54th out of 323 books
—
428 voters
The Haunted Mesa
The Navajo called them the Anasazi, the “ancient enemy,” and their abandoned cities haunt the canyons and plateaus of the Southwest. For centuries the sudden disappearance of these people baffled historians. Summoned to a dark desert plateau by a desperate letter from an old friend, renowned investigator Mike Raglan is drawn into a world of mystery, violence, and explosive...more
Paperback, 448 pages
Published
April 1st 1988
by Bantam
(first published 1987)
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The Haunted Mesa is a book consisting of approximately 250 pages of a man trying to decide when and how to save his friend in another world and less than 100 pages of him actually doing it. Not one of the worst books I've ever read, but one that is disappointingly mediocre. Especially given the fact that I had read it as a child and had fond memories of it. I have read all of Louis L'amour's books, every single one of them between 4th and 6th grade and he was my all time favorite author during t...more
Jan 27, 2012
Henry Avila
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
yes
Recommended to Henry by:
nobody
Mike Raglan a well known investigator and writer,gets a strange message from a friend.An eccentric rich scientist,(aren't they all?)who needs help quickly. So he arrives in the southwest, four corners area(Utah,Colorado,Arizona,New Mexico)and no friend!Weird rumors abound that the Anasazi, ancient cliff dwellers have been seen.Ghosts?Real,Who knows!Raglan decides to visit the scientist unfinshed house.Oh,its located on top of a haunted mesa,no problem he'll go alone.Unbelievably an unknown new w...more
Like so many others, I found this book too slow and repetitive. The hero is constantly mulling over the situation in his head, summarising the information the reader already knows.
Much of this is done in form of rhetorical questions as he contemplates the existence of a parallel world: What will be be like? What do I know? What do they know? Should I go? Will it be dangerous?
It gets irritating after a while.
Also repeated are several philosophical passages about the tendency of mankind to fear...more
Much of this is done in form of rhetorical questions as he contemplates the existence of a parallel world: What will be be like? What do I know? What do they know? Should I go? Will it be dangerous?
It gets irritating after a while.
Also repeated are several philosophical passages about the tendency of mankind to fear...more
Feb 11, 2012
Mary
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes horror
Recommended to Mary by:
Barnes and Noble
The Navajo called them the Anasazi, an enigmatic tribe of southwestern cliff dwellers that disappeared many centuries ago. Their sudden disappearance baffled historians. Summoned to a dark, desolate desert plateau by a letter from an old friend, renowned investigator Mike Raglan is drawn in to a world of mystery, violence and mysticism. He will eventually learn the astonishing legacy of the Anasazi, but not without a high cost to himself and his friends.
I did enjoy this book because it definite...more
I did enjoy this book because it definite...more
I've always liked Louis L'Amour westerns. He knows his history and the geography of the West. The Haunted Mesa is actually a contemporary story and might be considered a kind of science fiction. Historians have always wondered what happened to the Anasazi Indians and this story speculates that there is another dimension with portals that come and go between the two worlds. L'Amour suggests the Anasazi Indians went back to the Third world (of their creation myths) to escape the marauding Apache a...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Explaining what happened to the Anasazi is an interesting concept and adding the fantastical elements made it more interesting still. Unfortunately the book itself wasn’t very interesting. It started out mysterious and kind of spooky but then it settled into a rut. Mike Raglan goes to save a friend from some unknown danger and he has to think about it a lot. You hear him go over the few facts he has in his head and then he explains these facts to someone else and then he goes over them in his he...more
I've always been fascinated by the Anasazi people, those who inhabited the now American Southwest, and lived in cliff dwellings. Every chance I get while vacationing in those areas, I make sure to visit the National Park sites that host cliff dwellings, and try to learn what I can about them. I find myself wondering and speculating about what life might have been like for them, their families, work lives, activities, and so forth. Their relatively sudden disappearances from the places where they...more
All in all, I enjoyed this book. If I could, I would give it 3 1/2 stars.
The Haunted Mesa had the potential to be a great novel. The concept is an interesting one that should be explored. The ancient culture of the Anasasi needs a great novel devoted to it. I would have loved an explanation of the culture of the people that inhabit the other world, too. I had so many questions about Shibalba that will be forever unanswered.
It had several major flaws, though. The following might sound a little v...more
The Haunted Mesa had the potential to be a great novel. The concept is an interesting one that should be explored. The ancient culture of the Anasasi needs a great novel devoted to it. I would have loved an explanation of the culture of the people that inhabit the other world, too. I had so many questions about Shibalba that will be forever unanswered.
