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| Last Chance to See.... | 
| Authors: Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine, Mark Cawardine
Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd
Category: Book
Buy Used: $1.86
New (1) Collectible (1) from $25.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  177 reviews
Sales Rank: 1834743
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0434009245
EAN: 9780434009244
ASIN: 0434009245
Publication Date: October 22, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In 1985 Douglas Adams was sent by a newspaper to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine to search for an almost extinct form of lemur called the aye-aye. Mark is an experienced zoologist and his role on the expedition was to be the one who knew what he was talking about. Douglas, on the other hand, was an extremely ignorant non-zoologist to whom everything that happened would come as a complete surprise, the biggest of which was that they actually found one. Douglas was absolutely riveted by this experience and decided he wanted more of it. Three years later, he and Mark set off on a further six expeditions - to Mauritius to find the world's rarest fruitbat and a mad Welshman; to Zaire to find man's closest living relatives, the gorillas; to Indonesia to find the man-eating dragons of Komodo; to China to find a blind dolphin; and to New Zealand to find the world's fattest and least aerodynamic parrot, the kakapo. The resulting book tells the story of the animals they found, but also of the journeys they made to find them, the people they met and the difficulties they overcame.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 172 more reviews...
 Sweet, funny, and Douglas Adams November 9, 2008
There is the reason why this was DNA's favorite book. Read it and you'll get a glimpse at the soul of one of the best writers of our times. If you like the Hitchhiker books, if you've enjoyed the Dirk Gently novels, and The Salmon of Doubt, this book is a must.
Bittersweet Goodbye November 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of my favorite people in the world is the late author, Douglas Adams, best known for being the creative genius behind the wacky, madcap series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (a "trilogy in five parts"). Those books have brought me an immense amount of joy -- but the chance to know Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and the rest of the colorful (and arguably insane) characters making up Adams' Galaxy, are only part of why I love him so.
Though he made his name as a science-fiction comedy writer, Douglas Adams was so much more than that. He was obsessed with technology (especially all things Mac-related), a self-described "radical atheist," a pathological procrastinator and a passionate proponent of environmental and animal conservation. And it was this, his devotion to the earth and its creatures, which lead him to write the book he was most proud of in his career: a quiet, little title that few have heard of called Last Chance To See.
Last Chance... is an elegy to the endangered species struggling for survival in our world. It chronicles Adams' journey across various continents in search of amazing, but nearly extinct creatures such as the silverback mountain gorilla in Zaire, a flightless bird called the kakapo in New Zealand, and the half-blind baiji dolphin in China.
Adams' trademark humor is evident on every page, but there's also an enormous sense of melancholy present in what he writes:
"I suddenly felt, well, terribly old as I watched a mudskipper hopping along with what now seemed to me like a wonderful sense of hopeless, boundless naive optimism. It had such a terribly, terribly, terribly long way to go. I hoped that if its descendant was sitting here on this beach in 350 million years' time with a camera around its neck, it would feel that the journey had been worth it."
I highly recommend Last Chance To See to every human being inhabiting this planet. It's a funny, moving farewell to the animals we've lost, and a call to action for the ones we're about to lose.
 Excellent read - humorous yet depressing! September 18, 2008
Expertly written and Adams interjects not a little humor into an otherwise depressing topic. I wouldn't mind a slightly longer treatment of some of the animals seen, and an afterword detailing the sad demise of a couple of them would be welcome.
Great Fun June 24, 2008
What a fun, informative, important book. I put it on my summer reading list for my students!
Douglas Adams' best book June 3, 2008
I like everything Adams ever put out, but I consider this one his best. It may not be as appealing to those who are mainly interested in the science fiction aspects of his other work, but the quality of writing and the subject material here are top notch. This book is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious, and is one of my all-time favorites. As a popular science book, it is simply without equal, and I really wish he could have lived longer to write more like it.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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