At Road's End

Pre-Aztec #0.5

by Zoe Saadia

Tecpatl was born a warrior of the Mexican Valley, one of the elite class of fighters, defending his great city, capturing vanquished foes to sacrifice for the honor of the gods.


Yet, the circumstances conspired to send him into the Southwestern desert, to follow the ancient road, guarding a group of traders.


When he rescues a girl from the ransacked village, he thinks nothing of it. He just wishes to
make the traders sell their goods in a hurry, so he could return to his
homeland.

But the fate had planned differently, for the warrior and for the girl alike.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction, Romance, Historical Romance, Native American, Ancient

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Zoe Saadia is the author of several novels of pre-Columbian Americas. From the architects of the Aztec Empire to the founders of the Iroquois Great League, from the towering pyramids of the Mexican Valley to the longhouses of the Great Lakes, her novels bring long-forgotten history, cultures and people to life, tracing pivotal events that brought about the greatness of North and Mesoamerica.

Having researched various pre-contact cultures of this continent for more than a decade, she is convinced that it's a shame that such a large part of history was completely overlooked, by historical fiction most of all. Both Americas had an extremely rich, diverse, fascinating history long before this continent came in contact with the rest of the world.
So her professional motto is set. America has not been 'discovered', not yet. Maybe not ever :-)

Reviews

[ѦѺ™ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only these stones could talk. - "Digging for the Truth" Mystery of the Anasazi (2005)

Tecpatl wants the task of escorting a group of traders done and over with but the journey is far from over. before he can return to his homeland, Tecpatl will find himself engaging in battle and unexpectedly falling in love with Sakuna of the Great Houses.
author Zoe Saadia's first book in her Pre-Aztec series invites the reader to a bygone era where cliff-dwelling people known to us today as the Anasazi flourished. it also speculates on what could have contributed to the Anasazi's disappearance hundreds of years ago.
since discovering the works of historical novelist Gary Jennings, i have been fascinated by anything related to the Azteca, the Mayans, Incas and similar cultures. with that in mind, i did not hesitate in grabbing a copy of this book and i was generally impressed with Ms. Zaadia's novel.
Tecpatl and Sakuna's story revolve around known historical and archeological data. there is no question about the amount of research that went into this book. the author's imagination and creativity gave birth to the rest.
i think the dialogs between Tecpatl and Sakuna were well written. through these exchanges, their respective personalities and cultural differences were brought to the fore.
i did notice some awkward sentences and typos along the way but these did not deter me from enjoying the book as a whole. in fact, i am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

"She was on her feet now, her head hardly reaching his shoulder - so tiny and graceful - a perfectly fit desert creature. Were all of them like that? People who live upon the cliffs, but worshipping their gods underground?"

I started to read At Road's End and after a while I felt at wit's end. I don't mind a trip through American history. It's quite the opposite because it's so fascinating and very rewarding. But. I found At Road's End on the list "Best Native American Romance". Seriously? I mean there is this little, yet significant word "romance". I expected to read a historical Native American romance story. When I was 40 % done I just had to cave in. I'm sorry to say it but where was the romance? Where was the chemistry between the main protagonists Tecpatl and Sakuna? I could not connect to them. With that said, I just think it was no surprise at all since there was never enough "relationship" development. There was no emotional tension between these two as well as no build-up. I was so utterly excited to read this book, yet I could feel how my interest petered out. It was somewhat painful, and I really wanted to love this story but my heart was not into it.

"Our gods are smiling upon the warriors. Always. Only the warriors know how to please the gods, by living right, by fighting to honor the deities, by being ready to sacrifice their lives in order to protect their ways. With no warriors, the priests would have no sacrificial offerings to feed the gods. The life of the warrior is the pure, the right one. As for the rest? They are just living their unimportant lives."

The best aspect of At Road's End is the very beautiful prose. Furthermore, it's quite obvious that the author did a fine job in her research since she paid a lot of attention to both major and minor details. Her writing is detailed and very vivid. She's got so much talent! Sadly, the story was totally lacking in the romance department.

