Didn't make it past the first 100 pages or so.

For such a big book there's a a whole lot predicated on conjecture posing as fact. While the premise is interesting, there's not much here beyond the idea that boats from China may have reached North and South America long before anyone else. After that, everything goes downhill so quick since flabby research and a whole lot of supposing are the only support presented. Usually a book like this can make for stimulating, thought-provoking reading, but there is so much resting on narrow, self-interested, wishful thinking and other hocus pocus, that it just isn't possible to sustain the interest needed to finish the book.

A fascinating book. Simply put, in the 15th century China discovered North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, Hawaii, The South Pole, The North Pole, and some other smaller places (i.e. everywhere) before Europeans did, and when Europeans later "discovered" the same areas they did it using Chinese maps. The author says he has tons of evidence to back up his claims, including Chinese DNA spread all around the world, maps saying so, Chinese artifacts scattered hither and yon, and sunken Chinese ships probably right under your feet (please check, for science).

After reading this book, I did a little more reading about it, and other people say the author has no evidence to back up his claims. Obviously I cannot independently verify either his claims or their claims about his claims, but I find the idea of medieval China's enormous fleets (800+ ships each several hundred feet long) sailing and colonizing the globe very appealing, and so I will now partially believe it.

I have managed to get about 1/3 into this book, and have now accepted that I will never struggle through to the end.

The idea the story was really interesting, but the point was proven very early on - and every chapter after that was just a repetition of the realisation that China discovered America first. Considering this fact was disclosed so early on, I was expecting a lot more about what other areas that may have come to light, the consequences for China, or a more engaging travel journal

Instead we were taken through the journey with constant references to the authors time in the navy. I think my main problem with the book was with the language and the author's story telling capability. If he had teamed up with a better narrator, it could have been a fascinating story. Instead, it just never managed to engage ...

Wow. The preponderance of evidence not only turns accepted European history and world history on its head, but also makes one wonder about the question the author poses as to whether or not we could be speaking Chinese now, rather than English, and have Buddhism as the dominant world religion, as well as my own personal question : did someone perhaps decide that the world was better off allowing Europe to take another three centuries to figure out what the Chinese already knew?
Given the cruelty of the conquests we saw by the Europeans, versus the kindness with which visited populations were treated by the Chinese fleet, it seems safe to predict that history might have turned out quite differently for the human race had that information of how to navigate the world remained in benevolent hands.

Reading books like this are the reason I love reading history . Nowadays we know that people from the Far East are advances in technology and engineering, even science. While this was an amazing read it's no surprise to learn that their sailors hardly ever suffered from scurvy when they carried fruit on their voyages.
Christopher Columbus discovered America by accident when the wind blew him off course.
I think these Chinese sailors knew what they were looking for. I have never been to America but from reading the book the American chickens and other fowl are similar to what you find in the Far East. No coincidence really?

Selama ini saya hanya tahu ekspedisi Laksamana Cheng Ho itu ke Asia Tenggara dan salah satunya mendarat di Semarang, Jawa Tengah. Tapi dari uraian super detil di buku ini, saya jadi tercengang krn ternyata ekspedisi maharaja ini mengelilingi dunia. Luar biasa sekali kalau memang terjadi hal ini di abad 15.

Dan gak spt bayangan saya selama ini kalau ekspedisi ini berbondong-bondong dan berduyun-duyun, ternyata mirip taktik dan strategi perang dimana Cheng Ho memecah ekspedisi ini menjadi 4 yg dipimpin masing-masing oleh Laksamana Hong Bao, Zhou Man, Zhou Wen dan Yang Qing. Dgn detil yg menakjubkan yg dikisahkan oleh author, saya mendapat gambaran bhw teknologi maritim China pada abad 15 ini sangat maju, jauh melampaui Eropa yg masih miskin.

Cheng Ho tentu saja tidak bisa berlayar dgn megahnya seandainya tidak ditunjang oleh Kaisar Zhu Di yg visioner. Sayangnya ekspedisi ini sangat memakan biaya dan nyawa sehingga setelah Kaisar Zhu Di meninggal, ekspedisi ini tidak dilanjutkan lagi oleh pengganti Kaisar. Dan lebih konyolnya, para Mandarin memusnahkan semua bukti-bukti pelayaran Cheng Ho dkk itu (mungkin bisa dibandingkan dgn perjalanan ke Bulan pd masa sekarang, mustahil tapi bisa saja terjadi).

Bab-bab awal yg saya baca saya suka krn menceritakan politik Dinasti Ming era Zhu Yuanzhang hingga Zhu Di meninggal. Sayangnya saya kurang demen dgn detil-detil lainnya, ttg bukti-bukti artefak bangkai kapal, DNA para suku asli di Amerika dsb. Saya gak se-telaten itu buat mengingat-ingat semua bukti sejarah itu. Andai saja saya bisa time travel kembali ke abad 15 utk melihat sendiri bukti kejayaan maritim China ini.

