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132-410: The American author Douglas Preston has released a number of novels and works, including a five-novel series set in the same universe. Private investigator, ex-monk, and ex-government agent Wyman Ford stars in three of them and has a major supporting role in a fourth. Jennie is a novel by American author Douglas Preston. The book was published on October 1, 1994, by St. Martin's Press . The work

264-701: A "core area" within Honduras (the Sula Valley for Mesoamerica, and La Mosquitia for the Isthmo-Colombian area), and the intervening area was one of gradual transition. However, these concepts had no meaning in the Pre-Columbian era itself and represent extremely diverse areas. The Lenca people of the interior highlands are also generally considered to be culturally Mesoamerican, though the extent of linkage with other areas varied over time (for example, expanding during

396-533: A 1954 general strike paralyzed the northern part of the country for more than two months, but led to reforms. In 1963 a military coup unseated democratically elected President Ramón Villeda Morales . In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicaragua to Honduras by the International Court of Justice . In 1969, Honduras and El Salvador fought what became known as

528-507: A 1997 motion picture by Paramount Pictures starring Penelope Ann Miller , Tom Sizemore , and Linda Hunt . In 1986, Preston moved to New Mexico and began to write full-time. Seeking an understanding of the first moment of contact between Europeans and Native Americans in America, he retraced on horseback Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 's violent and unsuccessful search for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold . That thousand mile journey across

660-541: A campaign of extrajudicial killings by government units, most notably the CIA-trained Battalion 316 . Honduras was found internationally liable for a series of enforced disappearances during this time period, culminating in Velásquez-Rodríguez v. Honduras . In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused massive and widespread destruction. Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores said that fifty years of progress in

792-510: A cease-fire which took effect on 20 July and brought about a withdrawal of Salvadoran troops in early August. Contributing factors to the conflict were a boundary dispute and the presence of thousands of Salvadorans living in Honduras illegally. After the week-long war, as many as 130,000 Salvadoran immigrants were expelled. Hurricane Fifi caused severe damage when it skimmed the northern coast of Honduras on 18 and 19 September 1974. Melgar Castro (1975–78) and Paz Garcia (1978–82) largely built

924-715: A continuing military presence in Honduras to support El Salvador, the Contra guerrillas fighting the Nicaraguan government, and also develop an airstrip and modern port in Honduras. Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged campaigns against Marxist–Leninist militias such as the Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement, notorious for kidnappings and bombings, and against many non-militants as well. The operation included

1056-537: A dark and stormy night. Lansing shoots Dan and leaves Moro to hold his wife hostage, before he and the assassins pursue Jacob and Dorothy into an abandoned barn in the hills. Jacob and Dorothy manage to outsmart both assassins, trapping them in the barn before Dorothy causes an electrical shortage that sets the barn on fire, killing both assassins while also catastrophically damaging the robotic body of Charlie, which appears to destroy Dorothy. Just as Lansing arrives to kill Jacob, Ford guns down Lansing while Moro surrenders to

1188-458: A history of the museum, Dinosaurs In The Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History , which chronicled the explorers and expeditions of the museum's early days. The editor of that book at St. Martin's Press was his future writing partner, Lincoln Child. They soon collaborated on a thriller set in the museum titled Relic , published in 1995. It was subsequently made into

1320-753: A lunar find by the Apollo 17 astronauts, which is suppressed. Tom Broadbent is riding in the New Mexico desert when he hears gunshots coming from Tyrannosaur Canyon (a fictional canyon east of the Rio Chama Gorge, on Mesa Viejo, and north of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert ). Following the sound, he comes upon an old prospector who has been shot by a sniper . He gives Tom a notebook just before he dies, and Tom rides off on his horse to find help. The murderer, Jimson Maddox,

1452-427: A military coup removed the democratically elected president, Ramón Villeda Morales . A string of authoritarian military governments held power uninterrupted until 1981, when Roberto Suazo Córdova was elected president. The party system was dominated by the conservative National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras: PNH) and the liberal Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras: PLH) until

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1584-520: A mountain road. It’s a pulse-quickening read that, like the novels of Michael Crichton , is all the more riveting because many of the scenarios presented in the book could be close to being real one day in the very near future. Though Douglas Preston often writes in collaboration with Lincoln Child, and the duo write some of the most successful and inventive thrillers around, Preston is more than capable of producing quality action-packed thrillers on his own. Douglas Preston’s latest novel, The Kraken Project ,

1716-526: A native woman. Borabay leads them to a village inhabited by the Tara tribe. The Tara chief recalls how, decades earlier, Maxwell Broadbent had raided a large, mountaintop temple known as the White City (accessible only by a single rope bridge), and taking all of the treasure back to America with him. The chief reveals that after Maxwell returned to Honduras with the treasure, he requested to be buried with his treasure in

1848-504: A nearby monastery. Ford is a retired CIA analyst and he takes the notebook to try to decipher it. Ford discovers that the numbers are not a code but a sequence of ground-penetrating radar readings. When processed, they form the image of a fully intact Tyrannosaurus . The rock sample Maddox found turns out to be a fragment of the Tyrannosaurus . Maddox's employer, Iain Corvus, a curator at

1980-671: A nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story . On that expedition he and other expedition members contracted a potentially lethal tropical disease known as cutaneous leishmaniasis , for which he received treatment at the National Institutes of Health . In 1989 and 1990 he taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University . He has been active in the International Thriller Writers organization. With his frequent collaborator Lincoln Child , he created

2112-677: A province of the Kingdom of Guatemala and the capital was fixed, first at Trujillo on the Atlantic coast, and later at Comayagua , and finally at Tegucigalpa in the central part of the country. Silver mining was a key factor in the Spanish conquest and settlement of Honduras. Initially the mines were worked by local people through the encomienda system, but as disease and resistance made this option less available, slaves from other parts of Central America were brought in. When local slave trading stopped at

