At Road's End
The Pre-Aztec series, Book 1
Zoe Saadia
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Themes: Diversity
**+
Description
Tecpatl was born a warrior, one of the elite class of fighters defending his great city, bringing vanquished foes to sacrifice for the honor of
Quetzalcoatl. He never wished to mingle with peasants... but, after a disastrous raid on a Mayan village, his uncle sent him off as an escort to
lowly traders traveling among the northern desert savages. They treat him as a dog, daring to order him while ignoring his advice. Every day he
spends on this ignoble mission is another day his name remains sullied - and another day that the upstart, bloodthirsty Aztec tribes might strike at
his home, while he languishes in these uncivilized wildlands. And what is he to defend the traders from, in these wastelands?
When they find the girl, sole survivor of a slaughtered village, she leads them to the safety of Great Houses, a thriving city. Tecpatl considers
women lower than peasants, but something about this foreigner catches his eye. She is nothing but a savage, her people worshipping silly gods who
live underground, without even proper castes to define one's place in their bizarre cities. He should be happy to be rid of her. But when darkness
threatens the people of Great Houses, a threat that the city elders refuse to acknowledge, Tecpatl finds himself unaccountably torn. He should not
care if these unworthy foreigners are too foolish to defend themselves. Besides, the last time he tried to lead warriors, he failed miserably. So
why does he find it so difficult to walk away?
A Kindle-exclusive title.
Review
The rich world of the ancient Americas is still a relatively untapped wellspring for fiction, so I thought this might be a different read. The setting, in the days of the Aztecs' rise and the looming collapse of both Anasazi and Mayan cultures, sounded intriguing. Sadly, my vision of this chaotic and pivotal historical era was blocked by Tecpatl, a character so bigoted and full of anger that I just couldn't begin to sympathize with him or his world. The author uses him and his lady love interest (which, in itself, defied the character's logic, as he considers women mere spoils of war for a good portion of the story - how can a man possibly love what he considers of no more consequence than a rock?) to force-feed the reader lessons on the history and cultures of the ancient Americas. I also came to suspect that English was not Saadia's first language; either that, or she needed a third-party editor to clean up her grammar and syntax. Some sentences, while composed of English words, made absolutely no sense whatsoever. These problems, along with a slow and predictable plot, sank what could have been a bland Okay book a half-star in the ratings.