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Ernest Hogan

High Aztech Paperback – January 1, 1992

by Ernest Hogan (Author)

4.3 33 ratings

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Infected with a virus capable of infecting any human mind with religion, renegade cartoonist Zapata runs through Tenochtitlan--the erstwhile Mexico City-- pursued by the government, the Mafia, street gangs, cults, and garbage collectors. Original.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tom Doherty Assoc Llc
Publication date

January 1, 1992
Dimensions

4.25 x 0.75 x 7 inches
ISBN-10

0812508661
ISBN-13

978-0812508666
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tom Doherty Assoc Llc; First Edition (January 1, 1992)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812508661
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812508666
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.75 x 7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,700,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25,005 in Occult Fiction
- #186,253 in Science Fiction (Books)

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4.3 33 ratings

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Ernest Hogan

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Author of CORTEZ ON JUPITER, HIGH AZTECH, SMOKING MIRROR BLUES, "The Frankenstein Penis," and other acts of creative outrage.

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M Cortez

kinda silly but cool

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2023

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A little uneven as a story, but there are some stunningly written passages. I could see the beginnings of the freewheeling, surrealist, funny af style he perfects in his recent short story “These Rumors of Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice Are Greatly Exaggerated.” I assign that story regularly in my decolonial SFF class and the students love it…assigning this novel this semester.

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David Bowles

Watershed Latino Sci-fi

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2016

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A TOP SHELF review, originally published in the March 25, 2016 edition of The Monitor

In the early 1990s, a Chicano from East L.A. published a pair of science fiction novels that would go on to receive considerable critical acclaim and make significant inroads into the genre for Latinos everywhere.

Hewing more closely to weird, gonzo pulp fiction and comics than to the more politically active realism preferred by the Chicano intelligentsia, he was for many years unknown to his hermanos literarios. The culturally embedded nature of his narratives likewise made him less palatable to mainstream readers of sci-fi. Both of these oversights are gradually being corrected. Soon Ernest Hogan will be recognized as an essential, revolutionary voice.

By the late 1980s, Hogan had published several stories in Analog and other professional markets, and this success encouraged him to submit a manuscript to author Ben Bova, who was curating at the time a series of novels by up-and-coming writers for TOR. Their resulting negotiations produced in 1990 what is likely the first Chicano “hard sf” novel ever: the widely hailed Cortez on Jupiter.

Two years later, Hogan followed his debut up with the cyberpunk masterpiece High Aztech.

The story line is set in the year 2045, in a Mexico City that has returned to its ancient name of Tenochtitlan, the capital of a country to which Americans now flock due to the decline of the United States. This migrant flood complicates the revival of the Aztec religion, as Christian groups vie with indigenous Mexican beliefs, leading to the creation of biological virii that infect human minds with the ideology of one faith or the other. Xólotl Zapata, a renegade cartoonist, is the carrier of the Aztec virus, and he soon finds himself pursued by multiple groups hoping to stop the ascendancy of Mexico. Yet their plan to cancel out his infection with their own has consequences that they could never have imagined.

Now, I’m going to be straight-forward about something: High Aztech is not an easy read. That’s a good thing, however. Hogan crafted a novel that rivals the bizarrely cryptic genre work of Burroughs or Lessing, that takes linguistic, philosophical, and structural risks along the lines of A Clockwork Orange.

The frame story is an interrogation of Xólotl, but his erratic, ADHD stream of memories is interrupted by commentary from observers, notes from field operations, and other creative techniques for widening the narrative net. While these choices mean we don’t get as much character development and depth as perhaps traditional methods might achieve, for Hogan’s philosophical and politically speculative purposes, it’s a great fit.

Most spectacular, however, is the hybrid language with which Xólotl laces his responses to the interrogation. Called Españahuatl, this fusion of Spanish and Nahuatl (the indigenous Aztec tongue) is at times wildly funny and earnestly poignant, much like the “Nadsat” that Anthony Burgess once crafted.

Sadly, TOR pretty much abandoned the novel right after its publication, doing nothing to publicize a book that they clearly realized was more ethnic than they had expected. Fooled by his last name, many in the publishing world didn’t realize that Hogan was actually a Chicano (rather than a daring Anglo). His full-throated expression of Latino sensibilities within the frame of science fiction is only now being fully appreciated.

4 people found this helpful

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mw

Very fun to read!

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2016

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A delightful satire of religious fanaticism, in fact fanaticism of every stripe, as protagonist Xolotl Zapata careens like a pinball between the various cultural, religious and criminal factions of a world-ascendant Tenochtitlán (aka Mexico City). Infected with one religious doctrine-believing virus after another, the ultimate solution just might be a reality-expanding embrace of them all. Very fun to read.
[There is at the end a glossary (totally not necessary) and a pronunciation guide, which might be useful if not knowing the correct pronunciation would be a distraction to you. I managed OK thanks to long ago high school Spanish.]

