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The Lost City of the Monkey God
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Nonfiction (2017)Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumours have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden deep in the Honduran interior. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and warn the legendary city is cursed: to enter it is a death sentence. They call it the Lost City of the Monkey God. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the City – but then committed suicide without revealing its location.
Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a single-engine plane carrying a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but a lost civilization.
To confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, plagues of insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. They emerged from the jungle with proof of the legend... and the curse. They had contracted a horrifying, incurable and sometimes lethal disease.
Suspenseful and shocking, filled with history, adventure and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 3, 2017
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64934 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Preston
178 books13.5k followersDouglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,605 reviews
January 9, 2021
”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 infinites.”
Douglas Preston was always interested in lost civilizations, so when he got the chance to join an expedition into the mosquitia jungle in Honduras to find the Lost City of the Monkey God, he was more than interested, he was all in. There had been many explorers before who had attempted to find this “mythical” place, but except for the Indiana Jones style journalist Theodore Morde who emerged from the jungle in 1940 with a horde of fascinating objects and a story of finding the fabled White City, there had been nothing to substantiate the legend. Morde committed suicide shortly after returning from his adventures, taking his secrets with him.
Had he been cursed by the Monkey God?
The team focused in on one valley that was isolated and difficult to access easily on foot. They were going to bring new technology to the search by borrowing what is called a lidar machine. It shoots thousands of lasers at the jungle floor from a plane. It records the reflections that bounce off the objects on the ground. The software eliminates leaves, trees, and any other objects that are not part of, hopefully, the man made structures hidden beneath the canopy.
All hell broke loose over the use of this technology. The academic world, outside of the normal petty jealousies, suspicion of success, and paranoias that afflict all centers of higher learning, seemed to be more offended by the use of this technology, as if the expedition were cheating by using it.
See, the problem was the lidar mapping found not one large site of manmade structures, but two. The irrational feeling that they didn’t deserve these finds because they didn’t outfit an overland mission that went blindly slashing through the jungle hoping to stumble upon something interesting, and the fact they didn’t lose about a third of their party to disease, snakebit, and jaguar attack in the process, is frankly ludicrous.
I do have to admit it does take some of the romance out of the whole swashbuckling archaeologist image that I grew up with. The cities were still there unmolested because no one had been able to penetrate the jungle effectively to find them.
Despite being able to drop into the site with a helicopter, and despite having better gear than what most explorers can haul into the jungle in the traditional overland expedition, the group still experienced difficulties with, to name a few, sand fleas, torrential rain, and snakes. Let me share a bit about one particular snake that kept turning up over and over again in the ruins of this civilization.
”The fer-de-lance, he said, is known in these parts as the barba amarilla (Yellow Beard). Herpetologists consider it the ultimate pit viper. It kills more people in the New World than any other snake. It comes out at night and is attracted to people and activity. It is aggressive, irritable, and fast. Its fangs have been observed to squirt venom for more than six feet, and they can penetrate even the thickest leather boot. Sometimes it will strike and then pursue and strike again. It often leaps upward as it strikes, hitting above the knee. The venom is deadly; if it doesn’t kill you outright through a brain hemorrhage, it may very well kill you later through sepsis. If you survive, the limb that was struck often has to be amputated, due to the necrotizing nature of the poison.”
*Shudder* #reason number one why I don’t go into the Honduran jungle.
So why did this civilization abruptly disappear at around 1500? Preston pulls together some pretty good theories regarding that event. Some are based on the greed of the rulers doing to their civilization the same thing that the rich and powerful are currently doing to the United States. Unmitigated greed makes even the most robust economies vulnerable to a similar collapse. The celebrated author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond, has some wonderful examples, and Preston shares that wisdom with us, as well. The one that I found most interesting points to a celebrated event that happened in 1492 when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America.
The foreigners came and ”withered the flowers.”
Preston includes a wonderful chart that show the catastrophic effect of native populations making contact with the disease ridden crews of the Columbus exploration mission. ”What would a 90 percent mortality rate mean to the survivors and their society? It does not just kill people; it annihilates societies; it destroys languages, religions, histories, and cultures. It chokes off the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The survivors are deprived of that vital human connection to their past; they are robbed of their stories, their music and dance, their spiritual practices and beliefs--they are stripped of their very identity.”
There is no proof that the diseases that killed so much of the indigenous population of the Americas was also the culprit that killed the civilization of the Monkey God, but the timing does make it a valid consideration. It was unavoidable that the Old World would meet the New World, so it was just more a matter of when.
The Monkey God expedition members returned to their regular life, relieved that they did not come down with any major diseases; the bites and rashes that they all suffered from disappeared, but then weeks later over half the group had a sore appear that would not heal. It became a miniature volcano. After much deliberation by doctors and contagious disease specialists, they determined that they had come down with leishmaniasis. Among the half that came down with this frankly disgusting and alarmingly difficult disease to contain was Douglas Preston. It is called white leprosy if that gives you any indication of what it does to the body once it gains enough control of your immune system.
The curse of the Monkey god?
My signed copy of the book also came with a signed postcard of the author in the mosquitia jungle. Ephemeria is always fun for a collector.
I just finished reading The Lost City of Z, set in the Amazon, a few days ago, and it seemed a perfect pairing to read a similar book about another lost city further north in Central America. Any thoughts of chucking my rather pedestrian job as circulation manager/owner of a farm publication and joining a jungle expedition have been firmly squashed like a blood bloated flea beneath the tread of a kevlar boot. Not to mention, even the thought of tangling with one of those damn Fer-De-Lance snakes makes me break out in hives. I am a firm believer in doing my jungle travelling from the safety of my favorite reading chair.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Douglas Preston was always interested in lost civilizations, so when he got the chance to join an expedition into the mosquitia jungle in Honduras to find the Lost City of the Monkey God, he was more than interested, he was all in. There had been many explorers before who had attempted to find this “mythical” place, but except for the Indiana Jones style journalist Theodore Morde who emerged from the jungle in 1940 with a horde of fascinating objects and a story of finding the fabled White City, there had been nothing to substantiate the legend. Morde committed suicide shortly after returning from his adventures, taking his secrets with him.
Had he been cursed by the Monkey God?
The team focused in on one valley that was isolated and difficult to access easily on foot. They were going to bring new technology to the search by borrowing what is called a lidar machine. It shoots thousands of lasers at the jungle floor from a plane. It records the reflections that bounce off the objects on the ground. The software eliminates leaves, trees, and any other objects that are not part of, hopefully, the man made structures hidden beneath the canopy.
All hell broke loose over the use of this technology. The academic world, outside of the normal petty jealousies, suspicion of success, and paranoias that afflict all centers of higher learning, seemed to be more offended by the use of this technology, as if the expedition were cheating by using it.
See, the problem was the lidar mapping found not one large site of manmade structures, but two. The irrational feeling that they didn’t deserve these finds because they didn’t outfit an overland mission that went blindly slashing through the jungle hoping to stumble upon something interesting, and the fact they didn’t lose about a third of their party to disease, snakebit, and jaguar attack in the process, is frankly ludicrous.
I do have to admit it does take some of the romance out of the whole swashbuckling archaeologist image that I grew up with. The cities were still there unmolested because no one had been able to penetrate the jungle effectively to find them.
Despite being able to drop into the site with a helicopter, and despite having better gear than what most explorers can haul into the jungle in the traditional overland expedition, the group still experienced difficulties with, to name a few, sand fleas, torrential rain, and snakes. Let me share a bit about one particular snake that kept turning up over and over again in the ruins of this civilization.
”The fer-de-lance, he said, is known in these parts as the barba amarilla (Yellow Beard). Herpetologists consider it the ultimate pit viper. It kills more people in the New World than any other snake. It comes out at night and is attracted to people and activity. It is aggressive, irritable, and fast. Its fangs have been observed to squirt venom for more than six feet, and they can penetrate even the thickest leather boot. Sometimes it will strike and then pursue and strike again. It often leaps upward as it strikes, hitting above the knee. The venom is deadly; if it doesn’t kill you outright through a brain hemorrhage, it may very well kill you later through sepsis. If you survive, the limb that was struck often has to be amputated, due to the necrotizing nature of the poison.”
*Shudder* #reason number one why I don’t go into the Honduran jungle.
So why did this civilization abruptly disappear at around 1500? Preston pulls together some pretty good theories regarding that event. Some are based on the greed of the rulers doing to their civilization the same thing that the rich and powerful are currently doing to the United States. Unmitigated greed makes even the most robust economies vulnerable to a similar collapse. The celebrated author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond, has some wonderful examples, and Preston shares that wisdom with us, as well. The one that I found most interesting points to a celebrated event that happened in 1492 when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America.
The foreigners came and ”withered the flowers.”
Preston includes a wonderful chart that show the catastrophic effect of native populations making contact with the disease ridden crews of the Columbus exploration mission. ”What would a 90 percent mortality rate mean to the survivors and their society? It does not just kill people; it annihilates societies; it destroys languages, religions, histories, and cultures. It chokes off the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The survivors are deprived of that vital human connection to their past; they are robbed of their stories, their music and dance, their spiritual practices and beliefs--they are stripped of their very identity.”
There is no proof that the diseases that killed so much of the indigenous population of the Americas was also the culprit that killed the civilization of the Monkey God, but the timing does make it a valid consideration. It was unavoidable that the Old World would meet the New World, so it was just more a matter of when.
The Monkey God expedition members returned to their regular life, relieved that they did not come down with any major diseases; the bites and rashes that they all suffered from disappeared, but then weeks later over half the group had a sore appear that would not heal. It became a miniature volcano. After much deliberation by doctors and contagious disease specialists, they determined that they had come down with leishmaniasis. Among the half that came down with this frankly disgusting and alarmingly difficult disease to contain was Douglas Preston. It is called white leprosy if that gives you any indication of what it does to the body once it gains enough control of your immune system.
The curse of the Monkey god?
My signed copy of the book also came with a signed postcard of the author in the mosquitia jungle. Ephemeria is always fun for a collector.
I just finished reading The Lost City of Z, set in the Amazon, a few days ago, and it seemed a perfect pairing to read a similar book about another lost city further north in Central America. Any thoughts of chucking my rather pedestrian job as circulation manager/owner of a farm publication and joining a jungle expedition have been firmly squashed like a blood bloated flea beneath the tread of a kevlar boot. Not to mention, even the thought of tangling with one of those damn Fer-De-Lance snakes makes me break out in hives. I am a firm believer in doing my jungle travelling from the safety of my favorite reading chair.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
December 26, 2024
This was about so much more than the Lost City--it was packed with information, presented in a palatable way and even tone.
I feel stupidly excited by how much I learned and how incredibly interested I was in absolutely every facet of this discovery and the ripple effect of the exploration itself.
