"In The Courts of The Sun"

December 2012 seems to be the date current among apocalypse lovers. This despite the fact that Maya scholars categorically deny that there is a connection between Mayan sources and doom. Based on the number of sites that are generated in a search for 2012 many people are very interested in the coming end.

Feeding directly in to this interest is the book, In The Courts of The Sun, by Brian D'Amato. An enjoyable (and at 682 pgs. lengthy) read for all those who like a good end-of-the-world story.
This novel describes Jed DeLanda's attempt to save the world from an unknown doom. Jed is descended from Mayan peasants in Guatemala. From his mother he learns the “sacrifice game” which he uses to discover answers about possible future events. Jed uses this game to play the commodities market, but turns his playing to darker purposes when he learns that the Maya were purportedly predicting the end of the world. Assisting and guiding Jed is a professor who is trying to figure out the archetypical game from which all games are descended (Which is kind of a stretch - why would there be one game from which all games are descended?) A mysterious corporation is providing the funding for the research and experimentation. The quest for understanding what will be happening in December 2012 is the elusive goal. Unfortunately the version of the sacrifice game known in 2012 is a watered down version and so not informative enough. To learn how to play the game correctly Jed volunteers to go back (strictly in the form of brain waves) to 664 CE to learn from the masters of the game. In this ancient environment Jed describes the cities, people, language and cultures he encounters. He travels to Teotihuacan in search of the secrets of the sacrifice game.

The book ends abruptly as this is the first installment in an intended trilogy. This being the case this review is by its nature incomplete. What makes the book worth reading are its vivid descriptions of Maya cities, culture and people. I would not be surprised if this feature of the book could be criticized by Maya scholars, but even if the portrayal is not accurate, it still makes for an enjoyable novel. The character development of Jed is excellent, but sometimes at the expense of other characters.

The major issue I have with this book is the language. Jed speaks a dialect of Maya which is thought to be “particularly conservative.” Due to the language being “conservative” Jed has little difficulty understanding the language being spoken in 664 CE. Though there might not have been a lot of change between modern Ch'ol and the Ch'ol spoken in 664 CE it seems implausible that he would have so little difficulty. For comparative purposes if you analyse modern English with Old English, say in the form of Beowulf you find a great deal of difference. No modern English speaker could just go back to that period and be able to speak and understand the language.

Overall this book is a recounting of an exciting adventure in a fantastical past.