Lost Cities of China, Central Asia and India (The Lost City Series) [Paperback]

David Hatcher Childress (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 429 pages
• Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press; 3rd edition (April 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932813070
• ISBN-13: 978-0932813077
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly enjoyable read, December 11, 1999

By 

Saucy Thing (Brisbane, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Cities of China, Central Asia and India (The Lost City Series) (Paperback)

I found this book to be extremely interesting. I'm fascinated by history, both conventional and unconventional, and found this book to be a bit of both. It is full of anecdotes of the author's travels and contains details that many other history books gloss over as being too trivial; the result is a richer, fuller account of many different peoples and places in an easy-to-read, conversational style. In fact, the book is almost an historical travel guide. I thought that the reader who criticised the book as being full of crackpot theories was being very unfair. Sure, the author comes across as a bit of a hippie, but so what? Are his opinions any less valid just because he subscribes to some beliefs that many others don't share. The only question is whether these beliefs bias his work. They don't. Read it and enjoy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More Travel Log than Archaelolgy, December 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost Cities of China, Central Asia and India (The Lost City Series) (Paperback)

The title says this book is about Lost Cities, but it is really about the authors travels through Asia and the Middle East in the late 1970's. There is a fair amount of information about so-called Lost Cities sprinkled here and there through out the narrative, but this comes from sources other than the authors travels as is evidenced by the extensive bibliography (4 pages!). One annoying feature of this book is that it has some wonderful B&W pictures that are completely out of sequence with the narrative. As a travel log it is an excellent window to other cultures and philosophies, but it is certainly not archaeology. David Hatcher Childress may be a legitamte Archaeologist, but you certainly couldn't tell it from this book. I would think twice about purchaseing any of the authors other books, based on this one.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother..., February 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost Cities of China, Central Asia and India (The Lost City Series) (Paperback)

As someone with a great interest in ancient history and lost civilisations, I bought this book with enthusiasm (it has a title not to be ignored). I feel compelled however to express my disappointment with this book; it is nothing more than a travel account written by a 1970s hippie backpacking through Asia. Occasionally the author would encounter another traveller who would tell an enticing tale (no guarantee of authenticity), and then postulate "is this a hidden mystery?" - clearly gullible, the author seemed open to whomever he encountered and whatever fancy stories they had to tell (the old adage of "gullible American" comes to mind). There is no new information, no quality thought-provoking research, and no new images either - all pictures in the book are old archives published in many other books for decades, and what's more they are positioned between chapters seemingly as an afterthought (there are no references to the images in the text). If you are interested in this subject, go to Graham Hancock who is a genuine researcher and has made genuine new discoveries. Hatcher-Childress's book is a complete waste of money; furthermore, every single page without exception is riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Shame on the author, shame on the publisher. One star for audacity (I'd give it four or five if it was advertised as a travel guide to Asia).