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| Last Chance to See | 
| Authors: Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.98
You Save: $11.97 (80%)
New (31) Collectible (1) from $8.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  174 reviews
Sales Rank: 25638
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 0345371984
Dewey Decimal Number: 591.529
EAN: 9780345371980
ASIN: 0345371984
Publication Date: October 13, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Good, solid copy.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Touring the world for nearly lost animals March 22, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Douglas Adams takes the readers on a trip with him and Mark Carwardine around the world with an important message, saving of endangered species. In 'Last Chance to See', Adams takes his last chance to see a number of rapidly declining species starting with the aye-aye in Madagascar and proceeding to komodo dragons, mountain gorillas, north white rhinos, kakapos, baiji (blind Yangzte river dolphin, and a variety of critters on Mauritius.
Adams manages to get the basic message across that the world will soon be losing the animals and he does so without getting all preachy about it. Adams' light-hearted writing style absorbs you into his journey with zoologist Mark Carwardine and keeps you interested in the trials the must endure to just get a peak at some of these creatures. This is also a weak spot in the book. Adams almost doesn't emphasis enough just how close to extinction these animals are. I truly enjoy this book but Adams takes it less seriously than he needs to. He could have been a little more preachy but then you may not enjoy it as much. There is a nice inclusion of a list of foundations to which you can donate to but is dated to the publishing date of the book.
Overall, excellent read but the lack of hard emphasis on the topic drops it one star.
Engaging narration of endangered species & their protectors December 10, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Adams narrates his adventures travelling the globe with an experienced Zoologist, Carwardine, to see first hand the plight of several seriously endangered species. `Seriously'? Well, as he points out in his `rare or medium rare' chapter, one ecologist might panic about there only being hundreds of one species left - but that's the dream of another ecologist working to save a species with only fifteen: `Hundreds is common'.
I suppose there's some level of compassion-fatigue with endangered species - I was not surprised at the content of most of this book, much as I'm a little dismayed that I'm not more dismayed (if you know what I mean).
Adams, as you might have picked up if you've read any of his books, isn't too bad at this writing thingy, and the prose is engaging, amusing and occasionally insightful. Adams is good company, he's not preachy or condescending, doesn't claim to have all the answers, and describes what he sees without forcing it into some brutal agenda.
To be honest, my greatest pleasure in the book was not being informed - I'm sure you could find out this and more detailed information from other sources - it was in being informed by this particular narrator. I particularly enjoyed his presentation of some of the wonderful boffins in the field, particularly the Australian poisons expert - hilarious. Towards the latter part of the book I found some of these portraits more obviously contrived (and somehow the birds failed to interest as much as the earlier beasts).
That being said, there's enough fascinating people, places and fauna throughout - plus Adams' quirky perspectives, friendly company, consistent wit and occasional comic triumphs to recommend the read.
Explaining a tragic situation - the Douglas Adams way November 7, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Adams used his extraordinary narrative abilities to describe - in language at once humorous and brutally forthright - not only the endangered creatures he was looking for but how they became endangered. You'll feel an urgency to act while there is still time.
 Douglas' world tour visiting endangered species October 25, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
LAST CHANCE TO SEE is probably the book Douglas Adams was proudest of.
If possible, I recommend that the reader not only acquire a copy of the book with its photographs, but also an audio recording of Douglas narrating the text. His writing works best when read aloud by him, I think. The origins of the book are discussed in the first essay, "Twig Technology" (see below).
The text (apart from "Mark's Epilogue", see below) is written in first person by Douglas throughout, an autobiography of his travels in Mark's company under the aegis of the BBC. (If anyone out there can get hold of recordings of the original BBC broadcasts - I envy you.)
"Preface" explains the dedication (to the photographer on the first trip) and also who the coauthor is. "Mark did the tough bits. He did all the preparation and organisation and research involved in mounting the trips, and also taught me most of the small amount I now know about zoology, ecology, and conservation work. All I had to do was turn up with a suitcase and try to remember what happened for long enough to write it all down."
"Twig Technology" is the tale of the monkey-descendants' journey to Madagascar, the last monkey-free refuge for lemurs on Earth, when the OBSERVER COLOUR MAGAZINE sent Douglas along as the "extremely ignorant non-zoologist" who would basically translate the experience of looking for aye-ayes - the then-rarest of the lemurs, with Mark, the expert. Douglas' question, "I've just got a couple of novels to write, but, er, what are you doing in 1988?" led to the rest of the journeys in this book, taking advantage of 'the last chance to see' the other endangered species discussed in the book.
Incidentally, the "couple of novels to write" that delayed Douglas' joining Mark for the trip in 1988 should explain the Mauritius scene in DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY.
"Here Be Chickens" - as well as, of course, Komodo dragons. (The whole incident of the "stuffed" dragon making off with the live chickens was recorded by the BBC, I believe, but the actual live recording isn't included on Douglas' abridged reading of the book, more's the pity. He just includes his version, which is quite entertaining as it is.)
"Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" is part of a description of an official photo of the president of Zaire (as it was known then), and is offered as a Clue (TM) as to why the wildlife of Zaire is endangered, together with the description of the various government officials going to work on Douglas. "Like most colonies, Zaire had imposed on it a stifling bureaucracy, the sole function of which was to defer decisions upward to its colonial masters. Local officials rarely had the power to do things, only to prevent them from being done until bribed."
The specific species dealt with are the silverback mountain gorillas, who live near the Rwandan border, and northern white rhinos. Some of the good stuff includes the mountain guides ("magnificently smooth characters" with a lot of tales about being ex-commandos, shooting poachers, and so on), German students (referred to as "Latvian" because German jokes are too easy)
"Heartbeats in the Night" - the mating call of the kakapo, the rarest and weirdest of the rather eccentric lot of flightless birds in New Zealand.
"Blind Panic", the duo's trip to China to see the Yangtze river dolphin, isn't included on the abridged audio recording.
"Rare, or Medium Rare?" the grand finale on Mauritius, picking up with more birds and endangered plants. The most famous of Mauritius' birds - the dodo - is also included.
"Mark's Epilogue" - was this really the last chance to see these animals? - isn't included on the abridged audio recording.
"Sifting Through the Embers" is Douglas' version of the tale of the Sibylline books - all the knowledge and wisdom in the world that was destroyed piece by piece, with the surviving bits offered at a higher and higher price to those who turned out to need it.
As well as "Acknowledgements", the book concludes with "One More Chance...", which provides contact information for the various conservation organizations responsible for the species encountered during the authors' travels.
A Surprising book from an unusual author October 13, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For an author who specialized in writing odd, strange, and bizarre science fiction, this book was a real surprise. A very good one. He brings his bizarre sense of humor into a very dry subject, and makes it more real. Makes it more approachable, easily understandable, even for those who might not be interested in the topic.
Although it's sad, knowing that the Baiji dolphin pictured in the book has now passed away, and that a dam was built on that river, destroying that species' habitat, such as it was. It's like watching a very bad part of history happen in front of your eyes, knowing a friend has passed away. That's how approachable this book makes the topic.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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