You might know Douglas Preston as a co-author with Lincoln
Child of best-selling books such as Brimstone, Crimson Shore and Beyond the Ice
Limit. In his newest book, Preston
ventures into nonfiction territory in The Lost city of the Monkey God. The legend of a lost city someplace in the rugged
interior of Honduras has been around for ages. (It has often been called The
White City.) In 2012, Douglas Preston joined a team of scientists
to look for this city. Using highly
advanced technology, they identified 3 sites and subsequently explored one of
them. The terrain was so rough, and the
jungle so dense, that they had to be dropped by helicopter and made their camp
by hacking out the jungle.
This is a fascinating and well-written book that is as
exciting as a fiction adventure novel. Preston talks of the history of the
region, the Indigenous people who lived in the area before the invasion by the Conquistadors,
the actual search the team conducted and the hardships that needed to be
endured. For example, on page 135,
Preston has just set up camp and was heading to his hammock:
“On the second circle of the hammock, I froze
as my beam passed over a huge snake. It was coiled up on the ground, just to
one side of Juan Carlos’s hammock, three feet away from where I stood.”
He continues on: “It was staring at me, in striking position,
its head swaying back and forth, it’s tongue flicking in and out. I had walked right past it – twice.”
YIKES!
I read that just before going to bed and that passage kept me up awhile.
The Lost City of the Monkey God is a great read, both for
non-fiction and as cross-over for fiction readers. I highly recommend it.
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