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Everything you need to know about Cortéz
“Well written, absorbing, and informative, this history of Cortéz' from Cuba to the fall of Montezuma gives perspecitve on the man, his motivations and the keys to his success.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-15.
It's easy to read and provides a detailed and indepth understanding of this nasty sob!” -
2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Why History Trumps Fiction
“"Conquistador" reads like a science-fiction novel: two vastly different cultures, completely ignorant of each others' existence, clash in one of the most fascinating conflicts in human history.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-05-06.
Levy writes with the gusto of a great swashbuckling epic, going into vivid detail of each battle and tense meetings of the two sides, while taking care to keep the facts straight. Cortes is lauded as a genius in both military and, more impressively, psychological warfare against the Aztecs, yet criticized for his religious zealotry and moments of shocking cruelty. Montezuma and his followers are depicted not as primitive jungle people, but as a highly advanced civilization commanding their empire from the beautiful Technotitlan (at the time, the most populated city on the planet) who were nonetheless overcome by the deadly triumvirate of horses, smallpox, and firearms.
This book makes for a fantastic companion piece to "Guns, Germs and Steel"; where that landmark book explains *why* the civilizations of the Americas were at an inherent disadvantage to Eurasian civilizations, this book shows us the results of millenia of separate cultural evolutions.
Or, in short, why the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, when if only a few variables had been different, the opposite could well have happened.” -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Excellent, fast read
“I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Buddy Levy's style of writing, as my wife would say, doesn't interfere with the story. It's a page turner. His other book about Davy Crockett is very good too. I wish there were more writers who wrote about historical events for the casual reader and made them entertaining not tiring. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-03-20. -
0 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Excellent account of the fall of the Aztec empire
“Buddy Levy has written an outstanding account of the demise of the Aztec empire. The pages devoted to the fall of Tenochtitlan contain a vivid description of the three horrific months riddled with savage battles and death by disease/starvation that led to the fall of the Aztec capital. Anybody who has read accounts of the siege and fall of great cities of antiquity (including modern WWII battles for Stalingrad and Berlin) will appreciate the details,scholarship and narrative flow in Levy's book. I definitely recommend this book and urge readers to also buy Prescott's account of the fall of the Aztecs. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-03-09. -
A great read and an informative history
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An amazon user wrote this on 2009-02-27.
Mr. Levy admirably accomplishes the twin goals of excellent narrative nonfiction: to educate the reader, and to captivate the reader with a great story. I highly recommend this book both for its scholarship and readability.”
