Reviews

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen

Only show reviews with written explanations

jhrcook's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

4.25

Quammen presents his venture into understanding island ecology and evolution with an engaging series of vignettes as he traveled the world. Anyone with an interest in the history of biology will find the topics and information in this book interesting and valuable. It’s a long book, but the topics are so variable, it never felt stale nor boring.

nawis's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

A bit overlong (600+ pages of main text) for the subject matter, the book was nevertheless entertaining and full of interesting anecdotes about some major scientists involved in the study of island biogeography and conservation biology. While organized somewhat thematically, the structure occasionally leads to repetition or seemingly aimless or belabored digressions that could’ve been edited out to make the book more concise. Despite these flaws, the book is a compelling mix of science/natural history, travel, and biography, delivered in casual yet observant prose, supported by a rich bibliography. A worthwhile read for someone with a strong interest in the topic.

cryo_guy's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I read this for a science class back in college and I remember enjoying it pretty well.

rubiscodisco's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

The book is a very informative retrospective of biodiversity conservation and human-caused extinctions from a scientific perspective. However, I don't think the author created a very clear synthesis of all his points at the end of his book, instead, covering all developments on the topic and then dropping into an ending abruptly. The closest thing to a synthesis he makes is at the introduction of the book, by way of a useful metaphor, but I didn't really see how he made things come together at the end.

On the positives, this book is a very thorough who's who of people involved in the study of ecology and biological conservation. It almost serves as a layman's historical review on biogeography and conservation biology. The scope, both in time, and location, was expansive, and the author has a challengingly obscure vocabulary - fun to look up the very strange words that he uses.

Reading this book was really slow going for me. I kept waiting for him to get to a point, a stance, and it just never happened. It was one circuitous anecdote and interview to another. It didn't help that a lot of this wasn't new information to me, so there wasn't a lot of the thrill of learning new things. He could also be condescending or just... obliviously caucasian, let's just say, which earns an eye roll from me here and there.