Customer Reviews

A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred-Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola

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Casting the giant sable antelope as a modern day unicorn, John Frederick Walker's Certain Curvature of Horn is at once a tale of mystery, wildlife biology, and potboiling politics. Anyone with an interest in Africa's megafauna will enjoy this carefully researched saga of the sable's precarious existence through Angola's long civil war. The first part of the book is not for the squeamish as one antelope after another is felled by trophy hunters and museum collectors. Walker's obvious reverence for the iconic beasts makes each shot and each death feel like a personal loss. But it is the mano a mano of Angola's warring leaders - Eduardo dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi - in the book's second half that causes the most discomfiture as the conservation world agonizes over the sables' fate on battlefields that have bled for over 30 years. The question of the sable's survival among so much human bloodshed is the book's big unanswered question. Walker tries mightily to get a flesh and blood glimpse of the endangered animal, making numerous trips to Angola and finally, a furtive dash into the war zone itself. Not to give away too much, his disappointment is tempered by what seems like the end to Angola's civil war and the beginnings of new animal sanctuaries where decimated wildlife, like the giant sable, can begin anew. Walker manages to make you care for a magnificent animal that like the country it symbolizes, is a tough survivor.

I thought this was very well done. This is a complete study of a magnificent animal for the layperson or amateur naturalist. Walker does a great job weaving together a survey of the animal itself, the history of man's relationship with it, and the interesting way the twisting history of Angola has treated it. As a hunter, I felt this was a fair portrayal of the impact hunting has had on the species, and that hunters' responsibility for declining populations as well as their current role as conservationists of the species were appropriately recognized. This is an animal that deserves more attention than it gets. Hopefully this book will raise the profile of the Giant Sable. And I wasn't bored at all.

This book is mainly about the giant sable. But even more interesting are the descriptions of Angola, the history of the country during Portugese rule and the descent into civil war. I love it.

a very tedious, exhaustive treatise of african colonialism, politics, war, and oh, did i mention, the search for the giant sable antelope. having had interest in this magnificent, but rare species, i had picked the book up at the local library hoping it would divulge its secrets and whereabouts. instead, over 80% of the book deals with the aforementioned topics and the author tries hard to interlace this history with the sable, unsuccessfully i might add. there is so much detail and tedium that if i wanted a historical book i would have bought one. he goes on to great lenghts the describe written and biographical accounts of explorers and hunters that i could barely keep my heavy lids open to continue reading. bottom line: best left for the armchair historian rather than naturalist.