Aztec Autumn

Author - Gary Jennings ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Audio Download Book item from audible.com was reviewed on 10-Dec-2008.

Search ISBN:B00005464B offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Aztec Autumn Reference Book. Classifications : Aztec Ancient History Subjects Books Audiobook Downloads Audiobooks Format (feature_browse-bin) Refinements Books .

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1) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. It´s said that everyone has one good novel in them. In Jennings´ case this may have been "Aztec". Certainly, "Aztec Autumn" isn´t nearly as good. It´s almost as if he´s run out of ideas and is trying too hard. An example is his use of sexual scenes and discriptions. He overdoes it and they are neither interesting nor titillating.

It is possible that Jennings´ other novels are better but I, for one, will never know. "Aztec Autumn" killed my interest in reading more.

Ron Braithwaite author of Mexican Conquest novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"¤

2) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. What a waste of my time this was! What a disappointing book from the author of "The Aztec". It looks as if he was strapped for cash and sold this piece to anybody who would buy it...Why such an unknown publishing house? Were the major ones aware that his novel was crap? The faults of this story are so many that it would be a waste to count them all.. The man being burnt at the stake at the beginning is no other than the main character of his previous novel. Then he gets to meet his daughter at the end...Everybody keeps running into everybody else, as if Mexico was a three bedroom apartment rather than a country...Implausible lines, anachronistic expressions (i.e. "palace guards" referred to some Aztec warriors...). And then sex sex sex. Gary, is anything else on your mind?¤

3) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. This book would never have been published had Gary Jennings been alive to prevent it. It is obvious that someone controlling his papers--notes, outlines, partial writing of a projected novel--
sought to make money out of his incomplete work by completing it for him and doing a miserable job of it. Jennings himself was so meticulous an author in every regard that he would have been embarrassed to have his name associated with this piece of trash.
It is to be hoped that someone else, someone up to the task, was hired to use Jennings´s papers to create Aztec Blood.

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4) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. AZTEC AUTUMN is a sequel to Gary Jennings´ earlier novel, AZTEC. Even so, it stands alone. The primary character of the first book makes his only appearance, at his execution, in the first chapter of this one. From that point, the story is told from the viewpoint of the burned heretic´s son, an Aztec prince from an area not subjugated by the Spanish. When he learns of his true identity, the prince (Called Juan Britanico because his Aztec name is too difficult to spell) vows to wipe the Spaniards from the American continent.

Most of the book is concerned with Juan´s adventures in preparation for leading his revolution. The actual revolution, in terms of battles and such, is left to the very end. As such this is more the story of a man´s life instead of a war chronicle. We learn the joy and concerns of Juan and his people. Along the way, we also learn something of the native cultures of the Americas in the generation that lived through the conquistadors.

This is an entertaining book, if somewhat graphic in terms of sex, cruelty and violence.
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5) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. Gary Jennings was an author known for his great historical novels, based on enormous and thorough research, very sexually active characters, developed in a level that few writers can master, and unusual situations brought to light by an uncommon and skillful style of writing. I think "Aztec" is his masterpiece, but "The journeyer" and "Raptor" are not that far behind.

While reading "Aztec", I was totally transported to the "one world", back in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of the christian era. Mixtli was a great character. His life was a great life. Jennings´s readers were so appaled by his tale that they were left wanting more. Almost two decades later, their wish was granted. Of course, to be better than "Aztec" was a nearly impossible task, and not even Jennings was able to do it.

In "Aztec autumn", a sequel of sorts, Mixtli briefly appears, but the main character this time is Tenamaxtli, one of Aztlán heirs, who have to cope with his land being invaded and ruled by the spaniards. Tenamaxtli has revenge boiling in his heart, and he will conceive many plans to make the white smelly devils go back to where they came from.

The book starts well enough, and for a time I thought "Aztec autumn" would be as great as "Aztec". But this book lacks the presence of many of the great secondary characters that peopled its predecessor. Tenamaxtli is interesting enough, but he´s surrounded by cardboard characters. Many of them appear only briefly. The subplots are also not very great. Many reviewers complain that some of those subplots are sorry excuses for overrated sexual experiences; I don´t entirely agree with them, because I understand that sexual scenes were a very strong part of Jennings´ writing style, but this time those scenes were not as greatly written as the ones existent in his three masterpieces. Also, the ending in "Aztec autumn" seems very rushed, as if the author himself got tired of his book and just wanted it to be over.

But when we´re dealing with historical fiction, there are not many authors that can deliver a fantastic book like Jennings does - Noah Gordon and Ken Follett come immediately to mind. To go back to the One World / New Spain in the 1600s one more time was worth the reading. That´s why this book deserves a 4-star rating.

Grade 7.2/10
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6) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. After the Aztec empire falls to the Spaniards, a young Aztec named Tenama+a7xtli begins recruiting from among his fellow survivors of the Conquest to once again challenge the Spaniards and restore the Aztec empire. By the author of Aztec. 250,000 first printing."¤

7) Audio Download Book Aztec Autumn by audible.com. Historical novelist Gary Jennings returns to the time and place of his international bestseller Aztec one generation after the conquistadors have all but destroyed the culture. The once-shining capital city of Tenochtitlan has been renamed Mexico City. Eighteen-year-old Tenamaxtli, the novel´s hero, has traveled with his mother from the northern region, where they have been kept abreast of the progress of the malignant, marauding, disease-bearing Spanish. In the course of witnessing the execution of an old Aztec, Tenamaxtli´s mother reveals that the victim is, in fact, her son´s father. Everything is in place for vengeance, and over the novel´s next several years, Tenamaxtli organizes an ill-fated insurrection, enjoying many sexual adventures along the way.

Told plainly and at some remove, Jennings has reserved the fancier footwork for an excursion into Aztec culture, creating a detailed tapestry of a struggling, vanquished race. Readers familiar with Mexican history will welcome the rich details of this vengeance drama; those new to it will be impressed by Jennings´s exhaustive research.

The narrative reads like a journal, its language meant to evoke some generic past. Perhaps this is a distancing device, allowing readers to focus on the rich weave of cultural and historic elements rather than the carnage, cruelty, and genocide that characterize this unhappy piece of Mexican history.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 7-Jan-2009, , 360-080-340-880-661-4BB-8

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