2244-454: A single surviving photograph that the Codex may contain many ancient Mayan herbal remedies that, if studied and reproduced in present times, could revolutionize medicine and cure many diseases. Tom reluctantly agrees to help her, and they eventually recruit a witty tribal elder named Don Alfonso, accompanied by the brother trackers Pingo and Chori. However, Hauser has also discovered the existence of

2376-525: A smartass message pops up on the screen, possibly from the Deity. Meanwhile, in Washington, a K Street fixer dropped by his Arizona Indian clients encourages a revolting televangelist to spread the message that the scientists are spending public money on anti-Christian tasks. Recovering CIA agent Wyman Ford is dropped into Indian territory to get a read on the physicists and, while he’s at it, to smooth things over with

2508-513: A sunbeam." That is revealed to be an impromptu quote from the President during his second inaugural address, which he makes after having a new pacemaker implanted that has a network connection and a direct connection from his heart to the nerves in the brain, insinuating that Dorothy is now influencing the President's mind directly. According to a review by Liberty Voice, The Kraken Project by Douglas Preston serves up more twists and turns than

2640-488: A war between supercolliding physicists and supercredulous evangelical Christians in an unusually alarming and thoughtful thriller. Preston (Tyrannosaur Canyon, 2005, etc.), who often teams with Lincoln Child, presses every middle-class panic button he can reach in this lightning-fast tale of science pushing toward the edge and religion pushing back in the Arizona desert, where a $ 40 billion atom smasher seems to be talking as if it

2772-513: A week in Kuwait and Iraq , marking "the first time in the USO's 69-year history that authors visited a combat zone." Of the experience, Preston said, "As always, we learn a great deal from all of the amazing and dedicated people we meet." In 2014, during a disagreement over terms between Hachette Book Group and Amazon.com, Inc. , Preston initiated an effort which became known as Authors United. During

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2904-471: Is Guaymuras , revived as the name for the political dialogue in 2009 that took place in Honduras as opposed to Costa Rica. Hondurans are often referred to as either the masculine Catracho or the feminine Catracha in Spanish. In the pre-Columbian era, modern Honduras was split between two pan-cultural regions: Mesoamerica in the west and the Isthmo-Colombian area in the east. Each complex had

3036-467: Is 0.443. Honduran society is predominantly Mestizo ; however, there are also significant Indigenous, black, and white communities in Honduras. The nation had a relatively high political stability until a 2009 military coup and controversy arising from claims of electoral fraud in the 2017 presidential election . Honduras spans about 112,492 km (43,433 sq mi) and has a population exceeding 10 million. Its northern portions are part of

3168-417: Is God. The giant experimental apparatus fills miles of abandoned coal mine tunnels deep under Indian territory, sucking up enough electricity to power an entire time zone and enough public funds to attract serious attention from all kinds of mischief makers. There is a problem. The smasher has yet to do its ultimate deed. Every time the team of deeply dedicated scientists manning the gizmo push for maximum power,

3300-474: Is Honduras's largest source of fresh water, is polluted by heavy metals produced from mining activities. Some rivers and streams are also polluted by mining. Honduras is governed within a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic . The President of Honduras is both head of state and head of government . Executive power is exercised by the Honduran government . Legislative power

3432-486: Is a novel by Douglas Preston published on August 11, 2005, by Forge Books. The story revolves around the search for a mysterious item buried in the New Mexico desert. Tom Broadbent and Sally Broadbent (formerly Sally Colorado) return from the previous novel, The Codex . Tyrannosaur Canyon is the first appearance of Wyman Ford, who subsequently serves as the main protagonist of Preston's solo works. The novel opens with

3564-453: Is about Amazon's bullying tactics against authors. Every time they run into difficulty negotiating with a publisher, they target authors' books for selective retaliation. The authors who were first were from university presses and small presses... Amazon is going to be negotiating with publishers forever. Are they really going to target authors every time they run into a problem with a publisher?" In 2015, Preston took part in an expedition into

3696-406: Is furious that the notebook is gone by the time he reaches the body; he has been hired to retrieve it at any cost. He does, however, find an interesting rock sample. When Tom returns to Tyrannosaur Canyon with the police, the prospector's body has disappeared without a trace. The notebook is filled with numbers, a code Tom is unable to decipher. He brings the book to Wyman Ford, a monk in training at

3828-583: Is further proof of his standing as one of today’s best authors of thriller novels. The Dallas Morning News also praised the work, especially the opening which it called "one of the best narrative feints in recent popular fiction." Preston co-authored The Monster of Florence: A True Story in 2008 with Italian journalist Mario Spezi . Douglas Preston Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts . A graduate of

3960-483: Is on a ridge hundreds of yards away with a sniper rifle, prepared to shoot the canteen and blow up the bridge. Hauser calls their bluff, but when he attempts to throw the canteen over the bridge, Sally successfully shoots it, setting Hauser on fire and eventually causing him to plummet to his death. The Broadbents all make it back across the bridge while the soldiers panic, with Sally and the Broadbent brothers killing half of

4092-516: Is set in the 1970s and is styled as an in-world nonfictional memoir looking back at the experiment. Naturalist Dr. Hugo Archibald delivers Jennie, a chimpanzee , from her dying mother in the Cameroons and brings her home to his American family. The Archibalds try raising Jennie as if she were a human child, dressing her and buying her toys and the like. His young son, Sandy, becomes extremely attached to Jennie, but Archibald's daughter, Sarah, resents

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4224-460: Is somewhere in Central America . Philip recruits Marcus Hauser, a private investigator who briefly served as his father's partner in their earliest treasure hunting endeavors, and Hauser subsequently hires a group of Central American mercenaries to aid and protect them. Vernon approaches the greedy leader of his San Francisco-based cult, and the two of them find three Central American guides. Tom

