Customer Reviews

Food Chain; Encounters Between Mates, Predators, and Prey

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Fantastic. Brilliant. Phenomena and Occasionally Revolting. I want more.

"Life is Hard and Then You Die," I saw this bumper sticker on the rear of a car about the same time I got "FoodChain." I felt that this would be a great subtitle for this provocative book. The photography is stunning and Aperture, one of the leading publishers of fine art photography, has done a dazzling job in portraying the moments between life and death. Catherine Chalmers has given the layperson insight into the world that we live in but seldom see. Her progressive plates vividly take you from birth to death and then back again to birth. Caterpillar eats tomato, praying mantis eats caterpillar, tarantula and a frog eat praying mantis, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

If you thought sex was fatal because of the roulette of disease in our world today, consider the bazaar appreciation that a male praying mantis gets from his lover. Chalmers captures the strange "thank you" the female gives by devouring the male-head first. This book is a collectible and should be in your hands and library. Highly Recommended

This book contains stunning, yet extremely graphic photography which portrays animals, such as frogs, praying mantises, and tarantulas in mating dances, meeting their prey, and devouring fruit. While you can't say that "no animals were harmed in the making of this book" it is a book that brings you face-to-face with animals in their natural behavior. It is a wonderful book and is worth checking out.

I must say this is a pretty cool book although not for the squeamish. Graphic full color photographs that read like crime scene photographs or stills from a horror movie.

There's the sexy display between two praying mantis before the male becomes a post-coitus snack. Another praying mantis dances merrily on the head of a fat shiny toad before meeting its inevitable end. Caterpillars greedily gorge themselves on tomatoes only to be sucked dry by more ever present praying mantis.

The most graphic scenes though are the ones with the pinkies. Pinkies being born amongst a white blood smeared backdrop only to be gobbled up by another fat toad.

It's sick to look at and even a bit morbid at times, but it's Mother Nature and a testament to the circle of life and the survival of the fittest.

This book is truly odd, but weirdly invigorating. Anyone who ever had a pet give birth, be it a hamster or a dog, will find the section on pinkies unsettling. I think this is a great book.

Truly fascinating but not for those with weak stomachs.

The book consists of excellent photographs of various critters (bugs, frogs, spiders, mice, snakes, etc.) eating or being eaten by others. Not for the squeamish.

The more prudish reader might also be disgusted by the scenes of hot, steamy preying mantis sex.

For those with the stomach for it, the material presented in this work provides a fascinating and detailed view of a small part of the world we live in.