One person found this helpful

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Wolfram F. Schaffler

Simply excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2013

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Ernest Hogan has a very special way of interweaving Aztec lore with popular culture, extrapolation of current trends and barrio language and idiosyncrasies. High Aztech allows the classic science fiction reader, who might not be not very knowledgeable of real Earth cultures, even though he/she can understand the politics and customs of Coruscant of Arrakis, an opportunity to get immersed in a very interesting and original milieu and even better story. Read this novel, you won't be disappointed.

4 people found this helpful

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Gregory S.

Imagining A Different World

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2023

Ernest Hogan is brilliant at writing a world that could’ve been. Enjoyable from cover to cover as usual.

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H. Grove (errantdreams)

Surreal take on futuristic religion and philosophy

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2019

This narrative is chock full of what the author refers to as “Aztecisms”. It’s a slang he’s developed. He does a surprisingly good job of giving it enough context that it makes sense, or at least close enough not to matter. There is a glossary at the end of the book–a rather long one–but I didn’t need it. I might not know what each slang term meant, but I had the feel and the rhythm of things regardless. It didn’t slow me down or confuse me.

The repeated kidnapping of Xólotl is ridiculous in a good way. It’s hilarious and wild. It puts him in touch with outrageous characters, from the head of the Recycling Syndicate (NOT the Garbage Queen, thank you very much!), to the head of a mafia family, the figureheads of the High Aztech organization, multiple governments, and the leader of a dangerous gang. Everyone wants to understand the mysterious artificial virus Xólotl carries, or they want to kill him for some unrelated reason.

Things become incredibly surreal. Surrealism is not my favorite style. It often feels like the author vomited up a stew of random events and images with no overarching reason behind it. In this case, however, it works fairly well. It does a really good job of showing the ways in which various things are affecting Xólotl’s mind–and how his mind is affected is a central part of the plot. It’s a very hallucinatory experience with some interesting philosophical views on religion.

The narrative is a weird mix of first- and third-person point of view. It’s mostly told from Xólotl’s viewpoint, but it’s interspersed with the observations of a mysterious organization that’s using electronic bugs to follow him around. There’s a section where the two flip back and forth very quickly that’s a little dizzying, but somehow… it kind of works.

The milieu is wonderful. There are people who have their hearts removed and replaced with artificial hearts to honor the Aztec gods. There are those who eat tacos made from synthesized human DNA to mimic Aztecan ritual. We’re introduced to the names and identities of many legendary figures. It’s a fascinating read.

One person found this helpful

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Scott Duncan

A Chicano and Sci-Fi original

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2020

You haven’t read something like High Aztech. A future reclaimed Tenochtitlán fought over by various religious factions via a virus in one upper middle-class Mexica artist named Xólotl Zapata. There is action, media gloss and gaze and blood sacrifice tech. Characters like the Televangelical couple for Mexica gods. A Garbage Queen and gangster lord with identity crises. Virus hallucinations, giants walking the land…it’s the book that really shows off Hogan’s recombocultural and Mondo style. Spanish and Nahuatl combine to Españahuatl that color the future better than any Klingon, Sindarin, or the misplaced regional accents that many books seems to have. The themes of the book play out with juice—these are issues we still struggle with, identity, religion, culture—and High Aztech is okay with difference and dissent. There are no rubber suited monsters to conquer, but lurid realities and vivid truths to experience in this future.

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Desmadreization

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2008

For fans of creative cyberpunk and progressive sci-fi, Ernest Hogan demands to be discovered. Since 1990 he's only been able to publish three novels, and they're all fascinating combinations of up-to-the-minute technophilia with Latino and Aztec cultural elements. If you're reading this review, also be sure to check out Hogan's other two novels - "Cortez on Jupiter" and "Smoking Mirror Blues" (the latter is his strongest, in my opinion). Here in "High Aztech," Hogan produces the best projection of Aztec culture into a near-future sci-fi technical landscape - a few other writers have tried this, but with not nearly as much success or readability. Here, Mexico is rising in influence after the western powers have destroyed themselves, and Mexico City has been re-renamed Tenochtitlan during a revival of Aztec religion. This leads to all kinds of technical and theological subterfuge, culminating in a brain-warping virus carried by the main character. Most interestingly, Hogan adds some speculation on the information-processing nature of biological viruses, and some intriguing explorations of religious fanaticism. Like Hogan's other novels, this one is built on uproarious Spanish/Nahuatl slang and a plotline that zooms by with rip-roaring speed. Here the story gets a bit out of hand at times, with a few too many characters and plot elements flying by without getting the chance to sink in. That makes this novel slightly weaker than Hogan's other masterworks, but it still fits in perfectly with his small but bodaciously creative and entertaining body of work. If you're out there Ernest, give us some more! [~doomsdayer520~]

5 people found this helpful

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Will Bayer

Wow!

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2000

Could not put this one down. No kidding. Cover to end in one day. Unfortunatly had to barrow it as I cannot seem to aquire my own copy. (Please fix this Tor!) This incredible saga delivers a fast pace riviting adventure that paints an urban future you can almost smell. Where is the sequel?

4 people found this helpful

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High Aztech Paperback – January 1, 1992

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