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jillyhofi's review against another edition
2.0
I probably would hate this book slightly less if I weren't assigned this dense book in such a small time frame.
This book looks like it would talk about a lot about ecology and evolution but I felt like it was a diary. I felt like Quammen didn't know how to get to the point. He would add so many unnecessary details about his trips and other people's research, that I felt like I skimmed pretty much the entire book. There were multiple times where he seemed pretentious too.
My favorite parts were about the history of the dodo and the part about Bedo. Bedo touched my heart lol. In fact, I tweeted at Quammen about it and he retweeted and replied to me. If this didn't make my day I probably would have rated this book lower. I don't know why people liked it so much. I enjoyed other ecology and evolution books a lot more.
This book looks like it would talk about a lot about ecology and evolution but I felt like it was a diary. I felt like Quammen didn't know how to get to the point. He would add so many unnecessary details about his trips and other people's research, that I felt like I skimmed pretty much the entire book. There were multiple times where he seemed pretentious too.
My favorite parts were about the history of the dodo and the part about Bedo. Bedo touched my heart lol. In fact, I tweeted at Quammen about it and he retweeted and replied to me. If this didn't make my day I probably would have rated this book lower. I don't know why people liked it so much. I enjoyed other ecology and evolution books a lot more.
ericcars10s's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent science writing. I’m impressed with Quammen’s ability to translate complex ecological concepts and into engaging and fascinating case studies without oversimplifying the information. 4/5 because it was a tad overwritten at points and occasionally loses focus. Also, he frequently refers to venomous snakes as ‘poisonous,’ which is a mistake I feel like a science writer shouldn’t be making.
Parts of it are out of date, but I read it 25 years after it was published so I can’t fault it there.
Parts of it are out of date, but I read it 25 years after it was published so I can’t fault it there.
bob_muller's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of those truly amazing books you encounter every few years that make you understand what great writing is about. The science may be (potentially) dated, but the underlying stories and characters and controversies (history of science rather than exposition of science, in other words) remains current. I've found myself bringing the stories in this book into wide-ranging conversations as they became relevant, always relevant, to one concern or another about the world and the ways things work in it. He's not Jared Diamond, but he plays him off well against his competition. The main point of the book, if there is one, is the continuing extinctions in our world and why they happen or don't happen, but the understanding of that meanders around the archipelagos of science in a way that is truly unique among the histories of science that I've read. It's well worth the adventure. It's a great beach book, in every possible sense.
sarahheidmann's review against another edition
4.0
I was so torn about what rating to give this book. At some points, a 5, but at others, a 3, so I settled on a 4.
At times it was too distracted from the point. The author is a travel writer and it shows, but it doesn’t add much. He described whatever little tale from the field struck his fancy, meandering through it before abruptly returning to the point. Sometimes entertaining, but mostly distracting and confusing.
Very well-written and well-researched, albeit unfocused. Certainly thought-provoking, but it would have been more enjoyable if it were shorter.
Also no concluding chapter? After all that time invested I would have liked a neat little summary as something to digest, a parting thought.
At times it was too distracted from the point. The author is a travel writer and it shows, but it doesn’t add much. He described whatever little tale from the field struck his fancy, meandering through it before abruptly returning to the point. Sometimes entertaining, but mostly distracting and confusing.
Very well-written and well-researched, albeit unfocused. Certainly thought-provoking, but it would have been more enjoyable if it were shorter.
Also no concluding chapter? After all that time invested I would have liked a neat little summary as something to digest, a parting thought.
kesterbird's review against another edition
5.0
There's a difficult balance, in this kind of popular science book, between the popular part, and the science part. I enjoyed the science parts more than the popular parts, but no real complaints, there, and it is true that I probably wouldn't have made it through a whole tome of actual scientific papers in the same amount of time, so...
I learned a lot from this book, and even more from the things that reading this book made me look up.
I learned a lot from this book, and even more from the things that reading this book made me look up.
oldpondnewfrog's review against another edition
4.0
"They lurked, as only spiders can lurk: eight-eyed and still and vigilant, listening with their feet."
The author's ineffable fear and loathing of spiders shines like Venus in the evening sky as he walks through the Philippine jungle—as, everywhere else, shines his infectious curiosity, intrepidity, and delight at the people and places and animals he visits. He's a storyteller; the book is mainly about the people, and he uses their care as a lens through which to suggest ours. Which works great.
