Review: Conquist by Dirk Strasser
Release date: 30 August 2024
Rating: 4/5
Synopsis: Capitán Cristóbal de Varga’s drive for glory and gold in 1538 Peru leads him and his army of conquistadors into a New World that refuses to be conquered. He is a man torn by life-long obsessions and knows this is his last campaign. What he doesn’t know is that his Incan allies led by the princess Sarpay have their own furtive plans to make sure he never finds the golden city of Vilcabamba. He also doesn’t know that Héctor Valiente, the freed African slave he appointed as his lieutenant, has found a portal that will lead them all into a world that will challenge his deepest beliefs. And what he can’t possibly know is that this world will trap him in a war between two eternal enemies, leading him to question everything he has devoted his life to - his command, his Incan princess, his honor, his God. In the end, he faces the ultimate dilemma: how is it possible to battle your own obsessions . . . to conquer yourself?
Review
“How can a man be certain that what he believes to be his most ardent yearning isn’t merely the hungers of others?”
I happened to read Conquist at the same time I watched Graham Campbell’s Ancient Apocalypse on Netflix, which mentions in some detail certain mythologies and archeological legacies of the Inca, particularly in Sacsayhuamán. I’m not saying I believe all the conclusions Campbell puts out there, but I will admit I was glued to the TV and started researching some stuff obsessively. My curiosity was certainly well piqued, and I learned further about the ancient Americas and the absolute flipping travesty of the destruction of the precious sites that could have been a source of history for all mankind.
Conquist served in some small part to further the fantastical elements of the mysterious structures that remain—and still left quite a bit to be desired in terms of information. Any novel that propels a reader further into a rabbit hole of reading and research gets high marks from me.
Cristóbal de Varga begins his fictional journey shortly after the official start of the historical colonization of Peru by the Spanish. He’s looking for the mythical Vilcabamba, a type of El Dorado, or City of Gold. Though the Inca he interacts with appear to be accommodating to de Varga and his men in their quest for Vilcabamba, their intentions reveal them as quite the opposite.
Though relatively local in setting, the novel’s grand in scope in terms of theological, philosophical, and moral terms. In fewer than 350 pages, readers run through an intense gamut of questions between, among, and within the characters. Once the Inca and the Conquistadors cross the portal, all bets are off, and the land they find themselves in is new to everyone. How each group of people confronts this new situation, and the circumstances surrounding each situation, serves to differentiate the plot from any alternate history/portal fantasy I’ve read lately.
Inevitably, characters in the book fall under the shadow of the plot. Strasser walks a fine line, though. The story of the quest for Vilcabamba is bound to overtake the story of any one man or group of men, as it is the legacy of a people instead of a hoarded secret by one person or a small group. Characters simply serve as accent pieces, and Strasser knows how to design and decorate the scenery. The cast here goes well beyond de Varga, his lieutenants, and the Inca. Every focal character interweaves well with the plot and serves an incredible arc.
I don’t take many exceptions to the book. Mainly, the length lends itself to a quick pace and the transitions feel very clipped. Readers may, like I did a few times, have to back track and reorient themselves within the scene before proceeding. It’s minor to me compared to how much I liked the book, but it caused a bit of a disruption in the flow of my reading.
I seem to have fallen into a trend this year of surprise. I’ve had no expectations from many of the books I’ve read, and I find that most of time, I’m surprised and impressed. Strasser’s Consquist definitely falls into this category. I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like it, and I like it.
My thanks to the author, Roundfire Books, and Collective Ink for the review copy, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.