Nonfiction
Adult
Set in a jungle teeming with deadly snakes, dengue fever, and drug traffickers, this is the story of an expedition to find a mythological and cursed “lost” city known as Ciudad Blanca (White City) or City of the Monkey God. Jungles, legends, snakes and curses – it’s exactly up Preston’s alley! In his always readable and riveting writing style, Preston describes the history of the legend and how it caught the attention of an American filmmaker, despite many failed efforts to find the fabled city. This time, technology boosts the odds. Using “lidar” (light detection and ranging), a team of scientists, with Preston aboard the rickety plane, conducts a series of flyovers of a portion of the Mosquitia region of Honduras, generating lidar images of the landscape hidden below the thick jungle canopy. The images reveal two areas of significant interest, suggesting extensive ruins may lie beneath the green. It takes nearly three years to get the funding and permits for a follow-up expedition. In February 2015 a small group of archaeologists, botanists and filmmakers, again including Preston on assignment for National Geographic, assembles to conduct “ground-truthing” – essentially, to explore the area on foot and determine if there really are hidden ruins. Their 10-day stay will be supported by helicopter supply runs, and a Honduran military team is following on foot to provide protection from potential looters or traffickers. In addition, the jungle itself provides real threats, from the lethal fer de lance snake Preston nearly trods on the first night to colourful coral snakes and the myriad of insects carrying tropical diseases. Preston’s description of a nighttime forest floor teeming with cockroaches still makes me shudder. The team does uncover spectacular evidence of human habitation, abandoned centuries before, as described in Preston’s October 2015 National Geographic article on the February expedition, which you can find here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150302-honduras-lost-city-monkey-god-maya-ancient-archaeology/. The story includes some fascinating images by Dave Yoder, who accompanied Preston for the magazine, that bring the story to life. My advance reading copy did not include any images, which I longed for, but I understand the importance of protecting the discovery from potential looting. The book continues after the expedition is completed, as the story doesn’t end there. In addition to facing considerable criticism from the academic community, illness strikes several members of the team. Is the curse real? Preston offers a fascinating first-person perspective of the threat of tropical diseases, made even more relevant after the Zika crisis. He doesn’t shy from discussing the academic criticism, though it’s clear he sides with the scientists who want this discovery protected. An enjoyable read that will attract armchair explorers and has crossover appeal for teen readers as well. My thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the advance reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this book at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30145126. And I highly recommend taking five minutes to enjoy a hilarious biography of Douglas Preston posted on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12577.Douglas_Preston

This book was so interesting. If I was doing a course on the rain forest or precolumbian civilizations I would use excerpts from this book. I am a Spanish teacher and I enjoy reading about this subject.

Author Douglas Preston is invited on an expedition into the dense jungle of Honduras to track down the lost city of the monkey God. A city rumored to have existed 500 years ago and then mysteriously disappear. I really enjoyed learning about the history of Honduras and the explanation of how the early explorers from Spain spread disease that killed most of the population of early people in a matter of years.
It was so interesting to read about all the planning and logistics that went into finding this "lost city." A big part of the book also details the sickness that half the expedition caught from sand flies. The disease was not only hard or impossible to cure, but will affect many of the team for the rest of their lives. Great book on the discovery of a lost city. I received a complimentary ebook from the publisher in exchange for a review.

Quest for Immortality: on Douglas Preston’s ‘The Lost City of the Monkey God’

One of the best travel adventure books I've ever read. Thought-provoking, bone-chilling, thrilling.

In the vein of Matthiessen’s SNOW LEOPARD or Strayed’s WILD, Douglas Preston invites readers to explore a place beyond roads. Preston joins filmmakers, archaeologists, staff from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), and a cadre of machete-wielding trail blazers and security guards. They head for the La Mosquitia area of Honduras, rumored to hold ruins from a civilization that thrived before Columbus or Cortes set foot on the continent.

Riveting details of culture, history, and contemporary political economy are deftly woven with on-the-ground details: torrential weather, venomous snakes, and howling monkeys. In a race against the forces of deforestation and narco trafficking, the expedition uncovers more than they’d dreamed possible. Along with stone temple ruins and sophisticated carvings, they encounter an invisible virus that will eventually afflict at least half of the expedition team, with lingering consequences.