I feel stupidly excited by how much I learned and how incredibly interested I was in absolutely every facet of this discovery and the ripple effect of the exploration itself.
December 19, 2025
"People need history in order to know themselves, to build a sense of identity and pride, continuity, community, and hope for the future."The White City (aka the Lost City of the Monkey God) was a legend...until now.
For the last 500 years, rumors have flooded every major news outlet.... only you be proven false - every single time.
However, with the invention of new technology and a dogged determination, several explorers, architects and writers (including the author) set off to discover whether or not there's an entire undiscovered city hidden in Honduras in the 21st century.
(spoiler alert)
There is.
And it's glorious.
But that journey was not easy, the artifact excavation was even more dangerous and the aftermath? Well, let's just say that there might be something to that death curse after all...
Overall - rather interesting book!
It had an Indiana Jones tone that certainly held my attention - I loved hearing about the peril and the danger (and those snakes! Yikes!).
I wish the author would have given more page space to the city exploration. And I feel like the history lesson bit could have been edited to seem less dry.
Other than that - wow. To think that there are "old school adventures" still waiting to be had in the modern era. Amazing!
Audiobook Comments
Read by Bill Mumy. Fairly good audiobook...though it is always a pet peeve of mine when authors don't read autobiographical journeys
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July 20, 2018
Fascinating and terrifying! A non-ficton story about pre-history, history, and the lessons it teaches us about our potential mortality. A cautionary tale that we may have no control over; the fate of ancient civilizations may hint at our eventual fate as well.
Doulas Preston always impresses. I am a huge fan of his fiction work (the Pendergast series with Lincoln Child) and his detailed, but not so much that it is inaccessible, non-fiction. Every time you enter either the real or made up world with Preston, you know he is going to make the mysterious real for you . . . sometimes too real . . . sometimes too scary.
This book starts out with the search for a lost civilization in Honduras. Along the way, stories of deadly flora will convince you how scary nature can really be. When the ancient ruins are revealed, it is not just a matter of exploring a long gone city or collecting artifacts – a mysterious terror is unleashed that will affect those on the expedition for the rest of their life. What you find out is not for the faint of heart – especially because it is all true!
Some may not know that Douglas Preston is the Brother of Richard Preston (author of The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus ). Without revealing/spoiling too much, I will say that Douglas appears to be venturing into his brother’s brand of writing. I wonder how much he may have consulted him while writing this book? If you like Richard’s books, definitely check this out!
I will close by saying that I thought this book was great. History/archaeology fans will love most, if not all, of it. However, I hesitate to just randomly throw out recommendations since the terror that is unleashed may be too much for some!
Proceed with caution!
Doulas Preston always impresses. I am a huge fan of his fiction work (the Pendergast series with Lincoln Child) and his detailed, but not so much that it is inaccessible, non-fiction. Every time you enter either the real or made up world with Preston, you know he is going to make the mysterious real for you . . . sometimes too real . . . sometimes too scary.
This book starts out with the search for a lost civilization in Honduras. Along the way, stories of deadly flora will convince you how scary nature can really be. When the ancient ruins are revealed, it is not just a matter of exploring a long gone city or collecting artifacts – a mysterious terror is unleashed that will affect those on the expedition for the rest of their life. What you find out is not for the faint of heart – especially because it is all true!
Some may not know that Douglas Preston is the Brother of Richard Preston (author of The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus ). Without revealing/spoiling too much, I will say that Douglas appears to be venturing into his brother’s brand of writing. I wonder how much he may have consulted him while writing this book? If you like Richard’s books, definitely check this out!
I will close by saying that I thought this book was great. History/archaeology fans will love most, if not all, of it. However, I hesitate to just randomly throw out recommendations since the terror that is unleashed may be too much for some!
Proceed with caution!
October 5, 2017
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
Written by: Douglas Preston
Narrated by: Bill Mumy
This was such an exciting audible book and filled with rich history and science. Mr Preston starts the book with how he got started on this trip and all the investigations he had to do to get information on finding what he could. He explained many trips that were tried and failed. I find this all fascinating. This was NOT a fiction book. Then the trip they make to South America takes a tremendous effort. The trek is so dangerous and they almost die several times. When the finally make it back home and think they are safe, they find that over half the members had the deadly leishmaniasis! He describes the problems of treatment and so much more. Wow, I learned so much from this book. This was just an exciting and captivating book. I enjoyed this more than his fiction books. This was an audible book and the narrator was very clear and his voice was pleasant to listen to.
Written by: Douglas Preston
Narrated by: Bill Mumy
This was such an exciting audible book and filled with rich history and science. Mr Preston starts the book with how he got started on this trip and all the investigations he had to do to get information on finding what he could. He explained many trips that were tried and failed. I find this all fascinating. This was NOT a fiction book. Then the trip they make to South America takes a tremendous effort. The trek is so dangerous and they almost die several times. When the finally make it back home and think they are safe, they find that over half the members had the deadly leishmaniasis! He describes the problems of treatment and so much more. Wow, I learned so much from this book. This was just an exciting and captivating book. I enjoyed this more than his fiction books. This was an audible book and the narrator was very clear and his voice was pleasant to listen to.
January 9, 2017
Most of the events in this book happened relatively recently, and although it makes the book feel slightly more relevant, it also feels like the book was very hastily written - it's kind of a rambling mess.
This book is not really actually about the "Lost City of the Monkey God." It's more a journal about the experience of being a part of the mostly old white male team that basically had so much money/power/free time that they were able to "discover" previously unexplored settlements of a previously under-studied culture (due to these settlements being located in dense rainforests in politically-unstable Honduras). Which still sounds like it might be interesting, but actually turns out to be like watching a slow survivalist show on TV, interspersed with periods of fumbling amateur descriptions of artifacts and academic theories.
At points, the author also mentions people critical of the narrative of this team "discovering" the "Lost City of the Monkey God," e.g., people who want to talk about "issues such as those of colonialism, white supremacy, hypermasculinity, fantasy and imagination [and] indigenous rights," all things that are obviously present in the book. Instead of acknowledging these issues, the author is infuriatingly defensive and navel-gazing about it all.
Really, I'm really not sure why this book is getting so much positive press. Are people actually reading it? I'd really love to read about the culture and the excavation of the site from an anthropologist's perspective, or really anyone who knows what they're talking about.
I learned that people actually get hurt on survivalist shows like Bear Grylls's. It's not all fake!
This book is not really actually about the "Lost City of the Monkey God." It's more a journal about the experience of being a part of the mostly old white male team that basically had so much money/power/free time that they were able to "discover" previously unexplored settlements of a previously under-studied culture (due to these settlements being located in dense rainforests in politically-unstable Honduras). Which still sounds like it might be interesting, but actually turns out to be like watching a slow survivalist show on TV, interspersed with periods of fumbling amateur descriptions of artifacts and academic theories.
At points, the author also mentions people critical of the narrative of this team "discovering" the "Lost City of the Monkey God," e.g., people who want to talk about "issues such as those of colonialism, white supremacy, hypermasculinity, fantasy and imagination [and] indigenous rights," all things that are obviously present in the book. Instead of acknowledging these issues, the author is infuriatingly defensive and navel-gazing about it all.
Really, I'm really not sure why this book is getting so much positive press. Are people actually reading it? I'd really love to read about the culture and the excavation of the site from an anthropologist's perspective, or really anyone who knows what they're talking about.
I learned that people actually get hurt on survivalist shows like Bear Grylls's. It's not all fake!
August 6, 2017
My jungle terrors continue! This is the second book I've read this summer about how deadly the jungle can be, and if I read any more I'll need a Xanax.
The Lost City of the Monkey God is about an archaeological discovery in La Mosquitia in Honduras. Douglas Preston was reporting on the search for the ruins of an ancient civilization, nicknamed the White City, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. In 2015, researchers used technology called LIDAR to scan the interior, and when they found potential evidence, Preston was part of the group that went deep into the jungle to investigate.
Trigger warning: If you are scared of snakes, this book will make you FREAK OUT. I am terrified of snakes and this book made me so twitchy and jumpy that I became certain there was a rogue python hiding under my dishwasher (I've seen too many news stories, I know).
But seriously, there are a lot of snake stories in this book. I'd break the book down like this: 30 percent archaeology, 30 percent snakes, 30 percent terrifying diseases. The other 10 percent consists of scary tales about flying in and out of the jungle.
I loved the history and archaeology discussions, and I was interested in the theories about why the mysterious civilization may have been abandoned a thousand years ago. There is also an alarming section on the spread of diseases, because several members of the crew got sick from a parasite. Really, the whole book is fascinating.
Despite my jungle fears, this was a nice follow-up to The Lost City of Z by David Grann, which was about the search for an ancient civilization in the Amazon. I highly recommend both books, but I'm going to take a break from jungle stories for a while.
Meaningful Passage
[On Preston's first night in the jungle he spotted a giant venomous snake that one of the crew members wrestled with and killed.]
"When I retired that night to my hammock, I could not sleep. The jungle, reverberating with sound, was much noisier than in the daytime. Several times I heard large animals moving past me in the darkness, blundering clumsily through undergrowth, crackling twigs. I lay in the dark, listening to the cacophony of life, thinking about the lethal perfection of the snake and its natural dignity, sorry for what we had done but rattled by the close call. A bite from a snake like that, if you survived at all, would be a life-altering experience. In a strange way the encounter sharpened the experience of being here. It amazed me that a valley so primeval and unspoiled could still exist in the twenty-first century. It was truly a lost world, a place that did not want us and where we did not belong. We planned to enter the ruins the following day. What would we find? I couldn't even begin to imagine it."
The Lost City of the Monkey God is about an archaeological discovery in La Mosquitia in Honduras. Douglas Preston was reporting on the search for the ruins of an ancient civilization, nicknamed the White City, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. In 2015, researchers used technology called LIDAR to scan the interior, and when they found potential evidence, Preston was part of the group that went deep into the jungle to investigate.
Trigger warning: If you are scared of snakes, this book will make you FREAK OUT. I am terrified of snakes and this book made me so twitchy and jumpy that I became certain there was a rogue python hiding under my dishwasher (I've seen too many news stories, I know).
But seriously, there are a lot of snake stories in this book. I'd break the book down like this: 30 percent archaeology, 30 percent snakes, 30 percent terrifying diseases. The other 10 percent consists of scary tales about flying in and out of the jungle.
I loved the history and archaeology discussions, and I was interested in the theories about why the mysterious civilization may have been abandoned a thousand years ago. There is also an alarming section on the spread of diseases, because several members of the crew got sick from a parasite. Really, the whole book is fascinating.
