Curses! - Aaron Elkins

    1989; 198 pages.  Book 5 (out of 18) in the “Gideon Oliver Mysteries” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : International Crime-Mystery; Mesoamerica; Forensic Anthropology.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    The excavation was started in 1980 at an ancient Mayan ceremonial center in Yucatan, called Tlaloc.  It was both the high and the low of Gideon Oliver’s archaeological career.

 

    The highlight was finding an ancient Mayan codex in almost pristine condition.  It was only the fourth Mayan codex ever found.  It made all that digging worthwhile.

 

    The lowlight was the excavation’s director stealing the codex and fleeing with it while the others slept.  The Mexican government was furious.  They shut the project down immediately.  That was in 1982.

 

    Almost a decade has passed since, and only now has the government of Mexico allowed the excavation to start back up.  Dig deeper.  Into an earlier time.  Maybe find another codex!  And now Gideon has been invited to rejoin the effort.  You know he’ll jump at the opportunity.

 

    Who cares about some sort of Mayan curse protecting their sacred site.

 

What’s To Like...

    Curses! is the fourth book I’ve read in this series, and I’ve loved the settings chosen for each one: Egypt, France, England, and now the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

 

    Since I’m a history buff, I enjoyed the story being set in an ancient Mayan ceremonial center called Tlaloc.  ANAICT, the site is fictional, but the name is that of the Nahuatl god of rain, and M. Todd Gallowglas’ worldbuilding for such a place was convincing.  Lots of real Mesoamerican places and gods are injected into the story, including Quetzalcoatl, Popol Vuh, Teotihuacan, Palenque, and my favorite: Chichen Itza.

 

    The book’s title refers to an ancient curse allegedly imposed on anyone who disturbs the site.  It was dismissed as primitive superstition by all but one in the excavation team.  Attitudes changed somewhat when each of the five steps in the curse starts to come to pass.  Was the superstition true, or is some mortal deliberately setting up incidents to fulfill the prophecies?  Hmm.

 

    The mystery aspect was well done.  A set of bones is unearthed, and Gideon, aka “the Skeleton Detective of America”, is called upon to determine the Who, When, and hopefully Why the corpse came to be buried in the temple.  A murder occurs, and the reader gets to tag alongside Gideon and try to determine the perpetrator before he does.  I failed miserably.

 

    The ending logical, twisty, and did not go down as I expected.  Gideon comes within an eyelash of dying, due mostly to his not examining the details of the final prophecy seriously enough.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,281 ratings and 61 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.05*/5, based on 1,990 ratings and 101 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word…

Cenote (n.) : a natural deep sinkhole or pit.

Others: Pelves (n.) : the plural of pelvis.

 

Excerpts...

    “Just what is a codex?  A manuscript?  A book?”

    “That’s right.  From the Latin caudex, meaning a split block of wood, kind of like a shingle, which the Romans coated with wax and then inscribed.”

    She looked at him quizzically.  “You know the damnedest things.”

    “I,” he said with dignity, “am a full professor.  My mind is replete with scholarly arcana, some of which, I can safely say, are even more useless than that.”

    “I know.  It’s ruining our social life.  Nobody wants to play Trivial Pursuit with us.”  (pg. 35)

 

    Many years before, when he had nervously turned in the first draft of his dissertation to his doctoral committee members, Abe had penciled in some comments across the title page: “Very inventive.  Considering the lack of data, the inconclusive results, and the ambiguous statistical analysis, you did a wonderful job.  Not everyone can make two hundred pages from nothing.  I predict you’ll go far.”  (pg. 94)

 

Kindle Details…

    Curses! sells for $8.99 right now at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series cost anywhere from $5.49 to $9.99, with the prices generally higher for the books in the latter half of the series.  Aaron Elkins has several other Mystery series for your sleuthing pleasure, with the e-books generally in the $3.99-$7.99 price range. 

