- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Angry Robot (7 Jan 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007346549
- ISBN-13: 978-0007346547
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 474,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Aliette’s short fiction:
“The plot is concise yet intricate, the dialogue is superb, and the writing flows naturally”
- The Fix, reviewing Lonely Heart (Black Static, 2009)
“Beautifully written… the issue's most compelling and elegantly composed drama.”
- Tangent Online, reviewing Deer Flight (Interzone)
“The quality of de Bodard’s writing shines through”
- The Fix, reviewing Dragon Feasts (Andromeda Spaceways)
“It’s one of those stories where to write too much about it would rob the reader of much of the pleasure.”
- The Fix, reviewing Horus Ascending (Intergalactic Medicine Show)
Product Description
Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. The end of the world is kept at bay only by the magic of human sacrifice. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. Acatl, High Priest, must find her, or break the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Aliette De Bodard is the hottest rising star in world SF and Fantasy, blending ancient crimes with wild imagination. This is her debut novel.
FILE UNDER: Modern Fantasy [The Aztecs / Locked room mystery / Human sacrifice / Destroy the Gods]
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I ordered this novel with little idea of what to expect and I have to say this book hooked me pretty early on. The story, as outlined above, revolves around the murder of a priestess. It's written from the 1st person perspective and we observe the story through the eyes of Acatl, the high priest of Mictlantecuhtli, god of death and the underworld who is assigned to investigate the killing. Pretty quickly the matter becomes personal and the very existence of the planet is placed in jeopardy...
Readers who are expecting a straight forward historical whodunnit should be warned. Elements of the book read more like a fantasy novel. Acatl has access to magic and indeed is soon encountering gods both in human form on earth and in their own domains. Powerful supernatural forces become involved both on the side of Acatl and ranged against him. I found this aspect of the book fascinating and must admit to looking certain names up on the interweb.
Talking of names... the residents of the Aztec empire don't make things easy and many of the names in the book can be tongue twisters (take the aforementioned King of the Underworld, Mictlantecuhtli). I personally found this great a source of great enjoyment, but I love weird things like that.
The story forges ahead at a pretty fast pace and it's a difficult book to put down. It weaves numerous plot strands together quite cleverly and deals with matters of gods and humans equally well. The glimpses we get of the other levels of existence which the gods inhabit are fascinating and I hope these are explored further in the future.
The resolution of the mystery is well handled. Too often with books like this I feel a little dissapointed at the end, but in this case I was very happy and am looking forward to the sequel. Recommended.
Readers who are expecting a straight forward historical whodunnit should be warned. Elements of the book read more like a fantasy novel. Acatl has access to magic and indeed is soon encountering gods both in human form on earth and in their own domains. Powerful supernatural forces become involved both on the side of Acatl and ranged against him. I found this aspect of the book fascinating and must admit to looking certain names up on the interweb.
Talking of names... the residents of the Aztec empire don't make things easy and many of the names in the book can be tongue twisters (take the aforementioned King of the Underworld, Mictlantecuhtli). I personally found this great a source of great enjoyment, but I love weird things like that.
The story forges ahead at a pretty fast pace and it's a difficult book to put down. It weaves numerous plot strands together quite cleverly and deals with matters of gods and humans equally well. The glimpses we get of the other levels of existence which the gods inhabit are fascinating and I hope these are explored further in the future.
The resolution of the mystery is well handled. Too often with books like this I feel a little dissapointed at the end, but in this case I was very happy and am looking forward to the sequel. Recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
In Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, 1480 a princess priestess vanishes from her room, but nothing is what it seems. The priest of death, Acati is called to investigate, but is horrified when he discovers his estranged brother, Neutemoc, a Jaguar Knight, is implicated in the presumed murder of the missing girl. Now Acati must investigate the situation and find out the truth ultimately to save his warrior brother from the penalty of death and to uncover the real murderer. But everywhere Acati turns, new secrets and leads are uncovered and nothing is what is seems on the surface.