About my rating
The prose and the author's devotion to historical details deserved four or even five stars. But I had to downgrade At Road's End to three stars because I DNF'ed the book.

[Anduine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful introduction to Pre-Aztec culture. Not only did Zoe do her research well, you can also tell how much she loves that time and culture. What I liked best was how Zoe pointed out the differences, not only between the different pre-columbian cultures but also the difference between the different casts. How warriors looked down on traders and peasants and how hard it is for a warrior to learn that others may look down on his way of life also. But it also tells you what can be gained if prejudices can be overcome - and what can be lost if pride stands in your way to learn from others. And this is something that we can still learn from today.

[Libbie Hawker (L.M. Ironside) · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Edited review to 4 stars (from original 3) because I hear the book has been re-edited to chase out errors. Yay! Read it!**

Tecpatl is a Toltec warrior hired to act as guard and guide to an expedition of traders into the territory of the Cliff-Dwellers (Anasazi). Tecpatl discovers a ransacked village of Anasazi, all its citizens killed except one, a young woman whom he rescues from rape when his merchant bosses catch up to him and decide to have a little fun with the girl. She is Sakuna, the daughter of an important man at the larger and more powerful cliff village called Great Houses, to which she guides the merchants and acts as their interpreter.

In Great Houses, Tecpatl uncovers a plot by a marauding band of warriors to attack the people of Great Houses when they go into their fields to harvest the year's first crop of corn. He and Sakuna must convince the people of Great Houses that danger is imminent, and must convince them to stand with the strange Toltec outsider to fight against the marauders, or Great Houses risks the same decimation suffered by the other Anasazi village.

The downfall of the Anasazi culture is poorly understood, and author Zoe Saadia's postulation that it was wandering bands with distinct cultural reasons for killing Anasazi citizens rather than merely raiding their resources is fascinating and worthy of further exploration. The novel ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, setting up a continuation of the series that promises to make good on this further exploration. Pre-Columbian native cultures are a rare and welcome setting in historical fiction, and with moments of touching and memorable prose, Saadia is an excellent author with which to make this journey.

However, the book had some serious problems that interfered strongly with my ability to get into the story. Typos and other minor errors will occur in any book. My own book is not entirely free of them, despite a months-long crusade against them. After a while, an author's eyes just start to cross over her own text and she really cannot SEE the typos anymore. However, there is a notable difference between only a few minor errors scattered throughout the text and consistent, distracting errors, and I am afraid At Road's End had many consistent and distracting errors. Most common and most difficult to forgive was frequent disagreement of tense, but spelling errors and punctuation problems were found often (every couple of pages at least) as well as stylistic inconsistency in depicting characters' thoughts versus dialogue (i.e. sometimes thoughts were depicted in italics, sometimes not.)

The good news is that this book needs only a thorough editing to elevate it to four stars. Editing is not the strong suit of every author, so perhaps Saadia can locate a friend who is a whiz at proofreading and who understands stylistic consistency well enough to help her polish up this book and release a new edition with most of its errors hunted down and eradicated. Barring that, hiring a professional editor would be money well spent, as the setting and Saadia's memorable way with words deserve a fairer shake at attracting legions of fans than this current edition will provide.

The nice thing about self-publishing is how easy it is for an author to fix problems and provide readers with improved editions. I hope the author will consider doing so, because her book deserves a better go.

[Cathy Ryan]

4.5 stars
Tecpatl, a proud warrior, is reduced to the role of guide to a group of traders who are far beneath him in the hierarchy of the Azcapotzalco people from the shores of Lake Texcoco. An error of judgement means Tecpatl is disgraced and has to vindicate himself by accompanying and protecting the merchants, although he longs to return home as war is imminent. On their way through the canyons the party discover the slaughtered inhabitants of a village, littered across the canyon floor. There is one survivor, a young woman called Sakuna, whose father, an important person in his community of Great Houses, arranged her marriage to a man from the ravaged village.