 

“You have to live your own life.  You can’t let the creeps and cruds of the world run it for you.”  (pg. 120)

    The profanity level is light.  I counted ten instances in the first 25% of the e-book, all of which were of the milder, four-lettered variety.  Later on, several Spanish cuss of a more powerful ilk are used.  We’ll let you google them for their translations.

 

    I don’t really have any nits to pick about Curses!  The pacing is good, there are no slow spots, and in this historical mystery, M. Todd Gallowglas gives just as much attention to creating a spellbinding whodunit and he does to the worldbuilding and character development.  The wannabee-archaeologist part of me loved it just as much as the wannabee-detective part of me did.

 

    9 Stars.  One last tidbit.  In addition to the “Kewlest New Words” listed above, I also learned the proper word for the inhabitants of the Yucatan peninsula.  They’re called “Yucatecans”.  Who'd've thunk it?

The Emperor's Second Wife - Zoe Saadia

   2012; 270 pages.  Book 3 (out of 7) in the “Rise of the Aztecs” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Mesoamerica; Historical Fiction; Intrigue.   Overall Rating: 8/10.

 

    Kuini and Coyotl have made it to the big city!  In this case we’re talking about Tenochtitlan in 1419 CE, at the time, the largest metropolis in the Americas.  Nobody takes any notice of the two lads; they enter the city dressed like a couple of commoners.  They’re here to see if they can meet up with Coyotl’s half-sister, Iztac.

 

    Iztac will certainly be better dressed.  She’s married to Huitzilihuitl, the emperor of Tenochtitlan, and her official title is “the Emperor’s Second Wife”.  Not quite the queen of the hill, but close to it, and above all but one of the other half-dozen or so wives of the emperor.

 

    But that’s a mixed blessing because Huitzilihuitl is in poor health, and probably has only a year or so to live.  The Emperor’s Wife #1, hereafter simply called “the Empress” has done her duty and birthed a son who’s next in line to succeed Huitzilihuitl, but he’s still just a lad, just barely teenaged.  Until he’s an adult the Empress will rule as his regent.

 

    Everything would change though, if either The Empress or her son dies.  This makes the Empress very wary of any and all of the other wives and their offspring.  If and when the Emperor dies, the first thing she’ll do is get rid of any of them she perceives as a threat.

 

    And guess which one she perceives as her greatest threat?

 

What’s To Like...

    The Emperor’s Second Wife is the third installment in Zoe Saadia’s 7-book Rise of the Aztecs saga. Mesoamerica consists of a bunch of altepetls (think “city-states”) that spend most of their time and resources trying to conquer their neighboring altepetls, then extracting tribute from them.  At the moment, the top altepetl is Tepanec, to which Tenochtitlan (think “Mexico City” and/or “the Aztecs”) and many other cities in the region, bow.

 

    There is some discontent within the ranks of the Tenochtitlan nobility with their kowtowing status vis-a-vis the Tepanecs.  A few key figures are developing plans to rise up, although so far, very little action has been taken for fear of the Tepanecs finding out.  Just how our three protagonists, Kuini, Coyotl, and Iztac, will fit in with these plots is unclear, but here in The Emperor’s Second Wife our heroes do make contact with the Resistance.

 

    Once again, I loved the attention to historical detail in the storyline.  Although there is some fighting involved, it remains on a personal level, due mostly to hotheaded Kuini shooting his mouth off at Aztec warriors, including a new character, Tlacaelel, who I have a feeling will be developed into a fourth protagonist.  Yet the story never becomes boring due to the scarcity of bloodshed.  Instead, intrigue, on both a personal and altepetl level, abounds.  There is also a fascinating love triangle, Dehe-Iztac-Kuini, which does not get resolved; I look forward to seeing how that plays out.

 

    Once again, I enjoyed the bits and pieces of the Nahuatl language that are woven into the text.  And once again I chuckled at the invented profanity: “dung-eaters”, “frog-eaters”, “little piece of dirt”, and the more-protracted “dirty, stinking, disgusting filth-eater”.  Two deities are also briefly mentioned: Camaxtli and Huitzilopochtli, but Mesoamerican religious factions don’t seem to make much of an impact here.

