Malinche: Slave Princess of Cortez

Duran chooses a potentially fascinating chapter of early Mexican history as the basis of her novel, but few readers will have the patience or stamina to struggle through her meandering, information-laden prose. Groomed since birth to succeed her chieftain father, the Aztec princess Malinali is sold into slavery through the machinations of her mother and new stepfather. Not long afterward, Malinali and 19 other girls are presented as gifts to the ``teules,'' the conquistador Hernando Cortez and his men. Christened Marina by her Spanish masters, Malinche (as she is known in Mexican folklore) becomes the mistress of Cortez, as well as his interpreter; in the latter role she is said to have contributed greatly to the downfall of the Aztec empire. The narration suffers from the inclusion of many, many extraneous details; long passages of creaking, cliched dialogue; and tortured sentences (``The town was a bustling center of commerce for it stood at the meeting point of two branches of the sinuous river, which was also called Coatzacoalcos, which means in the Aztec language `the sanctuary of the serpent' ''). Because a few scattered moments display some of the exotic allure of Suzanne Staples's Shabanu and Ursula K. LeGuin's Tombs of Atuan , the novel's flaws are all the more frustrating. Ages 13-up. ( Aug. )