Despite my jungle fears, this was a nice follow-up to The Lost City of Z by David Grann, which was about the search for an ancient civilization in the Amazon. I highly recommend both books, but I'm going to take a break from jungle stories for a while.
Meaningful Passage
[On Preston's first night in the jungle he spotted a giant venomous snake that one of the crew members wrestled with and killed.]
"When I retired that night to my hammock, I could not sleep. The jungle, reverberating with sound, was much noisier than in the daytime. Several times I heard large animals moving past me in the darkness, blundering clumsily through undergrowth, crackling twigs. I lay in the dark, listening to the cacophony of life, thinking about the lethal perfection of the snake and its natural dignity, sorry for what we had done but rattled by the close call. A bite from a snake like that, if you survived at all, would be a life-altering experience. In a strange way the encounter sharpened the experience of being here. It amazed me that a valley so primeval and unspoiled could still exist in the twenty-first century. It was truly a lost world, a place that did not want us and where we did not belong. We planned to enter the ruins the following day. What would we find? I couldn't even begin to imagine it."
February 2, 2022
“People need history in order to know themselves, to build a sense of identity and pride, continuity, community, and hope for the future.”
In The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston presents an engaging account of an expedition setting out to (re)discover a lost city in the jungles of Honduras (the White City or City of the Monkey God). Preston begins by offering historical research of an earlier search for the city which, despite the hype, probably never located the city and might not have even been looking for it. However, comparing his expedition with the one 80 or so years earlier allows him to discuss scientific advancements (especially of lidar) which will revolutionize the field.
Despite any advancements, adventure and danger go hand-in-hand during Preston's expedition. That danger doesn't seem to be ill-founded. The expedition had to overcome impenetrable jungle, quickmud, one of the world's most aggressive and deadly snakes, the fer-de-lance, and disease carrying insects. In fact, tropical disease strikes most of those in the expedition (something they don't realize until they're back in their home countries). Identifying and treating the disease they have contracted becomes another mystery to solve; this mystery and discussion of the disease dominates the final sections of the book.
In The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston presents an engaging account of an expedition setting out to (re)discover a lost city in the jungles of Honduras (the White City or City of the Monkey God). Preston begins by offering historical research of an earlier search for the city which, despite the hype, probably never located the city and might not have even been looking for it. However, comparing his expedition with the one 80 or so years earlier allows him to discuss scientific advancements (especially of lidar) which will revolutionize the field.
Despite any advancements, adventure and danger go hand-in-hand during Preston's expedition. That danger doesn't seem to be ill-founded. The expedition had to overcome impenetrable jungle, quickmud, one of the world's most aggressive and deadly snakes, the fer-de-lance, and disease carrying insects. In fact, tropical disease strikes most of those in the expedition (something they don't realize until they're back in their home countries). Identifying and treating the disease they have contracted becomes another mystery to solve; this mystery and discussion of the disease dominates the final sections of the book.
November 21, 2021
4.5 stars
For centuries rumors swirled about an abandoned ancient settlement in the jungles of Honduras, a region called 'The White City of the Monkey God.' The remains of the White City was reputed to contain gold, priceless cultural artifacts, and the remnants of temples and buildings - a veritable cornucopia for treasure hunters, archaeologists, and anthropologists.
Sketch of the mythical Lost City of the Monkey God
Over the years many explorers tried to find the White City. Some never came back, others returned in defeat, and some were charlatans - pretending to explore while they searched for gold. Obstacles to success included ignorance of the city's exact location, impassable jungles, venomous snakes, biting and stinging insects, jaguars, and - in recent times - narcotraficantes (drug cartels).
Then, in 2012, documentary filmmaker Steve Elkins got the idea to use LIDAR - a type of radar that uses laser beams - to look for the White City. Elkins arranged for a LIDAR-equipped plane to survey 'La Mosquitia' - the easternmost part of Honduras along the Mosquito Coast (named for the Miskito people, not the insects). The LIDAR scans revealed the remains of three formerly populated areas, called T-1, T-2, and T-3.....which might very well correspond to the White City.
Documentary film maker Steve Elkins
LIDAR equipped plane
LIDAR image of Mayan ruins
Elkins was thrilled with the results, and arranged an expedition into the jungle in 2015. Elkins' team included himself, a photographer, an archaeologist, an anthropologist, filmmakers, a squad of Honduran soldiers, pilots, technicians, a jungle safety expert, and others. Also joining the group was writer Douglas Preston, who had been in Honduras with Elkins for the LIDAR survey. This time, Preston was assigned to pen an article for National Geographic Magazine.
Writer Douglas Preston
In this book, Preston writes about the search for the White City.....and much much more.
The entire escapade into La Mosquitia was dangerous and difficult, starting with preparing landing sites for the team's helicopters. This was followed by setting up camping areas, hacking through the impenetrable jungle with machetes, wading across rivers, hiking up hills, sliding down hills, encountering snakes, being bitten by insects and spiders, and so on. In addition, the team members were continually soaked and muddy, had trouble keeping a fire lit in the wet jungle, and subsisted largely on MREs (freeze-dried meals).
The 'kitchen area' of the expedition's campsite
The Honduras expedition was difficult and wet
Preston describes his first campsite, where he set up his hammock under a tree inhabited by squawking spider monkeys - who didn't want him there.
Spider Monkey
When the author stepped out the first night - to relieve himself - the ground was writhing with a carpet of rainforest cockroaches.
Cockroaches
(When I lived in a tent for six weeks for geology field camp, I learned not to drink anything after 6:00 PM....to avoid night trips to the loo. Ha ha ha)
Preston also tells a memorable story about encountering a six-foot-long, venomous fer-de-lance near his camping area.
Fer-de-Lance
The writer summoned the jungle safety expert, Andrew Wood, who decapitated the snake after it squirted his hand with burning venom. Wood had to wash his hand immediately.....otherwise he would have just relocated the serpent with a forked stick. (The expedition carried antivenom shots, just in case.)
Even more ominously, Preston's tent was invaded by tiny sandflies night after night, which he took to skewering on one of his notebooks - a ledger that became so damaged he had to throw it away. Unfortunately the writer - and other members of the expedition - were repeatedly bitten by the little critters, which had dire consequences later on.
Sandfly
Though there were hardships, the team members were able to make their way to T-1, where they found a treasure trove of pre-Columbian remains, including asymmetrical mounds and a large cache of (almost) buried artifacts. These artifacts include beautiful stone bowls and carved stone figures, some of which have half-human, half-monkey features. One striking statuette resembled a jaguar - which led to the site being called 'The City of the Jaguar.' The explorers' tenure in the jungle was limited by weather, finances, and helicopter rentals.....so the archaeological sites were marked and left for future exploration. By now, extensive studies are under way.
Many ancient artifacts were found in Honduras
City of the Jaguar
In an article about the 2015 expedition, Colorado State University anthropologist Dr. Chris Fischer - who was a member of Elkins' team - notes: "The excavated area [at T-1] encompasses less than 200 square feet of the enormous archaeological site, which includes at least 19 prehistoric settlements, probably part of a single chiefdom, spread along several miles of a river. One of the nearby sites has two parallel mounds that may be the remains of a Mesoamerican ball court similar to those left by the Maya civilization, indicating a link between this culture and its powerful neighbors to the west and north. The ballgame was a sacred ritual.....that was sometimes associated with human sacrifice, including the decapitation of the losing team or its captain. While the City of the Jaguar is spectacularly isolated now, at its heyday it was probably a center of trade and commerce."
Dr. Chris Fischer noted the City of the Jaguar was once a center of trade
So what happened to the historic city? Why was it abandoned? No one knows for sure but Preston suggests that infectious diseases decimated the population. It's well known that European explorers brought deadly illnesses, like flu, measles, and smallpox, to the New World. The native people, having no resistance, died in droves....often horrifically. According to Preston, Old World diseases wiped out 90 percent of many New World populations. It's possible that most residents of the 'T-sites' died, and the remaining occupants - thinking their gods had forsaken them - just walked away from their homes.
Indigenous people may have been wiped out by disease
Another illness may also have contributed to the ancient carnage. Months after Preston returned home, he noticed a 'bug bite' that refused to heal. The author came to learn that he (and many other members of the 2015 trip) had contracted leishmaniasis, a flesh-eating disease caused by a protozoan parasite that's transmitted by sandflies. Left untreated, leishmaniasis can cause skin ulcers; mouth and nose ulcers; and damage to internal organs. In the worst cases, the disease eats away the nose and mouth, causing horrible disfiguration. Luckily, Preston responded to treatment -which is harsh, and can take a long time.
Leishmaniasis
The disease didn't stop Preston from returning to T-1 for one more visit, however, during which he lamented the inevitable changes caused by official visitors, scientists, and the military - who protect the site from looters and narcotraficantes.
La Mosquitia (area in Honduras where ancient artifacts were found)
In addition to detailing the recent visits to La Mosquitia, Preston tells stories about early explorers to the New World; native peoples of the region; disease germs brought to the Americas by sick sailors; fortune hunters looking for the White City; the current President of Honduras - who's all for archaeological and anthropological exploration; Elkins' efforts to finance his expeditions and films; the author's (and his colleagues') struggles with leishmaniasis; and more. I liked all the stories and enjoyed the book, which I highly recommend to readers interested in the topic.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
December 6, 2020
This was one of the best non fiction adventure books I ever came across. Douglas Preston directly leads you into the jungle of Honduras to discover this legendary lost city of the monkey god. He talks about previous expeditions and brings in all the historical background needed. Reading this book is like accompanying the author and his team in an area that's absolutely hostile and dangerous to man. At the final section of the book you come across many fascinating photos too. I feel very exhausted from this compelling reading trip. The book is written in a way you feel like you went there. Highly recommended!
April 9, 2018
3.5 Stars
An interesting story of a lost age and an adventure that is informative and educational.
Douglas Preston's account of his adventure to La Mosquitia an unexplored, uninhabited region of forest in the Honduran wilderness in search of the Lost City of the Money Gods.
Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumours have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribe's folklore warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. A journalist by the name of Theodore Morde returned in 1940 from the rainforest with hundreds of artefacts and an incredible story of having found the city of the monkey Gods but died before revealing its exact location.
In 2012 the Author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists along with a new machine that would change everything: lidar, technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy.
I really enjoyed this book and the trials and discoveries of the team of adventurers. Books like these are different and I enjoy learning about undiscovered sites, the rain forest and its inhabitants of monkeys, snakes and insects but its certainly a place I don't intend visiting after reading this account. These previously unexplored sites are now in danger of looting, deforestation and tourism and a debate on how to explore and protect them can be daunting for all concerned.
I read this on Kindle and there were quire a few pictures at the end of the book but am sure the quality would be much better with a hard copy.