The book tackles complicated themes: enduring power of indigenous oral history and ways of life; the mysterious meaning of artifacts and temples buried beneath centuries of European conquest; power struggles to control priceless cultural patrimony (archaeologists, governments, or looters). As with the best nonfiction, Preston’s story takes a surprising turn into intricacies of epidemiology and cutting-edge medical treatments including ethnobotany.

The irony here is that while the expedition is searching for a vanished city, modern-day people are still planting cacao. Maize is being cultivated and ground into sustenance. Women are weaving cloth that bears ancient symbols, echoing those found inscribed on the long-buried temples. Jaguar, monkey, snake, macaw: these also continue to thrive in the verdant rainforest. The people were here before Columbus or Cortes arrived. Their ancient temples may be buried, but, despite tumultuous political history and ecological threats, traditional culture survives and has much to teach modern humanity.

I went to school for archaeology and I love stories of archaeologists/anthropologists finding lost cities/civilizations. And despite what other archaeologists say, yes I do use the phrase 'lost civilization'. If a city becomes so much of a myth that people are unsure if it is real and then an archaeologist discovers the city and proves its real, they have discovered a lost city. Troy was a mythical city until it was found--9 of them, actually. Unfortunately, people & places get lost to history.

There were many things I enjoyed about this book. Douglas Preston is a really engaging writer. His style of storytelling appeals to a wide audience. He takes the time to explain certain things--like leishmaniasis--in a way that people like me who have a minimal understanding of biology get and can understand the impact. The story of the expedition itself was enthralling but what really made the book was that Preston talked about the impact of the discovery. I know there was controversy behind the announcement of the find. I kept up with it while it was happening and I always felt that those most vocal against the discovery were simply bitter that they didn't put the work in to find the city themselves. I do personally believe they found the White City and I think (hope) that the proof the White City and the people who lived there will not only help Honduras but help the cultures that have been lost to history and any descendants that are still around. That's why historians exist--they give voices to the dead and the forgotten.

<i> *I received this book from NetGalley, and Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group) in return for a fair review.*</i>

<img src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2015/03/02/lostcity/01lostcity-16x9.adapt.945.1.jpg"/> - werejaguar

South of the furthest extent of Mayan civilization, rested another civilization, distinguishable from the Mayan, though incorporating certain influences from the Maya. The name for this multi-city culture? …. According to the book I read, the culture has been in the shadow of the Maya – so much so, that it doesn’t even have its own official name. At the present time what is known is that several ruins have been found in the La Mosquitia region of Honduras – some of which are quite large scale in size. None have been fully investigated by Archaeologists.

I read an ARC version of the book, so I’ll quote from a National Geographic article by the same author instead of from the book (since the wording might have changed in the final published version) – “In contrast to the nearby Maya, this vanished culture has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists don’t even have a name for it.” - <a href=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150302-honduras-lost-city-monkey-god-maya-ancient-archaeology/>Honduras Lost City</a> by Douglas Preston, March 2 2015.

A man, Steve Elkins, spent a very long time dipping into and out of exploration. A cinematographer by trade, Elkins had long been interested in digging into ‘lost things’ – like the treasure that had been looted from Lima and the legendary 'White City' otherwise known as 'the City of the Monkey Gods' in Honduras.

Elkins had set everything up to enter Honduras, after much research among archaeological files, and myths, and legends, and folk-lore, and search for this ‘lost city’. This was late in the 1990s (1997?). But Honduras fell apart and Elkins lost his chance. At least, for a decade or two.

In 2012 Elkins finally was able to get in – and he was going to use a technology newish to Archaeology. Not new to science – heck they mapped the moon and Mars with it, just newish to Archaeology (not new, since they had used it to find Ubar lost in the sands of Arabia (see: <a href=http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-05/news/mn-1192_1_lost-city>Lost City of Ubar found</a>; also, it should be noted that Elkins is not the first to use the tech in the Americas). That technology? Lidar (“LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth”). He had determined that there were four possible locations of interest he wanted to look at – one was removed from the list when rainforest deforestation was detected in the area. Using an old plane loaded with advanced technology from NASA, a map could be generated that – hopefully, could find the markings of man-made alterations.

