Oxford Mexican Society
Children of the Sun impressed with well developed characters and vivid descriptions of one of history's most dramatic culture clashes. I highly recommend it.

The British Mexican Society
… a gripping story, well-told and full of exciting incident, even if the denouement can come as no surprise... a very readable book.

Southampton Mexican Society
Through Children of the Sun Elizabeth Manson Bahr gives a glance to this one fascinating event [when Mexicas and Spaniards had their first encounter]. With a surprising ability to treat historic events as a tale, Elizabeth allows the reader to enter in a simple way into the Mexica world; to its everydayness and deep religiousness, taking us to that dramatic shock of cultures, where the divers personages and protagonists are not condemned to be one cold history lesson.

The Oxford Journal
Children of the Sun is a gruesome, racy, no-holds-barred novel based on the fall of the Aztec Empire. From the infamous human sacrifices to the desperate crimes of a dying civilisation, Bahr packs the story full of shock and colour throughout.…
Her novel includes all those gory details which are familiar to us. But she also makes much of the more palatable aspects of the indigenous Mexican culture. Tenochtitlan, the city at the heart of the story, is gloriously imagined and nothing about it goes unmentioned. Not only does she deliver a well-researched impression of Aztec culture, religion and daily life before its fall, but she also gives a clear and engaging history of the Spanish invasion.
…At first the narrative hops between the perspectives of prominent Aztecs: Montezuma and his council. Later the voices of the close generation become more significant, until the story is totally dominated by the daughter of the last emperor.
… Those in search of a new fast-paced historical read for a wet-weather holiday could do worse than open up Bahr’s debut novel.

The Historical Novel Society
As the danger of invasion - indeed, of conquest - becomes undeniable, the sons of Montezuma and their fractious allies try ploy after desperate ploy to defeat these strange white-skinned beings with their fire-blasting weapons, and the whole time the reader is swept along. Despite the fact that even casual students of history (or readers of Gary Jennings' splendid novel Aztec) will know how the story ends, Bahr keeps everything fresh and gripping. Highly recommended.