An interesting and informative book that I really enjoyed and I will be keeping this site on my radar as the exploration is on-going and I am sure we will hear more from The City of the Monkey Gods and Doug Preston.
An interesting story of a lost age and an adventure that is informative and educational.
Douglas Preston's account of his adventure to La Mosquitia an unexplored, uninhabited region of forest in the Honduran wilderness in search of the Lost City of the Money Gods.
Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumours have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribe's folklore warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. A journalist by the name of Theodore Morde returned in 1940 from the rainforest with hundreds of artefacts and an incredible story of having found the city of the monkey Gods but died before revealing its exact location.
In 2012 the Author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists along with a new machine that would change everything: lidar, technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy.
I really enjoyed this book and the trials and discoveries of the team of adventurers. Books like these are different and I enjoy learning about undiscovered sites, the rain forest and its inhabitants of monkeys, snakes and insects but its certainly a place I don't intend visiting after reading this account. These previously unexplored sites are now in danger of looting, deforestation and tourism and a debate on how to explore and protect them can be daunting for all concerned.
I read this on Kindle and there were quire a few pictures at the end of the book but am sure the quality would be much better with a hard copy.
An interesting and informative book that I really enjoyed and I will be keeping this site on my radar as the exploration is on-going and I am sure we will hear more from The City of the Monkey Gods and Doug Preston.
January 12, 2025
An interesting and rapid read, on a great explorers trope of lost cities!
To be fair Douglas Preston works hard to avoid this book following that trope. However, it is what it is, to some degree. He attempts to break the mould, by breaking his book into three parts and making the lost city discovery the smaller of the three.
The first part covers previous explorations to the Mosquitia area, primarily in exploration to discover (or visits to, and legends about) Ciudad Blanca, or the fabled White City. These included Spaniard Hernán Cortés in 1526;, America John Lloyd Stephens in the 1830s; Mormon Church originated expeditions to investigate the Maya, who the Book or Mormon identified as a lost tribe of Israel (that one ended badly with most of the explorers being excommunicated because they were doubtful of the link!).
Moving on to the 20th Century, Preston covers Luxembourgian ethnologist Eduard Conzemius, and in the 1930s William Duncan Strong who was the first to recognise that there were sites that had been inhabited by ancient, unknown people who were not Maya. Next was George Gustav Heye, a wealthy American collector of Indian artifacts - who engaged an explorer to carry out the actual work. Frederick Mitchell-Hedges turned out unfortunately to be a con-artist. Heye's next two expeditions was led by Canadian R. Stuart Murray, and brought back various artifacts. It was Murray who was to introduce Theodore Morde to Heye, having met him on a cruise ship where Murray was a guest lecturer and Morde a journalist.
Heye engaged Morde to undertake his next expedition, and it has been Morde's expedition that has given much voice to the legends of the City of the Monkey God, and therefore inspired Steve Elkins to fund the expeditions and work that is the subject of Preston's book. Morde's journey is then described in some detail, including the reviewing of his personal diary, which had not been seen in full before, as it was owned by his family. It was this journey which inspired also Christopher Stewart in his book Jungleland, which I read and reviewed mid 2023. Here Preston makes some interesting discoveries I won't spoil for others.
And so all of this leads into the Steve Elkin's funding venture. This consists of use of new tech (for that time) LIDAR scanning, after establishing likely sites that they name T1, T2, T3 & T4. There is a lot going on here, and I don't want to spoil what is a gripping read. After the lidar scanning gives big hopes, they are able to organise the actual on-the-ground exploration - Preston does a good job of describing all the logistics, process, risks (think biting insects, fer-de-lance and coral snakes!) and of course the discoveries.
Coming back to the third section of the book then, Preston covers the Leishmaniasis which the majority of those who visited the site had to deal with on their return to civilisation. Leishmania braziliensis is a very hard to treat strain of Leishmaniasis, and the cure is often at bad for the body as the parasitic disease is. Caused by sandfly bites, infected by a host animal with the disease, the outcome being a disease that eats away at the mucous membranes of the nose and mouth, but initially displays as a lesion or skin tumour that won't heal. Preston covers his own treatment and some of the others in a more general way. This section of the book was particularly interesting and identifies the risks to the old world explorer in the new world. Preston goes on to expand on the reverse - the impact that old world explorers bringing disease to the new world Indians, in some cases wiping out 90% of the population!
4 stars.
To be fair Douglas Preston works hard to avoid this book following that trope. However, it is what it is, to some degree. He attempts to break the mould, by breaking his book into three parts and making the lost city discovery the smaller of the three.
The first part covers previous explorations to the Mosquitia area, primarily in exploration to discover (or visits to, and legends about) Ciudad Blanca, or the fabled White City. These included Spaniard Hernán Cortés in 1526;, America John Lloyd Stephens in the 1830s; Mormon Church originated expeditions to investigate the Maya, who the Book or Mormon identified as a lost tribe of Israel (that one ended badly with most of the explorers being excommunicated because they were doubtful of the link!).
Moving on to the 20th Century, Preston covers Luxembourgian ethnologist Eduard Conzemius, and in the 1930s William Duncan Strong who was the first to recognise that there were sites that had been inhabited by ancient, unknown people who were not Maya. Next was George Gustav Heye, a wealthy American collector of Indian artifacts - who engaged an explorer to carry out the actual work. Frederick Mitchell-Hedges turned out unfortunately to be a con-artist. Heye's next two expeditions was led by Canadian R. Stuart Murray, and brought back various artifacts. It was Murray who was to introduce Theodore Morde to Heye, having met him on a cruise ship where Murray was a guest lecturer and Morde a journalist.
Heye engaged Morde to undertake his next expedition, and it has been Morde's expedition that has given much voice to the legends of the City of the Monkey God, and therefore inspired Steve Elkins to fund the expeditions and work that is the subject of Preston's book. Morde's journey is then described in some detail, including the reviewing of his personal diary, which had not been seen in full before, as it was owned by his family. It was this journey which inspired also Christopher Stewart in his book Jungleland, which I read and reviewed mid 2023. Here Preston makes some interesting discoveries I won't spoil for others.
And so all of this leads into the Steve Elkin's funding venture. This consists of use of new tech (for that time) LIDAR scanning, after establishing likely sites that they name T1, T2, T3 & T4. There is a lot going on here, and I don't want to spoil what is a gripping read. After the lidar scanning gives big hopes, they are able to organise the actual on-the-ground exploration - Preston does a good job of describing all the logistics, process, risks (think biting insects, fer-de-lance and coral snakes!) and of course the discoveries.
Coming back to the third section of the book then, Preston covers the Leishmaniasis which the majority of those who visited the site had to deal with on their return to civilisation. Leishmania braziliensis is a very hard to treat strain of Leishmaniasis, and the cure is often at bad for the body as the parasitic disease is. Caused by sandfly bites, infected by a host animal with the disease, the outcome being a disease that eats away at the mucous membranes of the nose and mouth, but initially displays as a lesion or skin tumour that won't heal. Preston covers his own treatment and some of the others in a more general way. This section of the book was particularly interesting and identifies the risks to the old world explorer in the new world. Preston goes on to expand on the reverse - the impact that old world explorers bringing disease to the new world Indians, in some cases wiping out 90% of the population!
4 stars.
March 16, 2020
As a longtime fan of the Pendergast series that Douglas Preston writes together with Lincoln Child was I curious to read this non-fiction book about a lost city. I find mysteries like this very intriguing. I mean a lost city that is mentioned in old documents, but no one has found? What's not to like? And, what makes this book so fantastic is that Douglas Preston himself was part of the expedition to what could be White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. A place where no one has been for centuries, a place with a lot of deadly creatures like the deadly fer-de-lance, one of the most deadly snakes on the planet.
The Lost City of the Monkey God captivated me from the beginning, Preston has written a well-researched book, which gives the reader both the historical background as well as the impressions from the expedition. I always love books that are entertaining and learning as well, and Preston has managed that. The only thing I found a bit dreary was the technical descriptions of the equipment that they used to pinpoint the city, but I got the gist and that was enough for me. I'm just not that interested in technical things so stuff like that always makes me a bit bored. But, I fully understand the need for it to be included in the story. Especially since it pissed off archaeologists who think that it's cheating to use lidar to find lost cities. I loved that part of the story, how petty some archaeologists were.
As much as I enjoyed reading the historical background must I admit that reading about the expedition, how they were the first ones there were very thrilling. I could easily picture the scenery and I found the discovery of the city and artifacts fascinating. Although I'm not sure I would want to travel there with all the bugs and deadly snakes.
The Lost City of the Monkey God was a truly great book. I loved learning more about the history of Honduras and it made me sad to think about how the Europeans arrival pretty much killed off most of the natives all over America thanks to the sickness they brought with them.
4.5 stars
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!
The Lost City of the Monkey God captivated me from the beginning, Preston has written a well-researched book, which gives the reader both the historical background as well as the impressions from the expedition. I always love books that are entertaining and learning as well, and Preston has managed that. The only thing I found a bit dreary was the technical descriptions of the equipment that they used to pinpoint the city, but I got the gist and that was enough for me. I'm just not that interested in technical things so stuff like that always makes me a bit bored. But, I fully understand the need for it to be included in the story. Especially since it pissed off archaeologists who think that it's cheating to use lidar to find lost cities. I loved that part of the story, how petty some archaeologists were.
As much as I enjoyed reading the historical background must I admit that reading about the expedition, how they were the first ones there were very thrilling. I could easily picture the scenery and I found the discovery of the city and artifacts fascinating. Although I'm not sure I would want to travel there with all the bugs and deadly snakes.
The Lost City of the Monkey God was a truly great book. I loved learning more about the history of Honduras and it made me sad to think about how the Europeans arrival pretty much killed off most of the natives all over America thanks to the sickness they brought with them.
4.5 stars
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!
January 30, 2018
Who knew that there were so many civilizations in the Northern Hemisphere, The Lost City of the Monkey God takes us deep into the Mosquitia region of the Gracias a Dios Department in eastern Honduras, where the legendary "White City" supposedly existed.
The first third of the book tells how documentary filmmakers Steve Elkins and Bill Benenson have spent 20+ years searching for the "White City". using a million-dollar lidar scanner, they were able to fly over the valley, probing the jungle canopy with laser light. Lidar is able to map the ground even through dense rain forest, delineating any archaeological features that might be present. What they found was a huge city. Was it the legendary "White City"? Who knows.