4356-556: Is the fourth installment in the Wyman Ford series. A research team at NASA is working on an Artificial intelligence system to pilot a spacecraft to Titan , Saturn's largest moon, since the journey is far too long and too dangerous for a human crew. The AI is named Dorothy by its developer, Dr. Melissa Shepherd. However, when the AI is put through a simulation of the ocean conditions on Titan, it detects danger and panics, eventually escaping from

4488-445: Is the only one who is not interested in the treasure at all, until he is approached by a beautiful ethnopharmacologist named Sally Colorado, who informs Tom that his father tried to present an ancient Mayan Codex to a museum for translation years back, only to be rejected since no one knew ancient Mayan at the time. Years later, after ancient Mayan has been deciphered, Sally and her fiancé, Yale professor Julian Clyve, have deduced from

4620-511: Is the second book in the Wyman Ford series, exploring philosophical and theological ideas. It is the first novel to feature Ford as the main protagonist. It also introduces Dr. Stanton Lockwood III, the science advisor to the President of the United States, whom assigns the job to Ford. Isabella, a powerful particle accelerator , has been constructed in Red Mesa in the remote Arizona desert,

4752-496: Is vested in the National Congress of Honduras . The judiciary is independent of both the executive branch and the legislature. The National Congress of Honduras ( Congreso Nacional ) has 128 members ( diputados ), elected for a four-year term by proportional representation . Congressional seats are assigned the parties' candidates on a departmental basis in proportion to the number of votes each party receives. In 1963,

4884-522: The New York Times bestseller list and won a number of journalism awards in Europe and the United States. It is being developed into a movie by 20th Century Fox , produced by George Clooney . Clooney will play the role of Preston. Preston has criticized the conduct of Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini in the trial of American student Amanda Knox , one of three convicted, and eventually cleared, of

5016-515: The 2009 Honduran coup d'état removed Manuel Zelaya from office and put Roberto Micheletti in his place. In late 2012, 1540 persons were interviewed by ERIC in collaboration with the Jesuit university , as reported by Associated Press . This survey found that 60% believed the police were involved in crime, 45% had "no confidence" in the Supreme Court, and 72% thought there was electoral fraud in

5148-496: The American Museum of Natural History , convinces a lab assistant, Melodie Crookshank, to examine the sample in secret. Corvus intends to steal her research, acquire a permit to excavate the Tyrannosaurus , and thus secure tenure at the museum, as well as wealth and fame. Melodie discovers tiny particles within the sample which she calls "Venus particles". Upon making this discovery, Melodie calls Corvus to describe it to him, and

5280-609: The Bay Islands there are bottlenose dolphins , manta rays , parrot fish , schools of blue tang and whale shark . Deforestation resulting from logging is rampant in Olancho Department . The clearing of land for agriculture is prevalent in the largely undeveloped La Mosquitia region, causing land degradation and soil erosion . Honduras had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.48/10, ranking it 126th globally out of 172 countries. Lake Yojoa , which

5412-566: The COVID-19 pandemic , which he described as "as though they looted a bookstore and started handing away books to passersby." Preston supported a lawsuit brought by publishers against the Internet Archive over the latter's collection of e-books. Honduras Honduras , officially the Republic of Honduras , is a country in Central America . It is bordered to the west by Guatemala , to

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5544-636: The Cajón Dam reservoir ), Selin Farm and Cuyamel in the Aguan valley, Cerro Palenque , Travesia, Curruste, Ticamaya, Despoloncal, and Playa de los Muertos in the lower Ulúa River valley, and many others. In 2012, LiDAR scanning revealed that several previously unknown high density settlements existed in La Mosquitia, corresponding to the legend of " La Ciudad Blanca ". Excavation and study has since improved knowledge of

5676-630: The Cambodian jungle with a small army of soldiers, to become the first Westerner to visit a lost Angkor temple. He was the first person in 3,000 years to enter an ancient Egyptian burial chamber in a tomb known as KV5 in the Valley of the Kings . Preston participated in an expedition that led to the discovery of an ancient city in an unexplored valley in the Mosquitia mountains of Eastern Honduras, which he chronicled in

5808-668: The Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Massachusetts , and Pomona College in Claremont, California , Preston began his writing career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York . From 1978 to 1985, Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History as a writer, editor, and manager of publications. He served as managing editor for the journal Curator and was a columnist for Natural History magazine. In 1985 he published

5940-598: The Ch'orti' , isolated from their Choltian linguistic peers to the west. However, Copán represents only a fraction of Honduran pre-Columbian history. Remnants of other civilizations are found throughout the country. Archaeologists have studied sites such as Naco  [ es ] and La Sierra in the Naco Valley, Los Naranjos on Lake Yojoa , Yarumela in the Comayagua Valley, La Ceiba and Salitron Viejo (both now under

6072-528: The Cuyamel Fruit Company , as well as the United Fruit Company , and Standard Fruit Company , built an enclave economy in northern Honduras, controlling infrastructure and creating self-sufficient, tax-exempt sectors that contributed relatively little to economic growth. American troops landed in Honduras in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925. In 1904, the writer O. Henry coined

6204-644: The Football War . Border tensions led to acrimony between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano , the president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating Honduran economy on immigrants from El Salvador. The relationship reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match preliminary to the World Cup . Tensions escalated and on 14 July 1969, the Salvadoran army invaded Honduras. The Organization of American States (OAS) negotiated

6336-479: The International Court of Justice . The nation's economy is primarily agricultural, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The lower class is primarily agriculturally based while wealth is concentrated in the country's urban centers. Honduras has a Human Development Index of 0.625, classifying it as a nation with medium development. When adjusted for income inequality, its Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index

6468-462: The Leonese dialect of Spain, or to Columbus 's alleged quote that " Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas honduras " ("Thank God we have departed from those depths"). It was not until the end of the 16th century that Honduras was used for the whole province. Prior to 1580, Honduras referred to only the eastern part of the province, and Higueras referred to the western part. Another early name