 

    The ending is satisfying—full of intrigue and unexpected acts with unexpected consequences.  None of the overthrow scheming gets resolved, but when the dust clears, Tenochtitlan has taken its first step towards throwing off the Tepanec yoke.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 187 ratings and 58 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43*/5, based on 159 ratings and 220 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Why do you eat this?” asked Kuini, mostly to take the conversation off his motives for breaking into the Palace.

    “Health troubles.”  The Aztec shrugged.  “I’m an old man, you know?  Should have died on the battlefield, a death of heroes.  Instead, here I am, watching over young hotheads, taking baths in the middle of the heat, eating disgustingly healthy, trying to prolong the inevitable.”  The wide brow creased with a frown.  “I’ve already covered most of the distance of my Path of the Dead.  There is not much left to walk.  Still, one tries to prolong the way when his time is nearing.”  He shrugged again.  “Warriors should die before they grow old.”  (pg. 131)

 

    “Did you talk to the Empress?”

     “Well, yes.  And it was anything but pleasant.  Don’t do this when your time comes.”

    The young woman blinked.  “What did she do to you?”

    “Oh, nothing.  She locked me in a small room, with no baths and no food, and told me to think it over.”  Iztac shrugged, amused by the open dread in her companion’s eyes.  “So, today I told her I had thought it over, and that I won’t make any more trouble.  And that was that.”

    “And she just let you go back?”

    “Well, you know the Empress.  She made some difficulties.  I had to convince her that I meant it.  I had to cry and make pitiful noises.”

    “You?  Cried?”  (pg. 179)

 

“There can be only one empress, so it’s important that you should not nurture any ideas of you becoming one.”  (pg. 6)

    The quibbles are minor.  As mentioned earlier, almost all of the cussing is delightfully invented, but with four exceptions, two involving eschatology, two involving an excretory function.  There’s also one roll-in-the-hay.

 

    It would’ve been nice to have a Cast of Characters to refer to, even better if it included the deities.  And although all the Nahuatl words and phrases are either translated when introduced or else clear enough to where you can suss them out, having a Nahuatl-English Glossary would’ve come in handy.

 

    As in the earlier books, typos abound: gap/gape, breath/breathe, envelope/envelop, and the spellchecker-challenging Chimalpopoca/Chimalpapoca.  There were more, but I tend to cut indie authors some slack when it comes to spellchecker errors.

 

    My main quibble has to do with the names of characters: a couple of them simply don’t have any.  The most notable of these was the Tenochtitlan Empress/Regent herself.  She’s pretty easily identified by her title, but there are two Tenochtitlan warlords in the storyline; one active and one retired; one of which has a name given, the other which doesn’t.  And keeping those two straight in my head was no small feat.

 

    So much for the nitpicking.  The Emperor’s Second Wife is another solid entry in this series, deftly advancing the overarching plotline (the growing prominence of the Aztecs) while still keeping me interested in who is going to do what to whom.  So far, this has been a great series, although I do recommend reading the book in chronological order.

 

    8 Stars.  In checking at Amazon, it appears the author’s last published book came out in late 2019.  That’s a bummer, since I enjoy the geographic setting of her tales: the pre-Columbian Americas.  One of the minor characters in The Emperor’s Second Wife, Kaay, is noted to be of Mayan heritage.  I’ve always been intrigued by the Mayans with their more-accurate-than-ours calendar and their end-of-the-world predictions.  It would be really neat if Zoe Saadia were to resume her writing career with a series based on the heyday of the Mayans, a millennium before the Aztecs.

Crossing Worlds - Zoe Saadia

   2012; 184 pages.  Book 2 (out of 7) in the series “The Rise of the Aztecs”.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Mesoamerica; Historical Fiction; Native American Literature.   Overall Rating: 8/10.

 

    The dreaded Tepanecs are at the gates of Huexotzinco!

 

    Well okay, that’s not quite true yet.  But they have conquered the nearby altepetl (think “city-state”) of Texcoco, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where they will attack next, especially since the heir to the Texcoco throne, a youth named Coyotl, is currently hanging out with Kuini, one of the sons of the Huexotzinco War Leader.

