Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs
Written by Buddy Levy
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor
Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs
Written by Buddy Levy
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor
Description
The story of a lost kingdom, a relentless conqueror, and a doomed warrior, Conquistador is history at its most riveting.
About the author
Buddy Levy is the author of seven books, and his work has been featured or reviewed in The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Daily Beast, and The A.V. Club. He was the co-star, for 25 episodes from 2010-2012, on HISTORY Channel’s hit docuseries Brad Meltzer’s Decoded, which aired to an average of 1.7 million weekly viewers and is still airing as reruns today. In 2018 he was an on-camera expert on the 4-part TV Series The Frontiersmen: The Men Who Built America (HISTORY, Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio). Levy was a contributing writer on the 2018 documentary film The Weight of Water. The film was based in part on the book No Barriers, which Levy co-authored with blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer. The film premiered at the 2018 Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize and the Best Mountain Film Award. It has since won The People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary at the 2018 Denver Film Festival; Best Sport and Adventure Film at the 2018 Mendi Bilbao Film Festival; and Audience Choice Award at the 2019 Waimea Ocean Film Festival. Levy’s most recent book is Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition. Levy is the author of the National Bestseller No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon (with Erik Weihenmayer); and Geronimo: The Life and Times of An American Warrior (co-authored with Coach Mike Leach). His other books include the critically acclaimed and Amazon #1 Bestseller Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs; American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett; and Echoes On Rimrock: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge. His books have been published in seven languages. As a freelance journalist he has covered adventure sports and lifestyle/travel subjects around the world, including working with TV impresario Mark Burnett on numerous Eco-Challenges, and other adventure expeditions in Argentina, Borneo, Europe, Greenland, Morocco, and the Philippines. His interests are wide-ranging: discovery and adventure, the mountain men, arctic exploration travail, clashes of empires and civilizations, conspiracy theories, and riveting human stories of survival.
Reviews
What people think about Conquistador
4.3Reader reviews
- (5/5)A little hard to follow who's where at what ancient city but overall great book. Fascinating, though ultimately tragic, book about European desire to dominate and ruin other south and central native cultures. Just really hard to read about how we treated natives(and still do)
- (5/5)Well researched and balanced. I love how the author quotes primary sources as part of a well-written narrative. This book is a great blend between historical research and story telling. Although the events in this book are not easy to read (human sacrifice, cannibalism, civilian massacre, torture, etc.), they are necessary elements to the narrative, and show that both the conquistadors and the Aztecs were barbaric (the Conquistadors less so).
- (4/5)An amazing story given its due.This is a somewhat complex story but one of high interest and great adventure. It's almost hard to believe. Calling it an adventure may not be politically correct in light of the death of a significant culture, but that is how people at the time saw it and the end result is the birth of modern Mexico, a violent merger of cultures. As in River of Darkness Levy focuses on combat but also provides bigger picture and politics. One can see patterns being set that would replay well into the 20th century between Europeans and natives.
- (4/5)
1 person found this helpful
I would recommend this book. The book covers the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortez in rich detail. The book does well to include first-hand accounts from Bernal Diaz, narrating events such as the Aztec festival of xipe totec, the capture of Montezuma, and the final approach of Tenochtlan. The book is written in the form of a story and is a pleasure to read from beginning to end. I would read it again.1 person found this helpful
- (5/5)
1 person found this helpful
This book is well-written and informative. It feels like reading a novel based on a true story. Even if i already read a lot about this topic and watched so many documentaries already, it was still able to provide new things for me. An added bonus is that the book is both short and concise, so you won't have to worry about it becoming too tedious to read.1 person found this helpful
- (4/5)
1 person found this helpful
Vivid, fascinating, and completely engrossing.1 person found this helpful