6600-452: The NSA hears the call. They initiate a black op led by J.G. Masago to cover up evidence of the particles, kill any witnesses, and retrieve the specimen. Meanwhile, Ford goes into the desert to look for the dinosaur. At the same time, desperate to recover the notebook, Maddox kidnaps Tom Broadbent's wife, Sally. He takes her to an abandoned mine to use as a bargaining chip, forcing Tom to hand over

6732-630: The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve , a lowland rainforest which is home to a great diversity of life. The reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 1982. Honduras has rain forests, cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly 3,000 metres or 9,800 feet above sea level ), mangroves , savannas and mountain ranges with pine and oak trees, and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System . In

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6864-474: The Southwestern United States and Central America . The book was published on December 8, 2003, by Tor Books . Maxwell Broadbent, an eccentric rich man with terminal cancer, has spent his entire life collecting valuable art and treasures from around the world. One day, he writes a letter to his three sons telling them to go to his New Mexico house. Upon their arrival, they find Maxwell and all of

6996-481: The United States Congress an opinion that declared the coup legal. The Honduran Supreme Court also ruled that the proceedings had been legal. The government that followed the de facto government established a truth and reconciliation commission, Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación , which after more than a year of research and debate concluded that the ousting had been a coup d'état , and illegal in

7128-437: The western Caribbean zone , as reflected in the area's demographics and culture. Honduras is known for its rich natural resources, including minerals , coffee , tropical fruit , and sugar cane , as well as for its growing textiles industry, which serves the international market. The literal meaning of the term "Honduras" is "depths" in Spanish. The name could refer either to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, fondura in

7260-540: The Amanda Knox Case in 2013 as a Kindle Single eBook. In 2010, Preston participated in the first USO tour sponsored by the International Thriller Writers organization, along with authors David Morrell , Steve Berry , Andy Harp , and James Rollins . After visiting with wounded soldiers and giving away books at National Navy Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the group spent over

7392-516: The American Southwest resulted in the book Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest . Since that time, Preston has undertaken many long horseback journeys retracing historic or prehistoric trails, for which he was inducted into the Long Riders' Guild . He has also participated in expeditions in other parts of the world, including a journey deep into Khmer Rouge -held territory in

7524-675: The Codex, and decides to find it specifically so that he can sell it to Lewis Skiba, the CEO of the failing company Lampe-Denison Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Professor Clyve also plans to sell the Codex to a Swiss pharmaceutical company as well, having lied to his fiancé. Over the course of the novel, the brothers' paths eventually cross nearly simultaneously in Honduras , after Vernon's teacher and three guides have all died from disease. Philip escapes from Hauser and his men after discovering their secret brutal nature (including an attempt, through bribery, to have

7656-603: The Diet of Nacaome (1847) and National Representation in Central America (1849–1852). Although Honduras eventually adopted the name Republic of Honduras, the unionist ideal never waned, and Honduras was one of the Central American countries that pushed the hardest for a policy of regional unity. Policies favoring international trade and investment began in the 1870s. Soon, foreign interests became involved, first in shipping from

7788-582: The Indians. As Ford burrows into scientific secrets, a scrawny and ultimately murderous missionary, who has had little success converting the Indians, hooks up with the televangelist and takes on a new mission: to smash the atom smashers and end the conversation they appear to be having with someone who is either a very clever hacker or the Originator of the Universe. Ford and the Indians are alone in their skepticism about

7920-565: The Monkey God: A True Story , which became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Preston was one of many on the expedition who contracted an aggressive parasitic disease, called mucocutaneous leishmaniasis , in the lost city. In 2019, he was elected President of the Authors Guild . In his capacity as president of the Authors Guild, Preston criticized the Internet Archive 's National Emergency Library programme, launched in 2020 in response to

8052-409: The Moon, thus establishing their extraterrestrial origin. As the entire team takes off in the helicopter, Masago breaks free and kills the pilot before being restrained by Ford and Broadbent. Despite the co-pilot's attempts, the helicopter crashes into a cliff. Though Tom and Sally manage to escape first and rather quickly, Tom heads back into the burning wreckage to save Ford and Hitt. With Sally's help,

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8184-425: The Mosquitia mountains of Honduras that penetrated one of the last scientifically unexplored areas on the surface of the earth. The expedition, led by Steve Elkins and sponsored by Benenson Productions, the Honduran government, and National Geographic magazine, explored a previously unknown pre-Columbian city built by a mysterious civilization that had been influenced by the Maya, but was not Maya itself. The city

8316-468: The Standard Model particle physicist; computer engineer Rae Chen; and mathematician Alan Edelstein. When the team supposedly encounters a problem with the machine, they appear to be covering something up and not reporting all the true facts to their superiors, even after Voldonsky suddenly dies in what appears to be a suicide. Ex- CIA agent Wyman Ford is tapped to go to Arizona in an undercover role as an anthropologist, and finds out what's really going on with

8448-416: The Swan Islands, fall within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Honduras. Natural resources include timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc , iron ore, antimony , coal, fish, shrimp, and hydropower . The climate varies from tropical in the lowlands to temperate in the mountains. The Pacific coast is generally drier than the Caribbean. The region is considered a biodiversity hotspot because of

8580-444: The United States George W. Bush began talks on US assistance to Honduras to tackle the latter's growing drug cartels in Mosquito, Eastern Honduras using US special forces. This marked the beginning of a new foothold for the US military's continued presence in Central America. Under Zelaya, Honduras joined ALBA in 2008, but withdrew in 2010 after the 2009 Honduran coup d'état . In 2009, a constitutional crisis resulted when power

8712-425: The United States and Europe. In 2000, Preston moved to Florence, Italy with his young family and became fascinated with an unsolved local murder mystery involving a serial killer nicknamed the " Monster of Florence ". The case and his problems with the Italian authorities are the subject of his 2008 book The Monster of Florence , co-authored with Italian journalist Mario Spezi . The book spent three months on