 

    Nobody doubts that, if/when the Tepanecs attack, they will be victorious.  The question then is, what should Huexotzinco do?  Maybe they should offer up Coyotl as a human sacrifice to one of their gods.  But since the War Leader has already welcomed Coyotl into the city, such a ritual slaying would be in poor taste.

 

    Maybe it’s time for Huexotzinco to seek allies.  Those upstart Aztecs are just as powerful as the Tepanecs, but right now those two altepetls are chummy.  Coyotl’s people, the Acolhua, would surely love to help fight against the Tepanecs and retake Texcoco, but they’re a conquered tribe.  Besides, they’re a bunch of filthy Lowlanders, and the traditional enemy of Huexotzinco, which are Highlanders.

 

    That doesn’t leave the War Leader many options.

 

What’s To Like...

    Crossing Worlds is the second book in Zoe Saadia’s Rise of the Aztecs series.  I read the first one, The Highlander, three years ago; it is reviewed here.  We followed three protagonists in that book, two of which – Kuini and Coyotl – are in the spotlight once again.  The third, Iztac-Ayotl, gets only scant mention here, but I suspect she will have a major role in Book 3.

 

    The main storyline is summarized in the introduction above.  An invasion by the Tepanecs is nigh, and all the strategic options available to Huexotzinco are both distasteful and of doubtful worth.  Kuini and Coyotl can play pivotal roles in all this, but they seem to be more interested in having dalliances with the local girls and getting into fights with the local men.

 

    It was neat to watch Kuini begin to develop some leadership skills.  He has a hot-headed nature, and expects those around him to carry out his wishes without question.  I suppose that might be useful if you’re next in line for the position of War Leader, but Kuini is currently fifth in line for that, with four older brothers ahead of him.

 

    I read the paperback version of Crossing Worlds, and very much appreciated the inclusion of a map, from which I frequently got my bearings.  I also liked the way cussing is handled here: euphemisms such as dung-eater, excrement-eaters, gods-know-where, and frog-eater replace f-bombs and other vulgarities.  There are a couple rolls-in-the-hay, but they’re tastefully done.

 

    The ending is not particularly exciting, but nevertheless works.  Decisions about how to handle the Tepanecs are made, and Kuini and Coyotl are dispatched to carry out a portion of those plans.  How much they will or will not accomplish awaits the reader in Book 3, The Emperor’s Second Wife, which is on my TBR shelf.  The book closes with a brief Epilogue which zings a neat and unforeseen twist at the reader as a teaser for the sequel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 81 ratings and 69 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.45*/5, based on 196 ratings and 30 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “The filthy piece of excrement just went on, spilling it all.  First, doubting my strategy against the Tepanecs; then, bringing up the Acolhua heir.  He even had the gall to hint about the doubtful actions of my son, imagine that!  The only thing he neglected was to bring up my foreign origins. (…)  I’m telling you, this filthy piece of dirt is up to something.”

    “He didn’t have to bring up your origins, because you bothered to do it yourself,” said Mino mildly, pursing her lips.  (pg. 90)

 

    “We will not war on each other as long as I live.”

    The warrior’s gaze softened as another of his amused grins flashed.  “Well, then it boils down to getting you back onto the Texcoco throne.”  The grin disappeared.  “Not a small undertaking.  And it’ll take more than a few summers to achieve.  Do you realize that?”

    Coyotl’s heart fell, and it must have reflected upon his face as the man shook his head, his grin spreading back.  “Oh, you didn’t think I’d just gather my warriors and roll down the First Pass toward Texcoco, did you?”

    “No, of course not!” said Coyotl, his jaw tightening.  It was precisely how he had imagined it would happen.  (pg. 125)

 

“Remember this, Netzahualcoyotl.  People don’t have to like you in order to help you.”  (pg. 131)

    There’s little to quibble about in Crossing Worlds, provided you read this as a piece of Historical Fiction and not as an Action-Adventure tale.  The story is set in 1418/19, Cortez and his conquistadors won’t show up for another century.  There is some fighting and five more books where gods-only-know how much blood will be shed, but so far the storyline is mostly a study of three teenaged youths coming to grips with their destined duties.

