Uncompahgre: Where Water Turns Rock Red (Threads West, an American Saga) - Softcover

Rosenthal, Reid Lance

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982157673 ISBN 13: 9780982157671

Publisher: Rockin Sr Pub, 2014

Synopsis

The Adventure and Romance of the America, her people, her spirit, and the West. This is our story.

Uncompahgre-where water turns rock red is the third book of the #1 bestselling, Threads West, An American Saga series, recipient of twenty five National Awards--Best Historical Fiction, Best Romance and Best Western! Compared by reviewers, authors and readers alike to Lonesome Dove, Centennial, and L'Amour. Called by some the "Gone with the Wind of the West," and applauded by others as "rings true and poignant, as authentic and moving as Dances with Wolves."

In Uncompahgre, the time nears when the first of the next generation of Threads West characters will be born of the brave men and courageous women who have come so far and risked all. The men and women of the saga, having reached their initial destination, pre-Denver, Cherry Creek, are each faced with life-altering decisions. Some must decide to pursue or abandon torrid love affairs that have flowered on the dangerous journey from Europe and across America. Their lives shaken by events they could not foresee and convergence with souls they could never image, they begin to build a nation that's essence is in transition. They have neither country nor culture in common but their dreams and survival demand a tension filled emergence stitched by fate and history. The Oglala Sioux family struggles to cope with the inevitable change casting shadows upon their lands, culture and scared traditions. The elderly slave couple, and the renegade and his young, traumatized captive introduced in Maps of Fate, are bound ever more tightly to the arc of the story--their tragedy and triumph-filed tales weaving into the fabric of a collective destiny, the black-hearted captor unknowingly catapulted by his tortured past into possible redemption. Mormons stream west in the Great Exodus escaping persecution and searching for Zion. Driven north by the Texas Rangers, an outlaw vaquero with royal blood quests for a new sense of self and place.

The touchstones of the past are the guideposts to the future. Uncompahgre is the continuation of this tale of America. New lineages join the many threads of uncommon cultures, differing origins and competing ambitions that entwine into the American spirit. Lives and generations are woven on the loom of history, propelled by fate and freedom to form the tapestry that becomes the whole cloth of the nation. It is uniquely American, this meld of the mosaic.
 
You will recognize the characters who live in these pages.
They are the ancestors of your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, and your family.
They are you. They are us.
This is not only their story. It is our story.
It is Threads West, An American Saga.
 
In Book Four, Moccasin Tracks, releasing in 2014, the fires of future deadly tumult between the states has begun to sweep west. The Threads West characters who have journeyed so far race against an early, foreboding winter to establish their homestead, some preoccupied with the serious complications of their pregnancies, others compelled to follow the call of a separate path, but all united to fend off ever-present danger. The "resolution" of the "Indian Problem" is evolving. It will leave families and hearts broken, forever staining the pages of American history.

The decades of the Maps of Fate era novels of the Threads West book series become the crucible of the souls of generations, the building of the heart of the nation, the destiny of a people, and the relentless energy and beauty of the western landscape. This is the ongoing story of us.

Set in authentic locations in the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the life threads of the characters -- whose personalities are forged on the anvil of the land and shaped by life, love, struggle, death, failure and success. The textured, complex and conflicted lives of these five generations of diverse, independent men and women are the fabric of the American spirit.

About this title

About the Author

Reid is fourth generation land and cattle.  He is a rancher, a multiple #1 bestselling author, and the Threads West series has been honored with twenty five national literary awards including, Best Western, Best Romance, and Best Historical Fiction. His cowboy heart and poet's pen captures the spirit of the western landscape and its influence on generations of its settlers.  His long-standing devotion to wild and remote places and to the people--both past and present--who leave their legend and footprint upon America and the American West is the inspiration and descriptive underpinning of all of his writing.
 
"If your mind and spirit are seduced by images of windswept ridge tops, fluttering of aspen leaves caressed by a canyon breezes and the crimson tendrils of a dying sun...if your fingers feel the silken pulse of a lover and your lips taste the deep kisses of building passion...if nostrils flare with the conjured scents of gunpowder and perfume, sagebrush and pine, and your ears delight in the murmur of river current...if your heart pounds at the clash of good and evil, and with each twist and turn of inter-laced lives, you feel a primal throb, then I have accomplished my mission."
 
