rubiscodisco's review
3.0
The book is a very informative retrospective of biodiversity conservation and human-caused extinctions from a scientific perspective. However, I don't think the author created a very clear synthesis of all his points at the end of his book, instead, covering all developments on the topic and then dropping into an ending abruptly. The closest thing to a synthesis he makes is at the introduction of the book, by way of a useful metaphor, but I didn't really see how he made things come together at the end.
On the positives, this book is a very thorough who's who of people involved in the study of ecology and biological conservation. It almost serves as a layman's historical review on biogeography and conservation biology. The scope, both in time, and location, was expansive, and the author has a challengingly obscure vocabulary - fun to look up the very strange words that he uses.
Reading this book was really slow going for me. I kept waiting for him to get to a point, a stance, and it just never happened. It was one circuitous anecdote and interview to another. It didn't help that a lot of this wasn't new information to me, so there wasn't a lot of the thrill of learning new things. He could also be condescending or just... obliviously caucasian, let's just say, which earns an eye roll from me here and there.
On the positives, this book is a very thorough who's who of people involved in the study of ecology and biological conservation. It almost serves as a layman's historical review on biogeography and conservation biology. The scope, both in time, and location, was expansive, and the author has a challengingly obscure vocabulary - fun to look up the very strange words that he uses.
Reading this book was really slow going for me. I kept waiting for him to get to a point, a stance, and it just never happened. It was one circuitous anecdote and interview to another. It didn't help that a lot of this wasn't new information to me, so there wasn't a lot of the thrill of learning new things. He could also be condescending or just... obliviously caucasian, let's just say, which earns an eye roll from me here and there.
charlibirb's review
5.0
Long, informative look at island evolution. Well researched, personal author involvement, in depth information. Excellent read.
shaykeretz's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
pbobrit's review
4.0
An excellent book. Interesting insights about the genesis of Darwin's Origins of the Species. Going to be fun discussing this one in class.
rangerpanties's review
5.0
definately worth your time. was a breeze to read. i wish we all read this book. great for non science readers.
kyirrin's review
3.0
2.5 Liked the subject, did not like the book. Interesting parts, but overall, a little bloated - I did not like his writing style and he covers too many topics too shallowly (doesn't go deep enough into the science, doesn't illustrate his personal experiences enough to be interesting). The whole thing is disorganized and read to me as jumping all over the place, not weaving stories together to create a more informative depiction of the subject. Some good parts but I expect more, especially after 650 pages. I will concede it is a broad and complex subject, however!