I'm not going to re-review this story but instead focus on the differences between this and the TV version. I really enjoyed the TV story and felt this was not as good.

Lucarotti again does a good job at expanding elements of the story - his descriptions of food is a mark of his novelisations and I cannot say that I complain about that. It also makes clearer some of the additional elements of the story - the Doctor's feelings to Cameca; some of the more conflicted emotions of the Aztec sides and similar. Additionally this story is truer to the overall character dynamics to Lucarotti's novelisation of Marco Polo - with the Doctor not dominating things as much as he did there.

However there are elements that feel slightly drawn out that didn't on the TV story which is only four parts. In addition I was shocked that the novelisation added some additional Christian undertones to Barbara and Ian's thinking - while that isn't shocking for the overall context of their stories it also feels weird to me considering the evolution of the Aztecs and I'm not a massive fan.

Overall this is a decent read but definitely a downgrade on the TV story.