Gary Jennings · 1980 · overland

Gary Jennings's 1980 epic of the Aztec world, narrated by Mixtli, a Mexica man of humble birth who becomes a scribe, warrior, merchant and witness to the height and fall of his civilization. His travels as a pochteca trader carry him the length and breadth of Mesoamerica, until the coming of Cortes and the Spanish brings the world he has crossed and chronicled to its end. The route traces his wanderings out from Tenochtitlan and back.

1. 1
   Tenochtitlan

   In the island-city of Tenochtitlan, heart of the Mexica empire, the young Mixtli grows up amid its temples and canals and sets out to make himself something more than a commoner.

2. 2
   Oaxaca

   South into the lands of the Mixtec and Zapotec, Mixtli learns the picture-writing of the scribes and begins the trading journeys that will carry him across the known world.

3. 3
   The Maya Country

   Deep into the steaming forests of the Maya in the southeast, among ruined cities and unfamiliar tongues, gathering the goods and the knowledge that make his fortune.

4. 4
   Veracruz

   On the Totonac coast of the Gulf, where in time strange ships appear on the eastern sea and bearded men come ashore, and Mixtli senses the turning of an age.

5. 5
   Tenochtitlan

   Back at Tenochtitlan he sees Cortes received, the emperor fallen, and the great city besieged and destroyed, the end of the world he has spent his life crossing.