Adams, Douglas, and Mark Carwardine, Last Chance to See (audio, text)

Last Chance to See is Douglas Adams’ non-fiction book about trips to look for endangered animals around the world. Mark Carwardine is a zoologist who went with him; he’s listed as a co-author and contributed an epilogue, but the main text is classic Douglas Adams and just as entertaining as his better novels. For sheer emotional effectiveness, in fact, I think it surpasses his fiction with its remarkably horrifying description of a Komodo dragon eating a goat. Perhaps I was particularly suspectible because I was listening to Adams read it while I was in stop-and-go traffic, which tends to make me sick to my stomach anyway—but all the same, I don’t recommend it to the squeamish. (If you’re not, the text of the Komodo dragon section is online at The Digital Village.)

(I listened to most of this as an audiobook read by the authors. It’s very hard to find and the quality of my copy is quite bad in spots, which is why I only listened to most of it. If you can find a copy, though, I recommend it as I recommend Adams’ readings of all his works. Well, except for that fifth Hitchhikers’ book, because that doesn’t exist in my universe.)

Anyway, this is as much about the traveling to see endangered animals and the people who are working to save them as about the animals themselves, and thus is a good mix of tales about quirky people, strange creatures, and the weird things that happen to you when you are Douglas Adams. I can’t quite imagine that someone who liked Adams’ novels wouldn’t like this, though I suppose anything’s possible.

The blog Another Chance to See provides updates on the animals visited by Adams and Carwardine, which makes me wish again that Blogger supported categories (actually, I think I’ll offer space on steelypips and a MT blog to the maintainer).