Customer Reviews

Lost Cities of North & Central America (Lost Cities Series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a great book regardless of how outlandish some of the stories it contains are. The author's greatest strength is not in forming unique opinions about the subject but rather in bringing together a vast number of sources to show an America completely different than what we've been lead to believe.

The book just isn't about lost cities but also generally weird stuff throughout Central and North America. There is evidence of Asian contact with Central American cultures, pterodactyls in Arizona, Vikings in Oklahoma, Irish monks running all over the place, and those are the more believable stories. Atlantis or a gold city always seems to be around the corner, Jesus may have visited the New World, a master race is controlling the world from underground, the Egyptians had a colony in the Grand Canyon, and of course the government is covering all this up.

The book does have its problems. The editing is horrible. The narrative that strings the author's travels together is wooden and painful to read. Each chapter stands by itself, but this means that some background material is repeated, often word for word. Overall these are minor issues.

The book doesn't provide any answers but it does make a choice perfectly clear. You can either accept the traditional view that people wandered across a land bridge in Siberia to colonize the Americas and stayed relatively isolated and unadvanced until Europeans showed up in 1492 and wiped them out. Or you can read this book and see if there is evidence out there that suggests otherwise.

This was the first Childress book that I had ever read. It was very informative as to what is actually found in North and Central America. Being somewhat of a history and achaeology buff, my eyes were opened wide as to what can be found in our own backyards. The fact that the author includes his own everyday experiences while travelling makes the book more pleasant. I would reccomend this book to anyone thinking of driving across North America.

David H. Childress's Lost City series has been one of the most interesting collection of books I have read in a long time, however, I really don't know how accurate many of his theories are. Even many minor statements he makes, such as "Native Americans can not grow facial hair" are fallacies, I know an abundance of Native Americans, and they're facial hair rivals that of Che and Fidel. So when a guy gets facts as simple as these garbled, how much credibility can he possibly have when he starts rambling on about "Smithsoniangate", and "living dinosaurs".

I find these possibilites as intriuguing as the next guy, but exactly where is his proof. He cites some archival information from an Arizona newspaper as proof that in the Grand Canyon in the early 1900's researchers found a cave full of Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Egyptian artifacts, and the Smithsonian museum came in and barricaded the area to this day(sort of like Raiders of the Lost Ark). And he uses oral history as proof that there are living Pteradactyls in the forests of Arizona. Perhaps Childress is correct in these assertions, and the US gov't is suppressing evidence of his relatively outlandish claims, then again, perhaps he's just trying to exploit the gullibility of the American public. But judging from his appearances on various talk shows, my guess is that he honestly believes that the gov't is suppressing information on the esoteric subjects he discusses in his books, of course this doesn't neccessarily mean that he's correct in these claims. I suppose that Childress's writings are extremely interesting, whether they are complete fabrications or are truisms. Reading this book certainly won't make you a better person, but it will force you to question what the author is claiming(that the US gov't is involved in clandestine activities of a paranormal nature, and that there are living prehistoric creatures), and will almost definitely force you to ponder what the US gov't plans to accomplish by suppressing ancient history(from my perspective they recieve no incentive by suppressing info that would link the Egyptians with North America). If you have a relatively large amount of time on your hands, I would definitely recommend this book, it makes you question the "accepted" history of the North American continent, but it also frustrates the reader with the lack of viable evidence to support his outrageous suggestions.

The book makes a great read, same as DHC's other books of the "Lost Cities" series. Very entertaining, thought provoking, and well written. One thing though: I don't get why the author keeps calling himself "a rogue archeologist": someone has to explain to him what archeologists do. DHC is no archeologist, whatever he might think; he's a traveler, a gossip gatherer, and a free spirit, but all this has little to do with archeology. I enjoyed his open-mindedness, and the relativism with which he judges most of the theories and hypotheses considered. Going through his whole opus, I can't help noticing that this writer is a really great guy, and that his travel companions and friends must have been lucky to have met him, but archeologist? Please, give me a break. And use some proofreader, for the next edition.

