'The Lost City of the Monkey God' by Douglas Preston

The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston (4.0)

I started reading this book just after seeing ‘The Lost City of Z’, a film about the true story of a British man’s search for an ancient city in the Amazon in the 1920’s. While different timeframes (current vs 20’s) and locations (Honduras vs Bolivia), both stories highlight the enticement and mystery of the possibility of riches and fame. In ‘Z’, they were definitely looking for gold, but there was still the excitement of finding a lost civilization. In this book, the rumor of an ancient abandoned city nestled in the overgrown Honduras jungle beguiles a group of people, mostly incredulous that it hasn’t been found already. With the availability of a new technology allowing effective viewing from the air, a team is put together to search for the city. The author goes along to document the trip for National Geographic and becomes one of the first people to enter the ‘city’ in hundreds of years. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the hazards (snakes, pests, weather, more snakes!) and the team’s defensive measures. I also found Mr. Preston did a good job postulating on hypotheses of extinction of the culture found. Overall the story reads like a good adventure mystery with real life consequences.

'Walkaway' by Cory Doctorow

Walkaway, Cory Doctorow (4.0)

This most recent Cory Doctorow cyber punk tale offers some of his past themes mixed with a newer take on large scale issues our society appears to be facing, particular the effects of the division of wealth and power. In his near future, society has reached a post-scarcity point (i.e. everything essential can be made from a machine on demand), so normal jobs have become somewhat superfluous. More and more disillusioned youth have ‘walked away’ from society to find a new beginning. At first this is fine with the general society and specifically the powerful rich. But once a group of walkaway professors discovers a way to possibly live forever, the power balance shifts and all eyes turn to the disparate walkaway groups as threats. The book follows a couple of interesting characters as they choose to walkaway and the effect family, money and power have on their decisions. Doctorow, as usual, weaves creative technology into a driving plot. He goes deep enough into technology to likely lose a few readers, but if you enjoy examining the possible effects of a post-scarcity age on a have/have-not society – you’ll find plenty to chew on here.