The Lost City of the Monkey God

A True Story

By: Douglas Preston

Narrated by: Bill Mumy

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A 500-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle.

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors 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 tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God - but then committed suicide without revealing its location.

Three quarters of a century later, best-selling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, 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 an enigmatic, lost civilization.

Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal - and incurable - disease.

Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising 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 21st century.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 Douglas Preston (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Great book!

an exciting and fun story. A truly historical moment in our time. where it will take us as humans, time will tell

Fascinating; leaves you wanting more!

Love it. Though I thought the reading was one of the best that I have ever heard, half way though, I ordered a hard copy to go back and review. Also got down books about Hondurans from my own shelves and consulted maps and out globe. When a book leaves you wanting more, it is a success

Spoiler alert

This is a great book until the last hour or so. All it talks about are the diseases they got. I wanted to hear more about the actual city discovery. Book was good up until that point.

The author's best work yet!

I have been reading this author's work both solo and with his long time collaborator for decades now and have never been disappointed. The Monster of Florence was my favorite until now. The book starts with an amazing true adventure right out of the most exciting fiction novel and before you know it you are learning the dangers of a potential world ending scenario.

The juxtaposition of the history and culture of lost civilizations and the eventual decimation of that society is something I'm not going to forget soon. I've read history books and knew what the effects of the colonists coming to the new world had but until you have the exact symptoms described and the actual percentage of people who died it is just numbers on a page.

I also want to compliment the narrator. This is the first audio book I've heard by him but I will look for others. This book had just one voice so I don't know how he will do with multiple characters though but I would certainly give him a try.

I really enjoyed this book

Well written and presented kept me interested from start to finish highly recommend this book

Narrator Miss

The core concepts and freshness of the content here are amazing. For some reason, this would have been a better eye read than an audio book. The narrator reads the entire thing with an intensity that doesn't match how I would guess the author wanted it to come across. I spent most of the time in conflict that I should have read it vs listened.

Amazing adventure

If you like adventure, this book is excellent!
An absolute "page turner" that encompasses the research and discovery of a lost world.

Excellent Story

Really enjoyed it. Very well narrated.
Kept my interest through out the entire story. It was based on a true life story.

Wonderful book

Not quite what I expected but really a wonderful story and all of the things about that human diseases in the end were fascinating. Makes me realize how lucky we are in Western society not to be plagued by all the diseases that are well explained (yet) very interesting wonderful wonderful story.

Great story, heavy on statistics

This is a fascinating story about archeology and a search for list civilizations and cultures. At times, the book gets bogged down with minute details and I almost stopped reading about 60% of the way through. But I am glad that I stayed with it and finished it.

It truly is part history, part archeology and part epidemiology. It also is not scared to debunk or shed light on some history that is usually not glossed over.