I love Gary Jennings, and I very much wanted to like this book. I just couldn't. I had to stop about 1/3 through for fear of muddying my memories of Gary Jennings' great work (Aztec, Journeyer) with this merest shadow that stakes a claim on his name.

This is the newest of several books written by his former editor and another author. These new books state that the stories come from extensive notes and treatments that were found after Jennings' death. The first book in this "Codex" series, isn't altogether awful - "Apocalypse 2012". This one is.

The story is thin and disjointed and the characters are cliched. Very little of either evokes a sense of real Mayan history. It's not even worth encapsulating the story. I couldn't care enough to finish and I can't care enough to summarize now.

With a heavy sigh, I hope the estate of Jennings lets his name rest now. Publishers should focus on new sales of his classic works rather than attempting these retreads under his name. ( )