In the Spanish new colony, ‘blood’ is everything: the gachupines control wealth and power over criollos (colonial Spaniards), and the criollos look down on peons (mestizos – half blooded Spaniards/Aztecs as well as the Aztecs themselves). Escaping with the help of a fellow prisoner, he winds up at a parish run by Father Miguel Hidalgo, who is secretly going against the church and Spanish government by teaching the local Aztecs how to cultivate wine and make pottery. Accused of murdering his uncle, Zavala is thrown into prison, where he learns to eat humble pie from the very people he has trod upon all his life. His life is thrown upside down when his dying uncle announces that Zavala is not pure-blooded but an Aztec changeling, taken in as a replacement after the Zavala family perished on the voyage from Spain to Mexico. Once a gachupine (pure-blooded Spanish nobleman), Don Juan Zavala’s passions in life consisted of women, horses, fighting, the spending of money and the mistreatment of those in the lower class. This particular book, Aztec Rage, is by Robert Gleason (Jennings’ former editor) and Junius Podrug. The rest were written by other authors with the ‘Gary Jennings’ title slapped on. The Aztec series was popularized by American author Gary Jennings, who died in 1999 after completing two books. So before I lose the plot, so to speak, let’s do a review on Gary Jennings’ Aztec Rage. The ironic thing is, I don’t have time to write about them, since I’ve been busy with housework and freelancing projects. Dimensions: 8.50in - 5.51in - 0.65in - 0.Now that I’m freelancing, I finally have time to read books – and I’ve read a couple of them over the last few weeks.But these characters really lived, and really did the things they do here. No two men could have been more unlike than the sophisticated Murrell and the unworldly Stewart. The denouement of this extraordinary segment of history takes some startling twists, and inspires speculation about the faint line between good and evil.įrom fragments of historical fact and the few fairly reliable legends that exist, Gary Jennings has fashioned a gripping novel, filled with menace and leavened with humor and romance. Was he serving justice or playing Judas? Even after he had risked his life to bring Murrell before the law, his fellow citizens could not decide who the villain was, Murrell or Stewart. When at last Stewart undertook to demolish Murrell's blueprint for revolution, he was torn between his duty to society and his own muddled emotions. As time passed, however, he had to ask himself: Was he acting unwillingly? Though repelled by Murrell's cold-blooded ambitions, he was captivated by the man.

Unwillingly at first, Stewart joined Murrell in the life of an outlaw, masquerading as a gang member.

Gary jennings books in order