Review written for ClubReading.com by Barbara
On the bestseller list for a long time, and deservedly so, Aztec is a fictional exploration of a culture so alien and yet so familiar. All of it is seen throught the eyes of Mixtli with whom we journey through adventure, comedy and hazard, through birth, love and suffering. It is with Mixtli that we meet the death of the Aztec empire, the Conquistadors, and it is through him that the Aztec world comes alive. Unfortunately for the world, Gary Jennings died in February of 1999.
EXCERPT FROM Aztec:
Under the doctors’ direction, the two men holding the heavy stone slab tilted it so the sun shone through one of the shaped quartz crystals and made a round spot of light on Ten’s ulcerated hand. Then, moving the stone back and forth in the sunbeam, they made that round spot of light concentrate down to one intense dot of light, aimed directly upon the sore. The two doctors held the limp hand steady, the two men held the dot of light steady, and-believe me or not, as you will-a wisp of smoke came from the ugly sore. In another moment, there was a sizzling noise and a small flame was there, almost invisible in the brightness of that intensified light. The doctors gently moved the hand about, so that the sun-made flame went all over the ulcer.
At last, one of them said a word. The two men carried the Sun Slab out of the hut, the old woman began trying with her broomstick to rearrange the straw of the roof, and Doctor Maäsh motioned for me to lean and look. The ulcer had been as completely and cleanly seared as if it had been done with a fire-hot copper rod. I congratulated the two physicians-sincerely, since I had never seen the like before. I also congratulated Ten on having borne the burning without a sound.
“Sad to say, he did not feel it,” said Doctor Maäsh. “The patient is dead….”