Kathleen O'Neal Gear Books in Order
Explore Kathleen O'Neal Gear books in order, from prehistoric epics to thrillers and fantasy, with series guides, summaries, and tips on where to start.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
62 books
An Abyss of Light
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1990
The Gamant people are the last major human holdouts against an alien union that offers peace at the cost of identity. Faith, prophecy, and rebellion collide around the mysterious Mea Shearim.
People of the Fire
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1990
Little Dancer's dreams may reshape the future of a drought-stricken people fighting to survive. Around him, love, power, and jealousy turn a harsh landscape into a battleground.
People of the Wolf
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1990
At the end of the Ice Age, a small band follows a dream west across frozen wilderness into a new continent. It is a survival story on the scale of legend, driven by vision, love, and endurance.
Sand in the Wind
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1990
Set in the hard country of the American West, this novel follows lives shaped by violence, loyalty, and survival. The land offers almost nothing for free, and the past refuses to stay buried.
Treasure of Light
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1990
Jeremiel Baruch has seized an alien battle cruiser, but rescue only carries his people toward fresh disaster. As prophecy tightens, the rebels head for a world that may become their grave.
Redemption of Light
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1991
A final strike against the Magistrates could save the Gamant people or destroy them completely. Old loyalties splinter as Rachel and her allies face the last, hardest choices of the war.
People of the Earth
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1992
White Ash, stolen from her own people as a child, grows into a woman haunted by prophetic dreams. After massacre and betrayal, she begins a dangerous quest that could change many lives.
People of the River
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1992
In Cahokia, crops are failing and the gods have gone silent. Chiefs, seers, and warriors search for answers, while hope may rest with a young girl learning to dream power.
People of the Sea
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1993
As glaciers melt and giant animals vanish, coastal people struggle to understand a world changing under their feet. A lost seer and a rival drawn to dark power make the danger even worse.
This Widowed Land
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1993
A Huron seeress foresees ruin when a French Jesuit arrives in her world. Love, faith, disease, and war collide as New France and Native America meet under terrible pressure.
People of the Lakes
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1994
Star Shell sets out to destroy a corrupting sacred mask before it ruins her people. Joined by trader Otter and other uneasy allies, she races across the Great Lakes with enemies close behind.
People of the Lightning
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1995
In ancient Florida, the pale and feared Pondwader is burdened with a prophecy of destruction. Traded into marriage and thrust into danger, he must prove he is more than an omen.
Thin Moon and Cold Mist
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1995
Confederate spy Robin Heatherton survives the Civil War only to become a fugitive in Colorado Territory. On the frontier, she fights for a future while a relentless Union officer closes in.
People of the Silence
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1996
Hidden lineage and imperial paranoia collide in a crumbling Anasazi world. Cornsilk and Poor Singer flee assassins, searching for the truth before a killer destroys everyone around them.
People of the Mist
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1997
The murder of Red Knot, on the eve of a politically vital marriage, threatens to tear the Algonquin world apart. Only the feared sorcerer called Panther may be able to uncover the truth in time.
People of the Masks
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1998
A prophesied child called False Face Child is growing into a power others want to control. When warriors burn his home and kill his mother, his fate becomes the center of a brutal struggle.
The Visitant
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
1999
Archaeologist Dusty Stewart uncovers a massacre site that seems to echo an eight-hundred-year-old crime. When Dr. Maureen Cole arrives to help, science and legend begin to blur in unsettling ways.
The Summoning God
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2000
Dusty and Maureen excavate a burned ceremonial chamber filled with the bones of murdered children. Their investigation is mirrored by a thirteenth-century hunt for the killer who first left the dead behind.
Bone Walker
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2001
A murder in Chaco Canyon ties Dusty Stewart and Maureen Cole to crimes buried for seven centuries. The deeper they dig, the more the case pulls in old betrayals, grief, and something close to legend.
Dark Inheritance
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2001
A breakthrough tied to human genetics opens the door to buried secrets no one is ready to control. Science, ambition, and fear quickly turn discovery into a deadly struggle.
Raising Abel
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2002
The fallout from radical genetic research centers on a child whose existence raises huge ethical and human questions. Protecting him means facing the people who see him as property, proof, or power.
Children of the Dawnland
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2003
In seventeenth-century Dawnland, Native families face loss, revenge, and the rising pressure of European contact. The result is a tense historical novel about children, memory, and a world being forced to change.
People of the Owl
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2003
After his brother's death, young Salamander is forced into leadership far sooner than he wants. What follows is a tense story of clan politics, grief, and power in one of ancient America's earliest cities.
It Sleeps in Me
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2004
High Chieftess Sora thought her past with Flint was over, until a visitor arrives seeming to carry part of his soul. Love, witchcraft, and looming war force her to question everything she trusts.
People of the Raven
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2004
On the Pacific Northwest coast, Rain Bear shelters an escaped slave who brings danger with her. Protecting her could doom his people, but sending her back may be even worse.
People of the Moon
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2005
In the high age of Chaco power, priests and warriors rule from great houses tied to moon and star. But arrogance, rebellion, and sacred timing are pushing the empire toward collapse.
