Reviews for The Spice Islands voyage

The average rating for The Spice Islands voyage based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-08-02 00:00:00 Angel Richards (Originally read in February 2003. The review from the first reading appears below, with some additional remarks after the second reading. Readers should be forewarned: there a lot about Alfred Russel Wallace in this book. In fact, he dominates it. If you don't know who Wallace was or have little interest in him, then this isn't likely to be of much interest. Ostensibly an adventure/travelogue, Severin's quest to trace the route taken by Alfred Russel Wallace back in the 19th century when he explored "The Spice Islands" (present-day Indonesia), really is centered around Severin's fascination with Wallace. Since I share that fascination, naturally, I thought this was a terrific book. Others less Wallace-centric will probably find otherwise. Yet, aside from all the information about and quotes from Wallace, this is outstanding armchair travel. Severin has made a career in "quests" - following the footsteps of some famous personage or another, be it Ghenghis Khan or Marco Polo. His theme in this book is the sad toll taken in modern times on the exquisite islands that Wallace viewed in relative pristine splendor. There's also a very interesting discussion of Wallace's role in the formulation of the theory of natural selection. Increasingly, Wallace is being heralded as a co-discoverer of the theory. In short, of my many books by and about Wallace and this region, this is one of my favorites. A few observations after a second reading of this book : Like most books I have reread, The Spice Islands Voyage was not quite as enjoyable the second time around -- for, after all, there is little chance of that delightful first sensation of novelty in a repeat encounter -- but the second reading was a rewarding experience all the same. While I am not as keen a Wallace enthusiast as I once was (primarily because Wallace has, at long last, received the recognition that was due to him), I still found the sections of this book that focused on him to be the most interesting. Of course, I also wondered how much has changed in the islands Severin visited in the years since he undertook his voyage. As I'm fairly certain the interval has only led to further losses and despoilment, it made the more "hopeful" passages of the book rather bittersweet reading. I've since read several books on the illegal animal trade, for instance, and can't help but wonder whether the "Wallace Standard" bird of paradise still has a fighting chance or what has become of the magnificent coral reefs that Severin's small craft sailed over. At the end of the book, Severin ponders what Wallace would make of today's "Spice Islands." I have little doubt that even Wallace's trademark optimism would give way to astonished chagrin.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-13 00:00:00 Kevin Tidwell The Spice Islands Voyage, in Search of Wallace is the June choice for our Indonesian bookgroup but I'm reading it early because it's hard to source and we need to circulate the library copy as best we can. It's more than a travel book. Tim Severin is an explorer who specialises in recreating historic voyages, and the list of his books at Wikipedia is impressive: Tracking Marco Polo (1964) - Motorcycle ride from Venice to Central Asia along the Silk Road Explorers of the Mississippi (1968) The Golden Antilles (1970) The African Adventure (1973) Vanishing Primitive Man (1973) The Oriental Adventure: Explorers of the East (1976) The Brendan Voyage (1978) - Sailing a leather currach from Ireland to Newfoundland The Sindbad Voyage (1983) - Sailing an Arab dhow from Muscat, Oman to China The Jason Voyage: The Quest for the Golden Fleece (1986) - Sailing from Greece to Georgia The Ulysses Voyage (1987) - Sailing from Troy to Ithaca Crusader (1989) - Riding a heavy horse from Belgium to the Middle East In Search of Genghis Khan (1991) The China Voyage (1994) - Across the Pacific Ocean (almost) on a bamboo raft named Hsu-Fu The Spice Islands Voyage (1997) In Search of Moby-Dick (1999) Seeking Robinson Crusoe (aka In Search of Robinson Crusoe) (2002) Lest you think that these adventures were merely Boys Own Adventures, here's a snippet from The Spice Islands Voyage that suggests otherwise: This was the other, darker side to the apparent tropical paradise of palm trees, green forests and sandy beaches through which we were sailing, and where Wallace had soldiered on for six years of field work. During the Spice Islands voyage all of us suffered at one time or another from chills and low-grade fevers, even though we had modern medicines and, in Joe, our own doctor on board. In Banda a small insect bite on my leg turned septic in six hours and puffed up as if I had been bitten by a venomous insect. I felt giddy and unwell as if I had severe flu, and was dosed with antibiotics. Leonard developed blotches on his face, and Joe was tormented by rashes all over his body. Even Yanis with his iron constitution and india-rubber physique could sometimes be seen curled up miserably underneath a scrap of sailcloth, shivering and with his eyes dull with fever. Julia was by far the most vulnerable. In the twelve months during which she assisted the project, she contracted one bout of typhoid and had dengue fever twice. (p.129) The 'Wallace' referred to in this excerpt, is Alfred Russel Wallace, the British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist who is famous for two things: conceiving the theory of evolution independently of Darwin (which prompted Darwin to stir his stumps and publish The Origin of Species instead of dithering about); and identifying in 1859 the line separating the fauna of the Indo-Malayan and the Austro-Malayan regions in the Indonesian archipelago. Asian birds, bats and mammals are west of the line, and unique Australasian fauna are only found east of the line. As you can see from the diagram the science has developed since Thomas Huxley named this line after Wallace, because we now know more about ancient sea levels and the continental shelves, but Wallace's observations were still an amazing achievement. Darwin, Severin tells us, got the lion's share of the credit for the theory of evolution, for as the years went by he was to make fewer and fewer references to his co-discoverer, instead referring to 'my doctrines' (as distinct from what he dismissed as Wallace's excellent memoir). So eventually everyone forgot that the theory of evolution was originally introduced to a small scientific gathering in Victorian London who would have thought of it as the Darwin-Wallace theory. 'Survival of the fittest' indeed... Wallace wasn't, apparently, bitter about this. Severin says he came back from south-east Asia and stepped into Darwin's shadow, deliberately and courteously. His book, The Malay Archipelago, was the monument he preferred... However in later years when Wallace was struggling to support a wife and family, Darwin was at least instrumental in Wallace receiving a pension in recognition of his work. Later still, Wallace also received medals, honorary doctorates and an Order of Merit so at least among scientists, his pioneering ideas have been acknowledged. Severin's coverage of the intricacies of this controversy is excellent. To read the rest of my review please visit