The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
In The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston details the centuries-long rumors of an abandoned city somewhere deep in the remote Mosquitia region of eastern Honduras — and the thrilling, high-tech mission to find it. By scanning the dense jungle from an airplane with a machine that maps the land with lasers, a team of scientists was able to identify large and unmistakably human-made structures. But as they set out to see the lost city for themselves, the expedition faced danger from all sides: unseen predators, quicksand, and lethal diseases living within even the smallest of insects.
Written in Preston's engaging voice, The Lost City of the Monkey God examines many topics: Honduran history, controversy in modern archaeology, the cruel destruction carried out by conquistadors, and how disease can wreak havoc on populations.
Quote:
"Through it all, I peered out the window, transfixed. I can scarcely find words to describe the opulence of the rainforest that unrolled below us. The tree crowns were packed together like puffballs, displaying every possible hue, tint, and shade of green. Chartreuse, emerald, lime, aquamarine, teal, bottle, glaucous, asparagus, olive, celadon, jade, malachite — mere words are inadequate to express the chromatic infinities. Here and there the canopy was disrupted by a treetop smothered in enormous purple blossoms. Along the central valley floor, the heavy jungle gave way to lush meadows. Two meandering streams glittered in the sunlight, where they joined before flowing out the notch. We were flying above a primeval Eden, looking for a lost city using advanced technology to shoot billions of laser beams into a jungle that no human beings had entered for perhaps five hundred years: a twenty-first-century assault on an ancient mystery."
Author:
Douglas Preston is an American novelist and non-fiction author. His works include The Monster of Florence, the Wyman Ford series, the Agent Pendergast series, and the Gideon Crew series (the latter two are collaborations with author Lincoln Child).
Published: 2017
Length: 328 pages
Set in: Mosquitia, Honduras