The Serpent and the Eagle (Tenochtitlan Trilogy)
by Edward Rickford
I thought I could read this easily because I knew the history covered in this book. I found that it was harder to read this time around. The book is written from the Spanish point of view. De Soto is a brilliant strategist for his time. What was hard for me is that i see his planning as evil. He was a harsh master of his crew, and uses manipulation to conquer the tribes he comes into contact with. Although he has many things before him, and not everything works out. His control and strategy brings the downfall of the nations he interacts with.

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The Serpent and the Eagle by Edward Rickford is the first book in the Tenochtitlan Trilogy, taking place during Hernán Cortés’ 1519 military campaign in the New World. Mr. Rickford is an award winning writer, this book won the 2018 Chaucer Book Awards.

Hernán Cortés arrives at the New World search for fame and fortune. In a short time Cortés realizes that the gold is at Tenochtitlan, one of the largest cities in the country. The explorer and his men face many challenges, from unfamiliar languages and culture, to the harsh environmental conditions.

In Tenochtitlan, the Great Speaker Motecuhzoma (Montezuma) of the Triple Alliance fears the Spaniards superior weapons. Motecuhzoma needs to decide if he wants to go to war with the “sorcerers” or create an alliance.

I always enjoy good historical fiction, especially if it follows history closely. That way I can learn something as well as be entertained, I believe that this is why the majority of us enjoy the genre.

In The Serpent and the Eagle by Edward Rickford, it’s clear that the author has done a vast amount of research about the time period. Mr. Rickford’s descriptions are realistic and vivid, staying true to the facts while delivering an excellent narrative. The details in the novel are fantastic, from the way the Spaniards stank, the difficulties of living off the land, to the Aztecs rituals (including a play by play description of human sacrifice a la the fantastic Apocalypto), weaving in the political climate of the times in both the New and Old worlds.

The author uses three characters to give the reader different perspectives of the story. Father Gerónimo de Aguilar was a slave for the Indians until rescued by Cortés. Aguilar now works mainly as a translator. That is until Malintze, a young Indian girl joins the army, who has a gift for languages. Malintze is fueled by revenge and willingly helps the “pale people” defeat the Mexica who wronged her.

Vitale is a New Christian and through his eyes we get to see the world from the level of a grunt, one of the nameless souls who history will never remember. As a New Christian, Vitale still experiences denigration and humiliation in Spain, he is attempting to make a new life thinking he joined a trade expedition. Vitale connects with Solomon, a Muslim slave who figures out quickly that Vitale is hiding his Jewish heritage.

The mastery of daily life for all the characters, intertwined with the overall overarching story-line works very well. As we all know, the little things matter to our everyday life, reading about the uncomfortable existence in a new land, the itching clothes, mosquitoes, horrible hygiene, and personality conflicts did a lot more for the enjoyment of this book than a play-by-play of the battles would have been.

The novel could have used the touch of a professional editor, however it was still an excellent read, taking its time to build a narrative and to let the reader get acquainted with the characters. Mr. Rickford sticks to historical evidence, does not present myths, rumors, or innuendos as facts, as far as I could tell.

3.5/5.
I received The Serpent and the Eagle from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Serpent and the Eagle is an in depth beginning of a story. On its own, it didn't feel complete, but I think if the series it begins turns out to be great, then the Serpent and the Eagle will have done a great job of setting up the elements.

The obviously well-researched history is a plus to the story, even if it prohibits a novel of this length from being a full beginning-to-end story of its own. I'm hoping the history sets up nicely for a second book with a lot more plot and character development.

The characters are built nicely to allow them growth in this first novel, but also give room for a lot of growth throughout a series.

The writing, being so dependent on the historical part of historical fiction, was a little dry, but I didn't mind.

On its own, the Serpent and the Eagle didn't make a large impact, but I'll probably read the next book in the series. The series can still be stellar with the set-up from the first book.

I'd recommend this book to people interested in this particular phase of history, but only if they aren't hoping for a lot of action or fiction imposed on history.

Gold fever meets hubris
A review of The Serpent and the Eagle by Edward Rickford

r/suggestmeabook: I want a docudrama showing the start of the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés.
3 Stars
La Conquista
Movie rating: PG
Pages: 248
Publisher: Black Acorn Literary Press
Book 1 of Tenochtitlan Trilogy

From the publisher: Tenochtitlan, 1519. Strange, pale-skinned people have arrived on the coast of the One World. They hail from a far away land called Spain and fight for the mysterious Hernando Cortés. To confront Cortés’ army would be dangerous, but inaction may be even more dangerous.

Multiple points of view are difficult to manage well. First, there’s the problem of giving each character enough story that the reader remembers each one as the viewpoints are swapped out. Then, there’s the problem of making at least some of them sympathetic, although not all readers require that.

I’m a reader that does need to like at least one of the characters enough to look forward to seeing them each time they show up. At best, I was mildly sympathetic to two of them, both slaves of the Spaniards. But one, the Moor, is a supporting player, not one of the primary points of view, and the other, a female slave of the Pontons, doesn’t appear until almost a third of the way in.Since it’s difficult to make either the Aztecs or the Spaniards likeable, those two outsiders were the ones most likely to be sympathetic; I really wanted more of both of them.

With what the author is trying to do, show a rounded picture of the Conquest, multiple points of view makes sense. However, even though the book descriptions sounds as though it will be primarily from the point of view of the Aztecs, it’s very weighted to the Spaniards, making it harder to keep track of the Aztec characters.

Overall, character issues plague the book, which, to me, is the essence of good historical fiction. The plot is somewhat predetermined, except where creativity is exercised within the holes in our knowledge. It’s the characterization that makes the difference–being able to imagine ourselves into that milieu and understand what made everyone behave the ways they do.

The choices of characters to do that are quite good: a New Christian (a Jewish convert to Catholicism), the highest ranking general of the Mexica Confederach and sometime advisor to Motecuhzoma, a female slave from the region, and a former captive of the Yokot’an. However, the character development is lacking; we are given one or two characteristics or life story highlights to stand in for a deeper understanding of each.

But some of the characterizations are puzzling. There is the intermittent poor grammar of some, which I suppose is to indicate less educated characters, but it doesn’t seem to have a pattern and is patchy enough to just be distracting. I’m guessing the intent was to make it not conform to a particular English dialect, but, at first, I thought the incidents were proofing errors.

The opening chapter is a good introduction to some of the attitudes that will pervade the book. Aguilar, the priest and former captive, has been approached by Cortés, and it’s very clear that they feel a God-given superiority to the “Indians” and have no compunctions about plundering them.

My first thought was, “Well, I almost choked on the first chapter of A Man Called Ove, but ended up loving it.” Sadly, I didn’t have the same experience here.

It’s clear that Edward Rickford thoroughly researched his subject, but, regrettably, this strikes me as a competently written docudrama, where the author doesn’t want to let the story get in the way of a good history.

this was a great start to a historical read, the characters were great and felt true to the time period. I enjoyed going through the book and look forward to more in the series.