Sakuna guides Tecpatl and the merchants to her father’s home in Great Houses. The cliff dwelling Anasazi are a reasonably peaceful people, happy to farm the land and use the crops as sacrifices to the gods. Their philosophy and lack of social status is incomprehensible to Tecpatl who, as well as a strict class system, recognises blood sacrifices as an established custom. Sakuna can’t comprehend Tecpatl’s warrior nature and it seems the two have no common ground.

Sakuna’s father wants Tecpatl to take the merchants on another trip while they wait to trade until after the Summer Solstice, eight days away. But trouble is coming to Great Houses. Tecpatl believes the settlement is about to be attacked by the same band of warriors who ravaged the village and needs to convince the leaders to take action before it is too late. This proves to be an onerous task.

I have little to no knowledge of Mesoamerican history but Zoe Saadia has a wonderful ability to transport me, through extremely well researched and vivid stories, to times long past. The attention to the details of life, the customs and culture of the characters is comprehensive and incredibly interesting, showing the vast differences, both in social behaviour and way of life, between the populations of the time. The suggestion of how the Anasazi race ceased to exist is an interesting one and could easily be as near to the truth as any other proposed explanation.

Tecpatl and Sakuna are well-developed characters, both fiery, strong and stubborn and the development of their relationship is completely realistic. Their story is based around historical facts during a time characterised by turbulence and unrest, just before the Aztecs’ rise to power. The world building is impressive, as is the amount of research, coupled with the inventiveness and imagery of the narrative. The historical and cultural dictates are woven in to the story smoothly and cleverly from the differing perspectives of the protagonists.

I’m looking forward to following on with the series.

[Matt D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a well researched novel detailing the final days of the Anasazi, from the viewpoint of an outsider warrior from Mesoamerica. The story was engaging, building in pace until an exciting, climatic ending; the characters were believable, and the author did an excellent job of portaying the difference of opinions between the two cultures. This is certainly a book that should be checked out if you are a fan of pre-Columbian era fiction.

[J.C. Andrijeski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great historical novel that takes place at the beginning of the end of the Anasazi cliff dweller's cultural dominance in the SW of the United States. I love the way this book was written, from the point of view of an "outsider" to that culture, a Native American from far south of the cliff dweller's region (prior to the Aztecs, from a rival tribe to the Mayans). The cultural clash is handled really well through a love story between one of the Anasazi women and a man from the warrior caste from the lands around Lake Texcoco, from a civilization that calls itself the Azcapotzalco. At the time Saadia is writing about, they share the fertile region with the Culhuacan, and a new group of bloodthirsty outsiders, the Aztecs. Hearing about the different viewpoints and philosophies of the very different religions and cultural practices of the two regions (even prior to the Aztecs, all of the natives in that region performed blood sacrifices with enemy captives, something the Anasazi didn't do, at least not in the same way). Doing this through the viewpoint of the young lovers works very well in my opinion, and lends a much more grounded and realistic lens into these people...while also using their emotional tension to make this less of a "history lesson" and more about people the reader cares about. I really enjoyed watching the warrior from the south, Tecpatl, struggle to understand the cliff dwellers with their less hierarchical society and the lack of birth castes that determine both social status and one's future work. Their love story was really charming and the action sequences exciting...all in all great read, especially if you are fascinated by this region, its peoples and its history. I am looking forward to the sequel, too, which sounds like it will be set more in those southern lands in the context of the burgeoning war with the Aztec invaders. Highly recommend!

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Truly Fascinating Novel!