<img src="http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/130506_r23472_g2048-320.jpg"/> - Illustration by Ron Kurnlawan in <a href=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/06/the-el-dorado-machine>Douglas Preston New Yorker article</a> from 2013.

<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5195326069bedd256a000010-620-628/master-graphic-copy_page_2.jpg"/> - <a href=http://www.businessinsider.com/ciudad-blanca-honduras-lidar-images-2013-5>Business Insider – Ciudad Blanca Honduras Lidar images – 2013-5</a>

The book describes, somewhat, Elkins earlier investigations in the 1990s, then three that occurred in the 2010s. The first in 2012 involved that plane I mentioned with the LIDAR thingie in it. The author of the book, Preston, was along for that one. And describes the process – including one wild ride with him on board (in a tiny space that wasn’t really big enough for him – he accidentally turned off the machine once with his knee).

Preston was also along when the team actually went into the valley that contained T1 (T1 being the designation given by Elkins for the first place he wanted looked at) in 2015. Rain. Mud. A valley hidden from man for hundreds of years – but extensively modified by man (as found when the city was examined). The description given by Preston of both expeditions he joined into the T1 valley was quite interesting.

The book also contains, eventually, a little history on the area – both pre and post arrival of Columbus and what had happened to the natives – who had many extensive sophisticated civilizations in the Americas prior to Columbus’ arrival. Preston included a chart that ‘tells the story’ of Hispaniola as an example (the island contains both the Dominican Republic and Haiti). There’s debate on the numbers pre-Columbus. Some say millions, some say 500,000. Whatever the number, at least 500,000 natives were on the island in 1492. Only 60,000 16 years later (1508). 18,000 10 years after that (1518). And 0 by 1542. Two reasons to note this little issue – there are many reasons why this rapid decrease in population occurred, the largest one being death by disease; and there is evidence that – even though the European invaders never even made it to the T1 city – no one had (supposedly) before Preston’s team in 2012 – that area itself was wiped out by disease (evidence of extensive trade network mentioned; also mentioned was what happened in the Americas when the Spanish arrived (relatively easy conquest – several near defeats that turned into victories when their native opponents died from disease; compared with the Spanish in the Philippines – where the Spanish never were able to ‘complete’ their conquest (Philippines natives had ‘suffered’ along with Europe, Asia, and Africa from the many diseases that wiped out the American natives – who hadn’t gone through that suffering before the arrival of the Europeans).

Also included in the book – a really long discussion on how he, the author, and other members of the team were infected from their time in the valley and the treatments that had to occur to not cure but beat back the disease.

One last point – the findings of the team Preston joined were revealed – or mentioned – in the previously linked National Geographic article on March 2 2015, lead almost immediately to controversy. A letter went out carrying many signatures attacking the article and the expeditions. Preston handles that section quite well. One of the points of contention involved how cameras were along for the ride, the word choices used (‘lost city’, etc.), and the lack of proper archaeological oversight. And that it ‘ignores decades of research and indigenous peoples knowledge’ (which is countered by Preston).

A quite interesting and intriguing book. It should be noted that while the National Geographic article includes pictures, the book does not. I read an advanced readers copy so I do not know if pictures or the like appear in the finished published version of the book.

<img src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2015/03/02/lostcity/07lostcity.ngsversion.1426198329751.adapt.1190.1.jpg"/> - base camp

<img src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2015/03/02/lostcity/03lostcity.adapt.945.1.jpg"/> - ‘A stream winds through part of an unexplored valley in Mosquitia in eastern Honduras, a region long rumored to contain a legendary ‘White City,’ also called the City of the Monkey God’

<img src="http://www.lesvants.com/news_info/honduras/honduras%20images-finished/finished%2010-17-06/honduras%20map%20for%20my%20web%20site.jpg"/>

January 26 2017

**this review will post to my blog at www.myinterdimensionalchaos.blogspot.com on 1/25/17. I will add a link to the post once it goes live. The review has already been posted at Goodreads.**

I'm a late-comer to the writing of Douglas Preston, but I'm definitely hooked. Before reading The Lost City of the Monkey God, I had read only the first three fiction novels about Agent Pendergast penned with Co-author Lincoln Child. When I found out Preston was publishing a non-fiction book about an archaeological expedition in Honduras, I jumped right on it! I hadn't felt such joy since I discovered that Dirk Pitt author Clive Cussler was actually a larger-than-life oceanic explorer in his own right. It was sweet to find out that Douglas Preston wrote for National Geographic and was an explorer, not just a co-author of exquisitely creepy fiction.