What ensues is the physical search of the area. If you have read any books on entering tropical rain forests you know they are fraught with dangers, while I appreciate the amount of time, effort and money invested in this project I am not wholly convinced that it is the riveting tale we are lead to believe we are getting. It is more a long version of the National Geographic article. From here Preston, takes off on a tangent about how those in the archaeology of Central America community attacked their expedition because Elkins billed it as finding the LOST "White City" which they (archaeologist) believe is a myth.
The last part of the book is about Leishmaniasis, the disease that Preston and many of his fellow crew members caught. It was interesting to learn what treatment they went through to contain the disease. Preston then goes on to speculate that the people of the city they found where wiped out by some disease that occurred during the contact period with explorers. There is nothing to back this up.
I read this book because Dana Stabenow rated with 5 stars and provided a rave review. I was not so impressed. This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal
The first third of the book tells how documentary filmmakers Steve Elkins and Bill Benenson have spent 20+ years searching for the "White City". using a million-dollar lidar scanner, they were able to fly over the valley, probing the jungle canopy with laser light. Lidar is able to map the ground even through dense rain forest, delineating any archaeological features that might be present. What they found was a huge city. Was it the legendary "White City"? Who knows.
What ensues is the physical search of the area. If you have read any books on entering tropical rain forests you know they are fraught with dangers, while I appreciate the amount of time, effort and money invested in this project I am not wholly convinced that it is the riveting tale we are lead to believe we are getting. It is more a long version of the National Geographic article. From here Preston, takes off on a tangent about how those in the archaeology of Central America community attacked their expedition because Elkins billed it as finding the LOST "White City" which they (archaeologist) believe is a myth.
The last part of the book is about Leishmaniasis, the disease that Preston and many of his fellow crew members caught. It was interesting to learn what treatment they went through to contain the disease. Preston then goes on to speculate that the people of the city they found where wiped out by some disease that occurred during the contact period with explorers. There is nothing to back this up.
I read this book because Dana Stabenow rated with 5 stars and provided a rave review. I was not so impressed. This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal
April 29, 2021
I was expecting a non-fiction adventure story told by one of my favorite thriller authors, but this book really covers a lot more territory than that. In the La Mosquitia region of Honduras, there was rumored to be a lost city where people once worshipped a monkey like statue. There were also rumors about the unfortunate fate that would befall people who went looking for this city. The beginning of this book describes a lot of failed and fraudulent expeditions searching for the city. It was supposedly found in the 1940s by a man who died without revealing its location. Some of the explorers not only didn't find the city but weren't even looking for it but were searching for gold instead. In the end, the jungle was too dense and the search area too large to permit a success, until modern technology made the search easier. In 2012, the author became part of a team of scientists who were able to locate (from the air) what they assumed were man-made structures buried in the jungle, but it wasn't until 2015 that they actually entered the jungle to verify this assumption.
At this point, the book became the adventure story I was expecting. "At night, the ground was covered with cockroaches and spiders while jaguars roamed about". There were also poisonous snakes, killer mud and swarms of biting insects (which turned out to be more dangerous than the snakes). No amount of curiosity would have gotten me on this expedition, but the author seemed happy as a clam to be there. They discovered caches of artifacts and the book describes the competing theories about the placement and meaning of these artifacts, in addition to the ethics of excavating and removing artifacts vs studying them in situ. It appears that the entire civilization vanished virtually at once.
After the explorers left the jungle, several members of the team developed a parasitic disease, about which I would have preferred not to hear. However the author had a point (or several points) to make with his detailed description of the disease and its treatment. Civilizations rise until they meet their inevitable demise. It can be fast or slow and pandemics definitely speed things up. Ignoring diseases common in poor nations or remote parts of the world could lead to their worldwide spread. These and other important issues felt a little crammed into the final chapters of the book. They probably deserved their own book.
I received a free copy of the hardcover version of this book from the publisher, which was useful for looking at the pictures. However, I wound up listening to the audiobook borrowed from the library.
At this point, the book became the adventure story I was expecting. "At night, the ground was covered with cockroaches and spiders while jaguars roamed about". There were also poisonous snakes, killer mud and swarms of biting insects (which turned out to be more dangerous than the snakes). No amount of curiosity would have gotten me on this expedition, but the author seemed happy as a clam to be there. They discovered caches of artifacts and the book describes the competing theories about the placement and meaning of these artifacts, in addition to the ethics of excavating and removing artifacts vs studying them in situ. It appears that the entire civilization vanished virtually at once.
After the explorers left the jungle, several members of the team developed a parasitic disease, about which I would have preferred not to hear. However the author had a point (or several points) to make with his detailed description of the disease and its treatment. Civilizations rise until they meet their inevitable demise. It can be fast or slow and pandemics definitely speed things up. Ignoring diseases common in poor nations or remote parts of the world could lead to their worldwide spread. These and other important issues felt a little crammed into the final chapters of the book. They probably deserved their own book.
I received a free copy of the hardcover version of this book from the publisher, which was useful for looking at the pictures. However, I wound up listening to the audiobook borrowed from the library.
March 17, 2022
If you're going to read only one nonfiction South American lost city exploration novel make it this one. It's far superior to The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. It's truly astounding what people are able to accomplish with unwavering determination and a touch of technology. I wonder if the City of Z could have benefited from the same approach.
This book covers the City of the Monkey God and the controversies surrounding it before, during, and after the discovery. It also goes deep into the history of colonization and the wide spread diseases it brought to indigenous people. Surprisingly, it also dove into sand flies and a parasite called leishmaniasis. That could be a book of it's own and terrifying one at that.
This book covers the City of the Monkey God and the controversies surrounding it before, during, and after the discovery. It also goes deep into the history of colonization and the wide spread diseases it brought to indigenous people. Surprisingly, it also dove into sand flies and a parasite called leishmaniasis. That could be a book of it's own and terrifying one at that.
February 11, 2017
Wow, well this had a little bit of everything! Archeological adventure story, ancient culture history, Honduras politics, revelations about lesser-known diseases and more. Loved it from beginning to end.
August 8, 2017
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story is not my normal cuppa, but came to me highly recommended. I'm glad that I reserved the audio at my library.
I enjoyed this story, but was slightly disappointed at the time spent actually exploring. The beginning of the book goes into previous expeditions to areas near this city and the problems faced due to the fact that Honduras can be a very dangerous country. Not only due to the insects, snakes and other poisonous creatures, but also because of drug cartels.
The brief portion that involved the actual exploration was fascinating. Imagine going into an area completely untouched by mankind in 500 hundred years. How exciting! However, the actuality of exploring such an area means exposing oneself to thousands of dangers from extremely deep mud, insects of all kinds, snakes and even jaguars, to name just a few.
There was another brief section talking about the problems with other archaeologists and academia throwing shade on this expedition, some of them doing so with no REAL knowledge of what went on, how LIDAR worked and what was found.
Lastly, and the part I found most interesting, was what happened to many of the explorers after they got home and that is: Leishmaniasis. OMG. This is a disease, (actually many diseases and symptoms, grouped under one name), which is mainly carried by tiny sand flies. The havoc this disease can wreak is almost unbelievable. This led to another section of the book which spoke about new world diseases and how they affected the Americas. There is talk of how some of the early civilizations disappeared and how that may have been caused by parasites and diseases. I found all of this fascinating but extremely scary. Most especially when it was mentioned that cases of Leish have now been found in Texas and the speculation about how that is because sand flies are moving northward due to climate change.
What I found most surprising is that many of the explorers that were diagnosed and treated for Leish, jumped at the chance to go back to the site. I can only assume that they were CRAZY!
I enjoyed this book and I learned a lot about Honduras and its history. I recommend The Lost City of the Monkey God to anyone interested in learning more about Honduras, the city and the history of the world, in general.
*I checked out this audio from my local library. Libraries RULE!*
I enjoyed this story, but was slightly disappointed at the time spent actually exploring. The beginning of the book goes into previous expeditions to areas near this city and the problems faced due to the fact that Honduras can be a very dangerous country. Not only due to the insects, snakes and other poisonous creatures, but also because of drug cartels.
The brief portion that involved the actual exploration was fascinating. Imagine going into an area completely untouched by mankind in 500 hundred years. How exciting! However, the actuality of exploring such an area means exposing oneself to thousands of dangers from extremely deep mud, insects of all kinds, snakes and even jaguars, to name just a few.
There was another brief section talking about the problems with other archaeologists and academia throwing shade on this expedition, some of them doing so with no REAL knowledge of what went on, how LIDAR worked and what was found.
Lastly, and the part I found most interesting, was what happened to many of the explorers after they got home and that is: Leishmaniasis. OMG. This is a disease, (actually many diseases and symptoms, grouped under one name), which is mainly carried by tiny sand flies. The havoc this disease can wreak is almost unbelievable. This led to another section of the book which spoke about new world diseases and how they affected the Americas. There is talk of how some of the early civilizations disappeared and how that may have been caused by parasites and diseases. I found all of this fascinating but extremely scary. Most especially when it was mentioned that cases of Leish have now been found in Texas and the speculation about how that is because sand flies are moving northward due to climate change.
What I found most surprising is that many of the explorers that were diagnosed and treated for Leish, jumped at the chance to go back to the site. I can only assume that they were CRAZY!
I enjoyed this book and I learned a lot about Honduras and its history. I recommend The Lost City of the Monkey God to anyone interested in learning more about Honduras, the city and the history of the world, in general.
*I checked out this audio from my local library. Libraries RULE!*
April 19, 2023
People need history in order to know themselves, to build a sense of identity and pride, continuity, community, and hope for the future.
Before I read a book, I generally screen it using Goodreads' ratings, reviews, recommendations, etc. You know why: too many books, not enough time. But some authors are automatic reads based on my past enjoyment of their work. For me, Douglas Preston is one of those authors. For these authors, I generally go into the book knowing very little about the story, preferring to be surprised since I don't need to weigh whether the story interests me.
With The Lost City of the Monkey God, that made for an odd reading experience. I did not know how much of the story was going to be before-the-expedition history and after-the-expedition medical drama. The story of the expedition is in there, but it’s only about a third of the story—much less than I expected. I also did not know that the expedition was so recent that much of the information and knowledge about the City has not yet been gleaned from what they found.
The Lost City of the Monkey God an interesting book, but somehow vaguely unsatisfying because of the gap between my expectations and the actual story. Recommended if the subject interests you.
April 25, 2021
The White City, the City of the Monkey God, Kaha Kamasa -
There was once a great city in the mountains struck down by a series of catastrophes,
after which the people decided that the gods were angry and left, leaving behind their possessions.
Thereafter it was shunned as a cursed place,
forbidden, visiting death on those who dared enter.
This description evoked the retro adventures of Indiana Jones. I had listened to the audiobook, and the narrator tried to foster that essence with a slightly breathless delivery as though the speaker was rapt with wonder.
