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Title: The Last Days of the Incas

Author: Kim MacQuarrie

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-17-07

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 588 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

But the Incas did not submit willingly. A young Inca emperor, the brother of Atahualpa, soon led a massive rebellion against the Spaniards, inflicting heavy casualties and nearly wiping out the conquerors. Eventually, however, Pizarro and his men forced the emperor to abandon the Andes and flee to the Amazon. There, he established a hidden capital, called Vilcabamba. Although the Incas fought a deadly, 36-year-long guerrilla war, the Spanish ultimately captured the last Inca emperor and vanquished the native resistance.

Kim MacQuarrie lived in Peru for five years and became fascinated by the Incas and the history of the Spanish conquest. Drawing on both native and Spanish chronicles, he vividly describes the dramatic story of the conquest, with all its savagery and suspense.

Critic Reviews:

"Vivid and energetic....Riveting." (Publishers Weekly)

"A first-rate reference work of ambitious scope that will most likely stand as the definitive account of these people." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Fact is more fascinating than fiction

This marvelous book will make your hair rise. The unbelievable chronicle of Pizzaro and the Incas seems like fiction, but it is all true. When I explain the history to those who might have an interest, they are incredulous. The Spanish method did work, but it couldn't be done today and shouldn't be done. Listen to it if you have an interest in history.

Quit while you are ahead

The story of the Conquistadors and the Incas is pretty compelling stuff. One begins by wishing a plague on both their houses and finishes with an enduring revulsion for Spanish duplicity, brutality and, above all, greed. So the material is very powerful.

The writing, on the other hand, is plodding and distressingly repetitious. The strength of the book is that it includes all the interesting details which can make an historical account come alive; the weakness of the book is that the details are recounted like a grocery list. And lest we come home without the milk or the beansprouts, they are usually reiterated a few times.

Worst of all, the final few hours of the book are devoted to the modern history of the discovery of Incan ruins. Unlike the original narrative, the material here is deadly dull, and it is just as poorly presented. I never quite made it to the end.

Interesting but problematic

This book's is a tour de force of creative and evocative historical writing. The author has done an excellent job of making the subject and characters come alive in an interesting and informative way. However, one cannot but suspect that this was done at the expense of playing fast and loose with the historical record and by being academically sloppy.

This is best demonstrated by the authors chronic overuse of the term "undoubtedly". The author wants to tell a rousing narrative including the minute actions and feelings of the principal players but is stymied by the lack of historical evidence. The solution seems to have been to add the word "undoubtedly" to all of these wonderful descriptions for which there is no historical evidence. This is both academically sloppy and rather annoying. It makes one doubt whether the facts presented in the book are indeed facts or just supposition and guesswork.