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Sonny Baca #3
Shaman Winter
Famed for capturing the flavor of Hispanic New Mexico, Rudolfo Anaya now plunges his charismatic Sonny Baca into his most fascinating mystery yet.
Wheelchair-bound by day, Alburquerque P.I. Sonny Baca is tormented by night with strange One by one, his female ancestors are abducted before his eyes. Soon Sonny learns the worst. His old archenemy, Raven, is controlling the nightmares and planning to destroy Sonny's past. In present-day Alburquerque, the situation is just as Young women are being kidnapped and the only clues are four black feathers. Now Sonny must detect the connection between the spirit world and this all-too-worldly city ...before more lives are lost and even the earth itself is threatened.
Wheelchair-bound by day, Alburquerque P.I. Sonny Baca is tormented by night with strange One by one, his female ancestors are abducted before his eyes. Soon Sonny learns the worst. His old archenemy, Raven, is controlling the nightmares and planning to destroy Sonny's past. In present-day Alburquerque, the situation is just as Young women are being kidnapped and the only clues are four black feathers. Now Sonny must detect the connection between the spirit world and this all-too-worldly city ...before more lives are lost and even the earth itself is threatened.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1999
17 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Rudolfo Anaya
88 books472 followersRudolfo Anaya lives and breathes the landscape of the Southwest. It is a powerful force, full of magic and myth, integral to his writings. Anaya, however, is a native Hispanic fascinated by cultural crossings unique to the Southwest, a combination of oldSpain and New Spain, of Mexico with Mesoamerica and the anglicizing forces of the twentieth century. Rudolfo Anaya is widely acclaimed as the founder of modern Chicano literature. According to the New York Times, he is the most widely read author in Hispanic communities, and sales of his classic Bless Me, Ultima (1972) have surpassed 360,000, despite the fact that none of his books have been published originally by New York publishing houses. His works are standard texts in Chicano studies and literature courses around the world, and he has done more than perhaps any other single person to promote publication of books by Hispanic authors in this country. With the publication of his novel, Albuquerque (1992),Newsweek has proclaimed him a front-runner in "what is better called not the new multicultural writing, but the new American writing." His most recent volume, published in 1995, is Zia Summer.
"I've always used the technique of the cuento. I am an oral storyteller, but now I do it on the printed page. I think if we were very wise we would use that same tradition in video cassettes, in movies, and on radio."
from
http://www.unm.edu/~wrtgsw/anaya.html
and
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_reso...
"I've always used the technique of the cuento. I am an oral storyteller, but now I do it on the printed page. I think if we were very wise we would use that same tradition in video cassettes, in movies, and on radio."
from
http://www.unm.edu/~wrtgsw/anaya.html
and
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_reso...
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 7, 2014
Slow going at times but I enjoyed the story and the characters. I liked the setting in New Mexico with the mix of the Native American and Hispanic culture. Weaving the dream world into a detective story was an interesting approach.
August 7, 2021
This third book in Anaya’s Sonny Baca series is the most mystical, filled with visions and shamanic dream journeys. Sonny’s detective work takes place in both the ordinary realm and the spirit realm, as he travels through layers of time and identities to confront his ongoing antagonist, the sorcerer Raven.
Raven, in this story, has allied with a white supremacist militia, a plot element that’s surprisingly current, though the book is old enough that doing detective work on the internet was new when it was first published.
The action at all levels is intense, once the story gets moving. The journeys into New Mexico history are exciting, integrating the past with the present. Sonny matures. He has always idealized his fiancée, Rita. In this book, he finally seems to understand her whole, vulnerable humanity as they endure a shared crisis. The curandera Lorenza, however, is still on the pedestal where Sonny tends to put women. He appreciates her, yet I never felt he perceived her entire self. Sonny’s neighbor, friend, and shamanic teacher Don Eliseo plays a profound role. The end of the book is extraordinary in both the writing and the main character’s spiritual development, as well as the humility with which Sonny concludes this particular case.
This is a book only Anaya could have written. The beginning has some slow spots, so slow I might have stopped reading if I didn’t know the author’s work well enough to keep going, trusting he would reward me. I was right. It well worth reading the beginning to reach the finale.
Raven, in this story, has allied with a white supremacist militia, a plot element that’s surprisingly current, though the book is old enough that doing detective work on the internet was new when it was first published.
