Publisher: Mandevilla Press
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 15, 2014
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Blurb from goodreads:
With Africa's last elephants dying under the poachers' guns, Kenya rancher and former SAS officer Ian MacAdam leads a commando squad against them. Pursuing the poachers through jungled mountains and searing deserts he battles thirst, solitude, terror and lethal animals, only to find that the poachers have kidnapped a young archaeologist, Rebecca Hecht, whom he once loved and bitterly lost.McAdam embarks upon a desperate trek to save not only Rebecca but his own soul in an Africa torn apart by wars, overpopulation, and the slaughter of its last wildlife. Based on the author's experiences pursuing elephant poachers in the wilds of East Africa.
Bea's Thoughts:
Africa. Wild animals. Poachers. A kidnapped former lover. "The Last Savanna" certainly sounds intriguing but it just didn't work for me. I expected an action/adventure novel; what I got was a treatise on life and a brochure on African wild life with a side helping of politics.It seems as if Bind couldn't decide whether to write an adventure novel or a work of literature; it definitely leans more toward the latter than the former.
The writing is at times exquisite, at other times pretentious or over the top, and I never cared about two of the three main characters, Rebecca and Adam. I did like Warwar, despite his violent actions. I found him the most relatable and hoped that he would marry the woman of his dreams; if only he didn't have to poach animals, kidnap someone and kill people to make that dream come true. It took until about 40 percent into the book before I really had any interest in what was happening but even that came and went. Several times I almost put the book down and gave up on it.
I did enjoy reading about the wildlife, learning about creatures I'd never even heard of and learning more about creatures with whom I have a passing familiarity. To be honest, there were times when Bond was describing a hunt where I wanted the animals to win and the humans to lose. Several times, Bond writes scenes from an animal's POV, with only slight anthropomorphizing, and I felt as if I was in the animal's head.
I might have enjoyed the book more if my expectations had been different, although since Bond's style of writing is not really my cup of tea, maybe not. If you're interested in Africa, and don't mind occasionally purple prose, give "The Last Savanna" a try.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry this didn't work for you. The blurb sounds great, and if the book lived up to its promise, I think I would have enjoyed it too, despite not usually being drawn to books about Africa. (Well, with the exception of Born Free, which I read at least four times in my middle- and high-school years.)
ReplyDeleteI recently watched Born Free on NetFlix; I hadn't seen it in years. I read the books in high school. Joy was troubled but she did some good work.
DeleteThe had a lot of potential; I was disappointed.