There's a big sense of adventure ("somewhere far below, feral pigs are probably eating my shattered glasses"); Quammen is a lot like Alfred Russell Wallace, he's going to go wherever he has to, it's all around the world, and he'll remain optimistic throughout, as Russell did watching his ship burn midway across the Atlantic, all his specimens and papers going down, and perhaps his life too: the main mast went first, but "the foremast stood for a long time, exciting our admiration and wonder," Wallace recalled. Ten days later, his hands are badly blistered from sunburn: "During the night I saw several meteors, and in fact could not be in a better position for observing them, than lying on my back in a small boat in the middle of the Atlantic."
Optimistic even about the fate of our unraveling ecological tapestry.
The shocking death of the baby mantis on page 341. The giant tortoises so unmetabolic they could be stored alive for months in the hold of a ship; "to prevent wandering and induce stoic surrender, they could be turned upside down." Magnificent bibliography. Wallace's meditation on holding a bird of paradise, which no European had ever seen before, refuting creationism almost on its own because it was so beautiful, and so unlikely to be seen, or if it were seen, to be preserved.
He's a good teacher too, at explaining the development of ecological theory; I'm sure I learned much more than I would have from a textbook study, because it sticks in your mind. Like the gradual build of a case against creationism:
The author's ineffable fear and loathing of spiders shines like Venus in the evening sky as he walks through the Philippine jungle—as, everywhere else, shines his infectious curiosity, intrepidity, and delight at the people and places and animals he visits. He's a storyteller; the book is mainly about the people, and he uses their care as a lens through which to suggest ours. Which works great.
There's a big sense of adventure ("somewhere far below, feral pigs are probably eating my shattered glasses"); Quammen is a lot like Alfred Russell Wallace, he's going to go wherever he has to, it's all around the world, and he'll remain optimistic throughout, as Russell did watching his ship burn midway across the Atlantic, all his specimens and papers going down, and perhaps his life too: the main mast went first, but "the foremast stood for a long time, exciting our admiration and wonder," Wallace recalled. Ten days later, his hands are badly blistered from sunburn: "During the night I saw several meteors, and in fact could not be in a better position for observing them, than lying on my back in a small boat in the middle of the Atlantic."
Optimistic even about the fate of our unraveling ecological tapestry.
The shocking death of the baby mantis on page 341. The giant tortoises so unmetabolic they could be stored alive for months in the hold of a ship; "to prevent wandering and induce stoic surrender, they could be turned upside down." Magnificent bibliography. Wallace's meditation on holding a bird of paradise, which no European had ever seen before, refuting creationism almost on its own because it was so beautiful, and so unlikely to be seen, or if it were seen, to be preserved.
It seems sad that on the one hand such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in these wild, inhospitable regions; while on the other hand, should civilized man ever reach these distant lands, and bring moral, intellectual, and physical light into the recesses of these virgin forests, we may be sure that he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to cause the disappearance, and finally the extinction, of these very beings whose wonderful structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy. This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man.I loved Quammen's wry humor. Lots of good lines to write down, about snail taxonomy, ecological naivete, naturalists who had never seen the flora and fauna they were experting about.
He's a good teacher too, at explaining the development of ecological theory; I'm sure I learned much more than I would have from a textbook study, because it sticks in your mind. Like the gradual build of a case against creationism:
[God] had decreed into existence mature ecosystems. Let there be neotropical moist forest, He had said, and lo. Let there be sclerophyllous chapparal, He had said, and it was so. Let there be taiga, and let it be graced with great herds of antlered ungulates, with a few snow-hardy predators, with wildflowers that bloom hurriedly in mid-summer, with fast-reproducing small mammals whose population sizes fluctuate drastically, and with more mosquitos than even I an count, He had said, etc.
