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Title: The King's Fifth
ISBN: 0618747834
Author:
Scott O'Dell
Publicate Date: 2006-09-04
Publish: 2006-09-04
List Price: $6.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.53
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Of conquistadors, gold, greed, and happiness
Esteban was a cartographer, or map maker, on a ship on the coast of South America. Their ship was to rendezvous with another to make a search for the Cities of Gold. One of the officers aboard the ship wants to mutiny, and strike out to search for the cities, in hopes of collecting even more gold and fame. He talks Esteban into accompanying him, along with some others.
They travel and encounter all kinds of dangers from nature and from the natives. They ask the people they come across for gold, but to them, it is not important. Esteban and his companions find it all important. As they travel on toward the Cities of Gold, their lust for gold gains a tighter and tighter grip upon them. At the beginning, Esteban marveled at the way the desire for gold had warped others, but later on, he ceases to care for others, and is willing to sacrifice whatever and whoever may come between him and the riches his soul so greedily craves. He ends up with a great amount of gold, which he tries to carry back with him. Eventually, he sees that his greed was killing him, and deposits the gold where it can never be recovered.
The story is told from Esteban's prison cell. It is the law to give one fifth of all discovered treasure to the king of Spain. The chapters alternate with Esteban recalling his journey through South America, and his recording what is happening in the prison. He says his indictment is true; he did discover treasure, and he did not give the king his fifth. His prosecutors and jailor are not so much concerned with the king's fifth, however. They want to know where the treasure is, so they can find it. They ask for maps, which Esteban draws; but he says they will never find it. Even he, who knows where it is, could never find it. He is offered his freedom from his sentence if he will be a guide to the gold, but he turns it down. He has realized that, after all, the gold is not important. He has learned what is important, and when he has served his sentence, he will pursue the things and people that matter.
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2: maybe
the british are coming the british are coming! not really. i did not like this book because it jumped between two different places every chapter which made it confusing. what i mean by that is in one chapter the main character is talking about looking for gold and in the next chapter he is actually on that adventure. my final remark is it jumps through two different time in that persons life. diggity doggity doo....... actually that was my last remark. ha ha ha! just kidding. but other than jumping through tenses it was pretty good.
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3: A very good tale of what gold thirst can make of a person!
I first heard of the book seeing that it was the original for the Japanese animation series "The Mysterous Cities of Gold" and so, of course, I always wished to read it. Most people who I know that turn to this book because of the series are very disappointed. I was not. Of course, this is much different. But if you forget MCOG and just read the book for the book itself, it is very good! It's point is different from the MCOG, which is a beautiful tale of adventure and friendship. The book is the struggle of the hero with himself, his learning of himself, his overcoming himself in the great epidemic of gold thirst. The whole book is situated in jail, where Esteban de Sandoval, a 16-year old cartograph of the Spanish Conquistadors Army, is waiting for his trial for not submitting the Royal fifth of the treasure they have found to the Spanish King. He recalls the journey in search of the Mysterious Cities of Gold of Cibola, judges his companions and himself... His real trial is this recollection, not what is expecting him. Whatever the official judgement is, we discover what he did in the end, and how he passed his real trial. And for all the MCOG fans, certainly don't miss it!
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4: Blood, Sweat, & Tears
For Grade 8 Language Arts class we are reading this book. It is set in the year 1541, the golden age of Spanish conquest in the Americas, or the "New Spain." Esteban de Sandoval, a young cartographer, was imprisoned after the failed expedition to the Seven Cities of Cibola. He was accused of hiding gold and not giving the share to the King of Spain, Charles V. However, another person, Don Felipe, also wants the share of the treasure and he wants Esteban to write a map for him. The gold is in such a large quantity, it was believed it took twelve mules to transport it. The story is told in a flashback and present pattern, where the author skips from Esteban writing in his journal what happened on the expedition to what is happening to Esteban while he was imprisoned in Vera Cruz, awaiting trial from the Royal Audencia. Esteban was part of a search party that was traveling to find the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. His party involves Mendoza, the leader, and Zia, the Indian guide, and a few other Spaniards, including a priest. The book contains many thrilling plots, from the death of the Spaniards, to final search and capture of the gold. This book also gives me unknown knowledge, things you wouldn't read in textbooks. For example, I never knew that a Native American could never ride a horse, as decreed by Hernando Cortes, known as Cortes' Law. The book also adds a brand new perspective to the stereotypical view of conquistadors. We thought they were savage barbarians, hell-bent on plundering cities and seizing gold, not people with humanity and emotion. This book shows the latter part of the conquistadors. In the concluding stage of the book, everyone in Esteban's expedition died except for himself and the Indian guide, Zia. However, Zia left him and Esteban was the only individual in possession of the gold. He could have taken it and become so rich, the King would have to fear him. Instead, he dumped all the gold into a deep chasm, lost forever to the Spaniards. Esteban saw all his fellow countrymen who died just for gold, and he saw the pointlessness of wealth and importance of human life. In fact, in the very ending part of the book, his jailer and the fortress commander both came forward asking Esteban to lead them to the lost treasure. The commander even offered Esteban freedom. However, Esteban didn't want more people losing their lives for something worthless, like what the Indians of Cibola told him, so he rejected both of their offers. Readers interested in adventure and historical fiction will find this book captivating and powerful, and some may find it even tragic. I chose this book by pure coincidence. I was requesting to read another book, and my LA teacher recommended me to this book, and he said it's very interesting. I was skeptical, but I tried it out. After a few days and two hundred pages later, I refused to set the book down. What I loved about the book is how Esteban came from a na??ve boy to a conquistador, and to the final stage in which how he became a mature man and understood the real value of life. Esteban truly experienced blood, sweat, and tears.
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5: The King's Fifth
This critique is for my seventh grade language arts class. The King's Fifth is a unique book. However, on a scale from 1 to 5 I would only give 3 stars, because there's no realy story line. There's also not that much creativity used in this piece of work. For the most part it's grammatically correct and contains great voice through the dialogues. However, it does provide historical information and facts with a historical theme. Although I don't prefer this genre of book, others would. I recommend it to you if you like to read for information or like slower story lines. But, if you are like me and prefer faster action and suspense then you probably wouldn't like this book.
The King's Fifth is about a prisoner who is also a cartographer. He was taken captive by the king's soldiers after returning from a trip to the seven golden cities. He and his fellow voyagers found and secretly kept an amazing treasure, which the king wanted, too. Will he survive, be freed or hung? You'll have to read it to find out.
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