I have always been fascinated in archaeology and discoveries about ancient peoples in the far reaches of the world. I wanted to major in archaeology and anthropology in college, but my father put a stop to that idea. "My daughter will not go around the world digging up skeletons and dusty pot shards,'' I remember him telling me as I tried to fill out my college applications. I had to settle for a major in English Literature. I guess reading classic literature is much more ladylike than finding out about ancient people. My heart has always been with history and archaeology, however. I just have to live that dream vicariously through others who explore and discover.

Before reading this book, I must caution readers that this book is NOT one of the usual exciting fictional adventure stories written by Preston. This book is a non-fiction book about an expedition into Honduras to find the mythical Lost City of the Monkey God. There are no gun fights, explosions, terrifying supernatural events or anything like that. I've seen several poor reviews of this book from readers who expected something like Preston's fiction. This isn't that sort of book!! If you want to learn about using LIDAR to document ruins on the floor of a dense jungle, the hoops you have to jump through to get permits to explore in Honduras, close calls with snakes and jaguars, and detailed descriptions of trekking through the Honduran jungle, then read this book.

The one problem I have with this book is really a problem with the trip in general. I felt that the exploration group, backed by millions of dollars from a wealthy backer, was somehow just further exploitation of Honduras. Preston does point out clearly that the country has been used by fruit companies and the US government for decades. This well-funded group of white men tramping through their jungle in search of a ruin doesn't really do anything to make up for this exploitation. It's just another chapter in the same tale. For example, the group hired a shady, fat, white man, Bruce Heinicke, to threaten, bribe and deal his way through any problems the group encountered. As Preston described Heinicke, it left me wondering if this just wasn't another culture-rape on top of all the other ones Honduras and its people have endured through the years. Over hundreds of years, many groups of explorers have been to their country looking for this mythical city for their own glory, not for the benefit of the Honduran people. Hiring local guides, buying their way past local government and trampling their way through the country looking for the prize and glory reminds me a lot of what has happened at Mount Everest in Nepal. Rich, white people decide they must climb to the highest point on the earth, so they hire expensive guides and pay exorbitant amounts of money, crap all over the Nepalese and Sherpa people and their culture, and leave trash and dead bodies all over the mountain just because it's there. The Honduras exploration group's intent may have been to solve a historical mystery....but the financiers and leaders of the initial expedition were NOT scientists but wealthy adventurers seeking excitement and the glory of being The One to finally discover the lost city. Preston was along for the ride, documenting the trip for National Geographic, and scientists provided the LIDAR and expertise needed to ground-truth what the radar showed. I felt a little better about things once Preston started writing about the second expedition to the site. Scientists and archaeologists set the rules for the second visit, the actual trek into the jungle. Nothing was excavated without express permission from the Honduran goverment and the site was treated with respect.

My initial misgivings aside, this book documents both trips and is very well-written and interesting.

The first half of the book documents the initial trip to use radar on several potential sites. I didn't know much about LIDAR and how it works. Preston includes many details about how they picked the sites, the flights over the jungle in a plane equipped with LIDAR, issues with getting fuel and supplies, how difficult it is to work with such new technology, and the joy of finding favorable results after all the work required. It took two weeks to use LIDAR to map the four areas chosen. Then there was a two year hiatus between the discovery of the site and the actual trip into the jungle to see first-hand what was on the ground.

The second half of the book is about the return trip - the actual trek into the jungle. A new group, comprised of survival experts, soldiers, scientists and documentary crew, were gathered for the ground work at the site. This time, the group and the trip itself was handled more professionally. There was no bribery, thinly veiled threats or thug behavior used to protect the group. This time, trained experts were hired to help the expedition operate safely in the jungle and soldiers accompanied them to lend protection. The group had to deal with poisonous snakes, biting insects, rain, quicksand and mud everywhere, not to mention lingering physical effects and even disease the group dealt with after returning home.

