Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest

I rarely write reviews, and most books are not worthy. This one is a five. I rate it at that, as it is history that is well written and researched (I hope), and is an engaging read that I did not want to end. I am a horse rider myself, spend my winters in AZ riding the same types of terrain, and can empathize with the ordeals of horse wrecks and treacherous trails. There is a lot of humor throughout the book, that might not be appreciated if not a horseman or at least an outdoorsman. The stories of the tribes and individuals are captivating, of past and present. If you are interested in the history of our southwest before and during the demise of our American Indians, and willing to assess the value of modern society, I highly recommend it. And if you don't know a thing about a horse, you will gain some insights from reading this book!

The author and two companions retraced Coronado's journey from the Mexican border through Arizona into New Mexico. I really enjoyed the history of the region presented by the author. The story of the author's actual journey was less compelling. The author had very little outdoor experience before undertaking the journey. So, a lot of his story involved tracking down horses that were not secured well and other "hardships" that the author experienced. Most experience outdoors-people would not have encountered these "hardships". I found this part of the book redundant and boring. However, I felt that the author gave a very thorough and informative view of the history of the area. I would recommend the book because of the historical aspect. The history was presented well and was entertaining and enlightening to read.

I read a lot. More than a lot actually. This book is among my top 3 favorites. Douglas Preston is very good writer. Almost all his books are fiction, mysteries like the Pendergast series, and they're great fun. This one is a true account of his horseback trip following the route of Spanish explorer Coronado across what is now the southwest United States. It's funny, sad, and totally engrossing. Please read it. You'll become a fan too.

A history lesson interspersed with his travels by horse retracing the steps of Coronado through the Southwest. Good companion for his other book, Talking to the Ground. Highly recommended

I am a big fan of the Southwest and love adventure stories, so this book really appealed to me. For the most part I really enjoyed this book - it was well written, exciting, interesting and always informative. I learned so much about Southwest history, especially the Native Americans and journey of Coronado. The book was excellently researched and presented. Sometimes it became a little more than I could take in as there were so many tribes and people involved in Coronado's travels. It was also interesting to read about the transformation of the cowboys and ranches through the years in Arizona. The concern I had with the book was how the horses fared on the trip. It seemed almost cruel putting them through such hardship and fear over horrible terrain. Difficult to read at times. The author also doesn't mince words on the treatment of Native Americans - the cruelty toward them was inconceivable. A fascinating but gritty book!

This book should appeal to all real life and arm chair adventurers alike. I would like to see the photos journal packed with drone footage, gps mapping of the path traveled listing water found and important landmark locations. I have hiked / back packed small sections of this the area . Harsh is too gentle a word for some places and pain says too little. Of course, there are gentle areas of great beauty that warm t he body and soul..... and the pain goes away.

Douglas Preston's tale of adventure in the Southwestern wilderness is a GEM. It is packed with history of the area, the invasion of Coronado and Europeans of the American Southwest and the subsequent changes in cowboy and indigenous culture. The saga of his present horse back journey is amusing and entertaining and filled with interesting characters. I am a big fan of all of the Preston & Childs mysteries and have found Douglas Preston's solo books enthralling too. He is especially good at developing and fleshing out his characters and one can see this in "Cities of Gold", although it is a non-fiction historcal adventure book. The book is actually a tragic tale of cultural and environmental destruction and the most poignant episode in the book is the portion when Preston and his friend emerge on the outskirts of Albuquerque, NM after being in a beautiful, pristine wilderness for months. The description of his altered response to the American city in all its squalor, tackiness, pollution and danger, after living in nature is a scathing commentary on American culture and the hostility of the modern city. Crossing Albuquerque was the most danggerous part of their horse back trip. I highly recommend it and the book has been added to my home library.....it is a "Keeper"...to be re-read now and then!

This is an amazing journey, but there are no photographs in the book. This needs to be mentioned in the book description. I happen to know the photographer who was on this journey and was surprised none of his images were in the book. I returned the book and got the Kindle version.

