Aztec Autumn [Audio Cassette]

Gary Jennings (Author), David Dukes (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

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."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The sequel to the author's internationally best-selling Aztec (1982) returns to the Mexico of the conquistadors. The previous novel enveloped the reader in the traditions and customs of Aztec society before and during the bloody Spanish conquest. The story as it now unfolds finds us in postconquest Mexico, events now narrated by a young Aztec man whose uncle is an esteemed nobleman. The Spanish conquerors have settled in to run a tightly controlled enterprise, and the novel springs into action when the young hero decides no other course is available to him than to seek revenge for the foul murder of his father by the conquerors. What the reader is witness to in these compelling pages, then, is the avenger's careful gathering together of an insurrectionary movement. Jennings' ability to marshal the results of considerable research into a smoothly flowing, never sluggish narrative is remarkable; here he gives appreciators of historical fiction something to relish. Brad Hooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Phoenix Audio (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590401778
• ISBN-13: 978-1590401774
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,252,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

GARY JENNINGS was known for the rigorous and intensive research behind his novels, which often included hazardous travels--exploring every corner of Mexico for his Aztec novels, retracing the numerous wanderings of Marco Polo for The Journeyer, joining nine different circuses for Spangle, and roaming the Balkans to do Raptor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as "Aztec"; but not bad as they say, either, April 19, 2005

By 

J R Zullo (São Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aztec Autumn (Mass Market Paperback)

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

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A very inferior sequel to Aztec, September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aztec Autumn (Audio Cassette)

Aztec Autumn suffers, like many sequels, by comparison to its predecessor, Aztec. One has the strong impression that the author knocked off this tome for one and only one reason: money. While the previous novel was impressive for the obviously immense research done to complete it, Aztec Autumn relies on implausible plot twists, magic, and the author's obvious prejudices for its effect. A fatal flaw is the author's choice of a mass murderer as a hero; any reader with a sense of justice begins rooting against the "hero" soon into the novel. Still, there is a certain amount of history interspersed with the author's prejudices, and fans of Aztec may want to read this mercifully short book just to get it out of their system.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Most, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aztec Autumn (Mass Market Paperback)

If I could pick 3 1/2 stars I would have.

I enjoyed Aztec Autumn. It is not one of my favorite books and I don't think it is quite as good as Aztec. Reflecting on the that statment, how many sequels can claim to be as good as the original? There was something about Aztec that I find unplaceable. A sort of je ne sais quoi that Aztec Autumn unfortunately lacks, and while it does not make up for it, the book tries its hardest to by filling up every instant with action. With both this book and its predecessor, the endings left me thrilled yet high and dry at the same time. My only complaint of this book as an independant book is that, like Aztec, it is somewhat unbelievable, not so much in its greatness but in the characters' greatness. It is a good book, but not Mr. Jenning's best by far. If you haven't read Aztec read it and if you haven't read Raptor, then well, read that!