Jennings reveals a people, a place, and a time period that is often forgotten. He takes you through religious ceremonies, sacrifices, and festivities that are completely alien to any of today. The myths, suppositions and lore of the Mexica people come alive through Mixtli's narration. Mixtli's life is exciting and diverse, he wears many hats: a scribe or 'word knower', a peddler of booty, a passionate and sometimes clumsy lover, a cartographer and a very unlikely warrior. Mixtli travels throughout his nation and to far off lands and experiences much through intention, and more often, through error. He learns various tongues along his travels and eventually picks up Spanish, which makes him a great but reluctant tool of the Spaniards. So much of Jennings' novel is comprised of such a wealth of sensible, believable information that it is easy to forget Aztec is a fictional account. I would be hard pressed to prove or disprove the elements of truth in Aztec. I can only rely on the experts: Professor J. Pino of Kent State University found Aztec's representation of culture and religion a "total horselaugh"; the Denver Post had this to say: "The history, geography, art, literature, and religion of the Aztecs are all here, along with a wealth of information about the people themselves and the way they went about the business of living." Now what? Even the 'experts' seem dubious. To any reader of historical fiction, it should be evident that certain liberties are taken regarding factual information; something may be added or subtracted, or even sugarcoated for effect, this is often called 'artistic licensing'.

"The Journeyer" is a magnificent, wonderful story that will hook you in the first few pages and hold on for all 800 or so! In a truly inspired idea, the author created a possible story for the many unrecorded years of the merchant Marco Polo on his travels in Asia in the late thirteenth century. There are so many colorful characters and exotic locations, interspersed with wonderfully informative tidbits, that the amount of research required must have been staggering. Mr. Jennings' grasp of the English language is superb, and he always seems to find the right words to describe a person, place, ect. Another aspect of this book that is refreshing is how nothing is held back. For every beautiful, vivid description that will have you smiling as you read, there will be another scene of such misery and brutality that it will leave you cringing. The most lovely aspects this world has to offer are given equal time with the world's most repellent aspects, including graphic violence, sexuality, and disease. This leads to some heavy shifts in tone, but it can't be called anything but true to life, especially for that time period. I don't want to describe any of the characters, places, or situations because doing so could only lessen the reader's pleasure (or discomfort) when they first come across them. I will only say that anyone at all that enjoys historical fiction, and doesn't mind the effort required in a book of this size, simply must read "The Journeyer". It is an incredible achievement in every way.

In Up Country, Nelson DeMille cannily revives the army career of Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, the cynical, hardworking Criminal Investigation Division man who was forcibly retired after solving the high-profile killing in The General's Daughter. Brenner's called back to investigate the murder of a young army lieutenant by his captain. The catch is, the crime took place during the heat of the Tet Offensive, and the only living witness was a North Vietnamese soldier who described the incident in a 30-year-old letter that has only recently come to light. Soon Brenner, a Vietnam vet, is on an ostensible nostalgia tour of his old stomping grounds. The trip immediately turns dangerous as he heads "up country" to search for the letter writer, accompanied by a gorgeous American businesswoman, who's hiding more than even the smartest CID officer could imagine. DeMille, who saw his own tour of duty in Vietnam (and even found a letter on a dead Vietnamese soldier), intersperses historical facts and chilling political possibilities with enough local color to provide some serious flashbacks for his fellow veterans. To non-vets the book may seem very long, but the payoff at the end is worth a couple hundred extra pages.

It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy--and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's blazing novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists. Here, painted on a canvas as broad as its subject matter, is the compelling of one of the most heroic struggles of modern times. Leon Uris is the undisputed master of fictional historical novels. Exodus, Mila 18 and Armageddon give us a view of WW-II that no other author has been able to bring to light. His characters are ordinary people set in historical times and situations. He brings you into the ghetos of Warsaw where the Nazi regime was planning the systematic removal of the entire Jewish population. For the first time in history, the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto said no! They fought back with anything and everything they had. The realization that men fought German Panzers with bricks is one of the bravest resistance movements anyone has ever seen. If historical drama, told with a personal touch is your liking, this is truly one of the best works ever. Read it, and your life will change.

From the Middle East, to Moscow, to Hitler's death camps, the members of the Henry family face grave danger as they fight in the Second World War. Herman Wouk's acclaimed novels include the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Caine Mutiny; Marjorie Morningstar; Don't Stop the Carnival; Youngblood Hawke; Inside, Outside; The Hope; and The Glory. Follows the various members of the Henry family as they become involved in the events preceeding America's involvement in World War II and captures all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War-and that constitute Wouk's crowning achievement-are available for the first time in trade paperback.

Once again, Tom Clancy manages to add new twists to the alternate U.S. history he initiated in The Hunt for Red October. In The Sum of All Fears, the center of conflict is the perpetual hot spot the Mideast, where a nuclear weapon falls into the hands of terrorists just as peace seems possible. Clancy realistically paints an almost unthinkable scenario--the bomb is planted on American soil in the midst of an escalation in tension with the Soviet Union; the terrorists hope to rekindle cold war animosity and prevent reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Despite such a dramatic story line, Clancy doesn't neglect the individuals who drive his tale. Jack Ryan's problems are as much domestic as they are part of the international crisis that is the ostensible narrative: National Security Director Elizabeth Elliot has the president's ear, and she has convinced him that Ryan's ethics are questionable. She hints at marital infidelity and an insider-trading scandal. Of course, both accusations are false, but her arguments have enough evidence behind them (e.g. some photographs of an innocent embrace with a friend) to cause a strain in the Ryans' marriage and a flurry of media attention. While "Mr. Clark" tracks the terrorists, he also provides some needed intelligence to heal the Ryan family. The Sum of All Fears is the stuff of nightmares but contains enough verisimilitude to terrify sober minds. Ryan has matured into a complex protagonist as Clancy's writing, too, has matured. Ryan is plagued by stress and self-doubts that test even his dauntless moral compass and make him a more interesting subject for readers' attention. Those fascinated by military hardware, from nuclear submarines to atomic weapons, will find almost enough here to start their own army. And Clancy's understanding of international politics seems chillingly correct.