It Wakes in Me
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2006
Sora's blackouts and spirit-haunted visions have become impossible to hide. Accused of murder and pressed by rival clans, she must fight for her life, her people, and her own mind.
It Dreams in Me
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2007
The strange power shadowing Sora's life deepens as dreams, memory, and violence begin to merge. What looked like spirit sickness may be the key to saving, or destroying, the Black Falcon Nation.
People of the Nightland
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2007
A boy named Silvertip sees disaster coming when the old ice begins to fail. To save his people, he must convince them to abandon the only world they have ever known.
The Betrayal
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2007
This provocative historical novel reimagines the life of Yeshua as a human story shaped by politics, betrayal, and fear. It treats ancient religion as contested history, not settled myth.
People of the Weeping Eye
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2008
Called home by terrifying visions, the wanderer Old White returns to a land sliding toward bloodshed. On the way he meets Two Petals and Trader, and the secret he carries may topple a mighty city.
People of the Thunder
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2009
As armies gather in the Southeast, the Sky Hand capital stands on the edge of triumph or ruin. Old White, Trader, and Two Petals walk straight into a storm of espionage, war, and divided loyalties.
Coming of the Storm
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2010
As Hernando de Soto's expedition moves into the Southeast, Native communities face enslavement, terror, and impossible choices. The invasion is seen from the ground, where every decision carries a cost.
People of the Longhouse
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2010
Odion and his sister Tutelo are taken after their village is destroyed, and their parents set out after them. The hunt leads into a brutal world of slavery, war, and an old evil named Gannajero.
Fire the Sky
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2011
The de Soto invasion grows more brutal, and the people resisting it are pushed closer to ruin. Alliances shift, loyalties crack, and survival demands courage from those with the least room to fail.
The Dawn Country
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2011
Wrass and other captive children are still trapped in Gannajero's camp, and rescue may come too late. As warriors and healers close in, the children themselves must risk everything to survive.
A Searing Wind
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2012
The final clash with de Soto's expedition leaves the Southeast reeling under violence, disease, and betrayal. It is a hard, sweeping end to a series about conquest seen through Native eyes.
People of the Black Sun
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2012
Dekanawida and Hiawento have built a growing League around the Great Law of Peace, but war is not finished with them. If the last holdouts refuse peace, their whole world may fall.
The Broken Land
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2012
A mad sorcerer is driving the Iroquoian world toward disaster. Sky Messenger, Hiyawento, and Jigonsaseh must do the almost impossible, unite warring nations before everything burns.
Copper Falcon
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2014
Young Flint Knife travels with his father to Cahokia seeking military help against raiders. The dazzling city promises power and safety, but the truth waiting there could change his life forever.
People of the Morning Star
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2014
Cahokia is under attack from within when a brilliant assassin begins hunting its rulers and the living god Morning Star. Politics, prophecy, and old powers collide in a city already stretched to the breaking point.
People of the Songtrail
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2015
Five hundred years before Columbus, Norse settlers and Native peoples meet on North American shores. What begins as exploration becomes a tense story of collision, survival, and the fragile possibility of peace.
The Dead Man's Doll
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2015
In this short prequel to People of the Songtrail, a shaman crosses enemy ground in the dead of winter to free a trapped ghost. What he finds is stranger, sadder, and more dangerous than he expected.
Vikings in North America
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2015
This short nonfiction work looks at the archaeology and possibilities behind Norse exploration and settlement in the New World. It is a brisk companion to the historical ideas behind People of the Songtrail.
Sun Born
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2016
An old enemy returns to Cahokia with emissaries from a rival power, and the city senses war coming. Morning Star's silence leaves others to confront murder, magic, and a threat to the empire's soul.
Moon Hunt
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2017
After Morning Star is poisoned, Cahokia reels toward chaos. To save him, Night Shadow Star and Fire Cat must descend into the Underworld and face the dark powers waiting below.
Maze Master
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2018
Ancient viruses, human evolution, and modern science collide in a fast-moving thriller with archaeological roots. The deeper researchers dig into the past, the more dangerous the present becomes.
Star Path
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2019
Blue Heron and master thief Seven Skull Shield leave Cahokia on a dangerous mission east. Rivers, hostile settlements, and a hidden enemy turn the journey into a struggle over the future of a rising civilization.
Cries from the Lost Island
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2020
After his friend Cleo is murdered, teen history obsessive Hal Stevens follows her final clues to Egypt. Ghosts, grief, and the search for Antony and Cleopatra's lost tomb pull him into something much larger.
People of the Canyons
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2020
In a war-torn Southwest of red cliffs and old magic, a tyrant hunts a witch's pot said to hold immense power. Healer Tocho, bitter hunter Maicoh, and young Tsilu are all pulled toward the fire.
Fracture Event
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2021
A scientific crisis sparks fear, conflict, and a race to understand what is really happening before the damage spreads. It is a modern thriller built on big ideas and mounting pressure.