At Road's End, by Zoe Saadia is a book to have on your MUST READ' list. This Historical Fiction Novel is accurate in its understanding of past societies and locations, and in its character's attitudes, which were a dream to follow. Zoe does a brilliant job in keeping interest and excitement hand in hand, and I fell more in love with these characters with each turn of the page. This book is well written, and in a realistic manner. There is nothing namby-pamby about it, period. I am not big on romance novels, merely because many seem so far from containing any small piece of realism, that I find myself closing the book and moving on. And while there is much, much more to this book than the romance that's written into it, I felt that what portion of this story was about love, was told in such a realistic manner, that I actually wanted to read faster in order to know what would happen there. For those who know nothing about me, that's saying a lot. I view the romance in this book to be perfectly written, to my taste, anyway. Things that I was grateful not to find in this book...No one was bitten in the neck in order to drink blood and have sex, no one was swept off their feet only to be carried to a castle tower and crowned a royal princess or prince to rule a magical kingdom and live happily ever after. Nope, none of that. Prince charming and the vampire brood, must have been in other lands when the author wrote this and I was glad for it. Everything in this book seemed as it should be and where it should be and for me, it was quite simply an incredible read. If you're looking for a deeply meaningful and well written story, that will unfold painlessly while you turn each page, I highly recommend this book. I will definitely be buying more of Zoe Saaidia's novel's.

[Thomas McDermott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was truly impressed with Zoe Saadia's ability to bring an ancient world to life in such a vivid and exciting manner. She creates such an amazing and rich foreign landscape and I was seeing it through the eyes of her characters as they journeyed through the landscape of the past. I was really thrilled with the way her main characters' relationship was both familiar and modern and relevant. They were from two different worlds and with current globalization I found the characters were surprizingly relatable. I loved these characters and the journey that their relationship takes them. The ancient world came immediately to life and she brought these people into the flesh for me and I am so happy this is a series. At Road's End is just the beginning of an amazing and exciting world I had never even imagined existed. Two thumbs up Zoe! I could see this as a movie or a great mini series on HBO, because it is such a visual story as well as an adventure and a love story, not to mention thriller. I couldn't put this down and am on to the next installment. Aztecs Rule!

[Scott Bury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zoe Saadia is clearly a very good writer. She has succeeded in a difficult task for a writer — I know, because it’s very similar to what I tried in my own writing.

In At Road’s End, Zoe Saadia presents a historical story set in a time, place and culture that are, as far as I know, unique in fiction: the Anasazi cliff-dwellers of what’s now the south-western USA and northern Mexico. Without needing a prologue or foreword, Saadia brings the people, their environment, culture and even some of their history to life.

And most important, she tells a story that you just can’t put down.

The story centres on Tecpatl, an elite-trained warrior from the Azcapotzalco culture, who live, according to the story, on the shore of Lake Texcoco (site of the later Aztec capital). He is escorting a trading mission across the desert to a city of cliff dwellers, called Great Houses.

Readers quickly learn that Tecpatl’s mission is punishment for a mistake he made, the full nature of which is revealed where it has maximum impact in the novel.

On the way, the group encounters a village that’s been raided and pillaged. There’s only one survivor, a woman with a command for languages. She helps guide the trading partner and its warrior-escort to Great Houses, her origin.

Saadia skilfully presents the complexities that people in this situation faced: great differences in language, culture and assumptions. One of the main drivers of the dramatic tension in the story, in fact, is the main character’s frustration in understanding the speech as well as the behaviour of the Anasazi he encounters.

A well-woven story
Presenting this complexity as an integral part of the plot requires great skill as a writer as well as a lot of research. Saadia has learned a great deal about the technology, economy, sociology and cultures of the people in her story, and all this adds to the realism. It’s actually entertaining to read about the characters’ attempts to navigate the chasms between them. Tecpatl’s most frequent refrain seems to be “I will never understand you.”

Equally believable are the relationships among all the characters. The social gap between Tecpatl, the elite warrior, and the merchants he’s escorting is even wider than the linguistic and cultural gap between Tecpatl and the Anasazi girl he rescues, Sakuna.

And the romantic relationship that develops between Tecpatl and Sakuna is equally skillfully done. There’s nothing cloying or Hollywood about this relationship, nothing coy or phoney. These are two adults who are eventually attracted to each other despite their differences. While that sounds like a cliché, in Saadia’s hands (or under her fingertips, anyway) the developing relationship rings absolutely true.