Here is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so gripping in its action and so convincing in its accuracy that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a top secret Russian missile sub. Lauded by the Washington Post as "breathlessly exciting," The Hunt for Red October remains a masterpiece of military fiction by one of the world's most popular authors, a man whose shockingly realistic scenarios continue to hold us in thrall. Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on... Along with "The Sum of All Fears," this book is my favorite Clancy novel. I only wish he'd go back to this brand of lean, exciting storytelling and give up the Limbaugh-wannabee schmaltz that characterizes his later novels.

Without Remorse is the page turner to beat all page turners. I brought this book to Korea with me the first time I went there, knowing that I'd have some spare time at the end of a six week tour there. I was expecting to maybe read half of the book in that time and finish it when I came home. No way! Once I started this book, it was done in less that 48 hours. You simply cannot put this one down for something as trivial as sleeping or eating. Tom Clancy goes into great detail giving the whole backstory on John Kelly/Clark. Once you've read this book, you'll be thinking back on all that came before and after it saying to yourself, "this is how and why John Clark does what he does." It is extremely heart wrenching to read what happens to Pam and how John Clark deals with it. You feel as if you want to be there with him, ready to take out some vigilante justice. I had originally skipped this one and read his next novel, what a mistake that was. Even though I knew that John Clark was in the next novel, I kept saying a prayer hoping he doesn't get killed in this one. That is how good a writer Tom Clancy is. I don't know if there's such a thing as a writer's hall of fame, if not, there should be one with Tom Clancy right there at the top.

Leon Uris returns to the land of his acclaimed best-seller Exodus for an epic story of hate and love, vengeance and forgiveness and forgiveness. The Middle East is the powerful setting for this sweeping tale of a land where revenge is sacred and hatred noble. Where an Arab ruler tries to save his people from destruction but cannot save them from themselves. When violence spreads like a plague across the lands of Palestine--this is the time of The Haj. The book is a harsh story of life as a 'Palestinian' commencing in the early 1940's of a young Arab, Ishmael. Ishmael lived in a small settlemnt of Tabah located half way between Haifa and Jerusalem. Ishmael being one of the only people in the little enclave, under control of Haj Ibrahim, that learned to read and provides us with a blow by blow account of growing up in the middle of familial, political and religious turmoil and violence ....

Novel by Herman Wouk, published in 1951. The novel was awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The Caine Mutiny grew out of Wouk's experiences aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific in World War II. The novel focuses on Willie Keith, a rich New Yorker assigned to the USS Caine, who gradually matures during the course of the book. But the work is best known for its portrayal of the neurotic Captain Queeg, who becomes obsessed with petty infractions at the expense of the safety of ship and crew. Cynical, intellectual Lieutenant Tom Keefer persuades loyal Lieutenant Steve Maryk that Queeg's bizarre behavior is endangering the ship; Maryk reluctantly relieves Queeg of command. Much of the book describes Maryk's court-martial and its aftermath. The unstable Queeg eventually breaks down completely. Upon its original publication in 1951, this Pulitzer Prizewinning novel was immediately embraced as one of the first serious works of fiction to help readers grapple with the human consequences of World War II. In the intervening half-century, Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining story of life--and mutiny--on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater has achieved the status of a modern classic.

John Corey and Asad Khalil have both lived hard-knock lives. As revealed in Nelson DeMille's monster bestseller Plum Island, the gruff, wisecracking NYPD homicide cop Corey stopped a hail of bullets--but he couldn't stop his wife from walking out on him. Asad, raised under Muammar Qaddafi's eye after his dad's murder, lost his surviving family in the 1986 bombing of Libya. He's heard the nasty rumors about his mom and the colonel, but he aims his rage at the infidels. The boy's got such a gift for terrorism he's earned the nickname "the Lion," and Boris, his vodka-sozzled, sex-addicted émigré mentor, knows precisely how to conduct a murder tour of America one step ahead of the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force), which combines members of all three. A pity Boris must die, but hey, he's an infidel too. Asad pretends to defect, handcuffed to agents aboard a 747 bound for JFK, and he proves to be a worse seatmate than a siding salesman. Corey and his ATTF colleagues (most conspicuously the FBI's sexy Kate Mayfield, Corey's match in badinage and bad-guy busting) strive to halt Asad's methodical yet unpredictable bloodbath. Skillfully, DeMille alternates chapters told from Asad's and Corey's points of view. DeMille did his authenticity homework: when we're not savoring his gift for wiseacre dialogue in the Corey-Kate chapters, we're sweating alongside Asad on his ghastly, ingenious jihad. The New York Times put DeMille's social satire on a par with Edith Wharton's, and he's great on the colliding folkways of the feuding, mutually doublecrossing crimebuster institutions. Naturally, he's on the side of the regular-guy flatfoots. "Cops sit on their asses and flip through their folders," he writes. "Feds sit on their derrieres and peruse their dossiers." And the CIA gets it in the shorts, satirically speaking. One deplores the mass murderers, but the book's real bad guys wear the priciest suits.