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Rating: 
Summary: A Great History Book!
Review: A wonderful book! It reads like great fiction but the events aren't fiction-- they actually happened! This book kept me captivated, I couldn't put it down! Prescott does a marvelous Job!
Rating: 
Summary: great gift for old guys
Review: I read this one while traveling around Peru and the local experts confirmed the accuracy of Prescott's 150-year-old writings about Inca culture. Many of the most important actors in the book were surprisingly old considering the hardships that they endured. For example, Pizarro himself was 60 when he started heading down towards Peru through terrible storms in wooden boats, often getting stranded in mosquito-infested jungles without food for months at a time. He was 65 by the time he actually conquered Peru. One of the Pizarro family's most effective generals in their fights against other Spaniards was 80-84 during the period of these civil wars.This book makes a great gift for anyone traveling to Ecuador or Peru and for anyone over the age of 60.
Rating:
Summary: great gift for old guys
Review: I read this one while traveling around Peru and the local experts confirmed the accuracy of Prescott's 150-year-old writings about Inca culture. Many of the most important actors in the book were surprisingly old considering the hardships that they endured. For example, Pizarro himself was 60 when he started heading down towards Peru through terrible storms in wooden boats, often getting stranded in mosquito-infested jungles without food for months at a time. He was 65 by the time he actually conquered Peru. One of the Pizarro family's most effective generals in their fights against other Spaniards was 80-84 during the period of these civil wars. This book makes a great gift for anyone traveling to Ecuador or Peru and for anyone over the age of 60.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding account of an incredible piece of history
Review: The conquest of the mighty Inca empire by a small contingent of Spanish adventurers, and their subsequent civil wars fought for control of the region, is a story so dramatic and improbable that it's hard to believe it actually happened. Prescott's artistic style, meticulous attention to detail, and brilliantly structured narrative bring out all the drama and excitement. Unlike many histories, this work has nothing about it that is tedious or dry--particularly remarkable since Prescott never visited South America and developed his sweeping account exclusively from literary sources. The author's ability to reconstruct the attitudes and motivations of the key characters gives the reader a much deeper understanding of the events. Before reading the book, I knew next to nothing about the Incas or the settlement of the region. Upon finishing it, I felt as though I'd received a thorough (and most enjoyable) schooling.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat boring
Review: There's a lot of information here but the book is often slow and dull and too wordy and pretentious for my tastes. Less is more.
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