Death in the Dark Continent
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Product Description
Critically acclaimed as a master of adventure writing for Death in the Long Grass and Death in the Silent Places, former professional hunter Peter Capstick takes us back to Africa to encounter the world's most dangerous big-game animals. After consulting African game experts and recalling his own experiences and those of his colleagues, Capstick has written chilling, authoritative accounts of hunting the five most dangerous killers on the African continent-- lion, leopard, elephant, Cape buffalo and rhinoceros.
The classic big-game animals are unmatched as a test of a hunter's skill and courage. With a command of exciting prose, Capstick brings us along on the chase. The warning snarl of a crouching lion, the swish of grass that reveals a leopard, the enraged scream of a wounded elephant, the cloud of dust that marks a herd of Cape buffalo, the earthshaking charge of a rhino are recreated in heart-stopping, nerve-racking detail. In Death in the Dark Continent, Capstick brings to life all the suspense, fear and exhilaration of stalking ferocious killers under primitive, savage conditions, with the ever present threat of death.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
Great book
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Comment:
I got this for my husband for his birthday because he lived for 5 years in Africa as a child and his father used to hunt big game, so he loves reading books like this, and he said this one was an outstanding read.
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Summary:
Tales about the dangers of hunting the Big Five in Africa
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Comment:
Originally published in 1983, this book describes big game hunting in Africa. After a brief introduction, each subsequent chapter contains details and anecdotes about hunting each of the Big Five game animals of Africa (Cape Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Leopard, and Lion). In particular, this book is largely about the dangers of hunting each of the Big Five. All I can say is that being a safari guide/hunter must be an incredible life. I purchased this after reading Hemingway's `Green Hills of Africa' and Robert Ruark's `Robert Ruark's Africa' and was not disappointed. There isn't really a single narrative through this book, it is written in a more of a conversational style, almost as if you are sitting with Capstick in camp in the evening after a day of hunting and he is recounting various tales, `urban legands', and historical anecdotes about hunting each of the big five over a Scotch whiskey. If you don't know who he was, Peter Capstick was a hunter, guide, and prolific author who passed away in 1996. Capstick writes about a much later era than Ruark or Hemingway, things have clearly changed. There are more people about (farming, grazing animals, etc.), and the game is heavily controlled by the national authorities. Overall this is a very good, if not uniquely outstanding, read. Capstick writes with an easy prose, and the pages just sail by. After working through this book, you're quite likely to get the urge to pack up a few of your shootin' irons and buy an airline ticket to Nairobi (I know I did!). I give it only four stars though as much of the ground covered by Capstick has been well tread by others (e.g. everyone seems to feel the need to give their opinion about which of the big five is the most dangerous). I also liked Ruark's writing style more, and there was something more romantic and dangerous about safari hunting in Ruark's era (this is no fault of PC though) - they really were out in Indian territory. The more modern safari isn't quite so wild. In any case, if you love the outdoors, hunting, and testing your mettle against some of the world most dangerous game (or at least reading about it!), I would highly recommend this book. A little different than hunting white-tailed deer!
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Summary:
Not bad
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Comment:
Reading books by authors like Capstick is a very good alternative to reading fiction. When you are reading fiction, however scary, thrilling and realistic it may be, at the back of your mind you know that it is fiction. Some of it may not even be plausible. When you are reading true adventure, it is then that you can realise the closeness of death to life, you can identify with the characters more closely, and you can feel their fear of something as primeval and primitive as claws, fangs and horns. You can also feel their elation at escaping injury.
This book is not meant only for hunters and any one reading it will learn something new on practically every second page.On the whole I did not like it as much as much as "death in the long grass". Still, the book has its chilling moments. It also has its share of dark humor. The author does not defend hunting and "cropping" of elephants as much as he does in death in the long grass.
Halfway through the chapter on leopards, I lost touch with what the author was trying to say.
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Summary:
Not just for Hunters
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Comment:
Many other reviewers have characterized "Death in the Dark Continent" very, very well. It is a bit more graphic than Capstick's earlier "Death in the Long Grass", but not much.
But you definitely do NOT have to be a hunter to thoroughly enjoy Capstick. I think, though, there are a lot of non-hunters who simply haven't discovered how good Capstick really is at "grabbing you, making you sweat blood, and not releasing you until you've died three times, passed Elvis and Hoffa twice, and are coming around for heart attack number 4. Capstick is not just " a hunter with a typewriter". He is Hannibal Lecter mixed with Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King multiplied by Norman Bates and home-schooled by JAWS. If you thought Amityville and Elm Street were scary, you were wrong. Peter Capstick will show you Scary in "Death in the Dark Continent". If you thought "The Pit and the Pendulum" was mind-wrecking, you were wrong. "Mind-wrecking" starts on page 152 of Death in the Silent Places. Read it early in the day.
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Summary:
Capsticks as good as ever.
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Comment:
If you havent read Capstick, you are missing out on a treat. Not only are his stories, graphic, exciting and compelling, his style of writing is nothing short of superb. Genuinly exciting, and often laugh out loud funny, all of his books are fantastic. When talking about the turn of the century past-time of "galloping lions" (described as "dangerous as typhoid") he writes:" THe elements recquired for the monotony breaking past time were a fast horse, a good rifle, a few lions and not much concern about the future".Not for the faint of heart, there is a number of gory stories about the fatal encouters that people have, and some well placed warnings about taking any dangerous animal lightly. A lot like his first book, "death in the long grass" Capstick writes about individual animals- with a chapter on the "big five", Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Leopard ( the best chapter in the book- beatifully written) and Lion. As before he relates his own experinces, plus encouters as described by his friends. I would recommend Death in the LOng Grass as a first Capstick book, but this is still most highly recommended.
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