Walks in the Sun [Mass Market Paperback]

Don Coldsmith (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (1995)
• ASIN: B000GRO1SY
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Coldsmith's best!, December 20, 2011

By 

Jode72 "jode_az" (orange beach, al United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walks in the Sun (The Spanish Bit Saga) (Paperback)

I have read much of Don Coldsmith's Spanish Bit series, and this is one of the most engaging of the books. A brash young subchief named Blue Jay strikes out with a traveling party to see what lies south, farther south than any of the People have ever traveled. If Cold Maker, the spirit that brings the winter, lives in an ice cave far to the north in the Place of Never-Summer, Jay's logic goes, wouldn't there be a Place of Never-Winter to the south, where the People must never battle Cold Maker again? The book is named for Walks In The Sun, the medicine man who accompanies the party, one of its only two survivors, who relates the tale of "the journey too-far-south," as it comes to be known in the lore of the People.

Along the way, they discover many strange, unfamiliar things, animals and spirits native to the territory, but foreign to the People. As a southerner, I got a kick out of their first battles with humidity; their bowstrings wouldn't snap, and their metals grew the first rust they'd ever seen. Along the way they have their first encounters with such frightening spirits as the "toothfish" (a shark they discover washed up on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico), the "thunder lizard" (alligators, which claim a couple of their men), cannibalistic "jaguar men," the "smoking mountain" (a volcano in Mexico), and comical experiences with unfamiliar animals such as anteaters and armadillos. Most intriguing is the chapter where Walks In The Sun spends the night in a Mayan temple, the Place of the Old Ones, and experiences a powerful and alien medicine through the spirits of the place. In the end, only Walks In The Sun and Blue Jay survive for the return journey to the People's Sacred Hills, where they now know the People belong. (That may sound like a spoiler, but the book begins with their return, and the story is told after.)

Anyone who is a fan of Coldsmith should read this book, as well as anyone who likes books that take them on a strange journey.