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HomeShop at BookSurgeScienceEnvironmental ScienceAztec Dawn: A tale of sacrifical murder, from Manhattan to Mexico |
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An intriguing yarn of ancient traditions and how far one is willing to go for their beliefs Sep 12, 2009
By Midwest Book Review
There are those who still hold on to the old ways of their people. "Aztec Dawn" is a novel about the Aztec people and those who still consider the culture's ways sacred centuries after their fall. A white man who is willing to give his father to ritual sacrifice, and there seems to be a movement among the old Aztecs to try to reclaim Mexico. "Aztec Dawn" is an intriguing yarn of ancient traditions and how far one is willing to go for their beliefs.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
A gripping story Jun 09, 2009
By C. S. Keppler
This book is a really gripping and exciting read. It starts in modern day Mexico City where John O'Reilly, a New Yorker, is having a break from living with a father who has abused him all his life. He is unbalanced from all this abuse and, when he goes to the Aztec museum in Mexico City and hears about how the Aztecs had believed in the need for death to happen before rebirth could occur, he conceives the idea that his father must die in order for he, John, to have a chance at a decent life. The Aztecs used to commit human sacrifice on a daily basis because otherwise, they believed, the sun wouldn't come up the next day and the world would come to an end.
The book is set in two time zones, modern day, and then back to 1519 when the Spanish landed on the Mexican continent and made their way west to Tenochtitlán, the Aztec name for their capital that is now Mexico City. The author sets the scene extremely well, describing the city that sat on a large lake and the people who inhabited it with such vividness that I was transported to another world, another culture. The Aztecs were a fascinating and bloodthirsty race and Kerri Louise Thomas has obviously done a huge amount of research in order to be able to provide such detail on them. Her descriptions of the city's temples and the rites that took place in them are mind blowing, and you'll never forget her description of the priests who performed those rites. They were truly terrifying men.
The story of Cort's's invasion of their empire is also described with gripping suspense as his progress across Mexico is relayed to the Aztec king and his advisors by runners who arrive at Tenochtitlán almost hourly. This part of the story is related from the viewpoint of a priest who watches with horror as his king fails to act against the Spanish threat, and who sees his world destroyed. This priest is the ancestor of a man whom John O'Reilly meets outside the Aztec museum, selling Indian handicrafts to tourists, and he provides the link between the two time zones.
This descendant wants to revive the ancient Aztec ways as his country's colonization and his people's subsequent poverty humiliate him, and he and John find in each other someone who can give them what they want.
I read Thomas's first book, Afinidad, and because I liked her descriptive way of writing, I read this one, and it is way better even than that. She seems to have developed her writing skills, which is to be expected from a second novel, I guess.
The ending of Aztec Dawn, like Afinidad, is a real surprise. I so didn't want this story to end at all. A fantastic read.
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