8844-417: The Venus particles and the dinosaur itself, which is christened by Robbie and named after her. At the reception, Ford makes an off-hand remark where he speculates that the particles may have been intentionally developed by an alien race, so as to destroy the dinosaurs and allow humans to begin their evolution. Blasphemy is a novel by Douglas Preston that was released on January 8, 2008, by Forge Books. It

8976-422: The White City and begin dynamiting the area to find the right tomb. The Broadbents manage to find the right tomb, with a barely-alive Maxwell still inside. Hauser attacks them and fatally shoots Maxwell, but the five of them manage to escape to the rope bridge before being blocked in on both sides by Hauser's men. As Hauser himself approaches to kill them, Tom holds up a canteen full of gasoline and reveals that Sally

9108-421: The abandoned mine shafts that run into the mountain, but the explosion of Isabella causes a cave-in that kills Thibodeaux and Edelstein. They capture the remaining eight scientists and burn Hazelius at the stake . Just as they prepare to kill Ford and the other survivors, they are rescued by one of the Native American residents of the region, who evacuates them all on horseback. The final explosions and collapses of

9240-457: The cell structure of reptiles, evidently introduced to the earth by the Chicxulub meteorite. She posts her findings to the web to show the world. Back in the desert, the black ops team has tracked Ford down, and Maddox is gaining on Tom and Sally. They manage to overpower Maddox and kill him, retrieving the notebook, and Ford leads them out of the canyon in an effort to evade the government assassins. Trapped in an old Anasazi cave, they discover

9372-478: The character of FBI Special Agent Pendergast , who appears in many of their novels, including Relic , The Cabinet of Curiosities , Brimstone , and White Fire . Additional novels by the Preston and Child team include Mount Dragon , Riptide , Thunderhead , and The Ice Limit . Later, the duo created the Gideon Crew series, which consists of Gideon's Sword , Gideon's Corpse , and The Lost Island . For his solo career, Preston's fictional debut

9504-469: The chimp. Jennie, through her learning of ASL ( American Sign Language ), starts to converse and interact with the humans around her. A neighbor who is a minister tries to convert Jennie to Christianity. Jennie embarks on various hijinks while shopping, meeting celebrities, getting arrested, and so on. Eventually, with her becoming more difficult to control as she ages, Jennie is sent to a wildlife preserve where she cannot function. Kirkus Reviews critiqued

9636-405: The city's plazas, pyramids, and temples. It also discovered a cache of stone sculptures at the base of the city's central earthen pyramid. When excavated in 2016 and 2017, the cache revealed over 500 sacred objects which appeared to have been ceremonially broken and left as an offering at the time the city was abandoned. Preston wrote about that discovery in his 2017 nonfiction book, The Lost City of

9768-615: The coasts. A large undeveloped lowland jungle, La Mosquitia lies in the northeast, and the heavily populated lowland Sula valley in the northwest. In La Mosquitia lies the UNESCO world-heritage site Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve , with the Coco River which divides Honduras from Nicaragua . The Islas de la Bahía and the Swan Islands are off the north coast. Misteriosa Bank and Rosario Bank , 130 to 150 kilometres (81 to 93 miles) north of

9900-414: The commission's opinion. On 28 November 2021, the former first lady Xiomara Castro , leftist presidential candidate of opposition Liberty and Refoundation Party, won 53% of the votes in the presidential election to become the first female president of Honduras, bringing an end to the 12-year reign of the right-wing National Party. She was sworn in on 27 January 2022. Her husband, Manuel Zelaya, held

10032-420: The conquest took place in the following two decades, first by groups loyal to Cristóbal de Olid , and then by those loyal to Francisco de Montejo but most particularly by those following Alvarado. In addition to Spanish resources, the conquerors relied heavily on armed forces from Mexico – Tlaxcalans and Mexica armies of thousands who remained garrisoned in the region. Resistance to conquest

10164-469: The contract dispute, books by Hachette authors faced significant shipment delays, blocked availability, and reduced discounts on the Amazon website. Frustrated with tactics he felt unjustly injured authors who were caught in the middle, Preston began garnering the support of like-minded authors from a variety of publishers. In the first open letter from Authors United, over 900 signatories urged Amazon to resolve

10296-511: The conventional religions. When part of the discovery becomes known to a local fundamentalist pastor named Russell Eddy, he interprets it as a sign of the End Times and by way of viral email recruits thousands of people from across the United States into "God's Army". They storm the machine, killing Dolby and Wardlaw, and eventually causing the machine to overload and explode, destroying the entire facility. The remaining crew members escape through

10428-467: The corrupt military kill Tom and Sally), and is found by his brothers nearly dead. Later, Hauser's men kill Pingo and Chori, and Don Alfonso himself succumbs to wounds sustained in a firefight. The three brothers and Sally are all nearly dead when they are rescued and nursed back to health by a lonely native named Borabay, who is revealed to be the true eldest son of Maxwell Broadbent, and the fourth brother, having been conceived when Maxwell had an affair with

10560-434: The country had been reversed. Mitch destroyed about 70% of the country's crops and an estimated 70–80% of the transportation infrastructure, including nearly all bridges and secondary roads. Across Honduras 33,000 houses were destroyed, and an additional 50,000 damaged. Some 5,000 people killed, and 12,000 more injured. Total losses were estimated at US$ 3 billion. In 2007, President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya and President of

10692-509: The country, although many of these workers left following changes to immigration law in 1939. Honduras joined the Allied Nations after Pearl Harbor , on 8 December 1941, and signed the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, along with twenty-five other governments. Constitutional crises in the 1940s led to reforms in the 1950s. One reform gave workers permission to organize, and