For example, we learn that Sakuna is the daughter of a prominent and wealthy man in Great Houses. He marries her off to a man in an outlying village—the one that is sacked at the beginning of the story. While the marriage is not Sakuna’s choice, and she’s clearly not in love with her husband, she accepts the marriage. But that’s couched in the realism of the character and the author. After her rescue, Sakuna becomes much more assertive. It’s completely believable. She sides with her rescuer, eventually, and the way she comes around to his side of things is also realistic.

Her father is presented just as believably. In fact, I’m sure I’ve met him. He’s self-assured and arrogant to the point of endangering himself and his whole community.

I won’t belabour the typographical and minor grammatical errors. There were only a few, and they did not detract from the enjoyment of this story at all. One more good edit would have fixed them, I’m sure. (And I’m also sure that my book could have used one more good edit, as well.)

Saadia has woven together many threads: exposing this era of pre-Columbian North America; cultural gaps; the struggle to assert oneself; redemption and so much more, and (minor grammatical and typographical mistakes notwithstanding) without a flaw.

If you want a really good read that brings a really exotic time and place to full-colour life, pick up At Road’s End.

[D.A. Graystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like her main character’s skill with a sword, author Zoe Saadia deftly handles the historical romance genre in At Road’s End. One of my complaints with some historical romances is the heavy handed use of setting that reads like a history text. This is definitely not the case with At Road’s End. Though Ms. Saadia obviously knows her subject, she puts you in the time and setting without feeling the need to demonstrate that knowledge with scholarly passages. Instead, she skillfully weaves her descriptions into the action of the story, putting you right there with her excellent characters. Her characters have depth, emotion, conflict and are realistic enough to have a good love/hate relation with. And from her descriptions of the action/warfare scenes, speak nicely to her if you meet her with a sword – I suspect she knows how to use it! You will enjoy this novel and, like me, will be looking forward to her promised sequel.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

“At Road’s End” is a detailed yet readable and heartfelt historical novel of the land that became early Mexico and the eventual American Southwest, land of the Anasazi, Aztecs, and Toltecs. A routine trading trip, guided by a disgraced warrior for the protection of the merchants and their trading goods, discovers a cliff village ransacked and burnt, the villagers murdered. Only one survivor remains, a young married woman who had the luck and good sense to hide out. She tells the warrior of her people, who live in Great Houses against the Cliffside, and whose spiritual beliefs he cannot understand. Her tribe, of course, were those history came to know as the disappeared Anasazi.

Readers will find themselves turning pages, engrossed with the story line. One needn’t be an aficionado of historical fiction to enjoy this novel, but simply a person who loves good reading.

[Ann Stolinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book.
The story line was interesting, the characters believable and true to themselves the entire book. Well written. The pace was fast and I couldn't wait to turn the page.
I'm going to look for the rest of the series.

[Victor H Fisher Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action story book

Book was an action story book. Simply written with a story on pre Columbian way of life. On how the different indigenous towns would War, Harvest and Commerce between them in order to subsist.

[J.A. Beard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years ago during a family trip to Arizona, I had an opportunity to visit some ruins associated with the ancient cliff-dwelling native Anasazi peoples of the southwest. Though the ruins had been abandoned for centuries, these artifacts of the once-thriving culture made me curious about these people and their lives. In At Road’s End, Zoe Saadia explores the intersection of this culture with other regional powers. After reading it, I feel that I have better insight into how the ancient peoples of the Southwest lived. I think, in the end, that’s one of the best things a piece of historical fiction can accomplish.

The plot moves along at a comfortable pace. There’s a good interspersing of more leisurely character development scenes, action, and even a bit of romance. Though the plot is focused on a small number of characters, it serves as a microcosm of some of the major trends affecting the Natives of the Southwest. The book expertly illuminates the complex nature of their societies and, to a lesser extent, their neighbors to the south.

