The Last Days of the Incas

By: Kim MacQuarrie

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1532, the 54-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 200 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, 36-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.

©2007 Kim MacQuarrie (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Vivid and energetic....Riveting." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A first-rate reference work of ambitious scope that will most likely stand as the definitive account of these people." ( Booklist)

Now I Want to Visit Peru

A fascinating book about an unlikely overthrow of a vast empire by a small band of uneducated and undeserving Spaniards. This book will make you admire the Incas and feel disdain for the Spanish invaders. I'm sure the perspective of the author is a bit slanted in this direction, but I still feel he is giving an even-handed account.
The personalities of the participants in the events reaaly get developed well. The descriptions of the setting makes me want to take a vaction to Peru to explore this fascinating region.

Excellent

This was a great listen. Brings what is unfortunately an obscure historical subject for most North Americans to life. Reads like a novel, driven by greed, violence, brutality and the personalities of the principals. The last section of the book, on the American "discovers" of the Incan ruins is a change of pace, but nonetheless interesting. Focuses on the personalities, errors and ambitions of the finders. Made me look into the geography of Peru to get a sense of the stage on which this tragedy was played out. Highly recommend.

Great book

An excellent audiobook on a fascinating topic. Well done!

Lenghty details good for those who have patiance

Would you listen to The Last Days of the Incas again? Why?

I would not listen to this story again because it is very descriptive and lengthy. I often was ready for the story to develop. The details were great though I could see many people really liking this book.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

More emphasis could have been made on the more important parts the narrator seem to drag on in the details of the book.

Any additional comments?

Overall this is a wonderful story worthy of a movie !!!! I think more people should learn about the Incas.

Incredible, Fascinating, Epic !

I'm compelled to write a review after seeing some bad reviews. Are you people insane? These same reviewers cant possibly like Game of Thrones either. This is one the most astonishing historical accounts Ive ever heard.

The story of the "battle" of Cajamarca was absolutely astounding and worth the price of admission as a stand alone product.

This audible book is the story of how 168 men conquered 10 million in a few months. A story like this should completely demolish you. The overlying themes of greed, betrayal, and revenge are endlessly fascinating.

Also, as someone who has been to Cusco, the Inca trail, and Sacsayhuaman I can tell you this is essential listening. Walking through downtown and knowing about certain locations and artifacts was priceless. A truly mind blowing listen of the most epic proportions.

Highly recommend if you're in to history.

Not Recommend

The author mistranslates the spanish word "Montaña" which means mountain to mean jungle. This book did nit seem very well research and us written in a very strange format. it was nit terrible but I can not recommend it.

worthwhile

not a real page turner but well written and easy to follow and understand how this very interesting part of history unfolded. It helps to have visited the sites in Peru. I wish I had had it in hand at the time of the visit.

My new favorite source book on the inca.

In 1977 I went to Machu Pichu. It changed me, I can't read enough about precolumbian indians. I feel like I have been there again after reading this book, only now I know the history. It is as good as Buddy Leavy's Conquestador.

For a historical book, this was VERY well done

The whole book was intriguing, with the narrative sounding much more like a story than a historical recounting of events.

I very much recommend this book.

Cruelty and invention

My recent trip to South America where I visited Machu Picchu and hiked Huayna Picchu has piqued my interest in matters related to the native population and the Spanish conquest. The Inca Empire was the only native American population group to put up continuous resistance over many years. The Aztecs were conquered within 2 years. It took around 40 years to conquer the Inca, which was the largest empire in the Americas by far, stretching from Chile through Peru to Ecuador. In addition, Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro came at the most inopportune time for the Incas. The Emperor had just died from smallpox that was brought to the Americas by the Spaniards and two of his sons were fighting a civil war over control of the empire. The Spaniards took over the capital city of Cusco within a year, and killed the emperor, but his descendants built a new capital, Vilcabamba, further into the Amazon jungle and continued a guerilla war for 40 years until 1572. This book is a very detailed history of how both groups adapted strategies to keep fighting as the advantage move back and forth between the two sides. But, the cruelty and duplicity of Pizarro is more extreme than any of the other conquistadores, so much so that it became even too much for the Spanish and he was eventually arrested and imprisoned in Spain for more than a decade. The death of the last emperor was so crushing that the Empire finally crumbled and the new capital was lost to civilization. Then in the last few chapters he discusses the search for lost Incan ruins from the Imperial retreat of Machu Picchu to the discovery of the jungle capital Vilcabamba in the 60s and one of the forts in 2001. But, Peru is one of the most varied landscapes on earth, from the driest desert on earth to the Amazon jungle, from the flat land around current-day Lima to the longest mountain range on earth and the tallest in the Americas and there is still a lot that hasn’t been explored and more sites that were described in various accounts but which have yet to be found. A very good book.