Arrows of Fire
1519. Twelve-year-old Flower is taken from her family and forced to become a goddess impersonator. When her beauty catches the eye of the ruler, Moctezoma, her learning is accelerated and she’s taught the bow and arrow. Her sympathetic new teacher eventually tells Flower the truth: she is going to be ritually sacrificed to the God of War. With Cortes and his army marching toward Moctezoma’s capital, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, Flower knows her time is drawing short. But there are plans in motion to stop Moctezoma’s bloody rule and rescue Flower from her dire fate. Will her rescuers or Cortes arrive first, and what will be the cost?
As a fan of The Rise of the Aztecs series by Zoe Saadia, I was excited to discover a new author exploring this culture, albeit in a later time period. While Arrows of Fire is ripe with historical numbers, dates, and names, there’s little in the way of cultural richness or emotional depth. Chapters alternate between Cortes, Moctezoma, and Flower, but the voices are interchangeable. There’s also a time continuity issue between chapters. One chapter will extend further in time than the following chapter, making it difficult to follow the development of events. Additionally, chapter two feels completely out of place as it’s set before Flower’s lifetime and has no significance on later plotlines.
While it’s an important story to tell, unfortunately there’s no scene setting or emotional reactions to events, and it has one-dimensional characters and contrived dialogue. It felt like the facts were more important than the people, and I just couldn’t connect. It reads more like a textbook told through dialogue rather than a fictional exploration of the significant events involving the dramatic conquering of the Aztec culture.
