I love the southwest and I’ve read other books about John Wesley Powell, but this one really brings it all to life, with what these men went through to explore the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. After reading this, I now want to read Cecil Kuhne’s other books.

I received a free Kindle copy of River Master by Cecil Kuhne courtesy of Net Galley and Countryman Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as the subject of the book sounded interesting.  I have not read any other books on this subject. It is the first book by the Cecil Kuhne that I have read.

The subtitle of the book: John Wesley Powell's Legendary Exploration of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon accurately describes the book. The author used the journals of several of the participants including Powell's to counter the legend established by the "official report" of the harrowing trip on the Colorado River.

The book devotes large sections to direct qoutes from the journal and the author has a habit of repeating himself in between these frequent segments. His writing style may appeal to whitewater rafters, but I found it to be not as engaging as I had hoped.  It certainly is not in the same league as several of the books based on the journals of Lewis and Clark as an example.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in this particular voyage of discovery, but it may be more enjoyable for those who are into the whitewater sport.

"River Master" describes the 97-day 1869 Powell expedition down the uncharted Colorado River. They went into the unknown with the intent to map and do a geological survey of the Colorado River. These ten men had never been on a river, let alone handled whitewater. Their boats were less than ideal for this trip. Yet not a single one drowned, despite many dangerous mishaps.

The author quoted from or summarized the information in the journals written by the men during the trip and records of later interviews with them about the trip. He describe what the trip was like, including the friction caused by running out of food, the danger, and personality conflicts. He also talked about James White's earlier trip on the Colorado River and some later expeditions, including one in 18871/72 led by Major Powell. He talked about Powell's official report, which was written like a journal but was much more colorful than the terse entries made during the actual trip.

The intent of this book was to accurately portray what happened on the trip, so the description was interesting and exciting but didn't include the questionable stories from the later official report. While I enjoyed this amazing story, I think whitewater rafters could better appreciate just what these men went through since much of what was recorded talked about the rapids they encountered. Overall, I'd recommend this book.