Last Flight Out [Hardcover]

Randy Wayne White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2002

The author of Batfishing in the Rainforest takes us on his latest adventures.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

White, author of The Sharks of Nicaragua and the popular "Doc Ford" mystery series, has collected 23 adventure stories that describe strange and sometimes comical encounters with people he has met in the United States and Latin America. These include jumping out of speedboats at night, attending jungle survival school in Panama, driving a rental car in Cuba in search of everglades, and searching for hot pepper plants in Colombia. Written in the first person, the ten-page stories generally keep the reader's interest. However, the macho theme becomes repetitive, and some of the stories may intrigue in the beginning but do not fulfill their promise in the end. Recommended for public libraries collecting travel/adventure compilations; an optional acquisition for other libraries. [The stories originally appeared in Outside magazine between 1987 and 2000. Ed.] John McCormick, New Hampshire State Lib., Concord
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Randy White is a hell of a good writer, the real McCoy."--Joh Krakauer

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585743836
• ISBN-13: 978-1585743834
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,642,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randy Wayne White is the author of sixteen previous Doc Ford novels and four collections of nonfiction. He lives in an old house built on an Indian mound in Pineland, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're in for a treat- read this book!, February 7, 2002

By 

Susan Williams (Haddonfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Flight Out (Hardcover)

Readers fortunate enough to have already discovered Randy Wayne White will relish this collection of adventures from this very talented writer. If this is the first of White's books you read, you will become a life-long fan by the end of the introduction. Some of these accounts have appeared in previously published columns, and will trigger smiles of recognition in those who have followed the author's prolific career. Hang on for a wild ride that includes ports of call in Borneo, Costa Rica, Panama, Baja California, Key West, Idaho, Cuba, and points beyond. At times riotously funny (Survival Spanish) and patently absurd (roaming the woods in a bedsheet, sporting headgear of moss in The Mossman), it also causes poignant reflection (The Lost Divers). The book is worth the purchase price just for the inclusion of White's powerful response to the tragic events of Sept. 11th, "An Open Letter to He Who Hides Behind the Casket of Innocents". The author's unique perspective on the human experience makes this book a worthy addition to your collection.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real Adventure, November 13, 2002

By 

bill runyon (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Flight Out (Hardcover)

This is a very nice entry by a writer better known for his
fiction, but this is a collection of "real adventure" stories,
and White does a first-class job of describing some of his
travels.
The series of short stories relates the writer's adventures as
he has traveled to remote, and some not so remote, places around
the world, wherein he has been seeking adventure beyond that
experienced by most of us in our everyday world. As such, his
stories will excite genuine interest and further curiosity on
the part of readers who wish to know more about experiences
in those areas denied to most of us.
Most of his adventures are funny to read, although we can also
understand some of them were definitely not funny at the time
of the experience. So we can vicariously enjoy travel to distant parts of the world, as well as the encounters with
"foreign" cultures. After all, even coon hunting in Ohio is
foreign to most of us in our modern civilized world.
Some readers will no doubt be unhappy at the "macho" aspect
of some stories, but most men wish, in their hearts, for such
adventures in far-away places, and those same men wish for
exciting, even dangerous, encounters without kids and womenfolk. Well, not all the time, of course, but a time or two
in their lives, and in this day and age, in the U.S., most
men are denied even the occasional dangerous adventure.
So, if we can't go to all those places, and encounter the wild
and dangerous, we should be able to enjoy reading about them.
And White provides some nice stories of such adventures he has
taken.
Most of his encounters have been short-term, frequently very
brief, because he wrote them for a magazine and was on assignment, but, nonetheless, they are real, and we should
enjoy whatever closeness these stories provide.
As a matter of fact, one possible criticism of this work is
that the stories are too short, really, and we wish White had
been able to flesh them out and expand his impressions. In several of the stories, we can feel the writer's rush, and compression of thoughts, as he has to comply with a magazine's
demands and deadlines.
But settle back for some visits to strange places, and odd characters, when you read White's stories.
They are a lot of fun.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's good, but not his best work, August 2, 2002

By 

doc peterson (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Last Flight Out (Hardcover)

I love Randy Wayne White's writing. And Last Flight Out is good - "Survival Spanish" had me in stitches and "Those Who Hide Behind the Caskets of Innocents" captures the sentiments of America better than anything I have read on 9/11. I also enjoyed his unraveling of the "Mossman" tale in Sun Valley (we've got folks like that in Oregon, too). Yet after finishing the collection of his essays, I was left wanting. To judge Last Flight Out fairly, there is much to like here, but it pales in comparison to his earlier work. The humor and matter-of-fact writing style that makes him so enjoyable is still present, but the articles are a bit testosterone leaden for my taste. For example, White's bantering about travel in rural Cuba (in "Cuba"), his bragging about "dangerous friends" in Central America in "Bike Cops" and his scoffing at those Americans who were too intimidated to fly after 9/11 in the introduction wore a bit thin on me.

If you are familiar with Randy Wayne White, you will find much to like and laugh at here. If you are browsing for adventure / travel books, I recommend starting with Batfishing in the Rainforest first.