- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz (11 Feb 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 075281639X
- ISBN-13: 978-0752816395
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 11.2 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 644,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This is the author's first novel and it's a very strange one. Brash young Capac Raimi, a man with no past, comes to join his uncle's gangster organisation in a big, unnamed city. (Though telling a complete story, the book's billed as "The City: Book 1".) Very soon he's sucked into the empire of The Cardinal, the top crime lord who dominates the city and, it seems, may be looking for a young heir ... Jolts, surprises and dizzying gear changes follow: Ayuamarca offers not just unexpected twists but unexpected kinds of twist. Capac encounters love (or at any rate sex) at first sight, an unstoppable assassin, puzzling advisers, blind men with a strange vision and an aging woman who has the perfect face of a teenager. People on the mysterious Ayuamarca List--which includes Capac's name--tend to vanish from life, from official records and hidden files, even from others' memories. The Cardinal, by turns capricious, violent, charming, gross and deadly, has a fantastic secret rooted in the long-ago magic of the Incas. Before Capac is allowed to learn this, he must make various terrible discoveries about himself and those close to him, including his own lady-love. Violent, black and startlingly original. --David Langford
Product Description
The Cardinal is the City. He knows everything that happens there, between sewer and skyscraper top, from east to West. They are joined at the soul. When the the young gangster Capac Raimi arrives in the City he has great hopes of carving out a life of criminal greatness, afterall there is always room for one more gangster. He little suspects that his past present and future are tied to the Cardinal. And he is a jealous master. AYUAMARCA brings together an alternate present and ancient Aztec mysteries in a novel of endless ambition. It is an astonsihing fiction debut.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love books which polarize reader opinions. Let's face it: most stuff these days is either pleasingly good or painfully bad, but rarely memorable. Give me an oddity which can split the public clean down the middle any day! That's why I bought AYUAMARCA, after reading the conflicting views on this very page. It took me a while to get into - I found the prologue very confusing, although it made perfect sense by the end of the book - but after the first few chapters i was hooked. I can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea: O'Shaughnessy attempts that most difficult of tasks, both telling a gripping story and trying to write "literature". There are few of the safe, cliched situations of most fantasy novels: this book assumes readers have a brain and aren't afraid to use it. It doesn't play according to formula, with characters acting the way you might expect or winding up where you may have anticipated. But for those prepared to run with O'Shaughnessy's ideas and free their minds, it should provide lots to think about. The mix of genres is perhaps overly ambitious - I tried to categorize it and simply couldn't; not could i explain to my friends exactly what sort of a book it was: i just told them to buy it and see - but isn't it nice to see a little ambition every now and again? I say give this fresh, forward-thinking book a chance: if O'Shaughnessy's follow ups show improvement (and at 24, he has all the time in the world to fine-shape his act) he could well be one of the best fantasy-based writers of the next ten or twenty years. And i bet his books will still be polarizing readers even then ...
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As someone who reads on average two books a week I try to give a novel by a new or upcoming writer a go once a month or so. Most are fairly naff. A notable exception is Ayuamarca, one of the best debut novels I've read in a long time. Set in a nameless city built by a mysterious Incan tribe, it revolves around a young gangster who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. A strange concoction, moving between genres in a way hardly any first-time books do, it moves at a mesmerising pace, sucking the reader further into the twisting world of The Cardinal (the city's kingpin) with every passing chapter, building to a fantastic, reality-exploding conclusion. The book has some weak points - it could have been a bit tighter in places - but as debuts go it's extraordinary, ambitious and unafraid to break new ground. I'll definitely be looking up this guy's next one!!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first book by my favorite author Darren O'Shaughnessy. Although the name may seem wierd and the cover doesn't look too apealing, this is a very good book for an authors first. Unlike most books this book keeps you guessing and through the many twists and turns you will be wanting more.
You may also have read other books by this author. Under the name Darren Shan, he has written 12 books in the Saga of Darren Shan and the 2nd book in his Demonata series is about to come out.
This is the first book of three:
1.) Ayuamarca: Procession of the dead
2.) Hell's Horizon
3.) City of the Snakes (Unpublished)
The main character of this story is named Capac Raimi and he comes to the "city" to become a gangster. Him and his uncle Theo try to get a foothold in the city where the Cardianl reigns over all, but they are stopped short. Shortly after they begin uncle Theo is gunned down and for some reason Capac is spared.
Find out what happens in this very good hard to find book. Only one printing was produced and copies are becoming scarce.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
In A Field Of Its Own
The best way to describe this underground cult novel is to say that its Elmore Leonard meets Philip K Dick meets Stephen King; an incredible book, which is made all the more... Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2003 by R N I GRANT
Read it NOW
Very strange, but totally engrossing. A must read. It can't be categorised as Fantasy or Sci-Fi.
Follow the characters through a twisting, turning plot towards an inevitable... Read more
Follow the characters through a twisting, turning plot towards an inevitable... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2003 by Baz
don't believe the hype
One of the main reasons i took a chance on this book was the glowing reviews typed here, oh well maybe i'll learn better before it costs me just too much money. Read more
Published on 27 April 1999
Brilliant, original and very strange indeed
This book is really excellent. I took a chance on reading this as I would not normally select a fantasy book but I must say that like some of the people in the book I was lost for... Read more
Published on 2 April 1999
Promising, but fatally flawed
Although promising for a first time author, Ayuamarca fails to deliver the excitement expected from the cover blurb. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 1999
A classic of the bizarre!
This young writer has fasioned something very special indeed-a novel which mixes horror and fantasy to gripping effect. The pace and style of the writing are perfect. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 1999
Incredibly original!
I don't think I've ever read anything like this - it left me reeling and I read plenty of fantasy - and consequently I find it almost impossible to summarise. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 1999
A stunning piece of fantasy fiction!
This book is, frankly, one of the most original and entertaining pieces of fantasy fiction I have ever had the pleasure to read. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 1999
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