 

    My main quibble is with the spellchecker errors that are the bane of most self-publishing efforts.  A bunch of typos crop up here, including leaning/learning, tagged/tugged, maintains/mountains, disperse/dispense, brunches/branches, heard/heart, and a character named Mino getting re-named as Mini.  That last one made me chuckle.  Way to blunder, spellchecker.

 

    I found Crossing Worlds to be a fascinating and enlightening read.  I love stories set in the pre-Columbian New World, particularly ones that focus on something besides Aztecs and Mayans offering bloody human sacrifices and/or Spanish armies searching for gold while decimating the native civilizations with swords, saints, and smallpox plagues.  This book and series are a refreshing departure from those overused storylines.

 

    8 Stars.  If you are a history buff, be sure to read the “Author’s Afterword” in the back of the book.  The Rise of the Aztecs is a deeply-researched effort by Zoe Saadia, and I was surprised, after consulting Wikipedia, to see how many of the major characters, places, and events  in Crossing Worlds really were historically accurate.  For me, Historical Fiction is always more fun when the “History” aspect gets just as much attention as the “Fiction”.

The Highlander - Zoe Saadia

   2012; 215 pages.  Book 1 (out of 7) in “The Rise of the Aztecs” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Historical Fiction; Mesoamerica.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    Three youths, all of noble blood, all with “sneaky” habits.

    Kuini is of the Chichimec tribe, aka “the Highlanders”, and son of their war leader.  He likes to sneak down from the highlands and observe the neighboring tribes in their huge cities with tall pyramids.

    Coyotl is of the Alcohua tribe, aka “the Lowlanders”, and the son of their Emperor.  He likes to sneak out into the desert, without any bodyguards, just to feel the spirit of adventure.

    Iztac-Ayotl is Coyotl’s half-sister, the First Daughter of the Emperor’s Second Wife.  She likes to dress up as a commoner and sneak out into her city, just for the freedom to do what she wants.

    Each of them will eventually get caught sneaking around, albeit by different persons, and with various consequences.

    And all three will come to realize that being a part of the nobility, while certainly a better lot than being a peasant, also carries duties and obligations to their Empires that none of them can ever shirk or evade, no matter what.

What’s To Like...

    The Highlander is set in central Mexico in the early 1400’s, about a hundred years before Cortez and his conquistadors arrive to obliterate everybody.  We follow the interactions of several tribes: primarily the Alcohua, Chichimecs, Aztecs, and the Tepanecs.  The Mayans are mentioned, but we don’t encounter them.  Surprisingly, the Aztecs are not the dominant tribe at this point in time; the Tepanec are.

    Coyotl, Kuini, and Iztac-Ayotl are the three main protagonists, and they get more or less equal footing in the story.  Each of them faces moral dilemmas that pit their personal wishes against their responsibilities to their tribes.  None of these get resolved here in Book One of this series, but there are another six books to get things sorted out.  Book Seven was published in 2014, so I presume this series is completed.

    This is my second book by Zoe Saadia (the first one is reviewed here), and once again I’m impressed by how well-researched it is.  Cocoa beans are used as money, several Mesoamerican deities are referenced, and it’s neat that the center of attention (at least for now) is not the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan.  I very much liked that none of the tribes, including the Aztecs, are portrayed as pure evil and/or utterly, bloodthirsty.  They each have their own cultures, and each is of course striving to be the dominant force in the region.

    Once again, I thought I’d caught an anachronism in the tale, as the three protagonists pass notes to each other, sometimes on bark, sometimes on paper.  Serendipitously, I’ve just finished reading a book on the history of papermaking (reviewed here), and it confirmed that paper, primarily made from the agave plant, and writing were well developed in Mesoamerica at this point in time, having been developed independently of any European or Asian influence.

