River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon by Buddy Levy

I think I picked up this audiobook as part of a 2-for-1 credit sale at Audible. Audible has these sales every now and then, and even though I’ve accumulated a lot of credits and don’t really need the extra books, I find the sales irresistible. And they’ve led me to some fantastic listens I wouldn’t have discovered on my own — like this one.

River of Darkness is exactly what the subtitle says: it’s a detailed history of conquistador Francisco Orellana’s voyage from the headwaters of the Amazon river, to the sea, and from there to a Spanish colony. As I’ve mentioned before, I love adventure stories and tales of exploration. This one was made more poignant by having read Charles C. Mann’s 1491 and knowing that those civilizations described in the notes kept by Friar Gaspar de Carvajal would soon be gone. The pandemic we’re experiencing now, for all its ravages and the speed of its transmission, is nothing compared to the apocalypse that struck the new world in those days of early contact. But in the time of Orellana’s voyage, the civilizations of the Amazon were still strong and intact.

The story that Buddy Levy tells in River of Darkness goes well beyond a description of the river journey. It also follows the misadventures and eventual rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, the original captain of the mission, and it dips into both Spanish and colonial politics.

Though I found the opening chapter or two to be a bit slow, once the introductory material was past, the story was riveting.

By chance, just before I started listening to River of Darkness I read the opening chapters of a novel called What the Wind Brings, by Matthew Hughes. It’s set in the same era, in South America, and I look forward to returning to it as soon as time permits. I suspect it will make an interesting pairing with River of Darkness.