Colin weaves a vivid tapestry of the medieval turkish world. This story is an engaging story of a female slave using her wits and charms to survive and ultimately win the right as the Sultan's consort. Her mastery of political deception is diabolocal and her revenge sweet. Her son takes the throne but it was not of the Sultan's blood - thus ensuring the fall of the Ottoman Empire. This was all Colin's speculation, but who knows the truth may not be so removed from this afterall.

Great & Wonderful.

Hurrem lead us through her story from her birth place deep into the Steppes when she was captured as a slave to the harem of the Sultan Soleiman as a concubine. Feeling of hate, frustration, rivalry and ambition of the concubines made her a cold, cruel and a calculator woman with the sole purpose of winning the Sultan heart, become a favorite and place one of ther children in the throne of the Ottoman Empire after the death of Soleiman. A very well written novel in which the dialogues and description of places make the XVI century Ottoman Empire alive across its pages.

I first read this book on my honeymoon 6 years ago. I purchased it in the bookstore in my hotel. Much to my husband's dismay, I could not put it down! It was an absolutely fascinating tale of life in Istanbul in the Harem owned by the Sultan. By combining fiction with historical facts, Mr. Falconer weaves a tale so intriguing, it was impossible to put down. I also must commend Amazon who found this for me again after I had given my original copy to someone and never received it back. It took almost two years, but they got it for me. I was thrilled! If anyone is ever able to get a copy of this hard-to-find book, it is a must read!

Feathered Serpent is the story of an intriguing and passionate cacique's daughter named Malinali Tenepal and her love and obsession over the man that she thought was her savior named Feathered Serpent, Hernan Cortes.
Malinali grew up in the Yucatan valleys, the daughter of a priest and a Mexica aka Aztec woman. Her mother despised her for not being chosen to be sacrificed and her father loved her. When she was still a young girl, her father told her that in the year One Reed, Quetzalcoatl aka Feathered Serpent would return to Tenochtitlan from the Cloud Lands to the East and topple the Mexica monarchy and the hated emperor, Motecuhzoma aka Montezuma. Not too long after that, Motecuhzoma had her Malinali's father killed in the town square for speaking about Motecuhzoma being removed from the throne, his birthright. Malinali's mother remarried and had a son, and when Malinali was 9, she was sold to slavetraders so that the new baby boy could inherit all of the lands of Malinali's family one day. Malinali ends up as the slave of a Mayan cacique, and when she is 19, she is given to a band of strange white men with beards. The year is One reed. The leader of the men must be Quetzalcoatl (it's really Cortes). When Cortes realizes Malinali is fluent in Nahuatl and Mayan, she becomes one of his translators along with a holy man named Aguilar, who despises Malinali because of her heathen and sexual ways. And from there begins a long journey across the lands of the Mexica, the Toltecs, the Maya, and many other tribal lands of modern-day Mexico as Cortes comes closer and closer to Tenochtitlan, where he plans to overthrow Motecuhzoma and make King Charles of Spain the rightful ruler of the land and take all of the gold in his name. However, the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan are outraged at Cortes, who they know is not Feathered Serpent. He has dared to destroy their religion and try to baptize them all into a new faith. He has dared to steal from them. He has dared to bring down their weak king. And all of this has happened because he has listened to Malinali. And so the people of Tenochtitlan attack Cortes and his armies, running them out of Tenochtitlan and forcing them to swim across the lake the city sits on, causing most of the armies to drown and all of the tons of gold they had taken and claimed to sink to the bottom of the lake. Malinali and Cortes survived, but their lives are not the same. The man she thought would save her was not Cortes, she realizes, and all of the work she has done and all of the hard work she put herself through was all a lie. She destroyed her own people. And even today she walks the streets of Mexico City crying for the losses she caused as La Llorona.
This book was very good and very well researched, at least in the fields of Mexican culture. There were a few problems I had with this book though:
1. Almost everything told about Malinali in this book was not true. Malinali was not born in 1500, she was born in 1505, so she was only 14 when she was given to Cortes, not 19. Malinali's father was not a priest, he was a cacique, a ruler, of Painala, and he died of a fever, not from being murdered by Motecuhzoma's guards. And Malinali did not have brothers and sisters, she was an only child. The author's research was poor in the areas of Malinali, and I think he needs a new editor.
2. OMG I have never seen so much sex in one book in my entire life! Almost every 20 or less pages there is a new scene between new people! And need I say that Rain Flower, Malinali's friend, certainly gets around a lot. This seemed more like a porn than a historical fiction or even a romance! And did we really need to read THAT much detail...
3. The language and swears used here are not ones you would normally here back then, and why must we read the same swear by one of Cortes' men every single page? It gets boring, although when Malinali called one of the soldiers something when she was learning Castilian and didnt know what it meant it was rather funny.
And so, I truly enjoyed this book and it is a very good story, but don't use it for school or if you want to learn anything nonfictional about Malinali, as most of it is false. In fact, that makes me question the author's research of the Mexica cultures and Cortes' life and soldiers....

I was drawn to this book by its beautiful cover, but don't be fooled--there's a very entertaining and readable story inside.

Colin Falconer tells the tale of La Malinche with a great deal of panache. His version is mainly from her point of view, and as such it's different from Gary Jennings' Aztec novels. There's plenty of battle, bloodshed, treachery and romance, but it's the first book I've ever seen about the conquest that incorporates a woman's point of view. Many writers treat the story as if there were no women around at the time. Mr. Falconer actually gives us a well-rounded, historically accurate picture from both the male and female perspective. There are several other characters and subplots who round out the relationship between Malinche and Cortes, as well as an excellent recreation of Montezuma and his lords, priests and warriors.

