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Also available on Amazon Kindle: Tunnels of the Deep: Book Two of The Star Walkers Trilogy

"The Amazon is quite a sight from the air, isn't it, Professor?" Jaco said.

"Please call me Eric. It's deceiving, that's for sure. From this altitude it looks peaceful. But it's a steaming wilderness filled with plants and animals unfamiliar to botanists and zoologists. Let your guard down, and the jungle will kill you. Once you're in the underbrush, you can only be assured of one thing. There is something there that will want to take a bite out of you, sting you, or eat you." Eric glanced in Canstancia's direction. "And we'd also be facing the uncertainty as to whether the natives would be friendly."

Canstancia said, "Next you will be telling me there are cannibals down there."

"There are some one hundred forty indigenous Indian tribes who have never seen a white man. What do you think the chances are that at least one clan would favor human meat?

"The Amajuacas near the Peruvian border have been converted to Christianity several times over, yet they still murder and eat the evangelists. The Cashibos eat their aged parents, but perhaps more from religious sentiment than from cruelty. It is the practice of the Ukayali to eat their dead relations and swallow the ground-up bones in fermented drinks, on the plea that it is better to be inside a warm friend than buried in the cold earth. Worse things have been said about the—"

"Stop," Canstancia said. "That is utterly disgusting!"

more excerpts

A professor of South American history, down on his luck, has been hired to lead an expedition into the wilds of the Amazon to find a hoard of silver.

Little does he know life is about to throw him a curve for it's not only the silver his employer is after.

Once Dr. Eric Shade discovers his employer's true motives, he and Constancia Caetano must flee for their lives. But where to run?

The two enter a labyrinth of tunnels, but instead of finding the river, which is their only means of escape, one of the tunnels leads them to a strange, exotic world—a world that was only supposed to exist in the past—or is it the future?

I've always been fascinated with tunnels, probably because there is an air of mystery about exploring the unfamiliar or the unknown.

You can imagine my surprise when I learned the Brazilian government has recently declassified information that a labyrinth of tunnels exists beneath the Amazon jungle. Indigenous natives claim these tunnels were built thousands of years ago by enigmatic gods, deities who called themselves "Star Walkers."

I began to wonder if a pre-Inca civilization could have possessed the technological expertise to build hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and the alleged city of Akakor, which to this day many believe exists. No scientific evidence has surfaced to explain how ancient Indians had managed to develop a complex written language or how they acquired the skills to build their magnificent cities.

Is it then possible they had some help from a highly advanced ancient civilization, which the Indians refer to as the Star Walkers? Although the book I wrote about the Star Walkers is purely fiction, I hope one day we will find proof of their existence.

Michael Cole