Trigger warning for discussions of animal death, child death, and human sacrifice.
It’s always a somewhat strange experience to read an author’s early works when you are already familiar with their later stuff. Usually a writer will get better with experience, and it can be somewhat jarring when their early stuff is not of the quality you’ve come to expect.
(coughcoughFionavarcoughcough)
Excuse me. Anyway, as I was saying. I’m a big fan of de Bodard, but I’ve never read this series, and I’m honestly glad I didn’t begin with this. It certainly shows that young Aliette had *potential*, but at this point she definitely still needed more seasoning.
The book is described as “Aztec noir.” It’s set in Tenochtitlan pre-1492. The main character, Acatl, is the High Priest of the god of the Dead (a relatively minor member of the Aztec pantheon), and the focus of the book is on the mysteries set off by the magic-involved kidnapping and presumed death of a priestess of another of the gods. Acatl’s estranged brother is implicated, and Acatl is put in charge of the investigation.
There is plenty to like here. Acatl is an interesting character, and his relationship with his brother (who has reached the exalted heights of the Jaguar Knights, much to their parents’ pride) is quite well done. And de Bodard’s talent for brilliant settings is on full display here: the Tenochtitlan she creates is evocative and unique.
But de Bodard’s talent for mystery stories needed development at this point in her career. The twists and reveals here are not properly supported. A good reveal in a mystery novel should bring with it a sense of disparate pieces clicking into place; here, the reveals just brought a sense of, “wait, what’s this now?”
I was disappointed in the gender balance of the characters - I don’t feel like any of the women got a fair shake. The missing-presumed-dead priestess doesn’t exactly get a lot of development, for obvious reasons. Acatl’s sister and sister-in-law are both super interesting, and I’d call the SIL compelling, but neither gets the chance to do much (though what they do is crucial to the story). I wanted more of both of them.
The last point I want to talk about is a complicated one - de Bodard’s treatment of the Aztecs as a people and a culture. In her author’s note, she talked about how one of the reasons she wanted to do a story like this is because, all too frequently, Mesoamerican-inspired cultures have only been present in fiction when a writer needs bloodthirsty barbarians. Whatever the darker aspects of Aztec culture, it’s also true that they were a civilization with extraordinarily impressive achievements, and at its height, Tenochtitlan was one of the grandest cities in the world. She wanted to do a story showing the Aztec people in a positive, human light, which is fair.
But there’s also going too far with things. Human sacrifice was a huge part of Aztec religious life, and it’s only mentioned a bare handful of times. When it is mentioned, the sacrificial victims are either stated or implied to be volunteers, which is not true to what we know of Aztec practices. She consciously chose to have Acatl’s particular cult not offer human sacrifice, which (I think) makes perfect sense when she wants to have a sympathetic protagonist, but leaving it out to the degree that she did feels too far.
But, on the other hand, she does have animals be sacrificed numerous times, including by Acatl himself, and frankly it made the book rather hard to read. So maybe there’s simply no good way to handle all of this. I certainly don’t think I could have done better.
In the end, I still adore de Bodard’s writing as a whole, and I’m glad I read this. But I’m glad I didn’t have this be my introduction to her work. I don’t plan to read the sequels, and I won’t be pushing this when I’m pushing one of my favorite authors on people.