The action at all levels is intense, once the story gets moving. The journeys into New Mexico history are exciting, integrating the past with the present. Sonny matures. He has always idealized his fiancée, Rita. In this book, he finally seems to understand her whole, vulnerable humanity as they endure a shared crisis. The curandera Lorenza, however, is still on the pedestal where Sonny tends to put women. He appreciates her, yet I never felt he perceived her entire self. Sonny’s neighbor, friend, and shamanic teacher Don Eliseo plays a profound role. The end of the book is extraordinary in both the writing and the main character’s spiritual development, as well as the humility with which Sonny concludes this particular case.
This is a book only Anaya could have written. The beginning has some slow spots, so slow I might have stopped reading if I didn’t know the author’s work well enough to keep going, trusting he would reward me. I was right. It well worth reading the beginning to reach the finale.
June 24, 2024
This is a library book that goes way back to 1999. The author, Rudolfo Anaya, is one I should have known but did not. He is an American author and considered one of the founders of "Chicano and New Mexican literature." He passed in 2020.
Shaman Winter is the third in a series and the first of Anaya's works I have read. It stands as a good story on its own, but reading the first two would probably be helpful. From many of the reviews gather this is not his strongest work.
I found this to be a story with a very slow beginning and a powerful, strong finish. It is a detective story but told in a very mystical style. Half of the story is told in present time and half in the dream world. In my limited reading knowledge, it reminded me very much of Carlos Castenada's books from when I was young.
This is a book that may take some patience on the readers part, but I found the ending to be worth it!
Shaman Winter is the third in a series and the first of Anaya's works I have read. It stands as a good story on its own, but reading the first two would probably be helpful. From many of the reviews gather this is not his strongest work.
I found this to be a story with a very slow beginning and a powerful, strong finish. It is a detective story but told in a very mystical style. Half of the story is told in present time and half in the dream world. In my limited reading knowledge, it reminded me very much of Carlos Castenada's books from when I was young.
This is a book that may take some patience on the readers part, but I found the ending to be worth it!
April 26, 2023
I was drawn to these later works, Sonny Baca series, because of my enjoyment of his book "Bless me Ultima". Looks like that will remain on my shelf but not these others. Things were okay enough for me to make it to the end, but not enough so that I wanted to read the next one (and I believe the last of the series) "Jemez Spring". It's on the shelf but think it will go to the donation box unless my spouse decides he likes the series. Many issues were dealt with in realistic or rather unbelievable methods. Everything was not straightened away by the end - how can you if there is a book 4? From the looks of some of the reviews, I'm either missing something or just not on that wave length (and it is not a wave I want to surf....)
July 11, 2018
I am pretty sure I started this series somewhere in the 90s/early oughts when I worked in a bookstore. I do not, however, remember them filled with crazy sauce (crazy hatch chile sauce b/c New Mexico).
What started out as a missing persons case for Sonny Baca, devolved quickly into dream battles with the nefarious Raven over nuclear weapons, Zia medallions, dream bowls, future generations, past generations, and a chihuahua. You will need a side of posole and a steaming cup of what the fuck to make it through the ending.
What started out as a missing persons case for Sonny Baca, devolved quickly into dream battles with the nefarious Raven over nuclear weapons, Zia medallions, dream bowls, future generations, past generations, and a chihuahua. You will need a side of posole and a steaming cup of what the fuck to make it through the ending.
January 20, 2022
The book drags and meanders at times, unlike Anaya’s “Bless Me Ultima,” his Bildungsroman I loved introducing to my middle school, high school and college students alike. Anaya’s tale is as seeped in the rich lore and landscapes of his beloved New Mexico as ever, but isn’t as engaging as many of his other works.
July 22, 2018
Not the strongest of Anaya's books. I think he got a bit distracted by his shaman lore and history research to where the story became more just filler this time. The result is still ok, but some of the dialogue sections are really awkward.
November 22, 2021
The end (thankfully) of the Sonny Baca, Anaya's flawed and sometimes boneheaded Chicano "hero." Great historical detail for La Raza, of a sort, but a little too X-Files-ish in the plot. Drags a little at times with comments about the direction of society's ills, but still an important work.
