The story of Cortes and La Malinche (Classic Historical Fiction Book 4)

I was interested at first - the history of Cortes' path through the Aztec lands was intriguing at first, but I didn't like ANY of the characters in this novel, and found it repetitious. I gave up about halfway through.

This book was a vivid disappointment. It was poorly set up for an e reader. Many of the words were missing as I changed pages. Most of whole sentences were blank and you had to fill them in as best you could follow the storyline. It certainly was not worth the money I paid for it. This is the last book by this author that I will buy even if the fault seems to be more on the store than Colin Falconer.
Jan Phelan

The book is very detailed regarding Cortez's expedition and attempt to colonize Mexico in the early 1500's. The author obviously did in-depth research. I think more than anything else, I was struck by the human casualty count by religious human sacrifice by the natives as well as the flat-out murder and decimation of native peoples by Cortez and his men. You read about these things in short paragraphs or sentences in most history books, but this goes into quite a bit of detail describing the actual incidents. Rather stomach-turning and chilling.
So much death in the name of the Gods or "The One and Only God." Shocking! We see it, mostly, through the eyes of a young native woman "given" to the Spaniards as a concubine while in the Mexica Territories. The young woman becomes translator to Cortez specifically, later his concubine. She surprises him with her intellect, saving his sorry ass multiple times during the years of his expedition of greed up through the death of Montezuma, great chief and overlord of Mexica. We see many life changing moments for Cortez's men as they cut a wide swath through the country in search of "riches beyond their wildest dreams," and find societies in many ways much more advanced than Europe's own. This did not surprise me, though. I'm just grateful to the author for exposing it.
Many typos and grammatical errors, but well worth the read to women, history buffs and general historical romance readers.

This is the story of Malinali, an Aztec woman who becomes the advisor and lover of Hernan Cortes. The daughter of Aztec royalty, Malinali is sold into slavery by her mother while still a child. She encounters Cortes as he conquers his way across Mexico, and serves him initially as a translator, and later as an advisor. Malinali is convinced that Cortes is the god Feathered Serpent; he arrives when Feathered Serpent is predicted to arrive, in the manner predicted, and does some of the things that have been predicted he would do. But Cortes is volatile and deceitful, both a bad ally and a bad conqueror. He is greedy and avaricious, and completely unaware of the cultural nuances of those people he conquers or forces into alliance. It is here the Malinali shines as his advisor, and translator; her translations, while not always scrupulously accurate, help Cortes to achieve his desires.

The story of Cortes is a brutal one, and Falconer is unflinching in his descriptions of the brutality of the Spaniards conquest. In fact, it's clear the its more a question of luck, timing and the naivety of the natives that allows Cortes his conquests, not his military, political or strategic brilliance (which in fact he sadly lacks).

Aztec is a fascinating story about a fascinating woman in a country with mysterious gods and culture. It's hard to read about the cruelties perpetuated on the native peoples, but we know that it happened, and Aztec provides a wonderful insight into the life and motivations of a woman who was right there when it happened.

For about twenty years I have been submerged in the incredible civilization of pre-conquest Mesoamerica, so I went into reading Aztec with a little cynicism and a lot of background. Falconer has done what no other novelist in my experience has achieved-he has brought this intriguing era to life from the multiple perspectives of Europeans and Mesoamericans alike. Most significantly, Falconer presents the marvel and advancement of the Mexica-so much more than bloody spectacle and warfare!

The story was fine. I enjoy Colin Falconer's work. The editing was terrible. There were so many typos, I could barely read it. I can only imagine what it would be like to read for some one who was an English major!