Servant of the Underworld reads very similar to C. J. Sansom's medieval murder mysteries, with the exception that this is set in (well researched) Aztec times and has supernatural fantasy elements. I really enjoyed this book, and my only gripe is the very long Aztec names could be a little bit distracting. Other than that, this is a suspenseful tale and a very fast read for me, with plenty of cliffhangers to keep me turning the pages to reach the final resolution of this "whodunit" and "closed room" novel with a difference.
Servant of the Underworld reads very similar to C. J. Sansom's medieval murder mysteries, with the exception that this is set in (well researched) Aztec times and has supernatural fantasy elements. I really enjoyed this book, and my only gripe is the very long Aztec names could be a little bit distracting. Other than that, this is a suspenseful tale and a very fast read for me, with plenty of cliffhangers to keep me turning the pages to reach the final resolution of this "whodunit" and "closed room" novel with a difference.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
There are few books of which I can truly say, it could hardly bear to put it down, but this was one of them. Even at the end of chapters I was left eager to find out what came next. This is a wonderful cross-genre work, combining epic fantasy with mystery perfectly. I was worried that it might turn out to be just a gimmick to have the main character an Aztec priest in an alternate world where magic and gods were real, just a novelty setting in a long line of novelties - Roman detectives, medieval detectives, vampire detectives... But Servant of the Underworld is no gimmick. This is high class writing, well-researched and presenting the information the uninformed reader (like me) needs about the subject matter in such a way as not to seem dry or like nonfiction masquerading as thriller. The characters take on a life of their own, and I want to see more of them, to find out how their relationships work out and where they go in the future. It has been a long time since a fantasy novel had an effect like that on me - too many have characters which are mere ciphers, two-dimensional heroes without any real personality. This is one I will read again, and I really look forward to volume two.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very good debut
I ordered this novel with no real idea of what it would be like but having an interest in South American ancient history and I must admit I found the background and history grabbed... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Patterson
Unusual setting, interesting debut
I must admit, I'd never seen a historical-fantasy set in this particular time-period and milieu, and was intrigued enough by the setting to give it a go. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Paul Fillery
Hmmm...
I'm afraid I seriously struggled to get into this book, and after the third attempt to read it I have now put it aside. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mara Greenwood
Just couldn't get in to it
I just couldn't get into this story at all.
The characters didn't feel alive and I didn't care a less what happened to them. After 150 pages, I gave up.
The characters didn't feel alive and I didn't care a less what happened to them. After 150 pages, I gave up.
Published 16 months ago by Rendition
A highly enjoyable murder/mystery set in the world of the Aztecs
Given that this is the first full length novel written by Aliette De Bodard, I was impressed... when I found out it wasn't written in the authors native language I was gobsmacked. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. A. J. D. White
Magical history mystery
I've always enjoyed historical murder mysteries, so thought that this one was worth a shot as I've not seen one set in the Aztec Empire before. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Lorna
Fresh and new .... but where does it go from here ....
This is a very interesting novel and one I'd like to see more of. What we have here is an author with a great imagination looking for a new niche. It's a bit of a lot of genres. Read more
Published 23 months ago by A. Cresswell
Average
I don't know why but I was expecting more to the story than what is offered.
There was nothing to really pull me in, no likeable characters for me and even the plot could have... Read more
There was nothing to really pull me in, no likeable characters for me and even the plot could have... Read more
Published on 27 May 2010 by Smatch
Complex, but too clever for it's own good
I have to confess I have quite a soft spot for historical fiction, usually my sphere of enjoyment is focused on a more recent time period but I dived into Servant of the Underworld... Read more
Published on 6 May 2010 by Chris Chalk
An unexpected gem
Just occasionally, my practice of reading odd books by new authors pays off, and this has been one of those occasions. Read more
Published on 6 May 2010 by Simon Brooke
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