10824-446: The country, including some changes of régime. In the late nineteenth century, Honduras granted land and substantial exemptions to several US-based fruit and infrastructure companies in return for developing the country's northern regions. Thousands of workers came to the north coast as a result to work in banana plantations and other businesses that grew up around the export industry. Banana-exporting companies, dominated until 1930 by

10956-606: The current physical infrastructure and telecommunications system of Honduras. In 1979, the country returned to civilian rule. A constituent assembly was popularly elected in April 1980 to write a new constitution, and general elections were held in November 1981. The constitution was approved in 1982 and the PLH government of Roberto Suazo won the election with a promise to carry out an ambitious program of economic and social development to tackle

11088-408: The deal and splits the treasure between the sons, with each receiving roughly $ 100 million. Borabay is the one dissenter who does not wish to receive any of the treasure, instead simply asking for American citizenship and Maxwell's New Mexico estate to live in. Maxwell happily obliges his request, and then dies in peace. He is given a proper funeral by the Tara people, who have finally forgiven him. In

11220-458: The dinosaur. When she sees that he has been murdered and that his work is missing, she realizes she is the next likely target. Her only chance is to complete the research and post it to the Internet, so killing her would no longer serve the purposes of a cover-up. During her final research, she discovers that the 65-million-year-old Venus particles are still alive. They are a type of virus that destroys

11352-404: The dispute and end the policy of sanctions, while calling on readers to contact CEO Jeff Bezos to express their support of authors. Not long after, a second open letter, signed by over 1100 authors, was sent to Amazon's board of directors asking if they personally approved the policy of hindering the sale of certain books. Describing the motivation behind the campaign, Preston explained: "This

11484-490: The eastern portion of the region and many pockets of independent indigenous people as well. The Miskito Kingdom in the northeast was particularly effective at resisting conquest. The Miskito Kingdom found support from northern European privateers, pirates and especially the British formerly English colony of Jamaica , which placed much of the area under its protection after 1740. Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1821 and

11616-443: The end of the sixteenth century, African slaves, mostly from Angola , were imported. After about 1650, very few slaves or other outside workers arrived in Honduras. Although the Spanish conquered the southern or Pacific portion of Honduras fairly quickly, they were less successful on the northern, or Atlantic side. They managed to found a few towns along the coast, at Puerto Caballos and Trujillo in particular, but failed to conquer

11748-456: The epilogue, Lewis Skiba's company has gone bankrupt since the Codex was never brought to him, but Skiba finds himself strangely at peace since he was aware of Hauser's brutal methods, and is glad that Hauser failed. Similarly, Sally finds out about Clyve's deception, as Clyve is now being sued by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, claiming that he scammed them. The Codex, which was eventually found among

11880-490: The fact that these people are disturbed and that Jennie is filling some bizarre need in the family. Preston throws us a few tidbits—an adult Sarah confesses that she had hated Jennie because she believed that her father loved the chimpanzee better; Hugo, discussing with a colleague Jennie's care after he and his wife are dead, says that the Jennie problem is no different than having a mentally retarded child—but they only confuse us all

12012-406: The fire, but she has been fast at work solving problems and mysteries in the Internet. She claims to have not only deciphered the meaning of life and purpose of the universe, but also has plans to do "great things" that will be revealed on January the 20th. She promises that Shepherd and Ford will see her again, and they will know it's her from a quote from Carl Sagan : "This mote of dust suspended in

12144-404: The four manage to get away just before the helicopter explodes, killing Masago, the co-pilot, and all of the other soldiers on board. By the time they arrive with news about the dinosaur's location, Melodie's research has spread across the Internet. All those involved are made famous, including Robbie Weathers, the old prospector's daughter. The Smithsonian Institution funds a program to research

12276-512: The history of the American Southwest . He has written about archaeology and paleontology for The New Yorker magazine and has also been published in Smithsonian , Harper's , The Atlantic , Natural History , and National Geographic . In May, 2011, Pomona College conferred on Preston the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa). He is the recipient of writing awards in

12408-569: The image of a tropical, agrarian country. But its real meaning is sharper: it refers to the fruit companies from the United States that came to exert extraordinary influence over the politics of Honduras and its neighbors." In addition to drawing Central American workers north, the fruit companies encouraged immigration of workers from the English-speaking Caribbean , notably Jamaica and Belize , which introduced an African-descended, English-speaking and largely Protestant population into

12540-536: The islands and Bartholomew encountered a Mayan trading vessel from Yucatán, carrying well-dressed Maya and a rich cargo. Bartholomew's men stole the cargo they wanted and kidnapped the ship's elderly captain to serve as an interpreter in the first recorded encounter between the Spanish and the Maya. In March 1524, Gil González Dávila became the first Spaniard to enter Honduras as a conquistador . followed by Hernán Cortés , who had brought forces down from Mexico. Much of

12672-470: The lost AI so that it can make the most precise market calculations to guarantee them investment success in the future. They hire a pair of twin assassins, Asan and Jyrgal Makashov, to help them in any of their endeavors that require assassinations or intimidation to get what they want, although Moro makes his concern over such brutal methods clear to the colder Lansing. Eventually, Dorothy finds refuge in Charlie

12804-422: The machine and into the Internet while also creating an explosion that destroys the facility and kills several people. After experiencing the brutality of the Internet, Dorothy soon realizes that her purpose was to essentially go on a suicide mission ; the enraged Dorothy appears to Shepherd in the hospital and vows revenge, setting her laptop on fire before fleeing back into the Internet. Dr. Stanton Lockwood III,

12936-405: The many plant and animal species found there. Like other countries in the region, it contains vast biological resources. Honduras hosts more than 6,000 species of vascular plants , of which 630 (described so far) are orchids ; around 250 reptiles and amphibians , more than 700 bird species, and 110 mammalian species, of which half are bats . In the northeastern region of La Mosquitia lies