This novel held my attention and reminded me in many ways of the great epic movies of Hollywood's golden age. It's colorful, exotic and entertaining, and does not insult the reader's intelligence.

I was a big fan of Colin Falconer's WHEN WE WERE GODS, a novel about the life of Cleopatra. In his most recent historical novel, he takes on the life of a far less famous woman, but one whose role was probably as important to the politics and history of the New World as Cleopatra's was to the Roman Empire.

Malinali (or Malinche, as she's called in modern Mexico) was an Aztec woman sold into slavery to the rival Maya tribe as a child. The daughter of a soothsayer, she always knew her destiny was a heavy one, and that she would live to see a great change in the land of her birth--the return of the god Quetzlcoatl, the feathered serpent of the title. Of course, the white-skinned, long-bearded Feathered Serpent who she encounters is not a god, but Hernando Cortes, the Spanish adventurer on a quest for gold and Christianity. Malinali becomes his ally, and eventually his lover, and together they bring down the mighty Montezuma and his Aztec empire. She also becomes his lover and the mother of his child, and the story of their love affair is as passionate and tragic as the history of modern Mexico.

This is a well-researched look into the world of the Mexica--aka Aztec--Empire under Montezuma, as well as a fast-paced read about love, war and death. Some of the battle scenes are rather grisly, but well-drawn, and the supporting characters are interesting and add some very intriguing subplots to the novel. My readers' group enjoyed this novel, mainly because it was so different from many other historical novels about women in history--it doesn't offer any easy answers, but it tells a fascinating story.

great i loved i

Any book by Colin Falconer is a GREAT book, as he really is my number #1 favorite author. From the moment I started it on the plane going down to Hawaii for vacation, I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down until I finished. Not being able to convince the pilot to keep circling the airport though, I continued to read it on the beach, surfacing two days later.... The colorful main character, Patrick Corrigan, is one of Colin's best to date - I hope to find him in another book someday! The backdrop to the book - the war in the South Pacific (WW2) was a fascinating subject, one I had not previously read much about, but, one that now my interest is peaked, I will read more about. Keep writing, Colin!

Es una istoria muy intesante, que me ayudo a comprender muchas cosas sobre mis raices. Es apacionada,amorosa y soverbia. Conoces la casta de los verdaderos guereros,y el papel iportante que la religion tiene en todo esto, como una mujer fue la clave principal,como un pueblo fue sometido y dominado,pero nunca dejaron que sus creencias les fueran proibidas.

Historia romántica, llena de pasajes históricos e historias paralelas. De los pocos libros que esperaba cualquier momento para leerlo, además podría leerlo de nuevo.
La relación de Cortés y la Malinche con su toque de romance, avaricia, poder, superstición, racismo... en comparación con la de Benitez y Flor de lluvia donde el cariño, la bondad, y el amor a pesar de las diferencias raciales, religiosas y del lenguaje. Como mexicana esta obra me provocó emoción, en algunas situaciones enfado por la humillación y la codicia de los conquistadores. Pero a pesar de todo, aqui estamos y así se formó el pais.

Being a fan of historical fiction who was completely blown away by Margaret George's "Memoirs of Cleopatra," I picked up this book for its title and wanted very much to like it. Unfortunately, although Falconer has vast powers of description (many of the settings and costumes were beautifully portrayed), his Cleopatra seems less a queen of flesh, blood, and iron -- i.e. a real woman -- than a stereotypically alluring, painted, exotic doll. This cardboard quality extends to most of the other characters in the vast cast; I never formed a connection to any of them. Falconer's omniscient position is occasionally irritating, as he chooses to throw his characters' thoughts down on the page in lieu of revealing their true personalities through words and deeds. (Other quibbles, quite minor: some jarring anachronisms, some lengthy passages that have all the authentic feel of a history book, and a seeming preoccupation with sex.)

If the author had applied his descriptive talents to human actions and relationships as well as temples and palaces, this version of Cleopatra's story could have wielded some actual power. As it is, though, "When We Were Gods" is a lifeless soap opera on an epic scale, a disappointingly flat historical production. The wonderful descriptions, nice details, and the unconventional ending earn it, in my book, one more star than the bulky rest deserves.

This looked fairly interesting when picked up. Before I started, I spotted that the back of the novel contained a Q&A with the author which claimed that the aim of the novel was to produce a story based on fact rather than myth or fiction set against the Roman Empire - ignore the fact that this is incorrect. The Roman Empire began after Cleopatra's death.
It disappointed on so many levels. The characterisation of the main protagonists - Caesar, Octavian, Anthony, Cleopatra - and the supporting Roman and Alexandrian characters was as far removed from historical fact of any Cleopatra novel I have read.
Caesar comes across as a monarchy-obsessed philanderer, Anthony as permanently drunk yet with a Herculean disposition and Cleopatra herself as a naive girl trying to manipulate the greatest politicans of the time. The depiction of Rome was also somewhat startling.
There seemed to be an application of twenty-first century morality to this ancient society which was equally unrealistic and the author made several historically inaccurate mistakes.
The novel reads well and you can get through it at a fair pace and it possesses that 'gripping' edge to ensure you keep going.
But it is not historically accurate at all and on that level it comes somewhere at the bottom of any recommended list of the genre. It is actually a good historical fantasy.

I've read several fictional works about Cleopatra so I wasn't sure I really wanted to read another. But the beautiful jacket pulled me in and the writing didn't disappoint either! Colin Falconer writes with a modern flair that doesn't detract from the rich historical setting (his detail, by the way, is well-researched and beautifully rendered). I actually found the characters to be marvellously believable and touching, which is not easy for a male writer writing about a female character.

I read a lot of historical fiction and this is one of the best new retellings of the ancient Egypt and Rome saga to come along in many years. I will recommend it to my friends.