Among the Islands

Book excerpt: A story of science and discovery that’s “part travel diary and part field notebook . . . like what you’d get if Charles Darwin starred in an Indiana Jones flick” (Audubon Magazine). Credited with discovering more species than Charles Darwin, Tim Flannery has been hailed as “the rock star of modern science.” Here, he recounts a series of expeditions he made early in his career to the islands of the South Pacific, a great arc stretching nearly 4,000 miles from the postcard perfection of Polynesia to some of the largest, highest, and most rugged islands on earth (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel). Originally traveling in search of rare and undiscovered mammal species, Flannery found much more: fascinating places where local taboos, foul weather, dense jungle, and sheer remoteness made for dramatic exploration; strange creatures such as monkey faced bats, giant rats, gazelle-faced black wallabies; and human cultures far removed from our own. This “rollicking good adventure-science read” is a must-have for anyone who has ever imagined voyaging to the ends of the earth to uncover and study the rare and the wonderful (Audubon Magazine).