The Last Savanna by Mike Bond book thoughts

Title: The Last Savanna
Series: N/A
Author: Mike Bond
Published Date: January 1st, 2013
Publisher: Mandevilla Press
Source: Netgalley
# of Pages: 320
Format: Ebook
Genre: Adventure/Thriller
Days to Read: 2, before I dnf'd at 21%
Rating: 1 / 5 stars
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Goodreads Synopsis

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.

My Thoughts

In a nutshell this isn't the book I thought I was going to get. I thought Africa, poaching and a thriller trying to save Elephants, yes please! I have strong opinions about poaching and I love animals, especially elephants! I expected a realistic, gritty but hopefully hopeful story about the fight against poaching. That doesn't seem to be what this is about.

I have looked at some other reviews in order to see what's going to happen, and i'm so not interested. I can already see MacAdam has no interest in saving the elephants, he doesn't give a crap. He just wants the thrill of killing, of action and adventure. It's not about saving the elephants at all.

MacAdam and his wife Dorothy are on the rocks. She wants to go back home to England...and apparently he deals with that by...searching the country for his ex-lover Rebecca? Seems she gets kidnapped by the poachers and he spends a lot of time pining after her. From what I gather his thoughts, and you spend a lot of time in his head, go between how beautiful Africa is, the thought of killing and him pining after his ex-lover when he has a wife and she is also in another relationship. It doesn't sound like a romance I can get behind, especially when it ends up such a big part of the story (even some glowing reviews which make up the first 5% of the book mention how it's a wonderful romance...that's not what I signed up for when I wanted to read this book, also how is cheating a wonderful romance?).

Also MacAdam is sexist. One quote that I did read in my short time reading this "He felt suddenly that women had emptied men through submission and fidelity, stolen their power by demanding that they not wander, not war, not hunt, not fertilize other women. What weaklings, how feeble we've become. I too. To call this life."

I can understand wanting to travel and needing to hunt for food. But why do we need war? And why do you HAVE to cheat? And what's this power shit? From what i've heard it doesn't get any better. I also think this book ends up being racist but i'm not entirely sure. I am white in the US so take that part with a grain of salt, something about it just didn't sit right with me.

I wanted something to address the poaching crisis, a thrilling read that painted a realistic picture of it but with hope. Not a main character I can't stand complaining about his wife, women and pining after his ex-lover while not caring a damn about the elephants that he's supposed to be saving.

Edited this part in because there was some other things I had wanted to address. Some quotes that didn't sit right with me.

"Like malaria, Africa. Once bitten you can never shake it. They used to call acacias "fever trees", thinking malaria came from them. Now they "know" malaria comes from mosquitoes. Some day they'll realize malaria comes from the continent itself: Africa is a fever." Comparing Africa to malaria? What? Among a few other things about violence as well as how a life not lived without action is worthless that bugged me.

I am aware I can't judge the entire book for myself seeing as I DNF'd it, but combined with hating it at the start and reading other reviews to see where it goes, and it doesn't appear to get better and I just can't push on anymore. It's making me not want to read and I have no time to read books i'm hating. If you want to give it a chance go ahead, please don't let me stop you, I just hope you enjoy it more than I did.