It had several major flaws, though. The following might sound a little v...more
How can I diss such a great author as Louis L'Amour? I really went back and forth between a 2 star rating and a 4 star rating, so settled with 3 stars. I loved the story. He is a master in telling a great and interesting tale, and it is rich with history, so how can someone that has over 120 books and over 300 million books in print be so careless about details especially in the first 300 pages? The last 100 pages were thrilling. I don't want to give anything away, however the first 3/4's of the...more
I do not know exactly when this book arrived on my stack to read, but it certainly captivated me with suspense immediately. And it was a book you really should start on Friday night! Reason being that you can hopefully sleep in late after not being able to put it down all night! I had drifted through other L'Amour books and enjoyed them mildly. This one seemed to be unique.
Finding the "Popol Vuh" as a source for some of the information recalled my reading that work as a student in a high school...more
Finding the "Popol Vuh" as a source for some of the information recalled my reading that work as a student in a high school...more
Not very good. Actually, pretty weird. And at the end I kind of felt like I'd wasted a lot of my time in reading it. Seemed kind of pointless.
Anyways, this person finds a kind of time portal in and old cliff dweller sacred building and uses it to pass back through time several times to meet a woman and her tribe and fight to escape from the people who are attacking them.
Anyways, this person finds a kind of time portal in and old cliff dweller sacred building and uses it to pass back through time several times to meet a woman and her tribe and fight to escape from the people who are attacking them.
Hmm. Bought in Orlando Airport for the flight West into L’Amour country, this was the second self-indulgent novel of the holiday. Perhaps L’Amour does believe in The Other Side of the Veil, but he could’ve written about it much better. Some real sloppy stuff here that could have been prevented by decent editing. In one particular scene, the lead character is visited by some old Injun and I kept expecting his faithful, always growling at strangers, dog to be doing his nut. Then the main character...more
This sci-fi book by Louis L'Amour could have been so much more.
Yes, that's right. Louis L'Amour, author of more than 100 westerns wrote a sci-fi book. It is set in familiar territory for him, the American Southwest and it concerns the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians more than 600 years ago. If you are unfamiliar with the Anasazi, they are the builders of the adobe brick cliff dwellings that are scattered across the Southwestern desert. Their most famous site is at Mesa Verde National Monume...more
Yes, that's right. Louis L'Amour, author of more than 100 westerns wrote a sci-fi book. It is set in familiar territory for him, the American Southwest and it concerns the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians more than 600 years ago. If you are unfamiliar with the Anasazi, they are the builders of the adobe brick cliff dwellings that are scattered across the Southwestern desert. Their most famous site is at Mesa Verde National Monume...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Nov 25, 2012
David
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of fantasy/science fiction with a western bent
I enjoyed the story quite a lot. It is different than L'Amour's other works, although still set in the west. The different tack he takes with this story is that of a more fantasy/science fiction direction based on the unexplained disappearance of the Anasazi Indians.
No spoilers here! Mike Raglan is an investigator and debunker of the fantastic. On receipt of an urgent message from an old friend, he sets out to discover what happened to his friend and then to rescue him. He meets a number of int...more
No spoilers here! Mike Raglan is an investigator and debunker of the fantastic. On receipt of an urgent message from an old friend, he sets out to discover what happened to his friend and then to rescue him. He meets a number of int...more
As a recent visitor to both the Cahokia Mounds and Mesa Verde, my curiosity has definitely been piqued about our mysterious and historical worlds. Thus the timing for this book was most excellent. My previous reading and role playing experience with fantasy worlds did not make Louis L'Amour's Haunted Mesa very surprising, but I found his incorporations of past civilisations likely due to occasional visits to this fourth dimension excellent. There were unexpected roles as well, which was good. I...more
Jul 05, 2010
Tee Jay
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people with open minds
Shelves:
weird-west
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I actuallly enjoyed this book. In fact, I've read it twice - first in 1987 when my family were traveling in Arizona, NM, Colorado area - and I enjoyed it then. Back then, there was this huge mystery about what happened to the Anasazi, and although I knew the alternate universe answer wasn't probably true, it was a fun read. I reread it again this year (practically the only fiction on sale at Mesa Verde N P ) and it seemed a little stupider but still an ok read. (The answer is the "Anasazi" becam...more
The Haunted Mesa is basically about a friend Mike trying to find his friend Erik who was kidnap by a tribe who has been living hidden, the only entrance that led to find this race was through a Kiva where there is a wall similar to the Mihrab in a mosque. The Kiva for my believe, symbolize an opening through which the Anasazi entered in and out from there mysterious city in cliffs. Mike entered through the Kiva and go on the rescue his friend who was taken inside a forbidden maze with a system o...more
Based around the Hopi creation myth that their ancestors escaped from an evil Third World, to this one, a Fourth World. It supposes that the portal between the evil Third World and this one re-opens from time to time, causing quite a bit of trouble as people find their way back and forth.