I'll miss traveling with the author. I'm trying to figure out why I'm not yet on a mission to seek out his other work; maybe it's because this, with its length and his apparent total dedication, has satisfied me, it seems like he did what he came to do.
elif's review
4.0
Read for my ecology course in 2018. Though the class wasn't my favorite, I remember this book being a really good blend between education both on science and history, and storytelling. As someone who doesn't absorb history well, I was surprised to like it so much and remember reading ahead whenever I got the time to.
vegancleopatra's review
3.0
Overall this was a well written book revolving around biogeography, ecology, evolution and extinction (amongst a plethora of other things). Quammen makes it a bit of an ecology travel log of sorts, which sometimes adds but sometimes detracts from the overall goal of the book. Quammen does enjoy tangents and this can distract from the book and many times I found myself thinking that a passage should have been included in a different section or left out altogether. The lists of Latin names and titles of articles caused unnecessary brain overload and again, distraction. One error, which is not Quammen's fault, was the discussion regarding the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. The thylacine went extinct due to a number of factors, the main one being blamed for the killing of sheep and of course then hunted. However, recent studies have proven that the thylacine jaw was never strong enough to kill sheep, so they were never the perpetrators of the very acts they were essentially wiped from the planet for doing. Rather like sending a man to the electric chair when he was innocent.
My least favorite chapter by far was the one regarding Wallace and Darwin. I did not want to hear the name Alfred Wallace ever again after Quammen’s little love-fest of a chapter for him (only 100 pages of it!). I felt the chapter did not add terribly much to the topic overall and despite Quammen’s efforts, I did not care a bit for Wallace and just wished the book would move on.
A few passages bothered me, one being the scene were the mongoose was brutally killed by the scientist on the island of Mauritius. While understandably the mongoose is an alien species on the island of Mauritius and was hunting the birds the scientist was trying to save from extinction, I felt it terribly cruel. Bashing the skull in? Regardless of the brutality, why did Quammen insist on including it? Another scene depicted a small insect handled with care by Quammen only to be literally pinched and thrown away by the scientist with him because the species was foreign to the area (although the scientist is the one that brought it into the world in the lab). Perhaps Quammen was simply trying to point out the dog eat dog world but these scenes left me unsettled. But the one major issue I took was when Quammen made no comment, and since it is his book (aka platform) he could very well state whatever he wishes, regarding an individual he met who bred macaques for money. While the book overall would leave you to believe Quammen would have sympathy for such a situation he does not seem to be bothered by the hundreds of monkeys being bred to be shipped to laboratories around the globe only to then be injected, dissected and a plethora of other vile things people dare call "science". This individual made me sick, breeding these poor macaques for laboratories for PROFIT. But moving on....
The book, when all is said and done, did well to enlighten the reader to the extinction and population declines islands are inclined towards and how this very same issue can and IS taking place on continents due to habitat fragmentation. While the book is outdated fourteen years later, as science is an ever-changing field, many of the points stand true, many truer, today. Unfortunately many of the species and habitats discussed in the book have been pushed even further to the brink since the book was written.
My least favorite chapter by far was the one regarding Wallace and Darwin. I did not want to hear the name Alfred Wallace ever again after Quammen’s little love-fest of a chapter for him (only 100 pages of it!). I felt the chapter did not add terribly much to the topic overall and despite Quammen’s efforts, I did not care a bit for Wallace and just wished the book would move on.
A few passages bothered me, one being the scene were the mongoose was brutally killed by the scientist on the island of Mauritius. While understandably the mongoose is an alien species on the island of Mauritius and was hunting the birds the scientist was trying to save from extinction, I felt it terribly cruel. Bashing the skull in? Regardless of the brutality, why did Quammen insist on including it? Another scene depicted a small insect handled with care by Quammen only to be literally pinched and thrown away by the scientist with him because the species was foreign to the area (although the scientist is the one that brought it into the world in the lab). Perhaps Quammen was simply trying to point out the dog eat dog world but these scenes left me unsettled. But the one major issue I took was when Quammen made no comment, and since it is his book (aka platform) he could very well state whatever he wishes, regarding an individual he met who bred macaques for money. While the book overall would leave you to believe Quammen would have sympathy for such a situation he does not seem to be bothered by the hundreds of monkeys being bred to be shipped to laboratories around the globe only to then be injected, dissected and a plethora of other vile things people dare call "science". This individual made me sick, breeding these poor macaques for laboratories for PROFIT. But moving on....
The book, when all is said and done, did well to enlighten the reader to the extinction and population declines islands are inclined towards and how this very same issue can and IS taking place on continents due to habitat fragmentation. While the book is outdated fourteen years later, as science is an ever-changing field, many of the points stand true, many truer, today. Unfortunately many of the species and habitats discussed in the book have been pushed even further to the brink since the book was written.