Review: A story of treachery, brutality, cruelty and courage.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2013
The story of Cortez' conquest of Mexico just astounding. How he conquered a nations of millions, themselves a marshal people who ruled the Aztec nation through a mixture of warfare and ritual cruelty. No one can guess how many hundreds of thousands were sacrificed to the Aztec Gods, but it was common practice in the inter tribal wars to attempt to capture as many warriors as possible to feed the temple priests in their dire work. When war captives were not available, choices were apparently made from within the ordinary population.Enter Cortez from the Spanish colony of Cuba. With a pitiful couple of hundred soldiers, some mounted, others pike men on foot. Taking advantage of the Aztecs' barbarous treatment of the non-Mexica population he is able to form a number of alliances with these less successful tribes and proceeds to colonise Mexico with their support.I enjoyed the writing and the delivery, that alternates a historical action account with first person reflections from the treacherous Malinche. Whilst it is based on the true history of the conquest the narrative is obviously pure fiction, but believable. However, this is a story of warfare, with such a long litany of cruelty, barbarism, torture, and deceit that I just became weary of this constant, depressing action. I suppose though, it is the nature of this particular beast.I would read more from this author.