Richard R's Reviews > Civilisations

A alternate-historical counterpart to Houllebecq's Submisson, in which the Aztecs and Inca used technology and resources taken from the Vikings and Columbus's failed expedition to mount a conquest of the old world. The world building is perhaps not especially convincing - both societies are still presented as largely Bronze-age, even if the arrows end up being tipped with iron - but that's not really the point. The point probably does lie with some of the novel's changes of perspective, such as Incan tolerance of religious difference and horror at the religious persecutions of reformation era Europe (where Jews and Moors alike welcome their new overlords) or their introduction of what amounts to a collective economy based upon agrarian principles (and the cultivation of the Coca leaf) into Spain and Germany.

I did smile at the notion of the Aztecs building a pyramid in the Louvre's central courtyard.