Much of this book is pleasant escape reading, and some of the things discussed are intriguing, such as tunnel systems associated with some ruins. The book was spoiled for me, however, when I came to chapters dealing with things I knew of firsthand. One major Northwest petroglyph site is placed in the wrong state. There are just enough wrongo facts to make me wonder how many others masquerade as reality in the text. I will reread the book in the future and enjoy the mysteries of past cultures south of the border, while keeping a salt block handy for the rest of it. His books certainly hold true to the basic instructions for finding lost cities - ask the locals. Few lost cities are truly lost to those who live in the area. They're just forgotten. Enjoy this as a tale told by a traveler, and a collection of some of the more interesting legends of American mystery archaeology. I don't really think there are Egyptian treasures in the Grand Canyon, but I would be delighted if they were real. The same holds true for the treasure-laden tunnels of Death Valley...

This book is very interesting and thought provoking. I enjoyed reading it.

Rather than a book that explains what places you can visit, how to get there and what to see when you go- this is more of a journal of the authors travels. In here he tells you what he sees, what he thinks and the things he learns.

The author covers a wide range of thoughts from pteradactyles still living to Asians visiting Mexico to Romans in Arizona.

I rated this a four instead of a five for two reasons. At times the writing seems stiff and it makes it hard to wade through some sections of this book. Also, the proofreading leads a lot to be desired. Words are left out, typos and spelling errors are plenty. Enough to be a distraction at times.

Otherwise, it's an interesting book and well worth reading.

Enjoy.

I was sorely disappointed. This book looks like it was printed in a home officer before the days of capable desktop publishing. I just don't understand how such an interesting topic could be reduced to such a terrible book, but it is. Main problems with the book: It reads like a random, unedited and self-indulgent roam of the author. It is replete with grammatical errors, misspelled words and simply stupid sentences. I just don't care whether the author enjoyed a particular meal (described in excruciatingly boring detail) so much as I care about the title topic, and the book seems replete with a self-centeredness that only Childress' mother will appreciate. "I wore a white cotton shirt from Patagonia made with organic cotton grown in the upper Hullaga Valley of SOuth AMerica. It was getting dirty by now, so I stopped in a convenience store to buy some washing power. I was surprised to find that they carried "Tide" in Guatemala, but I was relieved. I loved that shirt, you see." Give me a break. Who cares? I want Lost Cities, not a juvenile's diary of his camping trip. Look for other books on this very interesting subject.

Childress opened my eyes to a new world of suppressed/lost discoveries in archeology. Given some of the examples in the book, current dogma deserves as much scrutiny as the "underdog" theories of ancient civilizations. However, Childress gets personal in his travel dialogue and some of the ancient civilization subjects are just briefly mentioned. But overall, it was very interesting.

This book did give the reader some very interesting facts and folk lore about archaeological discoveries that could prove the existence of superior "giant" races in the Americas. The only thing I did not like about the book (except for the grammatical errors), was that the author would mention some dramatic event (such as the discovery of giants' bones in a mound) and leave the reader hanging after a couple of paragraphs about the find. This book could have easily been an entire set of volumes, should everything have been explained in detail. Overall, it was a very interesting book leaving the reader wanting to know more about certain discoveries and theories within the book.

Having not only read the book but also having checked out a number of acknowledged sites within the continental United States, I most happily recommend this bokk to anyone interested in the field of archaeology. It is refreshing to note that the author is not taken in by every story that he hears but neither does he pass them off without some form of "seasoned" comment. Even though it is filled with personal comments and banter, it must be remembered that this is a "traveling narrative" and a good one at that. As I said previously, I have personally visited a number of the sites in this book and have found the author's discriptions to be exact and his references to be valid. If you are ever in Cuba, N.M. stop by and see Bill Fortini, area archaeologist for the Gallina area of the Santa Fe National Forest and ask him to show you the "towers" mentioned on pages 366-369 of the book. They really are there!