Helpful Score: 1
If you love historical fiction, you will LOVE this book so much that you will not lend it to anyone. This is my most favorite historical fiction (my favorite genre anyhow) book of all time, and I am 56. I've read this book at least five times. Having been given the grace of attending an alternate high school that was run like a university, I had chosen to study, for History, the history of the Conquest. Oh, heavens! What happened when the Spaniards came to the Americas changed the entire world, forever.
Let's pretend that you do not like studying history. It's good then to find historical fiction on your topic. Gary Jennings, I could tell from my past studies, had a very thorough knowledge of the tribes of middle America, those that were conquered by Hernando Cortez, on a search for riches. Because the natives of middle America believed that their god would come back someday, on a boat, they thought that the Spaniards brought their god back to them, and then, so many, many mistakes happened!
This book starts with a letter by the King of Spain back in the 1500s (Juan Carlos, the king that had funded Cortez's conquest), requesting that the Catholic friars that raped the middle native Americans of their religious beliefs after Cortez stole their gold, find a living Aztec so that he, the king, could find out what the Americans' lives were like before Cortez ever landed on the Yucatan and headed into the interior of Mexico. Since very few Azteca lived after the conquest of what is now Mexico City, only one was found who daily explained to the friars the truths of his culture.
This book is absolutely fascinating. The one other book that is historical fiction that I've read more than twice is "Centennial" by James Michener. I heartily advise that if you can, get Aztec in a format that you can look at the maps provided on the hardcover's interior. They MIGHT BE on a page in a softcover paperback, but I do not know.
Let's pretend that you do not like studying history. It's good then to find historical fiction on your topic. Gary Jennings, I could tell from my past studies, had a very thorough knowledge of the tribes of middle America, those that were conquered by Hernando Cortez, on a search for riches. Because the natives of middle America believed that their god would come back someday, on a boat, they thought that the Spaniards brought their god back to them, and then, so many, many mistakes happened!
This book starts with a letter by the King of Spain back in the 1500s (Juan Carlos, the king that had funded Cortez's conquest), requesting that the Catholic friars that raped the middle native Americans of their religious beliefs after Cortez stole their gold, find a living Aztec so that he, the king, could find out what the Americans' lives were like before Cortez ever landed on the Yucatan and headed into the interior of Mexico. Since very few Azteca lived after the conquest of what is now Mexico City, only one was found who daily explained to the friars the truths of his culture.
This book is absolutely fascinating. The one other book that is historical fiction that I've read more than twice is "Centennial" by James Michener. I heartily advise that if you can, get Aztec in a format that you can look at the maps provided on the hardcover's interior. They MIGHT BE on a page in a softcover paperback, but I do not know.
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