I first read this after visiting New Mexico. It is a truly awesome place - in many ways the least American part of America I have seen. I wanted to know more about the area and this book was a great find. It gives an account of a horseback ride through the remotest parts of Arizona and into New Mexico following the route taken by the first Spanish explorers several hundreds of years ago. The author has excellent descriptive powers and I thoroughly enjoyed the intertwining of the history of the region with the narrative of the journey.

For fans of D.P who like more than. the misteries and Pendergast The country is vividvy described. perhaps exagerated. But I have not finished the book yet.

This is not a book for non-Americans, except one has a special interest in the American Southwest. Because I visited some of these places and did myself a small scale horse trekking across the wilderness of the Wild West, I could not escape in buying the book. And I have sympathies for the ideas of the author. What do you get? An adventurous journey sometimes close to Don Quixote, besides that strenuous, troublesome, disappointing to some respects but all the time exceedingly rewarding in many other respects. For the author, for the reader perhaps not so much. I found it not too illuminating to hear the 21st time how difficult it was with the horses. The book has its lengths! The author and his companion deserve attention not alone for what they have achieved. More for the idea and the irresistible determination to make ends meet. The author planned to trace back the travels of the 16th century Spanish explorer Coronado. This meant a journey through a thousand miles across Arizona and New Mexico where they are most inaccessible, no roads, but fences, no water, but dust and heat, brutal deserts and mountain country, no more hostile Indians but thorny shrubs and sensible horses, no sleepless nights in the open due to the fatigue of a hard day. A risky enterprise! Throughout the book the author flashes back to the expedition of Coronado who was searching for the seven cities of Gold, an exaggeration of an earlier report which transformed an assembly of the pueblos of the Zuni Indians, this highly civilized and refined culture, into a myth. The greedy Spaniards did not appreciate the true cultural riches of the pueblo Indians, they were blind for the spiritual wealth which they thought to possess themselves in abundance in their Catholic faith. But their hearts were of a lesser quality than those of the Indians who offered them hospitality but earned the bloodthirsty disappointment of the Spaniards. The West was not civilized, this is also what the author has to learn. The West was just changed! The author underwent a development in his thinking. He recognized that the anglo-american culture was established at the cost of the Indian culture. I cannot share his opinion that destruction of the Indian culture was inevitable. He says: "Our wealth derives from our land and our natural resources, both of which we took from the native inhabitants of this continent. We would have nothing had we not destroyed what came before". Some sort of a cheap excuse? I am no American, I see it more critical. But he is not so sure if the fabulous America of the late 20th century was truly a better world than the world of the Indians before the advent of the whites. But I suppose this is what the Americans wanted to have. Their trip had taken place within the borders of the USA, but they had also seen the ghosts of an alien world that preceded this one. They had seen "worlds glimpsed behind rubbled walls, worlds chiselled in petroglyphs and lying scattered among broken postherds, worlds blowing across vast deserts; worlds buried in memories of cattle, dust, and grass; worlds laughing in dry saltbushes, muttering and whispering to us from a thousand dry arroyos, worlds flying up into the night sky at that moment between sleeping and waking". They had not found a triumphant America in the dusts of the deserts. Rather layers of loss. The best thing about the West was that it was made possession. Too many destroyed pueblos and vanished Indian tribes, including the peoples of the biggest pueblo (Pecos) to hail about the process! The Indians, the cowboys, the wilderness, the great cattle drives, the unfenced ranges, the homestead families, all these things had been lost, not won. "We had witnessed the last dying glimmer of that peculiar, eccentric, ugly, violent, free, and peaceful place known as the American West. As the Old West had died a new one was born." The trails had to be replaced by wagon roads and these had to be buried under railroads or interstates, the range had to be fenced, the prairies had to be busted and planted and the rivers diverted. But the conclusion is: "There is no death, only a change of worlds."

Well written non-fiction book by the Pendergast series.

A highly enjoyable tale of a journey across some of the harshest country in the southern U.S.. I highly recommend it.