Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Do yourself and your world a favour - Read this book!, 20 Aug 2001
By A Customer
This book is an absolute must read. You really do not have a choice. Written by "that" Douglas Adams, with considerable input from Mark, this book will change the way you think - if you can think at all.
Adams' style is recognisable throughout to those who read his fiction, but his humour does not detract in any way from the serious message. That it not to say that you are presented with a lecture. Adams relates the story of his travels with Mark Carwadine to visit some of the world's rarest creatures, in a way that enables all of us to gain an insight into the precarious state of some of our world's inhabitants.
The title of the book is all too descriptive. It is a while since I read the book, and my hope is that all the animals and birds featured are still around. Certainly, unless action is taken, some of these creatures will struggle to see out the next 5 years, never mind the next generation. For those who do not appreciate just how rare some of these creatures are - we are talking very small numbers (less than 20 in many cases). The upside is that many of the animals in the book are receiving attention - the downside, as often, is maybe too little too late. And of course, there are all the others...
Enough of my ranting. This book is a really good read, and can be taken in one sitting if you are that way inclined. It is laugh-out-loud funny, yet the subject matter means it has more than its fair share of poignancy. It is an eye-opener, even to those of us who think our eyes are already open!
Essential reading for everyone, most will learn things they never envisaged, or perhaps did not want to believe, and many I am sure, will change their ways to the benefit of the whole world and all its creatures - ourselves included.
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, the best book I've ever read., 4 Jun 2001
I first bought this book simply because I had read the Hitchhiker series, and wanted to read more of Douglas's writing. Little did I know that it would change my view on a lot of environmental issues. This book shows Douglas Adams's compassion for our fellow creatures on this planet, yet has so much humour and insight it is astonishing. I've never been one to read a book many times, apart from the Hitchhiker books. This one I've worn out once and I am now well in to the second. If you do nothing else this year, read this book. It will be well worth the time. Douglas Adams, just like some of the species you mention in this book you left us too soon. The world is indeed a sadder place without you. So long, and may you find peace wherever you are.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful kick in the pants, 5 Mar 2003
By A Customer
If the measure of a book's worth is the strength of the urge to 'get out and do something' that it gives you, then LAST CHANCE... is way up there with the best of them.Part of Douglas Adams' brilliance was his ability to make us care about anything he happened to think of: a depressed android, a whale with an incredibly short life-span, Vogon poetry, etc. In LAST CHANCE... he lends his charm to things someone else thought of: the kakapo, komodo dragons, silverback gorillas, Zairean tourist-relations... Along with zoologist Mark Carwardine he goes off in search of several different animals all doing their level best to survive in a world of men which is closing in around them. He breathes life into them, makes them real, makes you care... And then the guilt kicks in. This book is for anyone - like me - who has ever thought: 'why do they go on about saving rhinos? If they were meant to survive, they would'. Anyone who has ever used a lazy nod to evolution to justify their own mean-spiritedness. It will put the beauty and wonder back in your life; make you realise that the world rests on a greater foundation than that beneath your own shoes. Makes you think, makes you laugh, makes you act. What more is there?
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