Aztec Blood »

Gary Jennings is known for his intensive research which often includes rigorous and sometimes 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.

“Injustice has never been so keenly sketched, nor valor so compellingly portrayed as in this swashbuckling adventure.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

In this colorful and exciting era of swords and cloaks, upheaval and revolution, a young beggar boy, in whose blood runs that of both Spanish and Aztec royalty must claim his birthright. From the torrid streets of the City of the Dead along the Veracruz Coast to the ageless glory of Seville in Old Spain, Cristo the Bastardo connives fights, and loves as he seeks the truth—without knowing that he will be the founder of a proud new people.

As we follow the loves and adventures of Cristo and experience the colorful splendor and barbarism of the era, a vanished culture is brought back to life in all its magnificence.

“Jennings can breathe life into the dust of history.”—The Washington Post

“This exotic, sensuous novel works on many levels. It is at once history, mystery, and a coming-of-age novel all permeated by the teeming world of seventeenth century Mexico as seen through the eyes of a teenage boy.”—Library Journal

“This lush exotic page-turner fairly crackles with intrigue, romance and adventure . . . The author has meticulously researched the tortuous history of the colonization of New Spain, revivifying the all-but-forgotten era upon whose brutal foundation the modern nation of Mexico was founded.”—Booklist

“Highly entertaining.”—Kirkus Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Never less than spellbinding, this golden tale is third in a series (after Aztec Autumn) and follows the exploits of a mestizo boy (half Aztec, half Spanish) in 16th-century New Spain, struggling for survival against Spanish nobles in league with the Inquisition. Cristo the Bastardo spins his tale from a dungeon prison between bouts of torture before his hanging. Raised among the legions of social outcast l peros, half-breed beggars hated by Indians and Spanish alike, Cristo is protected and illegally educated by Fray Antonio, a defrocked priest. When Fray Antonio is killed, 13-year-old Cristo is framed for the priest's death and only saved by the kindness of a young Spanish girl. Saved once again by a dashing rogue of a p!caro, an adventurer, bad actor and playwright named Mateo, Cristo chances into the hands of the Healer, a traveling Aztec shaman who takes him on as an assistant. When the Healer compels Cristo to wriggle into an Aztec tomb to steal gold, they are caught by Don Julio, a brilliant converso (converted Jew) and a powerful noble in New Spain spying for the king. "Enlisted" by Don Julio to spy on suspected rebel groups and silver mine thieves, Cristo plays the role of Don Julio's cousin and meets the girl who saved him, now betrothed to a villainous wealthy Spaniard linked to the silver thefts. But Don Julio is betrayed to the Inquisition, and Cristo is enslaved in the deadly silver mines. Jennings spins a dashing, glittering tale, sending the redoubtable Cristo and irrepressible Mateo through the dingy streets of Veracruz, lean Aztec villages, grand Spanish haciendas, deadly silver mines and teeming Mexico City. Injustice has seldom been so keenly sketched nor valor socompellingly portrayed as in this swashbuckling adventure. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.