Paleontologist Peter Campbell is content working among his dinosaur bones in the basement of the Denver Museum of Natural History. When his love interest Jazmin Rivera, an accomplished botanist, disappears in the uncharted jungles of southern México with the vulnerable Lacandón tribe, he must travel into an ancient land clouded by legend and mystery to find her.
Entering a tangled Chiapan landscape that mirrors the darkness within himself, Campbell must escape the Mexican Special Forces trailing the tribe, and an ancient foe who has pursued him through past incarnations. With the guidance of an enigmatic Maya shaman, Chan, Campbell must face his fears and find his true self in the House of the Jaguar.
Set in a brilliantly conceived world threatened by corruption and greed, Na Bolom: House of the Jaguar questions the realities we create, and challenges the conventional wisdom that the Earth may be used however we desire.
Excerpt
“We have two minds. One thinks, the other knows. The mind that knows goes back many lifetimes. This is the mind of the one heart, of all things: the trees, the plants, the clouds, the rivers, the mountains. The more time you spend with this mind, the more you will see Spirit around you."
― Chan, Na Bolom: House of the Jaguar
Professional Reviews
Claiming Personal Power - Arlene Eisenbise
Na Bolom: House of the Jaguar is Forrest Hayes' first novel. The reader soon leaves the Denver Museum of Natural History behind and travels with anthropologist Peter Campbell to the jungles of Chiapas in search of Peter's loved one. Jazmin Rivera is no ordinary damsel in distress; she is determined to save the Lacondon tribe and their land for further research of the mystical qualities of their healing plants. However, the logging companies want to claim the living jungle which they neither value nor understand.
Peter encounters Chan, a tribal shaman, who is wise in the old ways. He helps Peter to recognize the lesson in all things, to listen to the voices of the Standing-People. "The jungle has many messengers, but you have forgotten them," Chan warns. "The death of the forest is our death."
When Peter and Jazmin are sent into the depths of the Forbidden Jungle ahead of those who "come with money in their pockets," they wonder how they will survive. But survive they must, despite the endless challenges. Peter experiences his past dinosaur self, his past jaguar self, his past enemies. He is tested time and again. "When you experience all of self," Chan had told him, "you will know what is real." The pair is protected by the spirits of the jungle while confronted by the Mexican Special Forces. Their journey through an exotic place is filled with peril and symbols and magical realism. But Peter discovers his internal power when he claims the power of the jaguar.
This novel is a must read for those who appreciate action, enlightenment, terror, love, past life experiences and a grand lesson concerning the secrets of life.
A study in fact-filled fiction - Jazzy
The flow of the story and the informative background comes easily to the reader's benefit.
This piece is a window clearly viewed of life and conditions in strife ridden South America's forbidden jungle. The tension is introduced early on with the terrifying experience of an American scientist in his own lab. Immediately, the reader is concerned for the safety of the main character and his missing girlfriend.
Later on, I was especially interested in the close relationship to a current situation in the news about the murder of native Indians trying to protect the fragile rain forest from developers whose interest is profit, not preservation.
The writer's vivid imagination enables him to make fiction sound wonderfully biographical, even into past lives!
I hope he will publish a sequel. It is a gripping adventure and a fast read.
Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite
Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar by Forrest Hayes is an awesome story! At the time I started writing this review, there were four reviews posted on Amazon.com. Those reviewers used words like: “a must read”; “a study in fact-filled fiction”; “a gripping adventure”; “a fast read”; “action filled drama”; “exciting, compelling tale”; “fascinating and intriguing”. I agree with every single superlative description they have used to portray this remarkably captivating, larger-than-life adventure tale. I’m frankly at a loss for words to explain how such a well-written, captivating, fascinating, gripping, exciting, compelling, intriguing, action filled must-read could possibly be Forrest Hayes’ debut novel. I have reviewed well over 1,000 books, and I sincerely believe this is the very first time I have encountered an author who properly used the word “myriad”! That may seem insignificant, but it only served to further impress me with this man’s talent when I learned this was his first novel.
Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar takes the reader on an incredible journey spanning geography from Denver to the steamy jungles of Chiapas in Mexico, and spanning time from the present to the time of the dinosaurs and back again. Along the journey you will experience the terror felt by a herbivorous dinosaur as it is taken down by a Tyrannosaurus. You will survive an attack by a jaguar. You will face Mayan warriors and dance with a Mayan maiden. You will talk to the trees, and more importantly you will listen to them. Birds will lead you to safety. Fossils will come to life. Spirits of many life forms will guide your path. You will begin to recall intimate details from previous lives you have lived, back to the time before man was on the scene. You will experience all this and much, much more, presented to you in a brilliantly conceived package that just “feels right” as you journey within the tale. I cannot wait until Forrest Hayes submits another epic adventure for our delight and entertainment. Until then, you simply must read Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar. It truly is an awesome story.
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