Of any movie that I've ever watched, I'd probably credit The Raiders of the Lost Ark as being most responsible for fueling my wanderlust. An all-time movie classic directed by Stephen Spielberg from a story written by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman (also known for Directing the Unbearable Lightness of Being), this movie was a multi Academy Award winner and starred Harrison Ford at the peak of his acting career. All of a sudden idolising a Professor of Archaeology became OK. Of course, the signature fedora hat and bullwhip helped as well. Less cool, was admitting to also loving the move Romancing the Stone, which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. But again, there was something about the whole searching the foreign wilderness for lost treasures that was so appealing.
Of course, these movies were only following up from earlier 1930's and 40's jungle-based matinee serials that Lucas, Kaufman and Spielberg would have grown up with. And indeed, there were a lot of earlier adventure-style novels that would have been all the rage when they were younger and which also would have been influences. Such as Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain novels, the first of which King Solomon's Mines, was published in 1885 and whose title was used by Tahir Shah's book which we have reviewed here on Best Travel Books. Another is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger adventure stories, the best known of which is, The Lost World.
Needless to say, I've got a big soft spot for adventure books that are based around archaeologists. Which is what inspired me to pick up a copy of The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston. I wasn't aware that real life stories of searching for lost cities existed and as a result decided to see whether I could find a few more and set up another Best Travel Books Book Rumble, this time involving the search for lost cities or civilisations.
The rules of this bout were modified to only include non-fiction travel-related books which had been written since 2000 and one where the books search for a lost city/civilisation occurred in the jungle. As it turned out, the three books which I ended up reading of this Book Rumble all happened to be in either Central or South America. Preston's The Lost City of the Monkey God is based in Honduras and the other two contenders, Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams, of course, being based in Peru and The Lost City of Z by David Grann being based in Brazil.
Per normal Book Rumble rules, in order to decide an eventual winner, I comprised a number of categories and rated each book out of 5 for each of these categories as outlined below.
Adventure/Achievement
You can't beat The Lost City of the Monkey God, when it comes to cutting new ground and upping the danger factor. Preston was right in there hacking out the jungle amongst the snakes, jaguars adn creepy crawlers in one of the least explored places in the world.
Turn Right at Machu Picchu provides plenty of adventure, both past and present. Adams ventures on both the Inca trails and Inca Trail as he follows in the historical footsteps of Bingham. There's plenty of adventure in this book for even those who have travelled the Inca Trail themselves.
The Lost City of Z amply delivers on the adventure front, but this is consigned to the past, when Grann writes about Percy Fawcett's explorations. His own ventures into the Brazilian wilderness are much less than those of Preston and Adams.
Scores:
The Lost City of the Monkey God 5
Turn Right at Machu Picchu 4
The Lost City of Z 3
History
All three books are brimming with history in order to satisfy the most ardent of history-buffs. The Lost City of the Monkey God provides a good amount of history of all those who have sought their fortune while searching for the White City (La Ciudad Blanca) situated deep within the Honduran jungle. Turn Right at Machu Picchu provides information both on the the Inca civilisation and Hiram Bingham's "discovery" of the lost ruins and The Lost City of Z is loaded with background information on Percy Fawcett's obsession with finding El Dorado and those that followed him.
Scores:
The Lost City of the Monkey God 4
Turn Right at Machu Picchu 5
The Lost City of Z 5
Quality of Writing/Prose
Subjectively, I though the quality of writing was best in the Lost City of the Monkey God, where Preston's journalist background was very evident, and Turn Right at Machu Picchu. Both these two, for me at least seemed to flow better. The Lost City of Z seems to have received more plaudits but I found it a bit more disjointed than the other two.
Scores:
The Lost City of the Monkey God 4
Turn Right at Machu Picchu 4
The Lost City of Z 3
Overall Interest
This is pretty much akin to the overall star ratings that I provide for each book.
The Lost City of the Monkey God 4
Turn Right at Machu Picchu 4.5
The Lost City of Z 3
Inspiration to Grab your Bullwhip and Fedora Hat
Out of all the books, the one which most brought out my inner Indiana Jones was Turn Right at Machu Picchu. When reading this I confirmed time and time again why visiting Machu Picchu is near the top of my bucket list, even with the hordes of tourists that turn up there these days.
The Lost City of the Monkey God 3.5
Turn Right at Machu Picchu 5
The Lost City of Z 4
Combined Scores
Adding up the scores across the five categories provides the following result:
The Lost City of the Monkey God 20.5
Turn Right at Machu Picchu 22.5
The Lost City of Z 18
The Lost City Book Rumble is pretty clear cut. Turn Right at Machu Picchu comes out as the clear winner of this mini-contest and comes highly recommended for anyone with an interest in these types of books. For my mind, it has a perfect blend of humour, adventure and history and is sure to entertain throughout. The Lost City of the Monkey God is also definitely worth a read too as a superb read of a modern day arachaelogical find.
Banner Credit: Rory MacLeod