Aztechs [Hardcover]

Lucius Shepard (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this unsettling new novella, Shepard (The Jaguar Hunter, etc.) returns to the near-future setting of his Nebula Award-winning story, "R&R" (later part of Life During Wartime). El Rayo, the bustling border community grown up along the electrified fence along the U.S./Mexican border, is home to Eddie Poe, who earns his living by providing security. The men he hires are AWOL U.S. soldiers called "Sammys" because of their addiction to the reflex- and strength-enhancing combat drug Samurai (aka Sammy). AZTECH, a mysterious high-tech firm rumored to be run by a renegade U.S. military AI named Montezuma, hires Eddie and his bodyguards to join AZTECH representative Montezuma 2 ("Z2") for a meeting with the Carbonell cartel. When the meeting goes sour and Z2 is badly wounded, one of the Sammys, Lawton Childers, lobs a pocket nuke to cover their escape, and Eddie realizes he's no longer in control. Childers and the other Sammys intend to use Z2 to break into the AZTECH compound and take out Montezuma and his followers, and Eddie and his TV journalist girlfriend Guadalupe are caught in the middle. Fortunately for Montezuma, AZTECH has technological defenses even a Sammy can't defeat. Eddie's pragmatic voice is perfect for this story of people whose only hope for the future is an AI with a messiah complex. One gets the feeling that the author has only begun here, that this novella could grow into a novel, as did "R&R." We can only hope that's what Shepard thinks, too.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Shepard's novella is set in a world not terribly far in the future, but far enough. An escaped AI that calls itself Montezuma is running the high-tech corporation AZTECHS, and Eddie runs a security service. Everything in Mexicali, where Eddie grew up, has taken on the bloody red light of El Rayo, the laser fence that guards the U.S.-Mexican border. Eddie has been hired to take an AZTECHS representative to talk business with the Carbonell family cartel in their stronghold, the former cathedral Nuestra Senora del Rayo. Unfortunately, the deal goes a bit sour, and Eddie and Z2, the man he was hired to protect, must flee to the desert. Then Z2 wants to visit Montezuma in the desert. Meanwhile, one of Eddie's security men wants to kill Montezuma in the desert. Eddie and Guadalupe, a rising star in the cutthroat world of television, mostly just want to survive. A good story in a small package, with a neat twist on the AI concept. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean Press; First Edition, edition (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931081506
• ISBN-13: 978-1931081504
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,045,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Shepard's finest, but still very very good., June 17, 2004

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aztechs (Hardcover)

Lucius Shepard, AZTECHS (Subterranean Press, 2003)

For the whole of his career, Lucius Shepard has been one of America's most criminally underrated authors. He managed to write some of the twentieth century's best science fiction, fantasy, horror, and war fiction without, really, much of anyone noticing. Thus, most of his old stuff is out of print regularly, and his new stuff is being put out by companies that take novellas and release them for exorbitant amounts of money in hardcover collectors' editions. For example, AZTECHS.

AZTECHS is another entry in the subgenre Shepard seems to write to most natively, sci-fi-war. This one's much lighter on the war and heavier on the science fiction. In a future version of the border between America and Mexico, a company called AZTECHS has mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, supplying the world with cheap technology. There are certain factions who are not thrilled with such a thing, and would like to see AZTECHS disappear so they can go back to controlling society. The protagonist, a small-time drug dealer and roustabout who is for all intents and purposes the kept man of a reality TV show host, hires a cadre of genetically altered bodyguards for an AZTECHS rep who's going to talk to one of the leaders of the factions who aren't happy with AZTECHS' dominance. The talks do not go well, to put it mildly, and things get weirder from there; within the space of a few pages, neither the protagonist (nor his girlfriend and camerman, whom AZTECHS have allowed to film the talks) nor the reader is at all sure of whose side anyone's on.

Those who are already aware of the incredible prowess Lucius Shepard has with words can rest easy that despite the book's rather embarrassing title, this is very good stuff. Shepard newbies will likely be put off by the price tag (and rightly so, for a book that sits right on the line between novella and novel), and those who aren't big science fiction readers might be better off going for one of his more down-to-earth pieces (Life During Wartime, his second novel, is a great jump-off point), or better yet some of his short fiction (The Jaguar Hunter and Beast of the Heartland are both highly recommended, but better yet find a couple of his seemingly as-yet-uncollected stories, "Delta Sly Honey" and "The All-Consuming"; the former was in an anthology called In the Field of Fire which is well worth reading, and the latter appeared in a late-eighties issue of Playboy). Once you've fallen in love with Shepard, though, this one's a must. *** ½

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Metaphorically and lyrically beautiful, August 7, 2003

By 

gypsy "gypsy" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aztechs (Hardcover)

I loved this book. I can't explain it. I just loved it. I drank up every word. The images weren't beautiful, the view of the future was dismal, but after the first chapter it turned into a series of stunning metaphors that spoke to my soul.

I was totally unable to follow the plot. The ending was devoid of meaning for me. The relationship between the hero and his girlfriend made no sense. The characters seemed to shift in and out of personalities paragraph by paragraph.

But I totally loved this book and highly recommend it. No clue why...