The Last Days of the Incas | 
| Author: Kim Macquarrie
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 4639
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 522
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0743260503
Dewey Decimal Number: 980
EAN: 9780743260503
ASIN: 0743260503
Publication Date: June 5, 2008
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which the emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being outnumbered by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed -- due largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa. Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom in gold, the Spaniards executed him anyway. The following year, the Spaniards seized the Inca capital of Cuzco, completing their conquest of the largest native empire the New World has ever known. Peru was now a Spanish colony, and the conquistadors were wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.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, thirty-six-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. MacQuarrie also relates the story of the modern search for Vilcabamba, of how Machu Picchu was discovered, and of how a trio of colorful American explorers only recently discovered the lost Inca capital of Vilcabamba, hidden for centuries in the Amazon. This authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
What a ride! July 8, 2008
As a fan of John Hemming's The Conquest of Incas I was dubious that Kim MacQuarrie's work could begin to approach the level of Hemming's classic. Notwithstanding, I opened The Last Days of the Incas hoping I might glean an interesting insight or two. MacQuarrie's work quickly sent me shooting the rapids of Inca history. It is a breathtaking ride into the rich fabric of past events that make Peru such an enchanting venue today. Read this book and experience the sights, sounds and colors of Incas and Spaniards colliding on the stage that is Peru. Take the trip and you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I suspect that even John Hemming would enjoy the show.
The Best Book I Read in Years June 23, 2008
I love this book!! could not put it down,it went everywhere i go,well written(i kept my dictionary close by)love the language,the playing with words,how the author made the characters come alive and made u feel like you were a part of the struggle,i went through different emotions reading this book and had to remind myself that this is modern time and what in the past is in the past.Now i am in the research phase buying products from amazon,and investigation how i can visit.
I raise my hat to you Kim,well done.
Montgomery Croker
Hard to Put Down June 21, 2008
MacQuarrie is a great story teller, and he pulls you right in.
He makes these historical events read like a novel. Part of the appeal is his presentation of Manco Inca and the Pizarro brothers. The author helps you understand the characters and once you do, you become absorbed in their times and troubles. Even the battle scenes, from which I normally cringe, are compellingly written. The contrasts in technology, religion, customs and values of the Spanish and Inca culture are marvelously described.
The "Last Days" parts stand in contrast to the beginning and the ending which are about the exploration of the areas and the re-discovery of the sites. While these are interesting tales, they pale before the story, which MacQuarrie tells so well, of the last days of the Incas.
 Excellent account! June 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I do not have much to add to what previous reviewers have said. I loved this book for its colloquial style and flowing narrative. The author did a great job detailing the life and deeds of Manco Inca, though, somewhat anti-climatically, he cut short the account of Gonzalo Pizzarro's (a major arch-villain) defeat and death. I personally recommend reading this book AFTER reading Prescott's account, in that it elucidates and magnifies the interwoven sories that make up this tragedy.
P.S. I STILL do not understand how could the Spanish have survived if 50,000 warriors would have just rushed them (rushing like a crowd in a burning movie theater) or thrown SIMULTANEOUSLY stones and javelins at them. I just don't get it.......
Page-turning history June 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
12 years ago, motivated by a pictorial in National Geographic, I traveled to distant Peru. It was a fascinating journey, but after reading this book, I wished that I had it before I went (impossible, of course). I took it as a reverse travelogue, making sense of the places I had gone to and where they figured into the historical and exploratory narrative.
This book reads like a novel. In fact, I'd be surprised if it isn't ultimately converted into an HBO mini-series or the like. Interesting characters, from the puppet-turned-rebel Manco Inca, to the brash and vindicative Hernando Pizzaro, fill these pages and make them come to life. Revealed is an extra-ordinary account of the amazing conquest of a large and prosperous Empire by a small band of greedy Spanish outcasts.
Written in lucid prose, with numerous quotes, from Incas, Spaniards, and even outside philosophers, Kim MacQuarries does an excellent job of reaching out to the reader and creating a fascinating historical account. Well organized, the book even concludes with a complete description of the archeological work of the modern period associated with the recounted events and makes those almost as fascinating as the events themselves.
I couldn't recommend this book more highly.
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