The illustrations supplied by world-acclaimed nature photographers Michael and Patricia Fogden are absolutely gorgeous---snakes in every aspect of their dangerous, seductive charm, including my favorite of Peringuey's Adder in Namibia. This snake's tail protrudes above the sand as a lure, and if you look very closely at the picture, you might make out eyes and head scales that are almost completely invisible between the grains of sand. It is quite startling to be looking at a pile of sand and suddenly see the outline of an adder's head.

The author, Harry W. Greene is Curator of Herpetology in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He opens each chapter in 'Snakes' with an essay that considers the subject from a more personal perspective: many of his fellow herpetologists have been bitten by venomous snakes, and some have died. The essays lead to Greene's epilogue and his answer to the question, "Why snakes?"

This book is a fascinating read. I sat down to learn more about garter snakes when I came across several of these handsome reptiles that were just emerging from hibernation. I soon found myself rereading the whole book. There are fourteen references in the index to 'Thamnophis sirtalis' (the common garter snake) but they are scattered throughout the book in interesting chapters such as "Diet and Feeding." I didn't know garter snakes were semi-aquatic and dined mainly on other watery creatures such as frogs. They also form mating balls which may stay together for two or three days---one female and multiple males. They spend the winter together in hibernaculums--one hibernaculum in Ontario was found to have over 6,000 garter snakes!

The author's favorite reptiles are the venomous snakes, their ability to cause damage measured in the number of mice that would die from the poison injected through a single bite. "Drop for toxic drop, the Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) wins hands down: a bite from this Australian cobra relative contains enough venom to kill two hundred thousand mice..." In the introductory essay, the author and some of his friends go scrambling through a Costa Rican rain forest, looking for the deadly Bushmaster (Crotalus mutus). They weren't bitten by the Bushmasters they found, just by "huge black ants with the most intensely painful and long-lasting sting of any hymenopteran."

If you'd like to explore the beauty and seductive grace of these ancient reptiles against a detailed backdrop of their biology and natural history, I highly recommend that you read "Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature." I own the hard-bound version, and it is 315 pages of dense text and hypnotic photographs.


snakes   October 11, 2003
 1 out of 5 found this review helpful

If you are an expert then this book is for you. but i wouldn't recomend it for a beginner. because he talks about pretty technical terms and if your not paying attention then you might miss what it means. It does have really good photos with some good discriptions. if you are looking to do a school report on snakes then this is the book for you.


A Review of "Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature"   December 10, 2001
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This was the first time I ever ordered a book through 'Net and must say that Amazon's promised delivery period was bang on target. The book was in mint condition. Count me as very satisfied with the service. On with the review.

It was with much excitement as I unpacked the book, also another first as far as literature on snakes was concerned, and I have found it hard to put down ever since. The photos were excellent as well as the quality of the print. What "disappointed" me was the main focus on venomous species with almost perfunctory glimpses of non-venomous snakes. The author's fascination with venomous snakes is very evident and, in this respect, a wealth of information. However, if one's interests lies with non-venomous species, this book would be considered inadequate.

The above aside, I find this book to be most absorbing and lucid in its explanation of the various topics covered. I'd certainly recommend this book as a "must-have" for all avid herpers' libraries.


Good coffee table reference   July 27, 2001
 2 out of 6 found this review helpful

What I like about the book is that it is new, by an expert and wonderfully illustrated. What I don't like is that the book is heavily biased towards cladism and treatment of snake groups seems to be somewhat haphazard and poorly organised. Words like Uropeltidae do not occur in the index. Many groups are hard to find except using the genus rank and the accounts even for genera are sometimes scattered and the text is chatty though sometimes rambling. This is not an introduction to snakes and its target audience seems rather eclectic (beginners, experts or people inbetween?).

I am disappointed that traditional groupings and classifications have been totally ignored which makes this work hard to cross-reference against older works which do have those groups. The author does not propose his own system based on Linnean ranks or for that matter a well annotated cladogram (there is a rather abstract one at the front).

Undoubtedly informative, I feel that serpents and those interested in them have been descriptively let down, coming from an acknowledged expert. More warmth and better organisation could have helped as in the standard of such works as "Handbook of Birds of the World - Lynx Edicions".


A must for snake haters and snake lovers   November 15, 1999
 5 out of 8 found this review helpful

This book is a must for anyone who likes or dislikes reptiles. Harry Greene is one of the worlds authorities on snake ecology and evolution. This book is beautifully written and the photographs are priceless! A must for every Amazon.com shopper!