The Voice of El-lil

In a remote East African port, Bill Kirby meets a frightened Englishman whose terror is tied to a strange gong and a buried story from Somaliland's interior. Recalling the expedition that led him and John Conrad, a young American insect scholar, into unexplored country, Kirby describes a journey that begins in curiosity and becomes a descent into ancient dread as a haunting voice rises from the jungle and draws them onward. Their safari is swallowed by a hidden civilization: a lost valley with irrigated fields, a stone city, and a towering temple ruled by the priest-king Sostoras. Believing they have stumbled upon a living remnant of ancient Sumer, Kirby and Conrad are imprisoned among descendants of an isolated people who still worship El-lil. With the help of Naluna, the god's dancer, they learn of the city's brutal laws and the deadly fate awaiting outsiders. But when the sacred gong is sounded and Naluna performs her hypnotic dance, ritual turns to terror. As Conrad is driven toward madness and sacrifice, Kirby is secretly armed, and the story erupts into gunfire, escape, and a final desperate battle across the lake and up a cliff. Through it all, Naluna's fierce love and tragic sacrifice give this lost-world adventure its haunting emotional power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.