Blood and Jade

Rating:
Summary: Exciting Saga
Review: Blood and Jade by Sally Kohonoski

Meticulously researched at libraries, workshops on Mayan culture and language, and by an expedition to the actual jungles that made up the ancient Mayan kingdom of Balan-Ke, Sally Kohonoski's Blood and Jade brings to life one of the most complex cultures that ever existed in the Americas.

When the king and all his children are killed, long before the arrival of the first Europeans to the Americas, a small and weak boy named Pacal finds himself heir to the throne. Will he live to fulfill the great destiny the jungle goddess has promised him? Or will he die at the hands of the kingdom's many enemies as he and his mother Lady Quetzal fight to save the kingdom of Balan-Ke? The narrative follows mother and son over dangerous mountain passes, along crocodile-infested waters, and through the jungle kingdoms of rival lords.

Not just the historically significant events are depicted in this novel. The day-to-day life of the Maya is also described -- their food and clothing, the flowers, the weaving and the games -- giving this novel a gritty reality that makes us wonder if perhaps somewhere deep in the jungle, the descendants of Pacal aren't still weaving their huipils and baking honey-bread.

Rating:
Summary: Magic Realism from a Time of Blood and Honor
Review: I loved Pacal. He alternated between the baby boy he'd been before his people were brutally massacred to the brilliant strategist who escapes his savage enemies to rejoin his regal and fascinating mother, Lady Quetzal and rebuild the empire to which he is the rightful and benign heir. Yes, it's history, very good history, but as I read, I forgot the fact that it happened years ago and far away. I was there, in the steaming fleshpots, in the court, in the trials of the flesh.

There are moments of tenderness -- with two such complex characters, how could there not? But most of all, the book takes you into itself, into a time and a culture that is no more -- but
that Kohonoski makes live in a deep and impelling way.

Fabulous book. One can only hope for a sequel. I have to see Pacal as a lover and king!

Rating:
Summary: Magic Realism from a Time of Blood and Honor
Review: I loved Pacal. He alternated between the baby boy he'd been before his people were brutally massacred to the brilliant strategist who escapes his savage enemies to rejoin his regal and fascinating mother, Lady Quetzal and rebuild the empire to which he is the rightful and benign heir. Yes, it's history, very good history, but as I read, I forgot the fact that it happened years ago and far away. I was there, in the steaming fleshpots, in the court, in the trials of the flesh.

There are moments of tenderness -- with two such complex characters, how could there not? But most of all, the book takes you into itself, into a time and a culture that is no more -- but
that Kohonoski makes live in a deep and impelling way.

Fabulous book. One can only hope for a sequel. I have to see Pacal as a lover and king!