The Conquest of the Incas

By: John Hemming

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

Length: 23 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1532, the magnificent Inca empire was the last great civilization still isolated from the rest of humankind. The Conquest of the Incas is the definitive history of this civilization's overthrow, from the invasion by Pizarro's small gang of conquistadors and the Incas' valiant attempts to expel the invaders to the destruction of the Inca realm, the oppression of its people, and the modern discoveries of Machu Picchu and the lost city of Vilcabamba.

This authoritative, wide-ranging account, grounded in meticulous research and firsthand knowledge and told from the viewpoints of both protagonists, "keeps all the complex issues to the fore...the deeper wonder of the conquest and the deeper horror of its results" (Washington Post).

©2013 John Hemming (P)2022 Tantor

The Incas thoroughly defined and explored

So much information on the Incas and their rapid fall at the hands of the Spaniards.
Highly recommended

Very detailed.

If you really want to know the whole sorry story of the conquest of the Incas, this is your book. I've read other, shorter books on the subject and this gives much more detail. Such as that the Kings of Spain were concerned about the welfare of the natives and considered them freemen, but not enough to cut down on the forced labor mining precious minerals. I hadn't heard that before.

The downside, as an audiobook, is that you don't have access to the maps and pictures. The publisher could have put them on the web. So, I guess, my story rating was decreased not by the author but rather the publisher.

Fortunately, having been to Peru and Ecuador I have some basic idea about geography although not in enough detail for this book. I finally just quit worrying about exact locations of events in the book (other than major cities, etc) and that really helped.

The narrator was excellent and I enjoyed the last chapter on the search for the site of Urubamba.

If you're traveling to Peru, I'd certainly recommend this before you go.

Meticulously researched

I visited Peru in May and felt I needed to learn more about the Incans, and this book hit the spot. Incredibly detailed and balanced, which was even more impressive given that almost all of the accounts from the 1500’s were from the Spanish. Well narrated and enjoyable throughout, although keeping track of all of the Incan and Spanish major players was not that easy and I had to Google people throughout the book to fully appreciate their backgrounds and history. The book covered all the events and battles during this period and I appreciated the diligence of the author in covering them fairly and doggedly. May not be for everyone but I walked away with a greater understanding and appreciation of the Incans and Spaniards in the 1500’s.

Thanks for the journey!

I enjoyed this book by listening in chunks at a time. It’s packed with so much history that I often had to go back and review! If you like Incan history or history in general then you cannot go wrong here.