Perhaps I've read too many mysteries and thrillers during my life. Because as much as I enjoy travel adventures, I couldn't get swept up in this Mesoamerican puzzle of a practically unknown civilisation that had "vanished into the jungles" in the 1500s, leaving behind only fables of abandoned riches.
I believe that part of my response to this nonfiction account was because it felt so self-consciously styled to mimic the movie magic of an Indiana Jones adventure. There were colorful characters that I'd expect from the thriller genre. The ex-British SAS Andrew "Woody" Wood with his squinty gaze was introduced early on. Woody's job was simple - "to keep us alive." The shady mercenary-for-hire rogue was Bruce Heinicke, who may have resembled Jabba the Hut but whose past as a drug smuggler and artifacts looter made him an indispensable "fixer."
Challenges were, of course, numerous and came from both nature and man. The most prominent creepy crawler was the fer-de-lance, a yellow-beard snake that could squirt its lethal venom more than 6 feet and whose fangs could pierce practically any snake gaiters on the market. The rainforest was so dense that one could just wander 10 feet from others and become disoriented and lost. The threat from man came not from politicians but from narcotics traffickers. Even the bland language in the US State Department travel advisory couldn't disguise the fact that the Honduran government had no control over huge portions of their country.
With all these promising elements, Preston presented a colorful tale of intrepid film makers and archaeologists who discovered a never before excavated site deep in La Mosquitia. Their massive site wasn't found by happenstance but by expensive lidar (light detection and radar) technology. Surprisingly, the expedition had even received government support. The newly installed President wanted something that would not only attract tourist business but could help forge a Honduran national identity.
But then after recounting the actual visit to the "lost city" site (which was only about one-sixth of the book), at the two-thirds marker of the book, Preston detoured into leishmaniasis. This is a parasitical tropical disease, also known as white leprosy, which eats away at one's flesh. Half of the expedition team and its accompaniment of Honduran soldiers had contracted leishmaniasis after copious sand flies had fed upon them. The final chapter was filled with occasionally erroneous or inchoate musings, among which was the irony of their "Old World" selves from the "First World" getting afflicted by the dreaded "Third World" disease that had originated in the "New World." I didn't care for the patriarchal ramblings. Preston concluded his book with drama commensurate with its beginning:No civilization has survived forever. All move toward dissolution... None, including ours, is exempt from the universal fate.
Cue the music - dun, dun, dun.
December 28, 2016
Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
It's no secret that I love Douglas Preston. I've read (and reread) his co-authored Special Agent Pendergast series multiple times. I've worked with the publishers for the past few years for ARCs of that series and interviewed Mr. Preston and Lincoln Child, his Pendergast co-author. I've read pretty much everything they've both ever written, with a few things still remaining on my to-read pile.
I also love adventure stories. Lost temples, jungle treks, scary wildlife, special teams going in to discover the past... so when I saw this one hit Netgalley, I knew I had to request it. I subscribe to Preston's email newsletters, and I was aware of his long-term interest in the lost White City of Honduras. I paid attention when they used the lidar to map some potential locations of this city in the Honduran jungles, and gobbled up details when they set out on their expedition.
This book provides Preston's account of his take on the whole scenario -- from the history of the search for the lost city, to his actual involvement, to the aftereffects of that fateful journey. It's a solid read, which I expect from Preston, who is a fantastic writer.
My biggest gripe is the end. I know it's a non-fiction weaving of historical detail into modern day adventure memoir, but the last few chapters focus solely on the deadly and scary disease that affects much of the third world, and hit many of the explorers. It turns from a lesson on the White City and a recording of the adventure into a public service notice about the future of the disease and the need for treatments to be researched and available to all, not only because the disease is quickly passing from third world into first world, but mostly because of the millions of people it affects and the tens of thousands it kills on a yearly basis in the third world, where they have no financial ability to pay for treatment and big pharm sees no profit in it.
Don't get me wrong -- I entirely agree with Preston's views on the subject. I think my problem was that the book was about the adventure into what might have been the source for the legends of the Lost City of the Monkey God, so rather than ending on the disease chapters, those could have been put into the middle and the ending been something more suited to the adventurous side of the tale and how much more we have to learn from the past.
Just my opinion, but that's what reviews are. Either way, I read very little non-fiction, and this book kept my focus and my attention, and showcases Preston's strong talents. You should really take the opportunity to follow in Preston and team's footsteps into the jungles of Honduras. Just watch out for the venomous and aggressive fer-de-lance snakes and the leish-transmitting sandflies... among the bazillion other deadly things waiting for you out there. Lucky for you, you're safe on your couch. ;)
It's no secret that I love Douglas Preston. I've read (and reread) his co-authored Special Agent Pendergast series multiple times. I've worked with the publishers for the past few years for ARCs of that series and interviewed Mr. Preston and Lincoln Child, his Pendergast co-author. I've read pretty much everything they've both ever written, with a few things still remaining on my to-read pile.
I also love adventure stories. Lost temples, jungle treks, scary wildlife, special teams going in to discover the past... so when I saw this one hit Netgalley, I knew I had to request it. I subscribe to Preston's email newsletters, and I was aware of his long-term interest in the lost White City of Honduras. I paid attention when they used the lidar to map some potential locations of this city in the Honduran jungles, and gobbled up details when they set out on their expedition.
This book provides Preston's account of his take on the whole scenario -- from the history of the search for the lost city, to his actual involvement, to the aftereffects of that fateful journey. It's a solid read, which I expect from Preston, who is a fantastic writer.
My biggest gripe is the end. I know it's a non-fiction weaving of historical detail into modern day adventure memoir, but the last few chapters focus solely on the deadly and scary disease that affects much of the third world, and hit many of the explorers. It turns from a lesson on the White City and a recording of the adventure into a public service notice about the future of the disease and the need for treatments to be researched and available to all, not only because the disease is quickly passing from third world into first world, but mostly because of the millions of people it affects and the tens of thousands it kills on a yearly basis in the third world, where they have no financial ability to pay for treatment and big pharm sees no profit in it.
Don't get me wrong -- I entirely agree with Preston's views on the subject. I think my problem was that the book was about the adventure into what might have been the source for the legends of the Lost City of the Monkey God, so rather than ending on the disease chapters, those could have been put into the middle and the ending been something more suited to the adventurous side of the tale and how much more we have to learn from the past.
Just my opinion, but that's what reviews are. Either way, I read very little non-fiction, and this book kept my focus and my attention, and showcases Preston's strong talents. You should really take the opportunity to follow in Preston and team's footsteps into the jungles of Honduras. Just watch out for the venomous and aggressive fer-de-lance snakes and the leish-transmitting sandflies... among the bazillion other deadly things waiting for you out there. Lucky for you, you're safe on your couch. ;)
April 4, 2017
For centuries, since the days of Hernán Cortés in the 1500's, rumors abounded regarding a lost city in Honduras called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. It was reputed to be a city of immense wealth. Indigenous tribes warned that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. There have been many stories about sightings of this lost city. Some of these outright hoaxes. None have proven it's existence. In the twentieth century there were several expeditions to locate this lost city. Probably the most famous being an expedition led by Theodore Morde in 1940. He returned with thousands of artifacts to back his claim of having discovered the city but committed suicide and never revealed it's location.
In 2012 Preston joined a group of explorers searching for Ciudad Blanca (“The White City”). Using an advanced laser-imaging technology called LIDAR they were able to penetrate the dense jungle canopy to detect man-made anomalies at two locations. The LIDAR images were sufficient to obtain funding to explore the sites. Flying in a rickety plane, Vietnam era helicopters, sleeping in a jungle infested with venomous snakes and disease carrying insects. They had returned from the first expedition thinking they were lucky to have all survived only to discover later that half of them had contracted a horrific, sometimes lethal, and incurable disease.
It was part Indiana Jones and part Robert Ballard's search for the Titanic. There is a bit of history and politics here too. I had heard stories about the impact when the Old World and New World collided and how disease wiped out many of the indigenous tribes. This book reminded me of how devastating it was. There was the difficulty of dealing with the seeming ever changing Honduran government and obtaining permits. Then there were the problems with the academic community which labeled the expedition as adventurers and treasure hunters.
The book ends with a warning about climate change and the increased danger of pandemics as the world is shrinking and a disease is only a plane ride away from any civilization. An adventure story with a message.
In 2012 Preston joined a group of explorers searching for Ciudad Blanca (“The White City”). Using an advanced laser-imaging technology called LIDAR they were able to penetrate the dense jungle canopy to detect man-made anomalies at two locations. The LIDAR images were sufficient to obtain funding to explore the sites. Flying in a rickety plane, Vietnam era helicopters, sleeping in a jungle infested with venomous snakes and disease carrying insects. They had returned from the first expedition thinking they were lucky to have all survived only to discover later that half of them had contracted a horrific, sometimes lethal, and incurable disease.
It was part Indiana Jones and part Robert Ballard's search for the Titanic. There is a bit of history and politics here too. I had heard stories about the impact when the Old World and New World collided and how disease wiped out many of the indigenous tribes. This book reminded me of how devastating it was. There was the difficulty of dealing with the seeming ever changing Honduran government and obtaining permits. Then there were the problems with the academic community which labeled the expedition as adventurers and treasure hunters.
The book ends with a warning about climate change and the increased danger of pandemics as the world is shrinking and a disease is only a plane ride away from any civilization. An adventure story with a message.
July 19, 2017
3.5 stars
My friend Barbara recommended this book to me, so really how could I refuse? Especially once I found out that much of the action takes place in Honduras, a country that I have been interested in visiting for several years. Why? The Lovely Cotinga, that's why (have a look at http://www.sabrewingtours.com/hondura...
But I think I may be cured of that desire now. You see, in addition to the anthropological research and the jungle exploration (poisonous snakes, hip deep mud, and unremitting rain, anyone?) there ends up being a fair amount of discussion of insect-bourne disease. A number of the team were infected with Leishamaniasis by the bites of sand flies. What is easily done can be difficult to undo and they struggle to find treatment options. Most of the world's victims of this disease are among the poorest people on earth--if they had money to spend on drugs, the pharma companies would be doing the necessary research. But that's not the way things are.
Now, I am one of those people that biting insects adore. In fact, I was just at a family reunion and I think I heard everyone say at some point, "Oh, mosquitoes love me!" So apparently it is a family trait and as I sat in their attractive midst, I did get only 3-4 mosquito bites. But I am hardly encourages to brave Hondruas, even for the most beautiful bird. Sorry, Lovely Cotinga!
My friend Barbara recommended this book to me, so really how could I refuse? Especially once I found out that much of the action takes place in Honduras, a country that I have been interested in visiting for several years. Why? The Lovely Cotinga, that's why (have a look at http://www.sabrewingtours.com/hondura...