The Ice Lion
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2021
Nearly a thousand years after a climate disaster froze the world, Lynx and his people struggle at the edge of extinction. A meeting with the last of the old world offers hope, and a terrible price.
Lightning Shell
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2022
Cahokia is close to civil war as murder, factional politics, and old rivalries explode across the great city. Spotted Wrist, Night Shadow Star, and their enemies race toward a reckoning that could remake the whole empire.
No Quarter
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2022
Told from inside the Alamo through the eyes of two enslaved people, this short work strips legend down to fear, survival, and human cost. It is a tight, unsettling take on a familiar story.
The Ice Ghost
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2022
In a frozen future, survival depends on uneasy alliances between archaic humans, old technologies, and the last remnants of a vanished civilization. The cold is brutal, but the deeper danger is what people want from one another.
The Ice Orphan
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2022
Lynx wants to save the dying quantum computer Quancee before the last Jemen destroys her. At the same time, a sick boy hearing strange voices may matter more to the future than anyone realizes.
Blood Lightning
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2024
Famine, war, and witchcraft are tearing the Iroquois nations apart while Atotarho reaches for absolute power. Sky Messenger's only hope is to bring divided leaders together before the world breaks.
Eclipse Dancer
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2024
Atotarho's war is grinding the land to pieces, and Dekanawida sees darkness ahead. The final fight for peace will demand everything from the people still willing to stand against chaos.
Shadowed Forest
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2024
With winter closing in, Koracoo and Gonda race after the child trader Gannajero to save their children. Inside the camp, the captives know rescue may not come soon enough.
The Dusk Country
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2024
Some children have escaped Gannajero, but many are still trapped and Wrass has been left behind as bait. Koracoo and Gonda press on through a brutal landscape where every rescue comes at a cost.
Buffalo Justice
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2025
When a conservation lawyer is murdered, Agent Jillian Masterson is pulled into a lethal fight over Yellowstone bison. Wyoming rancher John Cody looks guilty, but the truth is far messier and more dangerous.
The Tomb
by Kathleen O'Neal Gear
2025
A buried discovery pulls ancient faith, archaeology, and dangerous secrets back into open conflict. As old evidence comes to light, the people chasing it risk more than their reputations.
Where should I start?
If you want the big prehistoric saga: People of the Wolf → People of the Fire → People of the Earth
If you want the Iroquois arc: People of the Longhouse → The Dawn Country → The Broken Land → People of the Black Sun
If you want Cahokia politics and magic: People of the Morning Star → Sun Born → Moon Hunt → Star Path → Lightning Shell
If you want archaeological mystery: The Visitant → The Summoning God → Bone Walker
If you want Kathleen solo in speculative mode: The Ice Lion → The Ice Ghost → The Ice Orphan
Author bio
Kathleen O'Neal Gear was born in Tulare, California, in 1954 and grew up in the central San Joaquin Valley on a small family farm. She was one of six children, and words were part of everyday life. Her father wrote short stories, her mother worked as a newspaper journalist, and both history and storytelling were close at hand.
History reached her early. Family summers often meant trips to archaeological and historic sites around the United States, and those trips stuck. She worked on her first excavation when she was ten, and not long after that she was already entering writing contests and winning them.
She was digging and writing almost from the start.
Gear studied anthropology and archaeology seriously. She earned a B.A., cum laude, from California State University, Bakersfield, then an M.A., summa cum laude, from California State University, Chico. She also did Ph.D. studies at UCLA and post-graduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which added a wider historical lens to the practical field experience she was already building.
Before fiction became her full-time life, she worked in public archaeology and history for the United States Department of the Interior. She served as Wyoming State Historian and later as archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska. That work gave her a close view of how landscapes, bones, artifacts, and old stories fit together. It also earned her two Special Achievement Awards for the management of America's cultural resources.
In 1982 she married fellow archaeologist W. Michael Gear, and the partnership changed both of their careers. By 1986 she had turned to writing full-time. Together they built the long-running First North Americans sequence, beginning with People of the Wolf, and later branching into books like People of the Longhouse, People of the Morning Star, and The Visitant. Readers tend to come to those novels for the big sweep of prehistory, but stay for the human part, families under pressure, belief, politics, grief, love, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive when a world is changing.
Her solo work shows a wider range. The science fiction trilogy that begins with An Abyss of Light leans into faith, power, and rebellion on a galactic scale. Books such as Maze Master and The Ice Lion bring science, evolution, and survival into sharper modern or speculative focus. Cries from the Lost Island heads toward Egypt and young adult fantasy, while This Widowed Land and Thin Moon and Cold Mist show how comfortable she is in straight historical fiction and the American West.
Place matters in her books.
So does the way people make meaning from the worlds they inherit. Whether she is writing about Ice Age hunters, Cahokia, the Anasazi Southwest, colonial upheaval, or a frozen future, she keeps one foot in research and the other in story. Today she and Michael live in northern Wyoming, where they have also run Wind River Archaeological Consultants and worked in bison conservation. That mix of fieldwork, history, landscape, and lived experience is all over her fiction, and it is a big part of why the books feel so grounded.
Edited by
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