In his compelling and fresh sixth book Craig A. Grimes takes a speculative look on history, power, and society. How so often little things lead to unforeseen big things, and carefully planned big things so often lead to nothing. A Distant Mountain takes one to The Valley of Mexico about 1350. The Aztecs have yet to rise to power; they are just one of the many Nahua city-states making up, as they knew it, the One World. What we know of these people, crushed in an eye-blink, generally begins and ends with ritual blood sacrifice. Yet at that time they had the most modern society of any in the world with, uniquely, free public education for all children, hospitals, efficiently managed public works, an ethical judicial system, and government supported associations that cared for the needy. The towns and cities were orderly, clean, prosperous and efficient. Which suggests that their society had both a rational and irrational aspect to it- like most. Age and youth, peace and war, death and love, the strikingly beautiful story is alive with a truth and understanding that illuminate the soul as a marvellous dream.