Martin Cortes was born in 1523 in an Aztec palace in Mexico. His mother was Malinche, a Native woman who served as an interpreter and guide for the Spanish Conquistadors who committed genocide against Native populations, especially the Aztecs. His father was Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador who destroyed the entire Aztec civilization. What a legacy. His mother married someone else while his father was away looking to find more people to destroy, and upon his return, they went back to Spain. Martin was legitimized by the Pope, and spent quite a bit of time in the royal court before becoming a page to Philip II of Spain. He stupidly returned to Mexico, where he was arrested as part of a plot, but managed to escape death. He was tortured and sent packing back to Spain to exile. (He really should have kept his little butt in Spain to begin with instead of hoping to capitalize on the genocide of his father as though people were pleased about that and happy to offer him slaves. Insert eye roll.) He was eventually exonerated from the conspiracy charges and died in Spain.

As far as the book itself goes, the research was very well done. In fact, the author actually takes you on the research trip in the book. That was really great for me to read, because I love to travel and the descriptions of the adventures were entertaining. I really enjoyed the story that she told. The only real issue I had with the book was that she did speculate some about what Cortes must have thought or felt, which wasn't as factual as I generally like. It wasn't a big enough deal for me to not enjoy this book. I am not really very keen with this era of history, so it was great to learn more about it.