The use of an outsider main character, a warrior escorting traders, allows an exploration of the historical culture in a natural way. The author’s respect for the material and her research is obvious in her attention to both major and minor details. The depth of historical information never becomes overwhelming, nor does it come off as didactic. Given how often a lack of restraint can undermine historical fiction works, I was rather pleased at how well the author managed this.

The arrogance of the main character, though expected given his background, makes him not the most immediately likable lead, but he’s intriguing and does have a solid character arc. The relative depth of character development on the other characters is not as strong, but all major secondary characters still come as realistic and not mere plot props.

[Marilou George · Rating 5 out of 5]

At Road’s End is a novel of historical fiction that will capture your imagination and place you firmly in its grasp. I was enthralled as I followed this story about the Anasazi cliff-dwellers and their cultural dominance of the south-western region of the United States. Saadia succeeds in bringing to life the differences and conflicts of these ancient tribes with great clarity and skill.

The main focus of this story is Tecpatl an elite warrior who is sent on a trading mission across the desert which he feels is far beneath him. He is assigned this task as a result of an error in judgment on a previous mission and is anxious to complete the assignment and return to his home. In the midst of the journey they discover a village that has been destroyed and the only remaining survivor is Sakuna who subsequently leads them to their destination Great Houses which is also her home.

The tremendous amount of research that went into this story is undeniable. The descriptive writing of the journey, the people and customs of Great Houses is presented with a vibrant attention to detail. The complications arising from people who have a language barrier as well as great differences in their cultures are portrayed in a striking and expressive style.

The characters of Tecpatl and Sakuna are presented with a unique and enjoyable dialogue as their differences bring them together. They are characters that become very real as they relate to each other and the situations they encounter. The banter, relationships and conflicts that are conveyed with all the characters lend to the atmosphere and credibility of this story.

I highly recommend this book to all readers for its extraordinary and descriptive writing, excellent characters and circumstances as well as a remarkable story-line that delivers throughout

[M. Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book showed a lot of promise up front. A unique setting, rooted in history, written by someone who is has clearly done her research. I was excited to find that it was free on Amazon, and immediately dove into the book.

Unfortunately, everything went downhill at a snail's pace from there on out.

At it's base, that's my biggest problem with this novel - the pacing. I'm not sure if I can definitively say this book used a three act structure or not. If it did, it felt like the first act was about 90% of the book, with the second act being 9%, and the third act crammed into the end all at once just to finish off the story. As you can probably imagine, the plot unfolded astonishingly slow.

My second problem was the characterization. It just felt flat. None of the characters had a unique voice (without speaking attributions, I probably wouldn't be able to tell one main character from another) and I felt like the love story was carelessly hammered in. The secondary and tertiary characters are treated like an amorphous blob of humanity with very few defining features, each of them falling into one of a few supporting role categories - elder, trader, ugly, round woman, man speaking another language - that pretty much covers it.

There are also frequent typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, and awkward phrasings. I would chalk these oversights up to Zoe Saadia being Israeli (I think?) and maybe not being 100% fluent in English. I could be way off on that, however, so take my word for what its worth. Regardless, if you're going to write a book, those errors are inexcusable, no matter how the language of publication differs from the author's native tongue.

[Sarah Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zoe Saadia already had my heart with her last historical fiction about Pre-Columbian Native Americans. Now she's out done herself with At Road's End, and I'm more in love with her writing than ever before.

At Road's End is so many things. It's a skillful romance where there are so many things coming between the two players. Differing cultures, having homes far away from each other and having very different outlooks on life.

It's a great book about the life of the different populations of Native Americans. This is a walk around there world where the characters are people, not the caricatures that we're used to seeing on documentaries and in the media.

One thing that I love that Saadia does, is that she makes the main character an outsider, but an outsider that is Other to us as well. We learn about him, and the others, through their reaction to what they're seeing. This way there's a lot more showing and a lot less telling.

I also love the way that the history flows with the book. This is not the sort of historical novel that is full of block of explanatory text. There's enough story and writing to grease everything along so it reads smooth.

