ANASAZI HARVEST Reviews

Leland - I really enjoyed the book!! You are quite adept as a writer - poet. If you ever decide to expand Rappahannock Books, you have a good start with your own. Laurel

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Anasazi Harvest

by R. Leland Waldrip

ISBN 1-892105-99-4

333 pages at 9.95 US, 12.95 CAN

www.rappahannockbooks.com

The extraterrestrial harvest did not bigin with the Roswell incident. That was simply a mission gone bad. Before and since Roswell, the harvesters have been present among us. In Anasazi Harvest, author Waldrip simply puts our suspicions into words, with an incredibly imaginative spin.

Life has taken a troubling turn for Chaco Rivers Joseph, the book's Navajo hero. He still does an occasional stint as tracker for the law and manages to hold down a steady job.

No one is better at reading dust pictures and sign than Chaco, but his daytime effectiveness is often less than ideal due to restless nights and dark dreams. Haunting erotic dreams rob his energy and cause a promising romantic relationship to end.

As they have for generations, a race of female extraterrestrials - the Weltii - are harvesting the life force of Anasazi male descendants. Despite a mandate against such fraternization, the alienTyrillia Ainmaize falls in love with Chaco and reveals herself to him. She's beautiful, much as a young Navaho woman would be, and passionately attracted to her human lover. Tyrillia shares her story with an incredulous Chaco, of why and how her race has been stealing DNA from pure Anasazi bloodlines for centuries.

Chaco has been tracking the perpetrators of several grisly murders. What he discovers is an interplanetary plot that will be the ruination of both Earth and Weltii. Chaco, Tyrillia, and her people take on an evil race of aliens who are walking openly among humans. The Weltii enemies will stop at nothing, and plan to leave no witnesses alive.

The Weltii are environmentally aware and millennia ahead of Earth technologically. Chaco's government is blind to the needs of its people and impervious to loss of land and space.

The author lovingly and accurately depicts the New Mexico wilderness and the Native American way of life. This adds depth and purpose to the fictional accounting of alien visitations.

Anasazi Harvest has excitement, action and intrigue, romance and danger. Waldrip's keen imagination and writing style add a believable dimension to this science fiction tale.

He made me seriously rethink Roswell, crop circles, nocturnal visitations and flying saucers. And that is an accomplishment, indeed.

Laurel Johnson

Midwest Book Review

Reviewed by: molly martin http://www.angelfire.com/ok4/mollymartin

"Posted to AuthorsDen...will send to Word Weaving, Scribesworld, etc.

great book, really enjoyed it."

Title: . Anasazi Harvest, Genre: Sci-Fi, Author: . R. Leland Waldrip, Publisher Rappahannock Books, Release Date: 2003 ISBN: 1 892105 00 4 , 333 Pages, mass market paperback, $9.95 Publication date: Jul 01, 1998

Entertaining read. Recommended. 5 stars

The Review

Something peculiar is going on out in Navaho country. People are dying. The cause is not clear. When the police need help they call on Chaco Rivers. Chaco has been having dreams, or something for about a month. Nothing you can really put a finger on, but something is wrong. Bodies have been found, and forensics is finding something odd in the blood of the deceased. Chaco is having personal problems too. His girlfriend Anita is just about ready to call it quits when she enlists the help of a revered clan member. One night Chaco awakens to find someone he does not know is in his room. Talking with the intruder, making a trip to a local abortion clinic and meeting some folks new to the area help Chaco understand there is more to this situation than he had realized.

Writer Waldrip has taken an old theme –aliens- and has come up with a surprising NEW slant on the subject. Aliens and alien stories abound; none come close to the premise offered in Anasazi Harvest by this clever, capable author. Writer Waldrip uses his obvious enormous store of Navaho knowledge to construct a delightful work combining space aliens and the descendants of the Anasazi people in a credible, fiduciary work.

Twists, turns, potent motivations teem in this well crafted narrative of calenture, yearning and seemingly unattainable plight. In Anasazi Harvest Waldrip reaches out to the reader from the opening lines wherein he brings into being a mutable, resplendent tapestry against which this writer will weave his story. I know the area Waldrip refers to in his book. He has caught the locale to perfection. Waldrip’s carefully chosen words came alive as I pictured each setting.

Characters are richly drawn, dialogue is believable, interaction between players is often gritty and filled with complicity. This skillfully interwoven tale bringing together both the Anazai people and the aliens who come to work among them keeps the reader intrigued in this fast paced page turner. The reader is drawn into the tale and held fast from the opening paragraph in this complex tale of powerful motivations, suspenseful plot and shocking experience.

Anasazi Harvest is a book sure to delight those who enjoy reading a book that isn’t but well may be. Who knows whether the circumstance offered in Anasazi Harvest is only a product of this talented authors fertile thinking or may in fact be true.

Entertaining read, perfect for a lazy afternoon. Happy to recommend.

