Scan barcode
A review by sistermagpie
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston
4.0
I actually started this book thinking it was a novel, so it was pretty exciting to realize no, this is the story of a true archeological find. (There's references to magazine articles that I must have read at the time but don't even remember.) The city in question is deep in the rain forest in Honduras. The story follows the small group that does the exploring or "ground-truthing" after finding evidence of the ruins using technology and also puts the whole discovering in a historical context.
The trek into the jungle could be an adventure movie. The group is surrounded by animals that haven't seen people in their lives--including tons of bugs and snakes like the huge, deadly fer-de-lance. After they return from their original trip they realize they've brought back something else from the jungle that's potentially deadly. That leads the author to some final conclusions and warnings about health threats to us all that are exacerbated by climate change. Threats that right now mostly threaten the poorest in the world, so don't get much attention.
Not a dull moment in the book.
The trek into the jungle could be an adventure movie. The group is surrounded by animals that haven't seen people in their lives--including tons of bugs and snakes like the huge, deadly fer-de-lance. After they return from their original trip they realize they've brought back something else from the jungle that's potentially deadly. That leads the author to some final conclusions and warnings about health threats to us all that are exacerbated by climate change. Threats that right now mostly threaten the poorest in the world, so don't get much attention.
Not a dull moment in the book.