Anton Gill : CITY OF GOLD

CITY OF GOLD is adventurous novel written by Anton Gill  and published by Penguin Books earlier this year. I have bought it on one of my random trips to Asda, when I had a quick look at the summary of the book on the back cover. It caught my attention.

The story touches up on the mythological City of Gold - Eldorado and our constant attempts to find it throughout history. We are meeting historical figures mixed with modern day secret service agents. We are finding out about secret societies trying to find this myth for their own greedy purposes. And of course, what would a good story be without heroes - the good guys, the members of other societies, spies - the men who's job is to protect the world and this treasure hidden in the depths of the Amazonian Rainforest. 

I have truly enjoyed this story. It caught me straight from the start. It reminds me the works of Dan Brown a lot. The main character Jack Marlow is a spy working for INTERSEC. He is kind of mix between Robert Langdon, James Bond and MacGyver. Do you remember the show from the 80s? I grew up on it and all the way while reading this book, I couldn't help but to think about the show. It might be the fact that Marlow always finds a way from dangerous situations and MacGyver could make a bicycle from a chewing gum when needed. It might the fact that we are after a long lost treasure of City of Gold and we are in a constant wondering if the City truly exists and where we could find it. And there were loads of episodes of this kind on mentioned TV show where MacGyver was after the lost treasures and legends. I clearly remember a full TV film about The Atlantis. So this story is very close to my heart because since childhood I've been obsessed with lost legends and myths like this one. 





The story is fast paced. Entertaining. Adventurous. Clever. Tense. Intelligent. Exciting. Energetic.  Palpitating. I love how the author went through different timelines from late 1500 to modern day 2013. We read about a theory that William Shakespeare wasn't really the person who we thought to be. We found out more about Sir Walter Raleigh. We're meeting with persons of great names like Alexander Von Humboldt and even having a glimpse at Nazi occupied Germany and its politics. And then we get to see Paris, New York, Berlin, Rio De Janeiro.. This hair-raising adventure takes you all over the world. 

I think anyone can find something they will like about this book. I found it most entertaining. The story grabbed me and wouldn't let go. And through very clever writing I wasn't able to put the book down. Not once I thought about it as boring, right the opposite. It was exciting. I really enjoyed that we followed the journey of the map through history and the reasons why people became obsessed with the idea of discovering The City of Gold. 

Mr Gill wrote a great adventure. A journey of extraordinary discovery. A journey of a Map to Eldorado, a city made whole from gold which opens its gates one day for couple of minutes once a year. And who discovers it, will become insanely rich. 

The author also made me realise how economically weak the world is. He help me to understand politics and financial problems which I even wasn't aware of.  As said in the book: "Our whole world is built on sand." It's not stable. There is more going on in the financial and political world which we, normal people, wouldn't even dream off. And this book made me realise that I should learn more about this stuff, because once the sand will become lose, we can lose everything. 

So thank you Mr Gill for teaching me about this issues in such a clever and thrilling way. Who would say that a simple story about a long lost map would make me think about today's world problems?

The book has a very clever ending. It doesn't say if this is the only book and there won't be a sequel but it also leaves a space for it. So the author is keeping us guessing what will happen next. 

City of Gold was a sensational adventure through the time and history and legends. I would recommend to read this book to anybody who is fan of Dan Brown or MacGyver. You are in for a treat.