    I liked the cusswords employed in the tale: phrases like “manure-eaters”, “filthy bastards”, and the elegantly-lengthened “stinky, dirty, pest-ridden manure-eaters”.  There’s a little bit of bloodshed, a little bit of sex, and the phrase “piss-off” is used once, but really, there's no way I'd call this an R-Rated tale.

    We never learn the names of three of the secondary, but fairly important, characters: the visiting Aztec war leader, Coyotl’s father, and the Chichimec Emperor.  I thought perhaps this was a function of each of these persons’ exalted rank, but both the Aztec  and the Tepanec Emperors’ names are given, so that shoots down my theory.  Maybe we learn their names in subsequent books.

    There are a smattering of “native” words used, and I could suss out the meanings of most of them.  Still, it would’ve been nice to have a glossary to reference, since I never did exactly figure out what “altepetl” and “calmecac” meant.  In fairness, googling both those words as I wrote this review resolved their meanings.  Finally, as with any historical fiction tale as well-researched as this one, it would've been nice to have a “what’s real and what’s made-up” section at the back of the book.

 Kindle Details...

    The Highlander (The Rise of the Aztecs Book 1) presently sells for $4.99 at Amazon, as do the other six books in the series.  Zoe Saadia offers a number of other series at Amazon, all set in various locations in pre-Columbian America,  The e-books in those range from $2.99 to $4.99.

Excerpts...

    “So what about that princess of yours?  Who was she?”

    “They say she is the First Daughter of the Emperor’s Second Wife.”

    “Oh, the Second Wife.  The cause of the whole war.  Interesting.”  Eyes twinkling, the man watched Kuini over the rim of the goblet.  “Take my advice, kid.  Don’t mess around with princesses.  They are usually an arrogant lot who will cause you much trouble while giving you no satisfaction.”  (loc. 1553)

    He bit his lips, trying to contain his frustration.  So, there would be no silly talk tonight and no kisses.  She might have not been able to make it for a number of reasons, he thought, but his anger grew, thinking that maybe she had just gotten enough of adventures with foreigners and commoners.

    He stood there, undecided.  Maybe it was for the best.  This girl, while being exciting and fun, had brought him nothing but trouble.  He was really better off without her wild, pretty, untamed presence.  (loc. 2536)

“It’s not every day strange warrior-boys go around kidnapping princesses.”  (loc. 1365)

    There are a couple of quibbles, one minor, one not-so-minor.

    The minor one concerns the dialogue style.  Several reviewers at Amazon and Goodreads felt there was too much English vernacular used.  They point out that phrases used here, such as “you are a mess, kid”, “you know?”, “you see?”, the aforementioned “piss off”, and the Wayne’s World-ish “No way!  Yes way!” were not used in ancient America.

     Well okay, I’m sure the 15^th-century Mesoamericans didn’t say such things.  But I’m equally sure that they had their own set of street slang, particularly among their teenage crowds.  And since we’ll never know what those sayings were, I’m okay with using the modern-day equivalents.  After all, they didn't speak English back then either.

    The more serious quibble concerns the ending.  Beyond the personal adventures of our trio of protagonists, the overarching storyline concerns an impending invasion by the Tepanecs.  Indeed, most of the actions of the adults center around meting this threat.  The tension builds nicely, the Alcohua gather their warriors and seek allies, the Tepanecs land on the nearby shores, the two armies face off, and…

    … the book ends.  Oh, we get a brief synopsis of what happens.  A half-dozen sentences covering the rest of this war.  But IMO, this book screams for a climactic battle scene, with lots of fighting, bloodshed, tactics, and heroism.  All I can think of is that maybe the author doesn’t like to do battle scenes.

    But hey, at least it wasn’t a cliffhanger ending.  I despise cliffhangers.

    7½ Stars.  The truncated ending notwithstanding, I enjoyed The Highlander.  The pacing was good, the characters were fun to get to know, and there was a nice balance between history, action, antics, drama, and wit.  I didn’t even mind when a bit of romance worked its way into the plotline.