Customer Reviews

The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings

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My compliments to the author. He did a good job with this book. Not since Michael Coe's "Breaking the Maya Code" have I found a book on the Maya so exciting to read and so easy to get through. David Drew doesn't bog you down in academic minutae.

I found two things in this book that were particularly fascinating. One, that the Maya were not a single pre-Columbian empire, as is so often portrayed, but rather a set of city-states involved in constantly shifting alliances with other political entities. It made the Maya seem that much more accessible and real as people.

The second item I found fascinating was the fact that the Maya city of Tayasal survived into the period of the Spanish Conquest, while the bulk of the Maya world, and its once proud city-state, had collapsed several hundred years earlier. I am curious to read more about this particular city in a book by Grant Jones.

I highly recommend this book to all those interested in the Maya. It is a good read and you don't need to be an expert on the Maya to enjoy it.

This very good book is NOT just a history of what we know about the Maya. It summarizes the saga of how these ancient cities were discovered and how our knowledge of them was developed - especially during the last century.

It also offers a very insightful review of what scholars have learned of the various Mayan cities, their rise and fall, and their relations with one another.

The author also takes us through a brief review of the conquest and all that was lost and how the Maya have survived as a people under extremely difficult circumstances.

And there are some very helpful pcitures and illustrations.

I am glad I own it, have read it, and am happy to recommend it to others as a one volume look at the broad scope of out understanding of this amazing culture.

I have perused this book, and been struck by two things: its more-or-less competent review of the data; and its approximate appropriation of a title for a work in press by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube, who are frequently mentioned (and thanked) by the author of Lost Chronicles. For some years now specialists have eagerly awaited the Martin and Grube work. The use of a roughly similar title for the Drews book would seem to reflect, as far as I can tell, sharp practice and uncertain truth-in-advertising -- in fairness perhaps entirely beyond the control of Drews. I hope I am wrong, and that Drews' title existed long before this long-awaited, splendid effort by Martin and Grube. Until that book appears, readers will find a capable (but derivative) treatment of Maya history in The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings.

As a general reader with an interest in the Maya, I found that this book delivered. It was well written and not difficult and didn't get bogged down in archaeological minutae. But it IS thorough. Not just about the so called "Lost Chronicles" but a total survey of our knowledge of the Maya, from their "discovery", the serpentine journey to understanding them, and what is known from their origin through to recent times. But he is clear to point out that in Classical times we are restricted often to the lives of rulers, and often only of a few cites that have lots of inscriptions and are well studied. He even agrees that it is time to return the study of Mayan culture to the Mayan descendants. One still gets a sense of sketchiness in the presentation, which only reveals that even with all that has been recently aquired is still not very much. Contains maps, many b&w illustrations and color plates. He could have used twice as many, these things are really beautiful.

Aside: One aspect of Maya scholarship is the destruction in the 16th century of several Maya bark scrolls by Friar Diego de Landa. Although he is only supposed to have burned a few dozen, Drew appears to be wringing his fists as he goes on, as if at each turn these irreplacable items - and he claims the loss of hundreds or thousands - would have answered all his questions. Well, maybe.

If you want a history of every Mayan archaeologist + the history of rivalry between major Mayan cities ... this is a good summary of the most recent books written on the subject as far as I can tell.
Recent translations of the Mayan stellae give new insights into the Mayan obsession with royal blood and their cities being constantly at war for power (obviously) and for the capture of rival royals from nearby cities for sacrifice due to the "power" of their royal blood.
This is a big departure from the widely held "tree hugger" image of the Mayans.
(At least the Mayans were selective ... the Aztecs, Toltecs etc didn't seem to care which school you went to !) ... so I guess the Mayans can still be considered more "sophisticated" than their neighbours ...
This book suffers from information overload and can be very heavy going. To be true to the book title it should have minimised the infinite detail on archaeologists and stuck to the Mayans ... I'd give this 1/2 of the book a 4.5

It's the size and weight of a textbook. But I couldn't stop reading it, & finally gave up & packed it in my suitcase. I read the first 3 chapters, & then had to do a time-jump to a later period to catch up with where we would be visiting in Mexico. And once I loaned it to my son, at Chichen Itza, I didn't see it again, because he was so caught up reading it. It's that informative and, yes, readable. On the book flap, it says the author "brings to life this extraordinary civilization" - well he really does! I also appreciated the ending.

The title for this book is somewhat deceptive. You may think you are getting a translation of Maya Heiroglypic history - but you are not - in fact, you are getting more than that.

The author has produced an in-depth overview of Maya history from Prehistoric times until it's demise. It goes into detail on such cities as Tikal, Copan, Palanque & Quirigua for example. What you will get is a conglomeration of all the research in these areas in relation to history, art, architecture, politics and religion where information has been found.

This is a very informative book and reccomended for an overview of the entire Maya civilsation. It brings into context what caused the changes in Maya civilisation (where we know it) and the limitations on the knowledge we currently have.

A word of warning however - despite being 'reader friendly' this book can be slow to get through if you don't have a long background in Maya history because of it's sheer depth and array of information.

This book was very good in so many ways I found it to be a very objective and informative.