Less Than Nothing: A novel of Anasazi strife [NOOK Book]

Overview

When the Crab Nebula Supernova appeared on July 4, 1054, it hung like a tiny sun in the daytime sky.

What did the ancient ones of Chaco Canyon, N.M., do when they saw this unpredicted event?

Went into a cannibalistic frenzy.

It takes the combined efforts of the Chaco mob, a secret society of mad-as-hell women, and Tuwa with his band of orphans to try and make their world right again.

Tuwa wants little more than to crush the man, Pók, who killed his mother and grandfather and subjects his Anasazi Indian society to a form of terrorism that ultimately hastens its mysterious collapse four hundred years before Europeans arrived in North America.

He can hope to do it only with the help of a group of orphans hardened by their work as burden-bearers and bodyguards for a long-distance trader, and a secret society of women led by an albino who lurks in the shadow of the seat of power.

Along the way, Tuwa discovers his childhood sweetheart, Chumana, is the masked fortuneteller for the power brokers, and Pók, who is connected to his past almost more deeply than he can bear, tried to murder him at birth because his small size made him “less than nothing.”

Tuwa stands at the boundary of his homeland angry, determined, and frightened. The man he must face, Pók, is surrounded by hundreds of well-trained warriors at his command, and resides in a castle-like fortress of stone now known as Pueblo Bonito, deep in Chaco Canyon, northwestern New Mexico.

Three years before, to appease the spirit of the mysterious supernova star, so bright it could be seen during the day, Pók, with the blessing of the most prominent leaders, sacrifices hundreds of people. These include Tuwa’s beloved grandfather, the chief sky watcher, his childhood sweetheart, Chumana, and the albino woman who raised him. A long-distance trader essentially kidnaps him and other orphans to be burden bearers and bodyguards, and after a three-year march to the far south, Tuwa returns a young man leading a dozen hardened orphans. They resolve to exact as much vengeance as possible.

If you enjoy this book, you may also like “The Witchery of Flutes: Forty-seven short dramas of Anasazi daily life,” by Jeff Posey.

Includes excerpts from two novels by Jeff Posey, “Anasazi Runner: a novel of identity and speed,” available now, and “The G.O.D. Journal,” available Spring 2012.