Prescott's magisterial study remains the standard work on the conquest of the Aztec empire by Hernan Cortes. Thomas's is the standard modern study, incorporating scholarship since Prescott and abandoning Prescott's 19th-century biases. But you won't find find a better narrative history of this astonishing campaign than Buddy Levy's recent book -- superbly written and gripping from start to finish. No matter how many times you read the story of this surreal clash of empires and cultures, your mind simply boggles at the strangeness of it all, at the courage and brutality shown by both sides, and above all at the audaciousness of Cortes and the magnitude of what he accomplished in so short a time. It's stirring, heartbreaking, incredible stuff. ( )

An amazing story, 350 pages of stuff you just couldn't make up. Incredible, larger-than-life people, environments, cities, events.
Reads like a novel, highly recommended. ( )

Well done, but you can't go wrong with the material. To me, the conquest of the Aztecs is the most fascinating war. The Spaniards were vastly outnumbered, but had superior firepower, strategy, tactics and political acumen. Maybe most importantly, the had better luck and went for the jugular. The Aztecs twice (!!) had Cortes captured, and rather than kill him immediately attempted to take him back to their temple so they could ritually kill him. Two lost chances.

Other books on this, equally as fascinating are Bernal Diaz del Castillo's Conquest of Mexico and Leon-Portilla's The Broken Spears.

Levy did an excellent job. Highly recommended. ( )