War God: Return of the Plumed Serpent Paperback – October 9, 2014

Just finished this amazing book. Over the past few years Graham has become my favourite author. I love his non-fiction work, but his novels are what have really put him above and beyond other authors for me.All three of his novels to date have some deep magic that instantly pulls you into the story and won't let go like no other books I've read before. I plough through these books at record speed.With the War God novels, Graham has also succeeded at peaking my interest in the Spanish Conquistadors and wanting to learn more... though I feel he follows history close enough, I already know a lot of the details.I love Graham's writing style in his novels. Short chapters that shift points of view between main characters. The story takes place both following the Spanish and the Aztecs. Each chapter ends with an incredible cliff hanger leaving you eager to get back to that person's perspective.I also love how Graham fills in the history with an interesting look at spirit realms and the supernatural. Primarily, Cortes' interactions with St. Peter through his dreams amd Moctezuma's use of psychedelic mushrooms to contact the God of War, Hummingbird. One of the main characters is also a witch who has some supernatural powers, which is a very interesting story in itself. He also explores entering spiritual realms through starvation and sensory deprivation.The real history is an incredible story surrounded by A LOT of coincidence and luck and prophesy that really makes you think about how the Universe works. Graham does an excellent job delivering this historical account and bringing to life the characters making it an incredible, exciting, adventurous and fascinating read. I wish I had books like this in High School - it would've sparked a love of reading much sooner!I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves to get fully absorbed in a story. Also be sure to read Entangled.. and if you love the mysteries of the world and civilization, read his non-fiction works.

This book is great. Just as good as the first. Grahm Hancock keeps it interesting and the characters are interesting and even though most of them seem to be evil blood thirsty psychopaths, I still find myself rooting for the spaniards who are slaughtering a native civilization. Putting it that way makes me feel weird, and the actual historic event was obviously horrible and a shame to lose the beautiful culture, but this book will keep you turning pages. And I just received my personalized signed sticker handwritten by grahm hancock. I wrote him after I preordered this book as he directed on JRE so there is little chance you can get one now. But I like graham and he seems like a super cool dude. Like someone who I could talk to for hours and maybe even explore some newly discovered ancient ruins with him. Some indiana jones/tomb raider type stuff. Perhaps he would knock me out of the way as a booby trap went off, or keep me from stepping on a stone that would trigger darts to shoot out from the wall. And although I would wonder how such a seemingly sophisticated trap could last thousands of years and still work perfectly, and those darts seem to be propelled by compressed air or something, and I dont think ancient civilizations had that... I would still be thankful and we would laugh aboit it later over a pint of ale at a pub. Cuz Graham Hancock is from england and thats what they do in england...Anyways. That has nothing to do with the book. This book is great. Read it. You wont regret it. And if you do it will be because he is taking forever to write the third one, or maybe because you havent read the first one yet and you were confused. So read the first one then this one. And have a nice life.

This is a fantastic way to learn, or better yet, appreciate history. It may not be factual but it does paint a picture and put context to actual historical events. It is much easier to put ourselves in the story here than a sterilised textbook. However, am fairly annoyed that I have to buy all three books in the series to finally read about the confrontation between Cortez and Monctezuma - feel like a fish on a line.

Great 2nd installment of the fascinating story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The characters come alive and you almost feel like you were there taking it all in, hopefully from a high viewpoint and out of the way of all the carnage. Although the thoughts and dialogue of the characters are fabricated by the author, the book really gets you thinking about the devious and sinister way they must have plotted out each step of their insiduous plan of attack. There is so much greed and violence on all sides of the saga that your unable to root for any one side, yet because it's based on a true historic event, it is very riveting and keeps you on edge waiting to find out what happens next. Thank goodness the author has included a few interesting and sympathetic characters that you can care about as it gives Cortez the edge and we know how it turns out historically. I'll be looking forward to the next and final book of the series.

Sharp as an obsidian-edged blade, War God: Return of the Plumed Serpent is a bold and relentless page turner that is shaping up to be a flat out classic(as we patiently await the final book, Vol. III). The story is as much enchanting as it is unapologetic, with each page coming before the sacrificial stone, before being flipped over and tossed unto the next.. Graham Hancock has established himself as a serious novelist that can brilliantly extract the every day happenings out of historical landscapes, which makes for a magical ride. Two things that must be made utterly clear: 1. Part III cannot come soon enough. 2. this remarkable trilogy SCREAMS to be adapted to a cable series/movie(s). Somebody make this happen!!....

