (Only more violent and realistic!). I adore historic fiction and can’t wait to start reading!

About the Author:

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Quest for Home, Summer 2019.

Jacqui’s Social Media links:

Twitter – Blog – Website – Instagram – Goodreads.

Thanks for Reading!

Survival of the Fittest is out now: Get your copy here: