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Title: River of Darkness

Subtitle: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon

Author: Buddy Levy

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-22-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrilling account of one of history's greatest adventures of discovery. With cinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail, here is the true story of a legendary 16th-century explorer and his death-defying navigation of the Amazon - river of darkness, pathway to gold.

In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his well-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito in search of La Canela, South America's rumored Land of Cinnamon, and the fabled El Dorado, "the golden man". Driving an enormous retinue of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and other animals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition begin to disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarish jungle, following the course of a powerful river.

Soon hopelessly lost in the swampy labyrinth, their numbers diminishing daily through disease, starvation, and Indian attacks, Pizarro and Orellana made a fateful decision to separate. While Pizarro eventually returned home barefoot and in rags, Orellana and 57 men, in a few fragile craft, continued downriver into the unknown reaches of the mighty Amazon, serenaded by native war drums and the eerie cries of exotic predators. Theirs would be the greater glory.

Critic Reviews:

"A richly textured account of the rogue, rebel and visionary whose discovery still resonates today." (

Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

Incredible, well wrtiten tale of survival and discovery

Not much to add to the other positive reviews. Buddy Levy makes history come alive with a nice mix of historical retelling combined with personal motivations and detail derived from thorough research. I was drawn to this story after dong a little reading on early South America and finding that they had a robust trade of not just items, but ideas with the people of the Amazon basin. In fact, one archeologist thinks the culture of many of the people of the Andes came from the Amazon. My only disappointment with the book was the scant converge of the cultures of the tribes the explorers met along the way, but of course, they were fighting against time for their own survival. I was fascinated by this true tale of adventure and discovery.

Great Historical account by Levy

Actually what brought me to this book was my interest in the indigenous people of the Amazon area and the current archeological findings and their interpretation.

The BBC presented a program entitled "The Secret of El Dorado." The program referred to Orellana's trip down the Amazon River 1542 which, while apparently well-documented, seemed to be mythical. Scientific investigations have discounted Orellano's account of large communities along much of the Amazon River due to an underlying assumption that the basic soils of the Amazon basin are not adequate to allow intensive agriculture which is the basis for large community development. Current scientific investigation reveals that indigenous peoples had develop a system of agriculture, termed "terra preta" which allowed adequate production of food for large populations.