She Who Remembers by Linda Lay Shuler

I'm reasonably sure that I read this many years ago. It came out in 1988 while we were still overseas, but they kept the fiction on the shelves at the BX pretty current. Doesn't really matter. It is inevitable, I suppose, to compare it to the Jean Auel Clan of the Cave Bear series - prehistory, native tribes and all that. It has been a long time since I read the Auel books, but it seems to me that they were set much earlier in prehistory than this one. Again, I seem to remember that they were back ice age and Bering land bridge sort of setting - hominids had not quite settled down to homo sapiens yet, neanderthals and such running about. This is up in the thirteenth century CE, with European invasions already in progress - well, at least the vikings.

It is clearly set in the desert southwest - it is probably possible to recognize the landmarks and the layout of the cliff dwellings and pueblos where the action takes place. The descriptions certainly sounded familiar to me. Certainly in that aspect, Shuler's research is impeccable. It is set before the disappearance of the Anasazi, and she has set things up in line with the most logical explanation of their departure. No alien spaceships or plagues, just climate shift and poor crop management, but all of that is in the future for the folks in the story.

The general descriptions of life on the mesas is as well-done as the geography and physical setting - all very much in line with what is known about the pueblo cultures of the period - made fascinating reading. To me, more fascinating than the rather improbable story of Kwani and Kokopelli, but I guess you can't have everything. It was an interesting treatment of the mythic Kokopelli; she made him a Toltec wanderer who was unwilling to settle down back in Mexico.

I never got around to reading the other two books in the series back in the whenevers, but I got them this time - Kindle cheap books are hard to resist - but I don't feel any particular urgency about "what happens next" so it may be a while before I get back to them.