Customer Reviews

Relentless Enemies: Lions and Buffalo

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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I admire grate work done by Beverly and Dereck Joubert with all they movies and books (I own many of them). I even went do Savute to see places they described in previous books.
Needles to say I decided to buy this book blindly as I expected (as always) the highest quality. What was my disappointment when I discovered that this book is poorly printed and almost all photographs look gray. Even photos make in sepia look somewhat artificial. On the top of this cover picture (and many inside) is extremely out of focus. I find it hard to believe that Beverly Joubert would select such images to be printed. Those shortcomings took away all joy I expected to have reading this book.

Superior photographs are consistent throughout this book. The accompanying prose is well done and provides additional information about the subjects seen through the camera's eye. This book is definitely for anyone who has an interest in lions, buffalo or the African wildlife. This book is the still rendition of the movie which is soon to be available on DVD. The movie has played many times on the National Geographic Channel over the past couple years. The information contained in the book does not lose relevance through time. The Jouberts have again provided a masterpiece.

I bought this book after viewing the "Relentless Enemies" DVD. It is just as good and does not merely compliment the film but fills in some important points that a film could not cover such as two detailed hunting plans of the Tsaro pride. Beverly Joubert's photography is stunning, I particulary loved the panoramas that were almost thirty inches wide! These pictures really capture the power and beauty of both the lions and the buffalo. The beauty of the Duba plains is also more evident than in the film due to the scale of the photographs. In one picture alone of a lion stalking a buffalo I saw so many beautiful colors that I felt a tear coming. Dereck Joubert's text is thought provoking and informative but at the same time it disturbed me with its blindless. Dereck Joubert has a glimpse of creation from up close that few people will ever have on Earth and yet he cannot see the order and beauty that that just cries out that this is the work of a Creator. I feel sorry for him and those who will doubt that there is a God because of thinking like this. Yet at the same time this book is a remarkable "catechism" that one can come to certainty of the existence of God with the evidence he leaves in his magnificent creations. This is truly a wonderful book!

The gorgeous photos and elongated size of Relentless Enemies: Lions and Buffalo lends particularly well to public library display - as does the way natural history which surveys the back-and-forth interplay between lions and buffalo. The focus here is the Duba area of Botswana's Okavango Delta, with the ecology of lion and buffalo the object of a striking blend of full-page color photos and naturalist observations. A top pick any public library strong in visual natural history displays must have.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is a treasured reminder of my time in Africa. More than any other book I have read in my life it evokes the true heart and soul of WILD AFRICA. The unrivalled photographs are breathtaking, harrowing, painfully exquisite.....and the poetically evocative writing is the perfect extension. It is simply put, the BEST African wildlife book I have ever read. A true five star treasure!!! Buy it:)