StarWars.com has posted an excerpt from the Prologue of James Rollins‘ novelization of Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Rollins adapted the novel, which is available now at Amazon or autographed by Rollins at the Star War Shop, and expands on the story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson and screenplay by David Koepp.

One of the expanded parts of the book is the Prologue, which takes place in 1546 and focuses on explorer/conquistador Francisco de Orellana’s search for the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. In the film, which opens in the year 1957, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) go on a quest to find Orellana’s grave, which will lead them to the crystal skull.

Check out the beginning of the excerpt here below.

1546

RETURN …

Francisco de Orellana stumbled the last steps toward the cliff’s edge. At the lip of the precipice, he fell to his knees. The wide desert plain spread far below him. As the sun sank, he stared across that parched and rocky landscape, a reflection of his own soul. From this height he saw strange pictures carved into the desert floor, monstrously large, stretching many leagues across the rocky plain, giant figures of monkeys, insects, snakes, along with flowers and strange angular shapes.

It was a God-cursed and demonic land. He should never have come.

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