The Incas

Intrigue, betrayal, warfare and family relationships form the fabric of this absorbing, 1072-page epic of the Inca empire in the two decades preceding the Spanish invasion. The love interest is provided by Cusi Huaman, a young Inca warrior once scorned as a weakling by his father, and Micay, a healer and daughter of a Chachapoya rebel chief. Around them swirl dozens of historical and fictional characters, including three war chiefs who become the last Inca emperors. Writing with the detail and accuracy customarily accorded anthropological treatises, Peters ( Tikal: A Novel About the Maya ) recreates ritual initiations, internecine feuds, the crushing of rebellions and the active presence of the gods in daily life. Though the pace is slow and stately, this expansive novel plunges the reader into a maelstrom climaxed by the arrival of Francisco Pizarro and the ``Bearded Ones'' in 1532. (Aug.)