Helpful Score: 3
The sequel to the author's internationally best-selling Aztec (1982) returns to the Mexico of the conquistadors.
The previous novel enveloped the reader in the traditions and customs of Aztec society before and during the bloody Spanish conquest.
The story as it now unfolds finds us in post-conquest Mexico, events now narrated by a young Aztec man whose uncle is an esteemed nobleman. The Spanish conquerors have settled in to run a tightly controlled enterprise, and the novel springs into action when the young hero decides no other course is available to him than to seek revenge for the foul murder of his father by the conquerors. What the reader is witness to in these compelling pages, then, is the avenger's careful gathering together of an insurrectionary movement.
Jennings' ability to marshal the results of considerable research into a smoothly flowing, never sluggish narrative is remarkable; here he gives appreciators of historical fiction something to relish.
The previous novel enveloped the reader in the traditions and customs of Aztec society before and during the bloody Spanish conquest.
The story as it now unfolds finds us in post-conquest Mexico, events now narrated by a young Aztec man whose uncle is an esteemed nobleman. The Spanish conquerors have settled in to run a tightly controlled enterprise, and the novel springs into action when the young hero decides no other course is available to him than to seek revenge for the foul murder of his father by the conquerors. What the reader is witness to in these compelling pages, then, is the avenger's careful gathering together of an insurrectionary movement.
Jennings' ability to marshal the results of considerable research into a smoothly flowing, never sluggish narrative is remarkable; here he gives appreciators of historical fiction something to relish.
