Customer Reviews

Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria and the Pacific (The Lost City Series) (Lost Cities Series)

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With few books on Lemuria out there, this one gives probably the best run-down on the idea of a lost continent in the Pacific. Atlantis is famous in the Atlantic, but few know of the evidence, via legends, geological and archeological, of a lost civilization in the Pacific. Geologists tell us that ocean levels were 300 feet lower 10,000 years ago--and Childress tells us that this would make mini-continents of some areas of the Pacific. Does civilization stretch back 10,000 or 20,000 years? If so, than Lemuria may have existed!

I first read "Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria and the Pacific" in Spring 1994 while a graduate student at Univ. of California at Riverside. I found the book while just aimlessly roaming through the univ's library in their sort of "alternate history" section (sorry; don't know where that is on the Dewey decimal system), where I found a pretty good collection of those kinds of books, going back as far as Churchward and Donnelly ....

Childress's book is, as others on here have written, a travelogue, in which he expounds on possible "lost civilizations" ranging from the Indian Ocean as far west as Madagascar all the way eastward to almost the west coast of North America. He brings in all kinds of references -- "academically credible" or not -- from Helena Blavatsky through Nazis and then all the way back to the Hebrew Exodus.

But that is just in the "controversial" parts of the book. Otherwise, he really does deliver a travelogue replete with his adventures of combing tiny Pacific islands and even camping out (I'm doing this one from memory) in a beach cave beneath the Easter Island statues. If you learn nothing else from this book, you might learn the tragic history of Easter Island and it's people.

Most people probably don't know that there are coral-stone megaliths on tiny Pacific islands and atolls; formations reminiscent of Stonehenge or Baalbek or some South American edifices, on islands not much larger than the formations themselves. Childress makes you wonder how that much labor could be marshalled for that much effort in what has been a sea-desert for as long as anyone knows.

The best thing Childress does with the empirical parts of the book is to raise the question of whether some unknown civilization --not necessarily originating in the Pacific-- could have traveled there and built megalithic structures for whatever their purposes might have been.. He gives attention to other areas also not usually included in the "lost civilizations" roll call, most particularly for me Australia.

Some will say "Childress is no archaeologist!" or might say his "literature review" is a rehash of old and dubious data. Yeah, I know he isn't, and I can spot cruddy data as quick as or quicker than anyone. He's throwing information at us in shotgun fashion, and it's up to the reader to decide what you'll accept or not. That's fine. I don't think Childress was pretending to "serious scholarship" with this one. Hey, the book is fun! ------- even for a grad student.


Live a little!! --which might be David Hatcher Childress's motto.

We are grateful this book was handed to our New Zealand Immigration Services as a gift 7 years ago. Its not the sort of title you go out and shop for yourself if you have never read anything like this before. We couldnt put this book down, our friends try to steal it. Its the kind of book you pick up over and over, alot like a favourite internet page. David, who is American and at the time when he wrote this, a very young man, deserves alot of credit for his gusto on travel blogging, research and investigation skills. His writing and personality draws you into his adventure with humour and a new sense of wonder and appreciation if you are new to ancient geographical history, with interesting maps and details on the secrets of Lemuria and Pacific. David provided in simple, humourous and evokingly well constructed form, a bridge of knowledge to things we never knew about our beautiful continent as well as Asia and India.
If : you are keen on getting an insight to life or vacations in the Southern Hemisphere, are searching for unique travel destinations or ideas, are intrigued by archaeology, this book is a perfect start. If : you live in the Pacific Rim, are brand new to subjects regarding the esoteric origins of mans civilisation in your area, talk to people from all walks of life in your work, or even possess a curiosity for things outside or even inside the box. We recommend this book and all his other titles with 50 stars for David.

David Hatcher Childress's book looks at the Lemuria story, the lost continent of the Pacific or maybe Indian ocean, with great imagination and intellectual curiosity. For the first time since the 1930s he approached the subject in detail, and he is not afraid to take on many aspects of the story, however quirky, with an open mind. Moreover, I liked the physical descriptions of the places he visited, and the book can be read as an offbeat travelogue as well as alternative archaeology. Recommended reading for lost continent buffs!

i must admit that this book is axually exactly the kind of thing that gives a bad name to alternative archaeology and alternative views in general. The writer simply travels somewhere, goes to ancient monuments, is impressed by them and...that's the end of his part in solving the mystery. There's also a lot of copying of text from books of people who axually did research. As such it's nothing more than a glorified travelogue with a lot of quotations, and little original insight.

But even as a compendium of accumulated research on controversial subjects, the book falls short - it doesn't have enough to give any concrete picture, it'd be much better for persons interested to read the actual books than this guy's abridgment with his own spin (i'd recommend Churchward's excellent, or brilliant, books on Mu, for example).

He seems mostly insistent on promoting the "enlightened" social ideas of an obscure secret society, named Lemurian Fellowship, which i would not grant any more credibility than theosophy and Madame Blavatsky. Without a doubt there is a good deal of solid information here, from other books, but it is engulfed by nonsense and the adventures of a silly guy from which none, i dare say, shall be the wiser. This in itself serves to undermine the information.