But I think I may be cured of that desire now. You see, in addition to the anthropological research and the jungle exploration (poisonous snakes, hip deep mud, and unremitting rain, anyone?) there ends up being a fair amount of discussion of insect-bourne disease. A number of the team were infected with Leishamaniasis by the bites of sand flies. What is easily done can be difficult to undo and they struggle to find treatment options. Most of the world's victims of this disease are among the poorest people on earth--if they had money to spend on drugs, the pharma companies would be doing the necessary research. But that's not the way things are.
Now, I am one of those people that biting insects adore. In fact, I was just at a family reunion and I think I heard everyone say at some point, "Oh, mosquitoes love me!" So apparently it is a family trait and as I sat in their attractive midst, I did get only 3-4 mosquito bites. But I am hardly encourages to brave Hondruas, even for the most beautiful bird. Sorry, Lovely Cotinga!
July 13, 2021
Takeaway: White people are an insensitive, self-aggrandizing, entitled lot, especially the American male ones. And that's how they got a curse.
Note: The reader/listener is repeatedly told that archeology and paleontology are not
nor
and definitely not
This story has a tinylittlebit of
(Theme song can be found here, in case you also loved singing that at the top of your voice when you were a hopelessly overwrought tween)
Though, honestly, all the machete-whacking around in the jungle felt a lot like
mixed with
in which the predator in question looks like this:
Ok. So now you're ready to read my thoughts because, despite being told that was NOT what was going on, all those images above kept running through my head as I listened to this and I feel they should inspire you, as well.
You're welcome.
After I gave up my plans to be a ballerina around age 4 (I hated gymnastics and when I realized ballet was more of the same but different, I was like, Nope!), I realized my true calling was archeology. Or marine biology. But there weren't a lot of oceans or marine life in the middle of Colorado. However, there were plenty of things to dig out of the dirt and I was exceptionally good at digging in dirt. A career path was born.
It was later dashed when I entered college and saw the ridiculous amount of math I'd have to take in order to pursue my dreams and I was like, Nope! And now I have a BA in English. Yay.
But between age 4 and age 17, I crammed a ton of archaeology and paleontology, as well as cryptozoology and mythology because related fields, into my brain. I loved it! Dinosaurs? YES! Pottery fragments? YES! Exhuming graves? YES! Museums? Mesa Verde? Dinosaur National Monument? YES YES YES! And with shows like "Tales of the Gold Monkey" and "The Lost Cities of Gold" plus movies like "Romancing the Stone" and three real Indiana Jones movies (plus a TV show that was so/so), well, it became totally my thing.
I retain a strong sentimental love for all the misinformation I fed myself during those years so it's not a surprise I ran full-tilt, shrieking with glee, into this story, pith helmet secured on top of my ponytail, knife in my calf holster. I was ready.
I was not disappointed.
This was amazing.
And, seriously, we are a horrible bunch of people. Because who else but the descendants of English colonizers and Spanish conquistadors would think it's perfectly acceptable to go into someone else's country with a film crew to dig up their old growth jungles in order to chase myths and maybe gain some fame in the process? Dude! That is NOT ok! Thankfully, Preston does touch upon this a few times and it was a bit of a balm to know that, yes, we should know better and that there are people out there who protest this kind of spoiled, dickish behavior.
But, you know, what's done is done...so...TELL ME ABOUT IT!
Some dude named Steve Elkins got all interested in the "lost" City of Monkey God and/or the famed Ciudad Blanca (White City), which were probably the same thing so he kept trying to find a way to fund an expedition to Honduras to find it.
Note: The city wasn't lost to everyone in the area who knew it was there. It was only lost to white people who felt it needed to be found and dug up. Also, the government of Honduras thought finding said mythical place would be pretty good PR during a shaky time so even though the native tribes in the Mosquitia area were all, "Um, don't go in there. It's cursed. We've been staying out of that area for 500 years, we know what we're talking about," the government was like, "Don't listen to them. They're poor and dirty. Go on in. Here are some elite soldiers to protect you from the crazydangerous drug runners that run around those hills. Then get back with us when you find something. Make sure it's something cool because we really need a pick-me-up right now."
Ol' Steve, he had the worst time figuring out how to get in there to find old new world ruins. It was almost as if some external force was keeping him away.
But he persisted.
For, like, 22 years.
He talked to this other guy, Ron Blom, who worked at NASA and had helped to find another "lost" city (ok, that one was actually lost. It got swallered up by a sinkhole and then sanded over) in the '90's. Ron Blom had used technology for finding old cities and roads and Elkins wondered if that technology could be used in the jungle, too. Spoiler alert: it couldn't. However, it did remind people to keep an eye on fancy advances in treasure hunting apparatusi.
Note: By this point in the story, and I think I was still on the first disc, I was swooning. Also, squealing with glee. I was in the middle of my fondest wet dream! Rediscovering the remnants of ancient cultures who have been quiet for ages! Oh, goodness, I'm fanning myself even now. Whoof.
Lots of stuff happens, there's disappointment, StevieBoy is never going to get to go to the jungle because it's just not going to work AND THEN IT DOES! Our fearless writer, a sometime journalist for National Geographic, is on board. There's a film crew and an archeologist and a couple of experts on ancient Honduran cultures, and the two hero-types who are in charge of keeping the group safe and getting them to where they need to be and the aforementioned elite soldiers and some pilots and a LIDAR technician. There's a big crew of people, mostly men, mostly white, and they're all heading into the Honduran jungle to fuck things up. I keep pointing that out because, seriously, who the hell do we think we are?
And you're thinking, "You're the one swooning, here."
I would like just to tell you that there was severe cognitive dissonance happening to me the entirety of this story.
So. Everyone goes to the jungle. There are killer snakes and there are some jaguars, there's quicksand and caves full of bones along the river banks and mosquitoes and sandflies and those little suckers carry my new favorite horrible disease, leishmaniasis. I used to prefer plague, specifically bubonic, but, pssht. So last year. It's all about the leishmaniasis now! It is HORRIFIC! It may be the oldest continuous parasite on the planet, having been found in dinosaur remains and still active in jungle regions across the globe.
There are three kinds: cutaneous (on your skin, not lethal), visceral (in your guts, lethal if not treated but easy to treat if you're in a first-world country and have access to medical care), and mucocutaneous. That third one's a doozy.
The parasite migrates to the mucus membranes of the victim's nose and lips and eats them away, eventually creating a giant, weeping sore where the face used to be. It's the hardest to treat because the treatments have horrible side-effects, including ruining your kidneys. You can die from the parasite or from the treatment!
The Google has pictures. Feel free to thank me for not posting them here but you can go find them, yourself, if you're as ghoulish as I am.
Guess what? Ciudad Blanca is totally cursed.
WITH LEISHMANIASIS!!!
Also, calling it City of the Monkey God is offensive so stop already.
In fact,
This isn't much of a review. I'm just yelling at you out of pure excitement, pretty much.
You can get a better idea of the contents if you read the article Preston wrote for National Geographic and if you like it, then read this book!
Or listen to it, though, listener beware: The narrator is terrible with Spanish and MesoAmerican language. His pronunciation is just so...white.
Note: The reader/listener is repeatedly told that archeology and paleontology are not
nor
and definitely not
This story has a tinylittlebit of
(Theme song can be found here, in case you also loved singing that at the top of your voice when you were a hopelessly overwrought tween)
Though, honestly, all the machete-whacking around in the jungle felt a lot like
mixed with
in which the predator in question looks like this:
Ok. So now you're ready to read my thoughts because, despite being told that was NOT what was going on, all those images above kept running through my head as I listened to this and I feel they should inspire you, as well.
You're welcome.
After I gave up my plans to be a ballerina around age 4 (I hated gymnastics and when I realized ballet was more of the same but different, I was like, Nope!), I realized my true calling was archeology. Or marine biology. But there weren't a lot of oceans or marine life in the middle of Colorado. However, there were plenty of things to dig out of the dirt and I was exceptionally good at digging in dirt. A career path was born.
It was later dashed when I entered college and saw the ridiculous amount of math I'd have to take in order to pursue my dreams and I was like, Nope! And now I have a BA in English. Yay.
But between age 4 and age 17, I crammed a ton of archaeology and paleontology, as well as cryptozoology and mythology because related fields, into my brain. I loved it! Dinosaurs? YES! Pottery fragments? YES! Exhuming graves? YES! Museums? Mesa Verde? Dinosaur National Monument? YES YES YES! And with shows like "Tales of the Gold Monkey" and "The Lost Cities of Gold" plus movies like "Romancing the Stone" and three real Indiana Jones movies (plus a TV show that was so/so), well, it became totally my thing.
I retain a strong sentimental love for all the misinformation I fed myself during those years so it's not a surprise I ran full-tilt, shrieking with glee, into this story, pith helmet secured on top of my ponytail, knife in my calf holster. I was ready.
I was not disappointed.
This was amazing.
And, seriously, we are a horrible bunch of people. Because who else but the descendants of English colonizers and Spanish conquistadors would think it's perfectly acceptable to go into someone else's country with a film crew to dig up their old growth jungles in order to chase myths and maybe gain some fame in the process? Dude! That is NOT ok! Thankfully, Preston does touch upon this a few times and it was a bit of a balm to know that, yes, we should know better and that there are people out there who protest this kind of spoiled, dickish behavior.
But, you know, what's done is done...so...TELL ME ABOUT IT!
Some dude named Steve Elkins got all interested in the "lost" City of Monkey God and/or the famed Ciudad Blanca (White City), which were probably the same thing so he kept trying to find a way to fund an expedition to Honduras to find it.
Note: The city wasn't lost to everyone in the area who knew it was there. It was only lost to white people who felt it needed to be found and dug up. Also, the government of Honduras thought finding said mythical place would be pretty good PR during a shaky time so even though the native tribes in the Mosquitia area were all, "Um, don't go in there. It's cursed. We've been staying out of that area for 500 years, we know what we're talking about," the government was like, "Don't listen to them. They're poor and dirty. Go on in. Here are some elite soldiers to protect you from the crazydangerous drug runners that run around those hills. Then get back with us when you find something. Make sure it's something cool because we really need a pick-me-up right now."
Ol' Steve, he had the worst time figuring out how to get in there to find old new world ruins. It was almost as if some external force was keeping him away.
But he persisted.
For, like, 22 years.
He talked to this other guy, Ron Blom, who worked at NASA and had helped to find another "lost" city (ok, that one was actually lost. It got swallered up by a sinkhole and then sanded over) in the '90's. Ron Blom had used technology for finding old cities and roads and Elkins wondered if that technology could be used in the jungle, too. Spoiler alert: it couldn't. However, it did remind people to keep an eye on fancy advances in treasure hunting apparatusi.
