This book continues the vision Gary Jennings had in telling the entire history of Mexico through novels. "Aztec Blood" returns us to a bygone era, to a people who have had both their lands seized and their spirits crushed by the most powerful empire in the world, the Spanish empire. Its brutal conquistadors have forced the once-mighty Aztec empire to its knees and practically wiped a race from the earth. In the tradition of the acclaimed historical novels "Aztec" and "Aztec Autumn", we are taken once again through the gallantry and brutality, the sex and tyranny, of a vanished civilization south of the border. The Aztec people have been conquered and a bloody revolt of the Indians put down. The former Aztec empire is now called New Spain, and there the native people are enslaved on great estates that are feudal domains. The Spanish lords rule as kings, treating Indian men as work animals and Indian women as their personal property. In this colourful and exciting era of swords and cloaks, tumultuous upheaval and revolution, a young half-breed beggar boy, in whose veins runs the blood of Spanish and Aztec royalty, must unravel the deadly secret behind his parentage and claim his birthright. From the torrid streets of the City of the Dead along the Veracruz Coast and the ancient tombs of the Aztec kings, along the grand canals, palaces, and dungeons of the Venice of the New World, to the ageless story of Seville in Old Spain, Cristo the Bastard connives, fights and loves as he seeks the truth - without knowing that his "tainted" blood is the forebear of a proud new people.