Review: Conquist by Dirk Strasser

Blurb:

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:

It took a while to get to this book, but once I did, the pages went by fast. “Conquist” is the perfect fever dream of conquistadors, magic, and portals, alongside conflict, some drama, and gold-mad lunatics. If I could somehow teleport to Strassers location right now, I’d do so to a) get my copy signed, and b) talk about this book. 

With my historical love for all cultures and mythos, I’d bring this novel to those with the same love using this small snippet of the whole of the novel:

“Cristóbal is a capitán, setting out into a new land to gain a fraction of the glory of Pizzaro and Cortéz. But his own men are against him. Care for more?”

As I said earlier though, this is just a snippet of Cristóbals life as a conquistador capitán. There is so much more. The blurb, while helpful, also only illuminates a portion, and probably withholds just as much. So this review, more than likely, will help shed some light on this historical fiction novel.

But that is not the beginning of “Conquist”. No, it began earlier. According to a facebook post by Strasser about five days ago as of writing this review (post linked here), it began as a short story, then, after some writing, into a novella, followed by a screenplay script,with this 360 novel being the end result. And as I sit here and ponder my next words for this review, only an effort of maybe up to a week or two in the making, I feel the smallness of what I am doing now compared to the countless hours and years of work it must’ve took to get from point A, a short story, to point D, a full length novel. 

Existential questioning of what I am doing out of the way, I believe it is only prudent to start with the characters of “Conquist”, because those mentioned in the blurb above have been living rent free in my head for about two weeks now. Cristóbal de Varga is driven by the promise of fame and glory that is heaped upon Pizzaro and Cortéz. But that doesn’t help him make any friends amongst those he is in charge of. So, while he is off writing in his diary (an important part of this tale), one of his two lieutenants conspire against him. Throughout the hullabaloo that is the middle and end of “Conquist”,  he learns the folly of his ways, and slowly, but surely comes around to gold not being an issue… until it’s back in the forefront, and I will not say how or why because that’s fairly late in the book.

Meanwhile, Héctor is in a position a man of his color wouldn’t expect to be in during the conquistador era, which leads to strife with his equal in power, who shall not be named for various reasons. Throughout the novel, he has to deal with the prejudice of those beneath him and the one who is his peer. But the capitán does treat him as a fellow man who has the guts to go through an unknown land, leading conquistadors of Spain to the city of Gold. And that has bought his loyalty, which keeps him by his capitáns side as all the ills befall him.

Lastly, there’s the Incan princess. Not much is said about her in the blurb, so I’ll illuminate a bit of her angle before going to the plot, the world building and the decidedly insane creatures. She’s demure, mostly, going along with her brothers' plan to keep the conquistadors away from the city of Gold. And then later, uses her mind to get out of various other scrapes.

To that I say, well done character dynamics, Dirk Strasser.

Then, we have the plot… Strasser, throughout writing this novel no doubt, leaned fully into the redemption arc side of characters, letting them see the error of their ways and offering them a chance to reform. But he has taken that to a new level with what this book pulls off, because yes, Cristóbal de Varga did some horrible things to the natives, but then, through much trial and much error, he learns his lesson of treating the Incas and other prisoners poorly, and learns that the fever of Gold, that pursuit of the city, is foolhardy and should be for naught. EXCEPT… that doesn’t necessarily happen in a straightforward manner. The amount of shenanigans and hullabaloo caused by both the Incas and the creatures of another world takes that rather easy to grasp plot and tosses it off the nearest mountainside. That rather straightforward plot becomes instead a winding river of pitfalls, setbacks and murder to reach the roaring waterfall of catharsis, of realising that the dream of Gold, and the greed caused by that dream is just as deadly as the diseases brought over by the Spanish to a land that has never known them before.

After the winding river that is the plot we come to the world of Conquist, the New World, the New Horizon… New Spain. But even then, that is not the end of the tale, nor is it the last frontier. If I took out a map of today's world, I could more than confidently say I could somewhat track the Spanish progress into the Amazonian Jungle, because that stays on point. What our modern map lacks however is a portal to the newest new frontier, behind a portal that Valiente, de Vargas' ever faithful lieutenant, finds. This is where the fun begins, one could assume. But that fun is only ever the beginning. Because each time someone goes through a portal, an old wound resurfaces, but still they live, getting more disfigured the more they march through the portals. However that doesn’t account for the various trials and pitfalls each portal is protected by. As for the realm itself, it has many portals in, and not many portals out. To quote the Eagles here, “”Relax’, said the night man, ‘we are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.’. 

That creates the magical wonder and terror the conquistadors face as they wander through this land and encounter things no man of their world has encountered in quite some time. As well as phenomena that cannot possibly fit within the actual world.

Lastly… I want to get to the two species native of this world of wonder Strasser has made. If this book didn’t already entice me with the historical fiction aspect of it all, the fantasy creatures in this book make it even more tantalising to read. The author of this novel himself noted that this novel was inspired by the ramblings of a mad conquistador who was connected to Pizzaro and Cortés, but didn’t find anything much of interest compared to them. And the two species, I’ll call them by the name the priest gave them, demons and angels, are so much more than just what their name implies. The demons, they walk, the angels, they fly. And that is where the similarities end with how we can typically see them in our heads, but I shan’t say more because that’ll remove a lot of the twisty chaos that is the middle section of this book. 

Now, all things considered, even with all the fun things in this novel that I really enjoyed, I’d still say something is missing. That something is the more carefully tact of making us care for all conquistadors until one of them pulls the rug out from under us. If there was a less clear position of both lieutenants, I’d have been ever more surprised and more shocked with at least one act of “let’s be greedy now”. But… on the flipside, Strasser has created Incas that are lovable and Incas that are despicable, so there is that.

If you like historical fiction, conquistadors, and lots and lots of chaos alongside a winding river that is plot, Dirk Strasser’s newest novel, “Conquist”, is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this rather lengthy review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, here’s a random link to a review that might be more up to your tastes or less up to your tastes. Let chance surprise, and try something new. Carpe Diem!

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night.