Note: By this point in the story, and I think I was still on the first disc, I was swooning. Also, squealing with glee. I was in the middle of my fondest wet dream! Rediscovering the remnants of ancient cultures who have been quiet for ages! Oh, goodness, I'm fanning myself even now. Whoof.
Lots of stuff happens, there's disappointment, StevieBoy is never going to get to go to the jungle because it's just not going to work AND THEN IT DOES! Our fearless writer, a sometime journalist for National Geographic, is on board. There's a film crew and an archeologist and a couple of experts on ancient Honduran cultures, and the two hero-types who are in charge of keeping the group safe and getting them to where they need to be and the aforementioned elite soldiers and some pilots and a LIDAR technician. There's a big crew of people, mostly men, mostly white, and they're all heading into the Honduran jungle to fuck things up. I keep pointing that out because, seriously, who the hell do we think we are?
And you're thinking, "You're the one swooning, here."
I would like just to tell you that there was severe cognitive dissonance happening to me the entirety of this story.
So. Everyone goes to the jungle. There are killer snakes and there are some jaguars, there's quicksand and caves full of bones along the river banks and mosquitoes and sandflies and those little suckers carry my new favorite horrible disease, leishmaniasis. I used to prefer plague, specifically bubonic, but, pssht. So last year. It's all about the leishmaniasis now! It is HORRIFIC! It may be the oldest continuous parasite on the planet, having been found in dinosaur remains and still active in jungle regions across the globe.
There are three kinds: cutaneous (on your skin, not lethal), visceral (in your guts, lethal if not treated but easy to treat if you're in a first-world country and have access to medical care), and mucocutaneous. That third one's a doozy.
The parasite migrates to the mucus membranes of the victim's nose and lips and eats them away, eventually creating a giant, weeping sore where the face used to be. It's the hardest to treat because the treatments have horrible side-effects, including ruining your kidneys. You can die from the parasite or from the treatment!
The Google has pictures. Feel free to thank me for not posting them here but you can go find them, yourself, if you're as ghoulish as I am.
Guess what? Ciudad Blanca is totally cursed.
WITH LEISHMANIASIS!!!
Also, calling it City of the Monkey God is offensive so stop already.
In fact,
This isn't much of a review. I'm just yelling at you out of pure excitement, pretty much.
You can get a better idea of the contents if you read the article Preston wrote for National Geographic and if you like it, then read this book!
Or listen to it, though, listener beware: The narrator is terrible with Spanish and MesoAmerican language. His pronunciation is just so...white.
February 18, 2018
Rumors of ancient lost cities awaken in us dreams of making great archeological discoveries and finding buried treasure, but as is so often the case, these are only to be achieved by most of us through a vicarious armchair adventure like this one!
In this true story, author Douglas Preston takes us along on his journey deep into the heart of the rainforest in Honduras, as a team of scientists, filmmakers, hired guards, soldiers and others try to find traces of the fabled White City aka the Lost City of the Monkey God. Preston is there to cover this expedition for National Geographic and is partnered with photographer Dave Yoder to record their experiences.
The group sets off on Valentine's Day, 2015, heading to one of three remote locations that had been pinpointed earlier by a high-tech lidar machine and other GPS data as likely spots to start looking. Preston describes the arduous process of preparing landing sites for the helicopters, flying in people and equipment, setting up camp and finally doing some actual unearthing of artifacts. In the process, they are beseiged by bugs, frightened by snakes and soaked in torrential rains. Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick--they only have two weeks to accomplish at least some of their goals before they must return expensive equipment and vacate the area.
And what they find is astounding, as the photos Preston includes reveal! But their efforts are rewarded with criticism from the academic world. And did they happen to bring back the curse of the Monkey God?
Preston's book also includes some historical background and tales of earlier adventurers that I'm sure you will find as interesting as I did. And he makes some predictions for what the future holds for the spread of weird 'new' diseases as global warming changes our planet.
Read for my library's Readers Roundtable for February, 2018.
In this true story, author Douglas Preston takes us along on his journey deep into the heart of the rainforest in Honduras, as a team of scientists, filmmakers, hired guards, soldiers and others try to find traces of the fabled White City aka the Lost City of the Monkey God. Preston is there to cover this expedition for National Geographic and is partnered with photographer Dave Yoder to record their experiences.
The group sets off on Valentine's Day, 2015, heading to one of three remote locations that had been pinpointed earlier by a high-tech lidar machine and other GPS data as likely spots to start looking. Preston describes the arduous process of preparing landing sites for the helicopters, flying in people and equipment, setting up camp and finally doing some actual unearthing of artifacts. In the process, they are beseiged by bugs, frightened by snakes and soaked in torrential rains. Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick--they only have two weeks to accomplish at least some of their goals before they must return expensive equipment and vacate the area.
And what they find is astounding, as the photos Preston includes reveal! But their efforts are rewarded with criticism from the academic world. And did they happen to bring back the curse of the Monkey God?
Preston's book also includes some historical background and tales of earlier adventurers that I'm sure you will find as interesting as I did. And he makes some predictions for what the future holds for the spread of weird 'new' diseases as global warming changes our planet.
Read for my library's Readers Roundtable for February, 2018.
March 5, 2017
As a true story, this book doesn't follow a conventional narrative arc. Instead, it reaches what one thinks of the climax, makes a right turn into relevant history of disease introduced to the Americas by Europeans, and concludes by circling back to a different parasite that inhabits this rain-drenched paradise.
This is an amazing book. Preston has not only researched his subject thoroughly (a lost/haunted city in Honduras) but lived its present-day discovery. The lost city is central to Honduran First Nations (as a Canadian would describe it) history and as such, adds an entire new dimension to the country's culture. The find was so significant that the president of Honduras ceremonially removed the first artifact for study.
Preston doesn't hesitate to include quotes from the naysayers yet he retains a journalist's objectivity throughout.
A nice touch: one can read the first six chapters for free on Nook or Kindle. The opening paragraphs will pull in many readers, as they did me.
Highly recommended to thriller, mystery, and suspense readers, and to all interested in Central American (and North American) history--and to those who study diseases.
This is an amazing book. Preston has not only researched his subject thoroughly (a lost/haunted city in Honduras) but lived its present-day discovery. The lost city is central to Honduran First Nations (as a Canadian would describe it) history and as such, adds an entire new dimension to the country's culture. The find was so significant that the president of Honduras ceremonially removed the first artifact for study.
Preston doesn't hesitate to include quotes from the naysayers yet he retains a journalist's objectivity throughout.
A nice touch: one can read the first six chapters for free on Nook or Kindle. The opening paragraphs will pull in many readers, as they did me.
Highly recommended to thriller, mystery, and suspense readers, and to all interested in Central American (and North American) history--and to those who study diseases.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2018
Fascinating, sobering, and mind-blowing. As noted before, I don’t always do nonfiction, but when I do, it’s the good stuff.
Devotees of Jon Krakauer, Erik Larson, Candace Millard, and Laura Hillenbrand, this archeology-centered story is right up your alley as it forks, then branches into weird caves of thought you won’t entirely expect. Yes, we start with a jungle expedition that is thwarted, then attempted again. We get snarling insults about colonial arrogance and disregard for native peoples. Add in massive and aggressive snakes who shoot venom at those lucky enough not to have their Kevlar boot gaitors pierced by fangs as long as my thumbs. Insect bites, clear cutting of rainforest, looting. Elongate human skulls coated in clear crystals, like pale sugared candies glinting by lantern light.
We get parasites. And I totally get Preston. Loved this.
Devotees of Jon Krakauer, Erik Larson, Candace Millard, and Laura Hillenbrand, this archeology-centered story is right up your alley as it forks, then branches into weird caves of thought you won’t entirely expect. Yes, we start with a jungle expedition that is thwarted, then attempted again. We get snarling insults about colonial arrogance and disregard for native peoples. Add in massive and aggressive snakes who shoot venom at those lucky enough not to have their Kevlar boot gaitors pierced by fangs as long as my thumbs. Insect bites, clear cutting of rainforest, looting. Elongate human skulls coated in clear crystals, like pale sugared candies glinting by lantern light.
We get parasites. And I totally get Preston. Loved this.
January 7, 2023
He exited his tent to go to the bathroom the entire forest was glowing with millions of points of bioluminescence caused by fungi that glow when the temperature and humidity are right it was like looking down at LA from 30,000'bfeet he said the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
The quote above I felt was the most beautiful part of this book. I would have loved to have seen it.
I have decided that technology has destroyed the adventure of trekking through the jungle to find ruins. Yet, I enjoyed the 1st section of the book that talks about this technology, how you can take photos from an airplane and see almost everything that is Below. A helicopter was able to drop them off close to the ruins, and they walked in the next day.
They had summit venture here. They face the snake that could shoot venom 6'feet away. At night when they got out of their tents the jungle floor was crawling with cockroaches and spiders. They heard large animals prowling around their tents at night. And they had mosquitoes, sandflies, and chiggers.
I am sure that this was more than enough of an adventure for all of these men and a woman. It would have been too much for me as well, but I prefer books that are true adventure stories of men and or women Walking through the jungles.
The quote above I felt was the most beautiful part of this book. I would have loved to have seen it.
I have decided that technology has destroyed the adventure of trekking through the jungle to find ruins. Yet, I enjoyed the 1st section of the book that talks about this technology, how you can take photos from an airplane and see almost everything that is Below. A helicopter was able to drop them off close to the ruins, and they walked in the next day.
They had summit venture here. They face the snake that could shoot venom 6'feet away. At night when they got out of their tents the jungle floor was crawling with cockroaches and spiders. They heard large animals prowling around their tents at night. And they had mosquitoes, sandflies, and chiggers.
I am sure that this was more than enough of an adventure for all of these men and a woman. It would have been too much for me as well, but I prefer books that are true adventure stories of men and or women Walking through the jungles.
March 16, 2020
One-part adventure and one-part cautionary tale, The Lost City of the Monkey God is the story of the search for a long-lost pre-Columbian city in Honduras. History and science combine to unearth the ruins, as well as "the curse" so often associated with tampering with ancient Central American ruins: disease. Exciting and terrifying for so many reasons.
July 3, 2017
DNF. I never imagined that such a tantalizing story could be turned into such a boring one. I was so looking forward to reading this book, but it is a mess, and clearly needed major editing before it came out in print. Some things are not told in the right order and so it is difficult to understand the sequence of events. There is much condescension when speaking about past explorers or scientists, but no significant evidence is given as to why they should be treated with disdain. Their work is only partly explained, and the book jumps from one to another so the full chronology of the search and research of the Lost City is hard to follow. Giving up.
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