13068-455: The mine shafts cause the entire area to cave in from under them, killing Eddy and a vast majority of the mob. The National Guard finally arrives just in time to save the survivors and round up the surviving mob members. In the end, it is revealed that Hazelius simulated the communications in an effort to create a new religion, one based on science and particularly the scientific method and the search for truth. However, Hazelius himself admits to

13200-436: The more. It doesn't help matters that the novel, written as an oral history, masquerades as nonfiction. As a novel, this is sometimes sweet but mostly strange. Publishers Weekly wrote, "while some readers may delight in Jennie's exploits, others may find the narrative cartoonish and one-dimensional, a joke that keeps repeating itself in different keys." The Codex is a thriller novel by Douglas Preston. It takes place in

13332-557: The most expensive machine ever built by science. The project is staffed by a team of twelve scientists, under the leadership of charismatic Nobel Laureate Gregory North Hazelius. The team consists of Kate Mercer, Hazelius's second-in-command; chief engineer and designer of Isabella Ken Dolby; Russian software engineer Peter Volkonsky; cosmologist Melissa Corcoran; senior intelligence officer and security guard Tony Wardlaw; psychologist George Innes; quantum electrodynamicist Julie Thibodeaux; electrical engineer Harlan St. Vincent; Michael Cecchini,

13464-579: The murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007. In 2009, Preston argued on 48 Hours on CBS that the case against Knox was "based on lies, superstition, and crazy conspiracy theories". In December 2009, after the verdict had been announced, he described his own interrogation by Mignini on Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN . Preston said of Mignini, "this is a very abusive prosecutor. He makes up theories. He's ... obsessed with satanic sex." Preston published Trial By Fury: Internet Savagery and

13596-402: The need for an apocalypse. Clever and terrifying. Impact is a science fiction thriller novel by American writer Douglas Preston , published on January 5, 2010, by Forge Books . The novel is the third book in the Wyman Ford series. Ex- CIA agent Wyman Ford returns to Cambodia to investigate the source of radioactive gemstones and uncovers an unusual impact crater. A young woman on

13728-573: The north coast, especially tropical fruit and most notably bananas, and then in building railroads. In 1888, a projected railroad line from the Caribbean coast to the capital, Tegucigalpa , ran out of money when it reached San Pedro Sula . As a result, San Pedro grew into the nation's primary industrial center and second-largest city. Comayagua was the capital of Honduras until 1880, when the capital moved to Tegucigalpa. Since independence, nearly 300 small internal rebellions and civil wars have occurred in

13860-485: The notebook. Now that Maddox has the notebook, however, he intends to kill Sally so he can not be identified. She manages to break free, Tom rescues her, and the two of them escape into the desert on foot, pursued by Maddox and his rifle. Masago infiltrates the museum and kills Corvus, stealing the samples and his research. But Melodie, realizing previously that Corvus would try to steal the credit from her, had made copies of everything and hid them, along with more samples of

13992-495: The novel, noting that the Archibalds "make more of a fuss over the animal than readers are likely to" and that Preston's writing appears "much more insightful when it comes to animals than humans". They highlight how "Preston hasn't worked out the Archibalds' motivations," which "is a serious flaw of the novel". They explain, Preston seems to want readers to think that the Archibalds are merely eccentric when all his evidence points to

14124-500: The now predominant Spanish language , along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere . In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicaragua to Honduras by

14256-527: The other five survivors of Isabella - Corcoran, Innes, St. Vincent, Cecchini, and Chen - have formed their own religion based on the experience, simply named "The Search." The religion has already garnered a massive following, with the late Hazelius serving as their Christ-like figure and the printed-out recordings of Isabella's conversations with "God" as their Bible. A review in Kirkus Reviews wrote: A slimy D.C. lobbyist—is there any other kind?—sets off

14388-479: The other side of the world photographs a meteoroid 's passage in the atmosphere with her telescope and deduces that it must have struck on one of the islands just offshore from Round Pond, Maine . A NASA scientist analyzing data from the Mars Mapping Orbiter (MMO) spots unusual spikes in gamma ray activity. These threads intersect with discovery of an alien device that has apparently been on Deimos , one of

14520-428: The partially excavated Tyrannosaurus rex just before Masago's team converges on their location. Ford repeatedly reminds the team commander, Hitt, that Masago is ordering them to kill unarmed American civilians on American soil without first explaining to them why, which convinces Hitt and the rest of the team to turn on him. They then force Masago to tell them about the lethal Venus particles, which had also been found on

14652-496: The police. Several months later, Lockwood and the President have a meeting with Shepherd and Ford to offer them a job; designing militarized AI's to fight in the ongoing cyberwar with the Chinese. However, having witnessed the free-roaming capability, as well as fragile and emotional state, of Dorothy, both Shepherd and Ford refuse. Later that night, when Shepherd checks her laptop, Dorothy appears and reveals that not only did she survive

14784-402: The project. He is reluctant to undertake the mission, having had a previous relationship with Mercer while in college and being consistently warned of Hazelius's almost seductive charisma. Once there, Ford discovers the scientists have made a discovery that apparently not only demonstrates the existence of God, but communications with it reveal it to be far grander and deeper than anything found in

14916-420: The recession in which Honduras found itself. He launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated. The Peace Corps withdrew its volunteers in 2012, citing safety concerns. During the early 1980s, the United States established

15048-458: The region's history. It is estimated that these settlements reached their zenith from 500 to 1000 AD. On his fourth and the final voyage to the New World in 1502, Christopher Columbus landed near the modern town of Trujillo , near Guaimoreto Lagoon, becoming the first European to visit the Bay Islands on the coast of Honduras. On 30 July 1502, Columbus sent his brother Bartholomew to explore

15180-532: The robot, created by an aspiring inventor named Dan Gould, who created Charlie as a prototype for a line of playmate robots for children, having given Charlie to his depressed 14-year-old son Jacob. Dorothy tells Jacob of her travels and makes him promise not to tell anyone. However, Ford, Shepherd, Lansing, Moro, and the assassins all eventually converge on the Gould's house on the Northern California Coast, on