I am convinced. There is a raging debate over this book. The problem lies in the fact that the author is not a traditional historian--he's just a sailor who had a theory about what a few famous Chinese admirals did over a period of a couple of undocumented years. His theory is that they visited every continent on Earth except Europe, and he amasses a great deal of circumstantial evidence to support it. Not the least convincing, and what a good deal of the book focuses on, are the maps that many of the "great" European explorers used that show the areas that they are setting out to discover. If they're discovering them, who made the maps? Well, the Chinese did, and in great detail, and the maps were then copied or made by some of the Europeans who were sailing with the Chinese fleets. All in all, it's a very interesting book. The primary flaw stems straight from the fact that the author is not part of the establishment: he made his theory first and then tried to drum up evidence to support it... could open him up to all sort of biases and misjudgments. I found it compelling, however, and I have enough faith in the Chinese culture of antiquity that I believe they had the technology and drive to do it. Check it out if you want to shake your faith in the primacy of European world domination. And really, who doesn't?

Astounding! When I first read this, I thought it was a hoax.

It is hard to believe it has taken this long for some inquiry about Chinese navel exploration beyond the Indian ocean and nearby Pacific when even Menzies' detractors admit that China had the capability to circumnavigate the globe in the early 15th century. Also, most tellingly, it was done by a man who was only an amateur historian. So very typical of the smug academic establishment who currently call his work sloppy science and pseudo-history. And it seems Menzies has relied on lots of anecdotal and mythological evidence. It is worth noting that early inquiries about Viking discovery of America was also based on Norse myths and lots of anecdotal evidence but as more and more hard evidence accrued the case became stronger until finally a Viking settlement was found in Northern Canada. Just as historians derided evidence about Viking exploration until it overwhelmed their defence of the status quo, so too is it likely that Menzies has started a process of investigation that will show again that historians are sometimes more interested in reciprocal citations than real research.

Also, not to forget that a layman, Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated in 1947 that Polynesians and Native Americans could have sailed rafts across the pacific, as early as the Paleolithic era. A few years ago DNA analysis proved these two groups in fact intermixed early in the pre-Columbian era refuting extensive academic opposition to this hypothesis.

I loved this book and it shocked the shit out of me.

A fascinating examination into the possibility (certainty, according to the author) that the Chinese first circumnavigated the world between 1421 and 1423 during the Ming Dynasty. If true, the list of achievements goes beyond one simple voyage of discovery potentially to include the establishment of colonies and the transplantation of food crops that became vital to sustaining human life in many parts of the globe. Again if true, the most astonishing assertion is that the giant treasure fleets of Admiral Zheng He, sailing under orders from Emperor Zhu Di to discover the furthest extremities of the world, might have circumnavigated Greenland before returning home by sailing along the Siberian coast and the Bering Sea.

The book is easy to read and compelling, if not repetitive in asking and re-asking "If not the Chinese, then who?" Still, it presents interesting hypotheses. I will certainly be on the look-out for corroborating accounts of voyages of discovery.

Oh, and Vasco de Gama was a true fiend!

I wouldn’t say this is “pseudo- history”, as many people do (I reserve that more for the ancient aliens/ chariots of the gods sort of ideas), but it certainly is not an accepted mainstream historical belief. This book is more of a speculative (alternative) history that struggles to lift up its theory with often flimsy supporting evidence. However, not all of the evidence is easily dismissed, and historians even admit there are some things that are yet to be explained. At the least it’s a fun way to exercise some critical thinking for the non- historian when you start to compare the two schools of thought on 15th century China

I've decided to shelf this one at chapter 4, page 197 and so withholding a rating in fairness. Maybe I'll return to this book when I have far more time to kill hunting down and cross referencing all the quasi-citations for the actual who, where, how, and why seemingly so often unprovided.

That said Menzies really could have saved face if he treated this subject like a Dan Brown novel. Just think of the movie that could have been made. I enjoyed the documentary, but this book has so much criticism. Great premise though, intriguing at first, quality printing, easy to read.

Unfortunately it turns into a wild good chase fairly quick, and all those citations... whenever I picked one to lookup it was either a mere comment, a totally unsubstantiated claim or a vague source that required an independent investigation of its own to little avail.

I would have preferred a far more limited work of honest speculation.

Short review (necessary in this case):

While going throughout the pages of this controversial book, I always had the feeling that Gavin Menzies decided to take it too far in many occasions. While some theories are quite interesting, many others almost made me drop the book ( Mylodons, seriously?).

I decided to rate it 4 stars, mainly because I started reading it aware of what it was and because I personally really enjoyed Gavin style.