Passion fuels each thrilling, action and romance-packed novel in this widely acclaimed series and epic of the historical west.  This is the third book of this saga and Maps of Fate era novels (1854-1875). Reid's works have been compared to Lonesome Dove, Louis L'Amour (with steam) and Centennial, by reviewers and readers alike.  Some have called the series, "the Gone with the Wind of the West." Others have acclaimed the tale as "more authentic than Dances with Wolves." Each ensuing book unfolds the riveting, sensual, adventure-filled tale of a country on the cusp of greatness, the cloth of a nation woven from personalities of uncommon origins, and lives weaved into generational tapestries of lust, duplicity, enmity, love and triumph.
 

From the Back Cover

Third Book of the award winning, #1 bestselling Threads West, An American Saga series, compared to Lonesome Dove, Centennial, Louis L'Amour and referred to as the 'Gone with the Wind of the West."

Book One begins the history, action and romance packed saga in 1854. The first of five generations of unforgettable driven men and women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons from the wild, remote flanks of the American West. In Book Two, secret maps, hidden conflicts, and magnetic attractions shape their destinies. Forged by the fires of love, loss, hope and sorrow, new characters emerge--seeking to escape slavery and hold onto ancient Sioux traditions.

Now, having reached Cherry Creek, the Europeans plan their crest of the Rockies. The brave women of the saga face life-altering decisions: return east abandoning love, or settle in the remove Uncompahgre Valley. The Texas Revolt catapults in an aristocratic Mexican vaquero into the tale. Propelled by historical events and fate, the lives of the elderly slave couple, the Oglala Sioux family and the renegade and his young captive are bound by tragedy and triumph ever more tightly to the arc of this epic saga.

You will recognize the characters who live in these pages.
This is not only their story. It is our story.

"Surpasses Lonesome Dove... Rings true and poignant as authentic and moving as Dances with Wolves... Five stars is not enough..." ~Eve Paludan, Twice #1 Writers Digest National Bestselling Author

"Fluent and strong... sensual, evocative and unforgettable... compared to Lonesome Dove and Centennial... Rosenthal's epic masterpiece will rival some of Louis L'Amour's best loved work." ~Lois Henderson, BookPleasures.com, MA General Linguistics, AD Library/Information Science

"Reid Lance Rosenthal has outdone himself.... Rosenthal's people just blew me away. They are as real--if not more so--as most of the people I have ever met...." ~Alexandra Brown, Romantic shorts

From the Inside Flap

Reuben stood lazily, his Navy Colt in one hand, gunpowder smoke still rising several feet above the muzzle. One of the other men moved, and there was the distinctive hammer-click of Johannes' Sharps, which he had raised to his shoulder. Reuben's jaw clenched. He grimly cocked the hammer of the Colt. "I don't push, mister. You got exactly two seconds."

Tears came to her eyes and the expanse before her blurred. The sun hung suspended behind dark, silhouetted mountains, the thin layers of softly glowing clouds laced with silver and bold strokes of fiery orange-red. A deepening purple sifted down from the highest peaks and curled around the foothills, spreading like a fog of color across the rolling plains. Transfixed by the sheer power of the scene, Sarah felt tiny and insignificant yet empowered at the same time. So many choices.

Eagle Talon raised the bow to the ready, its long alder body held with an almost rigid left arm diagonally in front of his chest. The mustang took two more careful steps. Suddenly, Eagle Talon caught a movement from the left corner of his eye. His pulse raced. The battle with the Pawnee was still fresh in his memory and he was high strung by the events of the last two suns. He brought the bow to full draw instinctively, without thought, sighting down the arrow shaft.

She was standing just inches away, her brown eyes wide, teary, looking up into his, full of sorrow and something else he couldn't quite fathom. She slowly let the blanket fall from her shoulders. She wore nothing but a sheer silk chemise, almost transparent, every curve of her lithe young body glowing in the low light. His voice was stilled as she raised her other hand to his mouth, touching his lips with the tips of her fingers. "Don't talk. Not a word." Her fingers tugged at his belt and fumbled with the buttons of his breeches.

"Easy Chile, you rest easy now. This wet cloth will take that fever from your head." Lucy rested the dark, aged skin of her knarled hands on the mound of belly housing the baby struggling for birth, and cast a worried glance at Israel. There was a long organized groan from the bed. "Shhh. Shhh. Don't you worry none, Chile. Lucy ain't never lost a mother or a newborn."

Philippe edged backwards on his belly from the lip of the ridge. Rolling partially to his back, he grinned at Johannes. "I think Señor Johannes, they want Señor Reuben's cattle." He pulled one, then the other of the twin onyx-handled handle Navy Colts from his belt and spun the cylinders, checking the loads.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rockin Sr Pub
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0982157673
• ISBN 13: 9780982157671
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 447