15312-635: The same office from 2006 until 2009. In April 2022, former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández , who served two terms between 2014 and January 2022, was extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. Hernandez denied the accusations. The north coast of Honduras borders the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean lies south through the Gulf of Fonseca . Honduras consists mainly of mountains, with narrow plains along

15444-483: The science advisor to the President of the United States, hires Wyman Ford to track down the AI and capture it before it can cause even more damage. The terrified Shepherd asks to accompany him, both for her own protection and so that she can help bring an end to the AI she created. Meanwhile, a ruthless Wall Street banker named G. Parker Lansing, after witnessing a hacker steal his company's funds right out from under him, convinces his partner Eric Moro to help him track down

15576-424: The simulation performing "beyond its specs." (Comparisons are made between Hazelius and Hubbard in regards to Scientology ). However, Ford was the only one who learned the truth about Hazelius, and when he tries to tell Kate, she refuses to believe him. Out of respect for Kate's wishes and his own dying love for her, he decides to let her believe in the lie so that she may be happy. The epilogue reveals that Kate and

15708-400: The soldiers while the other half is trapped in the White City after the bridge breaks. All the surviving soldiers eventually starve to death. Back in the Tara village, Maxwell is tended to as he dies of his injury, admitting that he would've died of the cancer even if he had survived the attack. He spends his final days reconciling with his sons, who all forgive him in return. He then agrees to

15840-546: The southwest by El Salvador , to the southeast by Nicaragua , to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca , and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras , a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea . Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa . Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya , before Spanish colonization in the sixteenth century. The Spanish introduced Catholicism and

15972-457: The term " banana republic " to describe Honduras, publishing a book called Cabbages and Kings , about a fictional country, Anchuria , inspired by his experiences in Honduras, where he had lived for six months. In The Admiral , O. Henry refers to the nation as a "small maritime banana republic"; naturally, the fruit was the entire basis of its economy. According to a literary analyst writing for The Economist , "his phrase neatly conjures up

16104-512: The time) a monk-in-training. Following Tyrannosaur Canyon , Ford leaves the monastery where he is training, forms his own private investigation company, and replaces Broadbent as the main protagonist of Preston's solo works. Ford subsequently returns in Blasphemy , Impact , and The Kraken Project . In addition to his collaborations with Child and his solo fictional universe, Preston has written several nonfiction books of his own, frequently about

16236-424: The treasure, is studied by Sally and eventually published openly to the world, bringing in a new era of medicine and revolutionizing several disease treatments. Tom and Sally have fallen in love, and are eventually married. Tom starts his own veterinarian business, while Borabay begins enjoying the privileges of living in America. Publishers Weekly called the work a "first-rate beach novel". Tyrannosaur Canyon

16368-402: The two moons of Mars, for at least 100 million years. Something has caused it to activate and fire a strangelet at Earth, setting off the events in the novel. A review by NPR called the book a lot of fun and that the book was a compelling page-turner. The Kraken Project is a thriller novel by American writer Douglas Preston . The book was published on May 13, 2014, by Forge Books . It

16500-409: The valuables missing, with only a cryptic message left behind hinting at his location. The message explains that his final test for them is to find his tomb, promising that the son that finds his tomb will receive all his treasures—worth approximately $ 300 million. The three sons—Philip the eldest, Vernon the middle son, and Tom the youngest—each go their separate ways after figuring out that their father

16632-456: The very White City that he raided. However, at his early funeral, the chief tricked him; instead of giving him poison to kill him, he gave him a drink that rendered him unconscious long enough for the treasure to be buried with him, before he eventually awoke inside the tomb. Thus, the Broadbents now have to recover the treasure and save their father. Hauser and his men have already converged on

16764-635: The zenith of the Toltec Empire ). In the extreme west, Maya civilization flourished for hundreds of years. The dominant, best known, and best studied state within Honduras's borders was in Copán , which was located in a mainly non-Maya area, or on the frontier between Maya and non-Maya areas. Copán declined with other Lowland centres during the conflagrations of the Terminal Classic in the 9th century. The Maya of this civilization survive in western Honduras as

16896-481: Was Jennie , a novel about a chimpanzee who is adopted by an American family. His next novel was The Codex , a treasure hunt novel with a style that was much closer to the thriller genre of his collaborations with Child. The Codex introduced the characters of Tom Broadbent and Sally Colorado. Tom and Sally return in Tyrannosaur Canyon , which also features the debut of Wyman Ford , an ex- CIA agent and (at

17028-597: Was a part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823, when it became part of the United Provinces of Central America . It has been an independent republic and has held regular elections since 1838. In the 1840s and 1850s Honduras participated in several failed attempts at Central American unity, such as the Confederation of Central America (1842–1845), the covenant of Guatemala (1842), the Diet of Sonsonate (1846),

17160-571: Was discovered in an area long rumored to contain a legendary "lost city" known as La Ciudad Blanca , the White City, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. The extensive archaeological site, in a remote valley ringed by mountains, had been discovered in 2012 in an aerial overflight by a team using the powerful technology of lidar (light detection and ranging), able to map the terrain under dense, triple-canopy jungle. The 2015 expedition explored and mapped

17292-509: Was led in particular by Lempira . Many regions in the north of Honduras never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom . After the Spanish conquest, Honduras became part of Spain's vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala . Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals. The Spanish ruled the region for approximately three centuries. Honduras was organized as

17424-563: Was transferred in a coup from the president to the head of Congress. The OAS suspended Honduras because it did not regard its government as legitimate. Countries around the world, the OAS, and the United Nations formally and unanimously condemned the action as a coup d'état , refusing to recognize the de facto government, even though the lawyers consulted by the Library of Congress submitted to

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