All in all, despite my misgivings about the expedition itself, the story of the events and site was very interesting and well-written. The Advance Readers Copy of this book that I read had no pictures or illustrations. I hope the finished book has photos from the expedition and maybe some illustrations showing a map of the entire site.

I hope to read updates on this ongoing project! I can only imagine how wonderful it felt to be one of the first people to see a city that had been abandoned for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

**I voluntarily read an Advance Readers Copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.**

The first recorded reference to the White City is in the writing of Cortez. He was told by a guide that there was a civilization that rivaled the Aztecs and Incas located in what is modern day Honduras. Cortez passed this information on to Spanish authorities but was never able to follow up on it. As the decades went by the legend of the White City persisted. Claims of finding the city were not accompanied by proof. The author does a good job of detailing the tantalizing clues that kept the legend alive.

Douglas Preston is a well known author as part of the team, with Lincoln Childs, that writes the Pendergast mystery series. He also has his own books, both fiction and non-fiction that are worth checking out. Preston first heard of the White City while doing a story for National Geographic on Angkor Wat in 1996. He was told about new technology that can penetrate the thick jungle canopy to help determine if man made structures existed. Preston was fascinated by the story and contacted the researchers to request joining the study. Steve Elkins, heading the project, accepted Preston into the group. After securing the financing, the search for the White City finally began in 2012. The preliminary work of selecting the possible sites, planning the expedition, and gathering a team of experts, not only in archeology but also in navigating the jungle. The area of Honduras that the White City was believed to be was an isolated valley, uninhabited by man but full of danger like the fer-de-lance snake, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. The expedition finally started for the valley where the White City in 2015.

This is where the book becomes addictive. The snakes, the mosquitos, the jungle itself challenged the explorers day and night. The discoveries came quickly. The team had to decide whether to announce their finds and risk it all. Although they had accessed the site by helicopter, they knew once it was announced, others would attempt to rob the site of it's priceless artifacts. Preston describes all of this, the danger, the hard choices, in detail that keeps the reader turning pages (in my case late into the night). Once the exhibition ended, the danger did not. The worst was what many of the exhibition members unknowingly carried home with them. Despite the mosquito nets and liberal use of DEET, many members of the team became ill and had mosquito bites that did not heal. When the team compared bites and symptoms through email, they knew they needed expert medical help. Naively believing malaria was the worst, the team was shocked to find they had contracted leishmaniasis also called White Leprosy.

When I was in middle school, around 1973, I had a book about lost civilizations. It included the Mayan and Angkor Wat to name a few. I was fascinated with the thought that a culture could so completely disappear for hundreds of years. I remember thinking that book I read as a young teen was the last that would be written, that all lost civilizations had been discovered. When I saw The Lost City of the Monkey God offered for review on Netgalley, I was thrilled. It rekindled all the amazement and wonder I felt many, many years ago reading about other lost cities. This is an amazing book in it's detailing of the legend itself, the preparation for and the expedition itself as well as the horrifying aftereffects on the team.

Douglas Preston always brings such life to his non-fiction writing; it's great!

This is as close as I ever want to get to exploring a jungle - - sitting in my home reading about it. And Douglas Preston's vivid writing made me feel that I was there; I could smell the jungle, hear the howling monkeys, and feel the itches of the insects. And then there were the snakes! Yeah, armchair adventure is plenty for me.

This is a fascinating book that takes the reader on this expedition that feels like something from years ago and yet with modern technology. What a fantastic feeling that must have been to see this once-upon-a-time city that hasn't been seen by humans for centuries. There is a lot of technical information in the book - about the jungle, about the archeology, about history, and finally about medicine and diseases. Preston presents all the information in an easy-to-understand fashion for the layman. The book is non-fiction - - but it reads like fiction.

Wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. For some reason in my head I thought it was part of the Pendergast series. Highly detailed and every bit as exciting as if I had been there myself.

