Jennings, this time with two coauthors, returns to the roily history of the Aztec empire and the colonization of New Spain in this latest entry in the best-selling cycle he began with Aztec (1982), followed by Aztec Autumn (1997) and Aztec Blood (2001). The focal character in this atmospheric yarn is swordsman Don Juan de Zavata; it is his swashbuckling adventures, and the threat of exposure of his true parentage, that lead him--and spellbound readers--from colonial Mexico, where the Aztec civilization lies in ruins, to the Spain of Catholic repression and Napoleonic ferment. What the novels in this series do so well, and this latest installment is a prime example, is to lend a resonant understanding of not only Aztec and colonial customs and even mind-sets but also how repressed peoples, whether by the act of conquest or the act of religious control, will indeed have their own day--how their resentment builds, in other words. A beautifully detailed novel for historical fiction fans. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2006 Booklist

Answer "no" immediately if someone asks, "Would you like to know . . . about the men I have killed, the women I have loved, the fortunes I have made . . . and stolen?" There's a certain misguided bravado to opening a historical novel with the hoary equivalent of a movie voiceover, compounded by the fact that the voiceover is voiced by a wannabe Zorro--or maybe the Cisco Kid. Don Juan de Zavala, though a Spaniard in Mexico, finds that the other Spaniards in Mexico just plain don't like him. Narrowly avoiding the priesthood by virtue of an unfortunate incident--"I horsewhipped a fellow seminarian who branded me a sodomite after I described my lurid deflowering of a servant girl"--the resonantly named Don Juan becomes a champion of sword-and-dagger action, leading a revolt against the oppressive gachupines on behalf of the noble indios and criollo rebels who have decided that Don Juan is a pretty good guy,even though he's foppish and educated and all that, because he's a tad on the dark side and was called El Azteca Chico, the Little Aztec, as a lad, and because he's good in a fight. You can guess what Don Juan learns about why he's thus complected, but no matter; he's already torn off across the sea to sign up for action in the Napoleonic Wars, but not before having a minor epiphany or two: "Immersion in the ancient indio culture was slowly transforming me." Creaky plot points and sneering villains notwithstanding, though, this franchised novel ("Gary Jennings' Aztec Rage") is soft porn wrapped in swashbuckling garb, and Zavala is frequently seen unbuckling his swash and piercing the waiting maids and maidens of New and Old Spain with various body parts, all in prose guaranteed to thrill the 13-year-old boy who stumbles upon this book at a garage sale. If the Aztecs are enraged, it's because one of them read this improbable mess. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gleason and Podrug continue the late Jennings's Aztec series with this fast-paced, absorbing fourth volume, featuring Spanish-born Don Juan de Zavala, who comes of age in colonial Mexico in 1808. Just as Don Juan expects to claim his inheritance, his dying uncle accuses him of illegitimate, half-Aztec origins, and Don Juan is then unjustly pegged as his uncle's murderer. Prudently hitting the road, Don Juan meets a charming, erudite rogue named Carlos, and together they head for Veracruz. When Carlos is murdered by a Mayan mob, Don Juan returns under Carlos's name to a Spain now erupting in revolt against Napoleon. He joins the resistance there before returning to Mexico. Back in the New World, where he's determined to take back his inheritance, he throws in his lot with rebels agitating to reclaim their independence from Spain. Don Juan has his consciousness raised about European racism towards the "indio" population (especially by curvaceous Aztec babe Marina), and the authors paint a vivid picture of the early stages of the bloody war of independence. Just as preoccupied with swashbuckling and womanizing as its predecessors, this latest Aztec novel is likely to be irresistible to fans of the series. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.