Book Review: Aztec Century

Book Review: 'Aztec Century' by Christopher Evans

2 / 5 Stars

'Aztec Century' (352 pp) was published by Victor Gollancz in the UK in 1993 (according to the ISFDB, no U.S. edition ever has been released).

This novel has one of the more imaginative 'parallel world' themes: what if Cortez befriended the Aztecs instead of conquering them, and the Mexican Indian tribe rose to become the world's most powerful entity ?

'Aztec Century' not only posits that this happened, but that by the early 1990s (the book's setting) the Aztec's command of super-science has allowed them to conquer most of the world.

As 'Aztec' opens, England is under attack, and its valiant defense cannot hold against the overwhelming might of the Aztecs. The British Royal Family takes refuge in a remote farmhouse in Wales, hoping to evade capture long enough to flee to Russia, the last remaining independent nation in Europe.

Alas, as fate would have it, Princess Catherine (depicted by Evans as a sort of alternate-world doppelganger of Princess Di) is among the Royals captured by the Aztecs, and obliged to live in the golden cage of captivity in the Aztec court in London. There she centers her hopes on consulting an AI, fabricated by her husband, for covert strategies that may bring about the overthrow of the Aztec empire.

But as she spends time among the Aztecs, Victoria finds her defiant stance to be more and more difficult to maintain, especially when terrorist attacks lead to the deaths of her own English citizens as well as the Aztecs. And the Aztec ruler of England, Extepan, is no tyrant, but a thoughtful and considerate man whose ascendancy to the Aztec Throne may guarantee peace and prosperity for all the world in the 21st century soon to come. 

Catherine finds herself confronting a dilemma: does she lead a brave, but likely futile, campaign of Resistance........or ally herself with England's conquerors and bring an end to the bloodshed ?

Unfortunately, despite its interesting premise, 'Aztec' is something of a dud. Much of this has to do with the fact that author Evans makes a British Royal the lead character. While having a woman as the protagonist may have reflected a progressive stance on Evans's part, as a captive, Princess Catherine is forced to operate in a state of passivity that doesn't lend itself well to action. For all but a few pages, for most of the narrative Catherine is simply an observer to court intrigues and power plays while, off-camera, multitudes elsewhere in the world fight and die. 

The excerpt below will give you an idea of the indolent nature of the storyline in 'Aztec Century':

We stayed overnight at one of Motecuhzoma's houses near the Tlacopan Causeway. The next day Extepan took me around some of the big department stores off Tlatelolco Square, which were closed to the public that day. The stores sold everything from Simreal electronic games to death masks fashioned from real human skulls and adorned with semi-precious stones.

Later that day, we took the hydrofoil south and visited the floating gardens of Xochimilco, where farmers grew cereals and vegetables to feed the valley. It was tranquil here, the canals flanking green chinampas with their tall poplars and cypresses and their neat rows of maize, squashes, and potatoes. We slept in a palace belonging to one of Extepan's uncles in the ancient city of Culhuacan. Next morning we flew on to Texcoco and the great Nezahualcoyotl University, where Extepan himself had studied.

The book's closing chapters do provide a badly-needed boosting of suspense, and some of the Revelations hinted at earlier in the narrative are disclosed. However, there was a glib tenor to the closing pages - rabbits are pulled from hats, without letting the reader see how this is accomplished - and I finished 'Aztec Century' thinking I had invested a bit too much time in it than it was worth. Hence, my 2 of 5 Stars score.