This is my mother's favorite Louis L'Amour book, and she's a huge fan. I can't say that I agree. L'Amour is fascinating when it comes to the terrain, mythology, and history of the area. The stories are retold in...more
This is my mother's favorite Louis L'Amour book, and she's a huge fan. I can't say that I agree. L'Amour is fascinating when it comes to the terrain, mythology, and history of the area. The stories are retold in...more
My grandma loves Louis L'Amour books, so whenever I run across one, I pick it up for her. The cover of this one got me interested, here's a book that looks sci-fi, so I decided to read it before passing along. What a great story, and I'm glad to have read it. It reminds me of S.M. Stirling, minus all the long paragraphs of history (which is ok every once in a while, but gets dull after so long).
I'm definetly interested in his other work now, which I know will not be sci-fi'ish, but great storie...more
I'm definetly interested in his other work now, which I know will not be sci-fi'ish, but great storie...more
Quick! Gut reaction: Okay, this is all just too weird.
Short Summation
Mike Raglan’s friend, Erik, is missing. Now, Mike’s made his living with weird stuff, so when someone delivers Erik’s journal to him and it looks like Erik’s disappeared into a parallel world, he’s more apt to believe in the possibly than most.
Lots of history on the Navajo, Hopi and what the Navajo called the Anasazi. If you’re not familiar, those’re the people who said they came to this world from another one, where a great ev...more
Short Summation
Mike Raglan’s friend, Erik, is missing. Now, Mike’s made his living with weird stuff, so when someone delivers Erik’s journal to him and it looks like Erik’s disappeared into a parallel world, he’s more apt to believe in the possibly than most.
Lots of history on the Navajo, Hopi and what the Navajo called the Anasazi. If you’re not familiar, those’re the people who said they came to this world from another one, where a great ev...more
I am surprised and sort of embarrassed to admit how much I enjoyed this book. One of my favorite topics, ancient native Americans, meets almost science fiction. Sounds really cheesy, but the author had a surprising way of making it nearly believable. It was a book that made me want to read it and I was hooked by page three. He has an interesting writing style that is sort of stream-of-consciousness esque. Good stuff and I would recommended to anyone, especially those that love historic fiction....more
This is an example of how L'Amour's best books are under 175 pages. When he got long-winded he rambled and repeated himself. This novel could have been condensed into a long-story and been greatly improved by pruning.
This book also took forever to get anywhere. I can understand anyone being reluctant to go into another world, but most authors would not spend 200 pages on the character procrastinating and would get on with it within the first couple of chapters- not the last few.
This book also took forever to get anywhere. I can understand anyone being reluctant to go into another world, but most authors would not spend 200 pages on the character procrastinating and would get on with it within the first couple of chapters- not the last few.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Well, I waited 20 years to bother to get around to reading this book. The concept is pretty killer; a portal to the third world of the Anasazi is opened. In general, I think Louis La'Amour is a master storyteller, but this Mike Raglan character must be a real tard and pussy. He keeps repeating himself. After about the 5th time I read about the Aztec and Mayans and their human sacrifice, I was like, "Um, can I even finish this book?" Raglan keeps going over the characters and what he knows about...more
This is one of the few books Louis L'Amour wrote that borders on fantasy. There is a lot of hesitation on the part of the protagonist, but otherwise this is a great mystery novel. There is a lot of information about the Anazazi and other Native American tribes and L'Amours description of the desert is great. I have actually read this one twice. It is an interesting concept of the disappearance of an ancient people wrapped around the current Wild West.
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Louis L'Amour was an American author. L'Amour's books, primarily Western fiction, remain enormously popular, and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death all 101 of his works were in print (86 novels, 14 short-story collections and one full-length work of nonfiction) and he was considered "one of the world's most popular writers".
-Wikipedia
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“Knowledge was not meant to be locked behind doors. It breathes best in the open air where all men can inhale its essence.”
—
12 people liked it
“There are shadows for the shadows of things, as a reflection seen in a mirror of a mirror. We know there are circles within circles and dimensions beyond dimension. Reality is itself a shadow, only an appearance accepted by those whose eyes shun what might lie beyond.”
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5 people liked it
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