Absolutely amazing read!! Love the way he portrays both sides really makes you wonder what it would be like to live back then!!!

Entertaining from beginning to the end! Can only recommend for people who are interested in the first encounter between two cultures of great influence to our human history.

***Spoilers in review***‘War God II- Return of the Plumed Serpent’ is a difficult book to read, but not because it isn’t very well written, and not because it isn’t very cleverly structured. It is in fact extremely well written, expertly structured, tightly edited and extensively researched. It also has helpful summaries of previous events that nudge the reader’s memory, making it easier for him/her to understand what is happening in the relevant context.The book is very good, but I didn’t enjoy reading it, and when I came to the final page I felt a wave of relief come over me. It was a relief that I would no longer have to read about disgusting, self-serving, avaricious sociopathic leaders instructing their order following subservients to carry out acts of inhumanity that they were very obviously revelling in.This is not the fault of the writer, as what he is doing in this book is using fiction to tell the real-life story of the Spanish conquest of the modern day Mexico. The problem is that we know how the story ends, and it’s difficult to see anybody in a positive light, not just the Spaniards, but the sacrifice crazed Mexica as well.Author Graham Hancock understands that this is going to be a huge problem, and he does his best to surmount it, but I feel that the task is impossible. There are no heroes in this story, just sides.A young girl named Tozi began this story as a potential sacrificial victim to the wicked Mexica. She ends up as a servant of the wicked Spanish, as does her best friend Malinal, an attractive translator who sleeps with the psychopathic Cortez, helping him to deceive, manipulate, butcher and conquer the native people. A brave warrior name Shikotenka ends up utterly defeated and emasculated by the Spanish war machine. He doesn’t sleep with Cortez, but he might as well do. He finishes the book as little more than another concubine/vassal to the psychopathic Spanish leader. A good hearted and innocent young boy named Pepillo is taught how to kill, as is his pet dog Melchior. Innocence corrupted, incorporated and made into a tool to be used by the blood and gold thirsty Spaniards.All of the characters that I could relate to, all of the individuals that I could empathise with in the first book have now joined the Spanish war machine of death and conquest.Hernan Cortez himself is disgusting. He orders massacres, the burning of villages and the killing of civilians for tactical reasons. The individual human lives are not important to him. He is complex and cunning, but that does not interest me. He is simply disgusting, as is his rival Moctezuma. The former delights in getting his hands bloody on a one to one basis, whilst the latter is a coward, but both men revolt me. I don’t like reading about them, I just don’t.The novel contains detailed accounts of massacres where the heavily armoured Spanish use their superior technology to slaughter the local tribes whilst having a whale of a time doing so. I could take no enjoyment from what I was reading here. This is a narrative for fans of splatter movies and serial killer books. They’ll love the descriptions of hand to hand butchery, the piled up human bodies, the torture, the stench of rotting flesh, the pulled out fingernails, the disembowelled wailing victims, the skin torn off screaming bodies.To me it was unrelentingly brutal. It is historical fact, but there is no redeeming message here. Its just humanity at it’s worse. Order following, greed, butchery, war and death. The gods look on, revelling in the bloodshed, but I don’t.War God II- Return of the Plumed Serpent is a harrowing book to read. The young heroines and brave warriors of the first book are now just vassals of the Spanish Conquistadors. The streets are lined with rotting corpses and rivers of blood as Cortez the butcher enjoys the prettiest girl in town whilst dreaming of wealth and power.History is harsh, it can leave you feeling hopelessly depressed that this is what our modern civilisation and cultures have been built upon. Graham Hancock has woven a brutal account of some terrible times here, but it just left me feeling cold. As Hancock himself puts it in the amendments of this book:‘It is a historical fact that within fifty years of the Spanish conquest, the indigenous population of Mexico had been reduced through war, famine and introduced diseases from thirty million to just one million.’There was no happy ending in Mexico. The gods of war enjoyed themselves, and the humans suffered. This brutal book tells the brutal truth.

One of the best fiction series out there.

And it continues with no disappointment! This is the second book in what will be a series of three if I'm not mistaken. I took my time with this one, and savored every page, knowing it will be a while for the next one to be published. Both a creative and in-depth look at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec, Graham weaves magic and religion and war with historical fact in a very believable and exciting manner!Feel free to check out my review of the first novel, 'Nights of the Witch', on 'Amazon.ca', in which I go into more detail. I live in the US, and this book was not published there, and the difference of shipping speed was all my decision was based on as to go with 'Amazon.co.uk' for this, the second novel in the series.