Kirk Burpee in A Golden Mirage: Coronado’s Lost Expedition takes a great historical voyage. The novel is based on the true-life journey of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado into the American Southwest and retells the story in a very story-intensive manner. Gold, myth, and ambition meet in a sun-scorched land where lies and reality become mixed.
The tale is based on the journey of Coronado and his crew as they pass through deserts, mountain ranges, and bizarre towns. Burpee reminds us about the magnitude of the land, about the thirst of men who are led to the promise of seven cities of gold, and about the collision of both cultures and the turmoil of soul of the ones who undertake such journeys.
Burpee also carefully juggles the issue of historical grounding and narrative momentum. The readers in this book will feel the genuine antecedent: survival, honor, discovery and conquest, but also loss, regret and the troubling question of what is recovered when the quest is over. Characters in this story are not only explorers but also human beings who have to struggle with their aspirations, fears and moral implications of their behavior.
The narrative is used to make scenes alive: the scorching eyes of the desert, the clanging of armor, the faltering coalitions with native tribes, and the ringing of regrets in a camp at sunset. Thematic richness comes out: the cost of empire, the ambivalence between seeking and destroying, and the mirage as dream of human desire. Burpee is not afraid of the darker side of adventure: the cost in life, the disappointment of dreams, and the drifting sands of civilization.
The book is a treasure trove for the sweeping historical fiction lover. It gives the adventure of discovery, the majesty of legend, and the personal insight of what it is to pursue something beyond the horizons. A Golden Mirage makes you think, not of what took place there, but of what we pursue today, and at what price. Kirk Burpee has created not merely a historical novel, but rather a retrospective on the theme of ambition and vision as well as the desert echoes of human longing.
I wrote this book about where I live and some of the history that is seems to be forgotten and time but I wanted to do it justice and put a lot of research into this story it was so much fun to create a character that Pastor Christ Between Two Worlds as an orphan of the Spanish Catholic orphan Lost In A wilderness and the challenges that he has to overcome I try to do it justice and respect all sides of the story but in all fairness to the reader and I pulled no punches it was a brutal time period and everyone needs to remember that anyway thank you very much and happy reading