Aztec 3. City of Spies by Simon Levack
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of my favorite series, simply because it is so different. Yaotl is a down-on-his-luck Aztec slave who is good at logistical problems and has an disfunctional, extended family. His cohorts are interesting and entertaining, in most cases, and the life-and-death situations he finds himself in on an almost-daily basis are a little more serious than others. However, there’s no lack of humor. Which keeps us totally entertained while these serious things are happening.
This time around, Yaotl visits the neighbor city with Lily and tries to find a missing message which will save their lives from several groups trying to dispose of them, permanently. Pretty much what we expect from him. Lots of running around the city, hiding and spying, with help from his son and an unexpected outside influence.
We cannot possibly view life (or death) the same way as the Aztecs, so Levack has done what he could in this series to bring us together: the Aztec people (as known), telling a story (as Levack imagines it), in the language we’ll understand.
Amazon.com link: Aztec 3. City of Spies
© Jan McClintock of We Need More Shelves