October 6, 2024
Compelling and straight forward. Unlike the Mickey mouse word salads of Carlos Casteneda; direct and to the point of the story of the shaman and his life duties to the world.
Deeper understanding and directions to the use of the power of light and all the attending nuances of its use.
Excellent.
Deeper understanding and directions to the use of the power of light and all the attending nuances of its use.
Excellent.
January 10, 2018
Full of New Mexico traditions and superstitions.
February 5, 2025
This series is turning into Hardy Boys with a potpourri of New Mexican tropes.
February 20, 2016
I have loved other books by Rudolfo Anaya - Albuquerque, Bless Me Ultima- I did not love this one. It's so different than the others it could have been written by a different author. Rather than magical realism, this book is a fragmented mix of Carlos Castenada and Tony Hillerman. There's no character development; as a result I didn't care at all when misfortune struck the main characters. It seems to be a sequel; I think there was a story that came before it with the same characters but I haven't read it so the references left me completely lost,and I felt like I had come in middle of the story. I'm giving it two stars instead of one because Anaya did write some lovely phrases about the shamanism aspects of the story, especially the parts about Zia.
November 10, 2013
I got this on a trip to New Mexico because I really like to prolong the afterglow of a good journey by reading something set there. It definitely delivered on "sense of place" and also on local culture and had some very interesting ideas. It didn't hang together as a novel very well though. A smaller-scope plot would have worked better, given the emphasis on action in the dream world. As it was many of the plot elements seemed a bit gratuitous, and there was no emotional weight to any of the characters other than the main one. The long passages and interludes of dialog in Spanish weren't all that accessible to me, as I don't read Spanish. Early on I tried to figure them out based on knowing French but after a while I just started skimming over them.
April 10, 2008
This book is written by Rudulfo Anaya - who writes with precision about the New Mexico people and terrain. His references to spots that I can see and go to enhance the story - which is a blend of Tony Hillerman meets real-down-to-earth people who live and work in New Mexico. This story includes Los Alamos, Sandia Labs, shamanism, native people, native history, New Mexican holidays - even a scene involving Intel - where I used to work. The story was delightful and thrilling - told from the viewpoint of Sonny Baca, PI and shaman. This is the first book of Anaya's I've read and I am going back for more!
July 24, 2014
This was an amazing read. Shamanism is central to the entire story and is described in believable ways. The good/evil theme is quite strong in this book as is the balance and counter balance of contemporary issues along with a partial history of New Mexico. Of course, this is the third of a four series set of books, which should be read in order. I truly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading Jemez Spring.
August 3, 2009
I have put this aside. I was interested in seeing Anaya's new work, and a friend lent me this book, a mystery. He is trying to educate about Southwest history through a novel, but I find it heavy handed. He is mixing in a sort of magical realism, but I find it unconvincing. I'll see whether I finish it... I'm unimpressed.
December 22, 2008
Anaya just has a style that keeps you going. I'm really into the spiritual, cultural, mystic/dreamy experience. Not too convinced about the suspense international espionage spin, so that's why not quite 5 stars.
February 8, 2010
Lots of Native American lore, fantastic dream sequences, an atomic bomb threat to Albuquerque, and four young girls kidnapped. A very well written good-vs-evil theme if you can accept native beliefs in flying brujos.
June 3, 2013
Awesome book! Great story based on Native American creation mythology. This was a great story to read after reading Anaya's Lord of the Dawn: The Legend of Quetzalcoatl. Knowing that time is not linear is necessary for comprehending how the world of legend, reality, and dreams can come together.
August 18, 2007
Even though this book reads as a detective story (not my usual cup of tea), Anaya is such a great story teller that it reads like a novel more than a grocery store paperback.
September 27, 2007
Some of the spiritual stuff is a little to "Airy Fairy" but Anaya is a great story teller
November 4, 2008
really excellent adventure/mystery weaving Anaya's mixed spirituality in with a modern mystery/thriller.
June 20, 2010
eh, not so great. It was really hard to get through for me, a little cheesy.
October 6, 2011
Very Albuquerque.
September 21, 2016
It's typical Rudolfo Anaya. I love that he incorporates the New Mexican culture into his stories.
March 25, 2009
Very good.
July 30, 2011
The third and final installment of the Sonny Baca series. Wish there would have been more.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews