Shaman Winter (Mass Market Paperback)

by Rudolfo Anaya (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Continuing the classic Bless Me, Ultima: Sonny Baca battles his nemesis, Raven.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Can Raven, Bringer of Curses, whose battle cry is ``Chaos forever,''outfight small-town p.i. Sonny Baca? In your dreams. Which is where most of the action in this weird blend of crime and fantasy fiction takes place. The thing is, Raven (Amaya's devil figure) and Sonny (his angel) have wrestled before (Rio Grande Fall, 1996, etc.), with the devil taking the hindmost. But this time, Raven feels sure he has the edge: he knows how to get into Sonny's dreamsand Sonny isn't savvy enough yet to invade his. That's important, because it means Raven can wipe out Sonny's female forebears, starting with Owl Woman, daughter of a shaman, who lived circa 1598. The strategic point here is that by canceling their existence, he fixes it so that Sonny was never born! In between dream battle-scenes (in which the likes of Billy the Kid and Pancho Villa sometimes take a hand), Raven and Sonny have waking confrontations. Sonny, still wheelchair-bound as the result of Ravens malevolence in a previous novel, is often bested here. But he's recovering his health. And with the help of wise old Don Eliseo, his mentor, he's sharpening up his dream-crashing techniques, so that he can meet Raven on equal terms and knock the feathers off him. With Sonny Baca we're light-years from the wisecracking, hard-boiled, noir-drenched p.i.s who walked the mean streets when the genre was young. Sam Spade may be turning over in his dreams. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446608017
• ISBN-13: 978-0446608015
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #453,342 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dream World Mystery, May 26, 2002

By	Neil Scott Mcnutt (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the third book in the series by Anaya involving his heros Sonny Baca and Rita Lopez and their battles with Sonny's opponent Raven. To appreciate this book, you really need to start at the beginning and follow the story through the various phases. The first book "Zia Summer" sets the stage with the principal characters in the context of the New Mexico Pueblo Indian culture. The second book "Rio Grande Fall" takes you through the battles of Sonny and Raven in the context of the multiple layers of culture (Native American, Hispanic and Anglo) in the Rio Grande Valley. You get a wonderful tour of the cultures in each of these books. This third book "Shaman Winter" is the height of the mystical battle and the Pueblo Indian cultures interpretation of dreams. In this book there also is more of a direct message to the Nuevo Mexicano people that your existence is destroyed by those who rob you of your dreams and who rob you of your historical context. "History belongs to those who write it." Certainly this is a powerful message to the Hispanic people who must feel acutely the loss of their heritage in the Anglo culture and the denial of their dreams of a homeland and a peaceful existance. One of the most powerful moments in the book is the depiction of the Long Walk of the Navaho people and the impact on their women. This is conscience-raising but not distracting from the story line. The story is fascinating in the mystical interpretation of dreams. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride to enjoy this story. If your are able to do so, the journey is a wonderful one, full of twists, and goes off like the finale of a July 4th fireworks display in all the plots and subplots at the dramatic ending. Note that the ending leaves room to look forward to another book in the series.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shaman Winter.....Deep Freeze, June 5, 2000

By	Jayson A. Olson (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Third in the series after well written Zia Summer and Rio Grande Fall, I found this book to difficult at times and down right hokey.

The opening chapter 'tries' to set the stage of this 3rd tale, but when your done you're trying to figure out if you picked up a sequel or not. Events go way back, many centuries to when the America's were newly discovered and we are introduced to the 'Dream World of the Spirits' if you will. At this point you notice this novel will be a big departure from the previous installments. Then throughout the book, the current story is suspended as the reader is forced to shift gears and read about the Dream World and the going's on there.

Soon after the strange opening, your favorite characters return only few short weeks where Rio Grande Fall left off. Sonny, now in a wheel chair takes a very spiritual or supernatural turn of events that the reader may have trouble adjusting to, as these elements were not as strong in the first two novels. At the very least you can see that Sonny Baca makes a huge spiritual transformation, but this gets way out there....Sonny and nemesis Raven now do battle on the plane of Dreams. Sonny now has `the power' (?) to enter dreams at will and how the dreams play out ends up affecting reality! When did this detective series become Science Fiction or a X-Files episode?

Also like the previous novels, you need to have a working Spanish vocabulary, as the author tends to switch from English mid sentence to Spanish. You may get the gist of what the characters are trying to say, but when it is in paragraphs you get frustrated because you have no idea what is being talked about.

The hokiest part of the novel is this...Sonny has a morning epiphany that in this day and age you need a computer with access to the Internet to help catch criminals. Just so happens (coincidence) that he dials a friend at a Library who just so happens to have a cliché latch-key kid expert who hangs out on the net all day. So of course when Sonny visits young 'Cyber' (how original), the computer just so happens have been donated by the same agency Sonny is investigating (gee...another coincidence). Even more eye-brow raising is the fact that Cyber is also there doing his own research in the same field that Sonny is seeking information on. To make it even worse Sonny gives Cyber some very minimal information and by the time Sonny gets home from the Library and has a meal Cyber calls and has like 90% of all the info Sonny needed in like 2 hours! The author basically has no idea on how the Internet works, and anyone who does, your eyes will roll at the absurdity of these events.

Finally, nothing is really new in this novel. It's Sonny vs. Raven again, thick in metaphors, a never ending battle that has now spanned three novels. The climax was a let down, and there were two events that just miraculously fixed themselves with nor real or pliable explanation.

If you were a fan of the 1st two, (which I was) you will definitely have to suspend your obvious intuition of logic and reality to truly enjoy this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anaya a Great Writer!, November 30, 2003

By	Johanna H. Cleveland (Greenwood Village, Colorado USA) - See all my reviews

I have read all of Anaya's books. I loved this one as I loved them all. I read them all in order of their writing and found doing that the most interesting way to follow Anaya's thoughts and the development of his writing. This book is the last of a trilogy - hopefully there will be many more. His writing is such a wonderful way to discover the history and essence of New Mexico and to get a real feeling for the soul of the area. Anaya writes using many analogies and metaphors and with very deep meaning. Rudolfo Anaya is a joy to read and his writings have enriched my life profoundly.