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Anasazi Harvest...............through Bear's Paw Reviews

Aside from being a top-notch guide and his knowledge in tracking, Chaco Rivers is not your normal Navajo. And when dead bodies are found and no leads to follow, the local police call on Chaco to help solve these mysteries. This is where two worlds meet in the most amazing tale of Alien forces.

Leland Waldrip has done his homework to provide for you this story, Anasazi Harvest. He takes you to another dimension about aliens, their interactions with humans, and the reasons they come to this place we call earth. Even though it is a fiction book, this author provokes the mind about the possible causes of issues like male infertility, abortion clinics, government cover-ups of UFO sightings, disappearances and/or dead bodies found with no clue of who or why, and even the extinction of a human species. The author takes all these issues and gives us one possible reason for all of it.

The uniqueness of this alien tale is how the author uses the first inhabitants of this continent as a basis for the alien "invasion". Mr. Waldrip weaves a story that reads like a non-fiction, and keeps the reader awake through every turn of the page and every corner that Chaco Rivers comes to.

This book is ***** five star recommended and definitely a keeper for your bookshelf.

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Elizabeth Lucas-Taylor, Reviewer, Author, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, Dandelion Books

Tony Hillerman, move over. This reviewer believes author Leland Waldrip has a winning book on his hands. He neatly carves out his stories of predator and prey, perpetrator and victim, hunter and quarry in this exciting, chilling novel. Richly detailed, the reader will be completely drawn into the mayhem. A recommended read for those who love Southwest settings. ANASAZI HARVEST is a book for anyone who enjoys mystery, intrigue, and UFO’s stories which have a generous and unique twist to them. The richness of the background descriptions of the Southwest will hold you equally enthralled as well as the story line. ANASAZI HARVEST is the story of a Navajo guide, Chaco Joseph Rivers, who has been having some very uneasy dreams and a dwindling sex life because of them. Couple this with the horrendous murders happening in his Farmington, New Mexico community, and it will leave the reader on the edge of their chairs waiting for the next event to unfold. When a friend calls Chaco Joseph Rivers for help in 'tracking' the scene of several murders, he discovers alien forces ‘harvesting’ in the small towns and wooded mesas of New Mexico. But for what purpose, and why? The suspense builds, and the black moments are dark and thrilling.

A reader from Washington, DC, writes:
This is Tony Hillerman with a sci-fi twist!
This book is a great mix of mystery and sci-fi, and has a way of pulling you into the story line early on. It's set in the Southwest, and weaves Native American customs and stories into the plot; this gives the tale an added layer of mystery that I really enjoyed.

Mr. Waldrip has a style similar to Tony Hillerman, but his descriptions, characters, and plot are all his own. His ideas about how our society would handle such a situation are fascinating. I enjoy books that keep me thinking about their message after I'm done reading them; Mr. Waldrip managed to hold my attention throughout the book, and beyond. I look forward to reading more of his works!

A reader from Callao, Va. Writes:

A pleasant surprise and a very interesting read!

Was I surprised when I got into this book. I don't normally read the kind of book I thought this was; a friend gave me a copy, so I did. And I'm so glad I did! It was a really interesting, well-written story. It engaged my attention immediately and kept it throughout. And it left me wondering: Yes, it's fiction; but maybe this--or something like it--has actually happened. It COULD have happened. And maybe it WILL happen! A really good read.

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ForeWord Reviews of Anasazi Harvest

An Out-of-this-World Adventure Tale

Chaco Rivers Joseph, the protagonist of Anasazi Harvest walks a fine line in life. He does not want to entirely abandon the traditions of his Navajo heritage, but he likes living in the modern world. The reader meets Chaco as he is investigating a crime scene for the New Mexico State Police. Chaco is not a police officer; he is a tracker, as exceptionally skilled at helping a tourist track an elk as he is at figuring out what might have happened at a crime scene. Though he does not know it, the murder scene that he is investigating at the beginning of the novel will ultimately have a huge impact on his life.

Chaco has strange nighttime feelings when he starts working his new job. Not only does he have trouble performing sexually, he is convinced that someone is breaking into and entering his apartment. When his girlfriend dumps him because he refuses her uncle’s offer of a “Sing Way” to cure his sexual problems, he decides to put an end to his dilemma: He vows to stay awake no matter what and catch the intruder, if there really is one.

Chaco ends up capturing an alien from the planet Weltii, a tiny, harmless “little guy” who is merely doing his best to help increase the genetic stability of the Weltii people. When it turns out that enemies of the Weltii people committed the murders that Chaco is investigating, Chaco ends up joining forces with the Weltii to save not only their planet, but the Earth as well ...

The character of Chaco is especially well thought out. He is likable, while containing a bit of a scoundrel in him. There are occasional lapses into exposition that make for less than intriguing reading, particularly during the slow portion of the book after Chaco meets the alien. The action in the last third of the story makes up for this, however, and readers are left with an engaging and entertaining tale. Readers who enjoy stories about wildlife and hunting will especially enjoy the ending.
Alicia Graybill