Preston's new release appealed to my sense of adventure, but I discovered that his book completely appealed to me as a reader. The writing style is smooth, but the best feature was the author's ability to keep me in the story from beginning to end. Throughout the text, I was pleased to have a full picture of the how and why without being tortured by academic-style jargon. Altogether, this was a thrilling read and a pleasure to experience.

I've always enjoyed his books and this one was no different. I highly recommend it.

This book was fascinating! I've already read several non-fiction books by Preston so I was expecting good things. I will recommend this to library patrons. I am anxious to see any pictures included in the published copy.

A fascinating tale, that's not a tale at all. The jungles of Honduras grudgely gave up one of its secrets, but a hefty price to the explorers.

Douglas Preston's new book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, is the true story of the search for the ruins of an ancient community in the Honduran jungles. If you read and enjoyed David Grann's The Lost City of Z, another real-life account of searching in the Amazon, you'll shouldn't miss this one. (Besides, who can resist the title?)

Preston does an excellent job of telling the history behind the lost city and then taking the reader along on his adventures with deadly snakes, mud holes as treacherous as quicksand, and much more. Sadly, he also shares the controversy that erupted in the archeological community when he and his colleagues shared their story. I was appalled that fellow researchers and explorers seemed more concerned with politically correct language (and exactly how, Preston asks, do you work around words like "lost" without confusing the average reader?) than with the importance of the find.

My one complaint is that the advance copy I read didn't contain any maps, illustrations or photos. Then again, maybe they were omitted to help discourage looters and other seekers from disturbing the site.

Highly recommended.

The Lost City Of The Monkey God by Douglas Preston is a sensational true adventure book about the very famous legend of 'Casa Blanca' a lost city in the unexplored part of the Honduran rainforest.

The book started out so good that I was immediately pulled into the story. It was an exciting and a thoroughly entertaining read and I enjoyed reading every bit of it! This is the first time that I've read a true-adventure story and, surprisingly, this book absolutely blew my mind!

I would have never even imagined of reading this book had it not been for The Obsidian Chamber , a book co-authored by Douglas Preston. I really liked the writing style used in that book and hence, when I was offered to review this book, I immediately accepted knowing that, if not the genre, at least the writing of the author was something I was familiar with. But to my pleasant surprise, the writing in this book turned out to be even better than what I was expecting. Douglas Preston has the skill to tell a complex and technical tale in such beautiful and simple words that even a layman like me understood everything and was able to enjoy the entire book.

The only problem I had (and the reason why I dropped my rating from 5 to 4 stars) is that the last 2-3 chapters were a bit of a slog. They were interesting and informative, but they had a lot of stuff that bounced right off my head and left me skimming over paragraphs.

Other than this, the book is a brilliant read and gives a detailed account of not only the search missions author Douglas Preston participated in, but also about the earlier attempts and hoax discoveries related to the legend of the Lost City Of The Monkey God, which was both insightful as well as fun to read.

I'd recommend this book to all the adventure and true-adventure genre lovers and to those who wouldn't mind taking an adventurous and a really exciting trip to a really, really beautiful legendary rainforest.

Douglas Preston’s historical/journalistic approach recounting two successful expeditions deep into the Honduras rainforest discovering and mapping the fabled White City aka, and to promote the title, The Lost City Of The Monkey God, unfortunately comes across as a dry, step-by-step account with an added historical element providing the obligatory back story. Discoveries notwithstanding, what was missing was something as wet as the jungle itself, and the narrative suffered as a result.

Not to discount these jungle adventures, as Preston and the teams invading the Central American landscape in search of archaeological destiny face many an obstacle; bugs, parasites, infectious diseases, six-foot-long snakes, a completely hostile environment, threatening narco cartels - not top ingredients for a must-do vacation. The end result cannot be discounted either. Mapping and exploring the White City is an incredible archaeological achievement and Preston writes out every step.

However, it is that literary bite of a fer-de-lance that eludes The Lost City Of The Monkey God. The journalistic report lacks the narrative punch, which is what made David Grann’s The Lost City of Z from 2009 so excitingly successful. Preston’s listing of debates within the archaeological academia and interviews with the infectious diseases team at NIH would certainly make for compelling research papers, but not so much for those jonesing on New World exploration.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advance read. A tighter, more focused narrative would have certainly upped the excitement factor for this one.