Customer Reviews

Island of Secrets (Kindle Single)

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Island of Secrets is a gripping adventure story about the hunt for an elusive, Gremlin-like species of tiny kangaroo in what has to be one of the least hospitable and yuckiest places on Earth. There man-eating crocodiles and eye-sucking leeches. Slapdash minor surgeries are performed (probably not-so-hygenically) on ripped-open legs, and everyone on the trip seems to develop at least one kind of fantastic rash. It's thrilling, and also unimaginably odd, and Matthew Power captures it all beautifully. But in Power's hands, the story becomes not just about this search for a wild animal in one of the last wild places on Earth, but about a quieter, more complicated wildness: whatever it is inside John Lane -- the reckless, sometimes hilarious environmentalist leading the quest -- that compels him to keep looking.

Matthew Power travels where most writers fear to tread. In this beautifully written chronicle he goes to the island of New Britain, near Papua New Guinea, searching for a rare tree kangaroo. Beware of resentful spoiler reviews and let Power immerse you in the High Herzogian dreamworld of the Nakanai Mountains.

I'm going to cheat by including a short excerpt from Island of Secrets as opposed to a "traditional" review:

"Considering our remoteness and the extreme topography, I asked Lane why he hadn't brought a satellite phone. 'Sat phones take the fun out of it,' he replied dismissively. 'Our lives are soft enough as it is.'"

I love that. And this, my friends, sums up Island of Secrets for me. It's a fun, adventurous, read. Sure, it's rooted in environmentalism and John Lane's quest for the elusive New Britain tree kangaroo, but it's not preachy. I'm writing this from Panama City and Island of Secrets has spurred me to seek a bit more adventure in my travels. I recommend it for any traveler or adventurist, environmentalist or not.

Papua New Guinea is one of the most remote and unexplored parts of the world. However, its primordial jungles and other unspoiled environments are rapidly becoming a victim of development and cash-crop farming. In the "Island of Secrets" Matthew Power takes us on a journey to the New Britain, and island off the coast of Papua New Guinea, in search of one of the most exotic and endangered species: tree kangaroo. The motivation for this expedition is the desire to increase the environmental protection of New Britain by highlighting some of its most colorful and iconic animal residents.

As an environmentalist call-to-arms this short Kindle single is pretty well done. It brings attention to a much-neglected part of the natural world that is in danger of disappearing forever. The single has some passing resemblance with Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional "The Lost World", especially in the description of the jungle around the caldera lake. However, as a travel piece it leaves a lot to be desired. The theme of struggling with the inconveniences of living in a small camp on a remote tropical island has been exploited ad nauseam in travel literature, not to mention the "Survivor" where we get to see such adventures on an almost daily basis. I was really hoping that this short single would have offered much more in this department. When the expedition fails to spot even a single tree kangaroo, I felt like scratching my head in disbelief. The writing, as well as the interesting tidbits of information about the New Britain, are all very well done. Nonetheless, I had expected a bit more of substance and was ultimately disappointed with this Kindle single. In hindsight I probably wouldn't have purchased it.

Matt Power's ISLAND OF SECRETS spends a lot of time talking about how few secrets our natural world still holds, and, in turn, about the staggering lengths that one man will go to in his quest to experience and document the unexplored. But this isn't just a description of that passion, it's an enactment of it; just like John Lane is a wonderfully deranged explorer in a wonderfully anachronistic way, Matt Power himself is a treasured throwback to the glory days of plucky, marauding, daredevilish travel writers, who for the most part seem as endangered and rare as New Britain's tree kangaroo. Hilarious, smart as hell, even a little gory, this is miss-your-subway-stop reading at its most exciting.

I'm used to reading Matthew Power's articles in print magazines and travel anthologies and always really liked them. He's had adventures all over the word with everybody from movie stars to MedEvac pilots to Amazon explorers. If you've read other stuff this guy has written you know how well he combines the story of his adventure and the even stranger story behind it. In "Island of Secrets" you find out why John Lane, a danger-loving, cave-loving, pretty famous geologist and conservationist with an unlikely couple of financial backers is risking his life and his day job to discover what just might be a new kind of tree kangaroo. Since this was the guy's third try at it, you know it's a long shot. Did I mention, he's a geologist? And it rains 24 FEET a year, and there are bats with 5 foot wing spans and leeches looking you in the eye? Really. Right in the eye.

If you read this on your Kindle, which I first did, you're lucky that Power writes such great descriptions - he describes Lane as a guy who has "elevated improvisation into a life philosophy" and one of the plants as "a flesh tearing horror with stems covered in three inch spikes." It's a really excellent read. If you have a choice, however, download the Atavist app for your iPad/pod/phone. I'd never heard of The Atavist before and believe me, it's so worth the extra buck to access the excellent visuals like a video of Power as the herpetologist guy who's with them talks him through sewing up the guys leg. I would have liked some pictures of the swarm of man-eating ants that cannibalized Power after he fell into their nest, but I guess the camera wasn't rolling. Anyway, with the app you don't have to go look up stuff like where New Britain is because you just tap the screen and it brings up a Google map. You can also hear him read the story, but don't listen while you're driving because you'll probably laugh in places where he wasn't laughing at the time, miss your exit, and get lost in some strange new world of your own.

Writer Matthew Power's ISLAND OF SECRETS documents the journey that he took along with geologist, explorer, teacher and enviromentalist, John Lane, into the wilds of New Britain, an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Lane was in search of a species of tree kangaroo, and if he could prove its existence on this island, he hoped to create a huge national preserve on the island.

The rain forests in Papua New Guinea are being destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. Large plantations of rows of palms produce palm oil that is exported to Europe where large corporations buy it. Fifty million tons of palm oil are produced each year. New Britain also has palm oil plantations and the forests there are being cut down for logging and agriculture, as well.

Lane gathered a group of students, biologists, and a few hired locals and they set off from their base camp in search of the tree kangaroo. With much difficulty and a lot of leeches, insects, snakes and alligators waiting, they continued through thick jungle and downpours that soaked them to the skin.

I enjoy travel writing and this was a very interesting and informative Kindle Single. A lot of time was spent on Lane's expeditions into caves and other explorations before he went to New Britain, and more time could have been devoted to information on the flora and fauna on the island, especially detailed information about the species of tree kangaroo. Otherwise, it is a nice thing to read for relaxation for armchair travelers.