Aztec

Rating:
Summary: Truly one of the best books I've ever read!
Review: This book has everything anyone could ask for. Adventure, love, war, culture, human sacrifice, the list goes on and on. I am a slow reader, but I finished this 1000+ page book in less than a week. I could not put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah, I have read this book one to many times, so what?
Review: I love this book, cannot get enough of it. Though I did find a little flub:
On page 476, when Ahuitzotl is telling Mixtli about his wedding in the court ballroom and all of the details with it, he slips out of calling himself "we" or "our" and uses the term "I" in one sentence.
Just one flub in a 1038 page book, not bad.

Rating:
Summary: I agree!
Review: I can only reiterate all of the praise for Aztec. It's a truly special work of historical fiction that, even after 1400 pages, leaves you wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: entertaining and informative
Review: This book was a very entertaining read. As a person who has studied Spanish and Mexico in depth, I found it very interesting and accurate in many ways. (Of course I am not a expert on the Aztecs so you may take this with a grain of salt). I don't think that it portrayed the Aztecs in a stereotypical or negative way and it did a really decent job of describing one character's (Mixtli's) life before and after the arrival of the Spaniards. I'm sure that the author took a few liberties with his historical information, but I think overall this book gives a good description on how Aztec life might have been.

It's a big book, but I could hardly put it down. Totally worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: the greatest novel ever written!
Review: First read it several years ago in high school. Was completely enthralled from beginning to end. A mix of fact and fiction that meshed perfectly without rambling on. If could have only 1 book for the rest of my life, it would be AZTEC!

Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled by the glowing reviews here
Review: I can't for the life of me understand why so many people like this book so much. It's the worst piece ... I ever finished (Stephen King's It being the worst one I didn't bother finishing). If you know ANYthing about the Aztecs, you know that most of what happens in this book is absurd and stupid. There are so many better books, don't waste your money & time on this one. Go read Stephen King's The Stand.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ ON AZTECA
Review: When I found my hard copy at a yard sale amongst other interesting books I purchased I never planned on reading this huge book. Thank God I did! What an incredibly artistic way of introducing a person into the absolutely fascinating history of the areas that included the Aztecatl. Or perhaps one may prefer that to be Mexicatl since this is what became of the Aztecatl. The Triple Alliance, the Tolteca origins, the daily beauty and dignity of everyday circumstance. The coincidence, the verility, the pride, the love, the frugality, the shrewdness, the very Heart of The One World, and the splendor, the majestic splendor of the craftsmanship and the love, boundless love... It will draw you in until you drop your ethnocentricities and come to think after all, that the sacrifices were altogether not that more absurd than any other superstitions many of which are still employed. I've read many books, am a big fan of Central American cultures but never really understood the Aztec part and always viewed them as latecomers. This book enlightened me to the importance and grandieur of the Aztecs. Oh and not to forget, I still miss verile ol' Blood Glutton and the "Genaro-like" Nezahualpili, and I'll save a soft spot in my heart for Tlilectic-Mixtli <Dark Cloud>! A whole life in one book, and a most filled one at that. Goodbye dear friends, I'm off to Tenochtitlan!

Rating:
Summary: I have yet to read anything quite like this
Review: It's been many years since I read this novel, yet still, it is clear and vivid in my mind. I am grateful to have read this book early in my life, but at the same time I am disappointed that every book I have read since has been a let-down and has fallen short of my expectations. Nothing has yet matched this novel in its depth of story-telling, in its ability to stir emotions of all forms, in its ability to teach something worthy and inspiring, and in its ability to give life and memory and reverence for a people and history of which many are ignorant.

The feeling you get while reading this book, especially at the conclusion, is simply *wow*. This feeling comes very rarely: It is a profound awe that one usually feels when in the presence of greatness. It comes from the knowledge that you have read something that has a value beyond expression.

This book gave me a story that I will never forget, characters that I will remember as though a lost friend, a history whose remembrance is entitled to the victims, and a landscape of a world that comes back to me as clearly and as often as though I had read the book yesterday.

Entrancing and enthralling.

Rating:
Summary: Action, Adventure, Ritualistic Gore, and Lurid Sexuality
Review: AZTEC by Gary Jennings is not for the squeamish or easily offended, but for the rest of us it is an incredibly engaging, quasi-educational read that will make you think while it entertains.

As you can tell by the other reviews, AZTEC is essentially the life story of one Aztec named Mixtli who lived during the last 50+ years of the Aztec Empire, and in so doing witnessed the civilization at its prime and then witnessed its downfall. Rather than get into the substance of Mixtli's many adventures here, let me just say that Mixtli leads a very extraordinary life. Through his unlikely but gradual rise from a commoner to a noble, every facet of the Aztecs' social, political and religious life is explored. Of course, as with all historical fiction novels, the reader should keep in mind that the specific events are fictiously rendered, and may therefore be exaggerated or otherwise altered to make the story more exciting. Also, because significant portions of the book concern aspects of Mixtli's life that have little or nothing to do with the Aztec civilization as a whole, the reader should expect to have his/her history lesson of politics, economics, war, and religion occasionally interrupted by Mixtli's oftentimes unconventional (even among the Aztecs) personal life.

Finally, AZTEC is more than just a good story and a quasi-history lesson, it is also a social commentary criticizing Anglo/European culture and the Catholic Church. The Spanish/Catholics are portrayed throughout AZTEC as greedy for gold, and as terribly unenlightened hypocrits that regularly burned "herotics" but thought the Aztecs' human sacrifices to be barbaric. So, not only is AZTEC exciting and quasi-educational in the context of a history lesson, it also makes us examine the errors of our past so that we may possibly be more tolerant of the wide-array of beliefs and cultures we now encounter amongst our family, friends and co-workers each day.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous
Review: Truly, Gary Jennings has a light prose, great descriptive and the book is well researched. It also treats a civilization of great importance in the history of America, and especially Mexico. I believe the best thing about this book is how through the eyes of Tilelic Mixtli, the author fully represents the full collision between two cultures with so different paradigms.

The book isn't good just as history, but it is also filled with romance and adventure, without loosing it's sense of history. There is however one thing that could diminish it's greatness, and that is the tragic sense of Jennings. The whole book is filled with tragedies, and Jennings tends to do this a lot, however, in this particular case, the whole momentum of the book is tragedy.

Strongly recommended, yet not for the faint of heart.