At best i could say that Childress writes these books to fund his escapades in exotic lands, but somehow one gets the impression the book might even be written so as to appeal to certain kinds of crackpots. In addition, Childress is pretty much a jerk of an American, perhaps curious but certainly not intellectual, and the writing really is bad - even self-published books don't need to be badly written or totally without correxions - to be sure, personally i wish self-published books would be held to a higher standard than professional ones.

Besides this, i am not even fully convinced he travelled anywhere, at least by way of this book. This really could've been written with a few tourist guides and a few reference books at hand, and a little imagination, at home, without straying very far from the route that goes winds from the computer to the fridge, then to the bedroom and then back again. That's the taste the book left in my mouth.

(And by the way, this is nothing like his article on the Olmecs at Graham Hancock's website, based upon which i had formed a rather positive image of the man.)

The Lost Cities series by David Hatcher Childress has proven for me to be probably the most entertaining, thoroughly informative, and thought provoking series of books I have ever read and have also served as an invaluable road map for my own travels around the world in search of ancient mysteries. I have traveled, so far, to several locations in Egypt, Malta, Europe, Asia, Central and South America and each time I have used his books to plan my route and have taken whichever one I needed for the journey as a guide. I bought the whole series long ago and they are generally beat to hell if not falling apart at this point and I wouldn't have them any other way. Reading this series made me make up my mind that I could never be satisfied being a spectator of the debate, but the only way to truly know these mysteries was to be a participant and see them for myself. At the very least this series should inspire you to get out there, live your life as a traveler and not a tourist and go see these places for yourself. Save the money, do it cheap, whatever you have to do, but don't let the opportunity to actually go there pass you by in this life.

Equal parts detective story, travel guide, diary, history book, and compendium of esoteric knowledge; what makes these books so unique, among other things, is that Childress takes the reader with him through every step of the journey -cold beers, missed trains, broken legs, chance encounters, stolen wallets, one night stands in far away places, wishing you could stay but knowing you can't. All the while on the trail of an ever growing mystery with every answer leaving only more questions spurring you on to the next stop wondering what will happen next. One thing I always respected about Childress in these books, which some may not get the point, is that while at times he does present off-beat esoteric ideas about lost civilizations, it is done so not to promote any particular idea, but rather to give a greater context of the history of the literature of the last few hundred years concerning lost civilizations in the hope that something worthwhile might be gleaned from even the most outlandish or dated of source. To him it is a journey and to his credit does little to leave any stone unturned. But also unique to Childress compared with other writers of the genre is that other than the obvious general idea that there is much more to the story of history than we know, he rarely takes a definitive stance on any pet theory, but rather presents the information with more of a sense of wonder and openness and is really not trying to sell the reader on anything either way other than the necessity to keep an open mind. All just interesting to know and he leaves the reader to think of it what they will which is refreshing.

All and all very interesting and entertaining and I highly recommend getting the whole series. The Lost Cities series are true classics of the genre and should be a front and center addition to any alternative researchers library and as a whole are an unparalleled source of of information about many megalithic sites and discoveries you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Hopefully they will inspire you as they did me.

Childress continues his series of adventures around the world, documenting lost cities and forgotton ruins of the South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Australia and New Zealand. This area is full of mystery and very difficult to study, being so vast and isolated. It seems likely that much is submerged since the rising of the ocean after the last Ice Age and centuries of storms and tidal waves. This area is a largely untapped region of archaeological mysteries. As usual, Childress reviews the theories and finds of other writers and explorers. The more fantastical ones are not nearly as interesting as the ones grounded in solid research. How many lands have been lost to the sea in this region that is the crossraods between two hemispheres? Had there only been primitive island hoppers or was there larger, more sophisticated civilizations? Is what we find their remains or just the remains of generations of islanders and seafarers? Sure, some places the book is out of date such as the claim that NASA said the Moon is older than Earth, or the myth that Christians burned the library in Alexandria. One islander tells Childress that the world was to end at the end of the century (the book was published in 1988)! Overall, a fascinating review of a region that needs more attention from science. "Lemuria" may have more basis in reality than Atlantis. See The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of World Culture for the potential cause of the destruction of these lost worlds, often alluded to in myths and legends.

A truly, deeply stupid book. Written as part travelogue, part 'investigation' into apparent archaeological anomalies in the South Pacific, the book fails in both areas. Childress seems to have been exactly the sort of traveler who has given American tourists such a bad name: culturally insensitive and just plain dumb. His 'insights' into archaeology and culture are trite beyond description; he displays no critical skills when examining 'evidence' and displays a delight in sensation over facts. The usual suspects get interviewed; Rex Gilroy, the Antipodean version of von Daniken, for example. This book is definitely from the school of 'thinking' that finds ordinary archaeology- all that hard scientific stuff and all that annoying ivory tower university educated analysis- far too unsensational. So much more fun if space aliens had done everything for us, and archaeology is just a matter of ordinary blokes running around like Indiana Jones manques having adventures and finding lost temples and God knows what. Read at your peril.