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| Last Chance to See | 
| Authors: Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.93
You Save: $11.02 (74%)
New (42) from $8.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  177 reviews
Sales Rank: 17524
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: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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| Customer Reviews:
 This is what Non-Fiction should be... October 25, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you're NOT a Douglas Adams fan, read LAST CHANCE TO SEE, because you'll become one at the end of it.
If you're NOT a nature-lover, read LAST CHANCE TO SEE, because you'll become one at the end of it.
If you're a Douglas Adams fan, and haven't read LAST CHANCE TO SEE, read it NOW.
If you're a nature-lover, and haven't read LAST CHANCE TO SEE, read it NOW.
If you're BOTH a Douglas Adams fan and a nature-lover, and haven't read LAST CHANCE TO SEE, drown yourself in a well.
LAST CHANCE TO SEE is an account of Douglas Adams's expedition in search of endangered species, which he undertook with zoologist Mark Carwardine, at BBC's urging.
And oh, it is also the book Douglas Adams was most proud of.
And also the one I'm most proud of having read.
Adams managed to fulfill his purpose behind the book, which is to create awareness among us humans that we're not alone on this planet, and even though we're the third most intelligent species (behind mice and dolphins, obviously), it doesn't mean the rest are bunk.
But that's not all Adams did. He made a non-fiction book, which by some other author might have been a tad boring, refreshing to read. He mixed an apt proportion of his trademark humour into the facts he has put forth. Some of the quotes, as with his other books, will live on forever.
As soon as I finished reading the book the first time (six re-reads in four months since I found it, by the way), it hit me: The person who wrote this is no more, there won't ever be a similar book, not by him. And there was a tear in the eye...
A Hitchhiker's Guide to Zoology October 14, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Last Chance to See" is Douglas Adams' hilarious and though-provoking non-fiction, eco-travel narrative about circling the globe in search of some of the Earth's most endangered animals. We get to see a side of Adams that is deeply concerned with the plight of the beautiful, unique, and often ludicrously implausible lifeforms on our planet -- the same side that prompted him to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit.
What made this book all the more meaningful to me was that I'd thought I'd finished all of Douglas Adams' books long ago. I loved them all, but I never fully appreciated the depth of his genius as a humanist and social satirist until, sadly, he had passed away. What's more, I never realized how much Adams' writings meant to me until I was hit with the cold, hard reality that he'd written all he ever would. Douglas Adams had hitched his last ride across the galaxy, and I'd never hear from him again. Or so I thought.
Infinitely improbable as it may seem, I heard from Douglas Adams again about two weeks ago. I was browsing around in Borders, long since resigned to the fact that I'd read the last "new" Douglas Adams book I ever would, when I stumbled upon "Last Chance to See." I felt like I'd gone into the pet store to buy a parakeet and, instead, found a dodo bird.
The endangered species Douglas Adams criss-crossed the globe in search of are all, in their own ways, remarkable and priceless. He urges us not to wait until they're gone to fully appreciate them, and he drives this point home to today's readers, in his own ironic style, by now being himself "extinct."
If you're a Douglas Adams fan, and you've never read this book, here it is -- your own "last chance to see" (or, rather, read) him. His own voice, his own words, his own experiences. For me, it was a fond farewell from an old friend I'd never met, who, from his new home -- far beyond life, the universe, and everything -- telling me, "Yes, I'm dead. But there are still a few rhinos and gorillas and dolphins that aren't. Do me a favor; make sure they stay that way."
simply hilarious September 14, 2005
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm not an environmental nut at all, but I truly enjoyed this book. Douglas Adams is a master of all types of humour. I have read all of his other books, hitchhiker's guide series, dirk gently, and this was by far my favorite book by him.
 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
3 out of 3 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.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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