"Occupying the rugged terrain separating the Marañon and Huallaga basins, the Chachapoyas area is famous in Andean circles as a reservoir of "lost civilizations" still understudied from the standpoint of scientific archaeology. In this odyssey based on over 20 years of study and exploration, Keith Muscutt brings Chachapoyas into focus with engaging prose and spectacular photographs of spectacularly beautiful landscapes.

There is something here for everyone. Andeanists will profit from the splendid color plates of cliff-side tombs untendentiously juxtaposed with seemingly unstaged shots of modern-day village life. Vincent Lee's maps of the imposing site of Vira Vira as well as an updated Chachapoyas bibliography, compiled by Douglas Sharon and Muscutt, are an added bonus. Naturalists will revel in the forest-choked decilivites, azure high-altitude lakes, and orchid-studded ceja vegetation captured by Muscutt's camera. Biographically oriented readers will be captivated by adventures tracking the legendary and reclusive Benigno Añazco, a figure right out of magical realism. Only the dullest of readers could leave this book without pangs of wanderlust.

The archaeology of the Chachapoyas region remains poorly understood. Although an Inkan and early colonial presence is documented, much of the imposing architectural and mortuary record floats in "late prehistory." Archaeologists may be frustrated by Muscutt's quick dismissal of the "plain" and "rudimentary" (p. 35) pottery, but such frustration should only serve to fuel work in an area that promises to bridge the ancient Andean and Amazonian worlds, a bridge perhaps more routinely crossed in prehistory than in the sundered research traditions of modern archaeology. In clear and modest prose (the "lost civilization" of the title is disavowed in the text) and with a stunning visual feast, Muscutt and colleagues are to be congratulated for tapping the emotional wellsprings that directed most of us to archaeology in the first place."

--Warren DeBoer, Queens College, CUNY

Warriors of the Clouds has been selected as one of the exceptional books of 1998 by the reviewers of the The A List, AALit, Best Bookworm, Bookman News, and Library Booknotes:

"Of the multitude of fine books reviewed in 1998 in our publications (The A List, AALit, Best Bookworm, Bookman News, and Library Booknotes), each of the following is a suitable candidate for best book of the year, either for elegant writing, exalted time, place and setting, dazzling plot, creative graphics, outstanding research, or innovative literary invention . . . these books represent the best of the year."

--from the pages of Bookman News, Library Booknotes, Best Bookworm, the A List, and American Archives of Literature and Information Technology (AALit)
January 20, 1999

--Federico Kauffman Doig
  Director, Instituto de Arqueología Amazónica
  Lima, Peru

"Written in a wonderfully readable style and accompanied by the author's extraordinary photographs of the people, places, archaeology and beautiful landscape, this book makes the region come alive. Muscutt writes eloquently of a place he loves and allows the reader to experience its magic.  This book is wonderful!"

--Christopher Donnan, University of California, Los Angeles, author of Royal Tombs of Sipan

--John W. Rick, Stanford University

--John Hemming, author of The Conquest of the Incas

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