Love it. Two thumbs and two big toes up. Read it!!

Check out my other reviews at my blog

[Rachelle Ayala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and engrossing. This book reads like a Louis L'Amour western, but set in pre-Aztec times. I love Sakuna and gradually began to like Tecpatl as the book progressed. At first he was arrogant and close-minded, but always a hero. He risks his life for a people who did not appreciate them. Of course I enjoyed the love scenes. I only wished they were more detailed. Sakuna is a worthy heroine to follow to the other books. Her philosophy is quite modern and it is a shame that her peaceful people disappeared whereas crueler races prospered.

The action and fight scenes and wonderful description takes the reader back to a land that no longer exists. The characters were well-rounded, fighting their inner demons, while noble self-sacrificing. The love story had its moments of distrust sprinkled in to tug at the heart of a romantic reader. Altogether a superb story. I finished it in one sitting.

[Jody Mabry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable

A pompous, ethnocentristic warrior and an independent farmer-princess from different civilizations fall in love. Tecpatl isn't one of those overbearing characters you just don't want to like, until you see what he will do to keep Sakuna safe. "At Roads End" is the story of a young warrior sent to protect a band of travelers on their way North. It is the story of the fall of the great Anasazi cliff dwelling civilization. And it is the beginning of the love-story of Tecpatl and Sakuna. I loved it!

[Damon Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read. The characters are alluring, and the history and culture are conveyed in a rewarding and unobtrusive style that richly educates the reader without even realising it. I'm currently working my way through all of this author's books!

[Daryl Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful historical fiction. I was particularly impressed as the author had two young people from two different cultures fall in love and struggle so much to understand each other because the other culture seemed so wrong to them

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read I enjoyed "the outsiders" perspective The characters were interesting I excited the read what happens next.

[Victoria Alaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

love this

[Darlene Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complete review available at: http://darleneelizabethwilliamsauthor...

[Stephen Saxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not normally the genre that I browse for reading. I had just finished reading a 6 book series (really enjoy getting into the story, and letting it build the environment that I'll be immersed in for 5-6 days), and I got to the end of the 6th book, and found that it wasn't finished; darn it; the next book wasn't due out for another 7 to 10 months. By that time, I'll have forgotten the story line, and I'm not sure I'll find the first six books to start all over again.
So any way, I looked at the bottom of my books to be read, and here was a Prequel, and upon further search, I found the actual storyline in a complete 3 book series, also in my library. Whoo Hoo; off I go!
So now the review:
The storyline took off, kind of slow. (remember, not my normal genre) As I started to immerse myself into the storyline, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the Prequel enough to continue the rest of the books in the series. (But I'm a stickler, if I start a book, "almost always" I finish the book (might not the rest of the series, but I do finish the book).
As the story continued, I was slowly drawn in by the different attitudes of the characters in the story; playing out their role as they go about their normal duties, and not quite understanding where each of the other characters in the story beliefs and attitudes were almost opposite to what each character's growth environment that led to the interactions between each other, and how they would affect each other in ways that were definitely not preplanned.
I'm still not sure if I'll add this genre to my watch list, but I am drawn enough into the storyline to start the next book in this series to further explore the relationships and interactions within the story.

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my assessments of At the Road's end by Zoe Saadia according to 6 criteria:
1. Too long and Strenuous action - exciting - 4 stars
2. Boring - fun - 4 stars
3. not difficult to read (as for non English native speaker] - 4 stars
4. predictable (common) - good story (unusual) - 3 stars
5. Shalow story - has a deeper meaning - 3 stars
6. The story is mass and Unfinished - The story is clear, understandable and well rounded story - 4 stars

Total 3.66 stars.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking forward to the next book!

Zoe does a great job balancing action, drama, romance, and an important life lesson in an intriguing story! I’m glad this is a series, so I can continue the enjoyment of following the characters!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Aztec era historical inspirational fiction.

[Catherine Nightlinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fiction!

This story is a well written fictional account of a interesting civilization. It brings history and fiction together in interesting way.