This book will astonish and delight anyone who believes that the great age of biological collecting—the one that nurtured Charles Darwin, Henry Walter Bates, and Alfred Russel Wallace—is over. Joe Slowinski was a scientist-adventurer of the first order, and Jamie James does a splendid job of capturing the combination of intellectual curiosity and adrenaline that fueled, and eventually ended, his remarkable life.
      —Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

PEOPLE MAGAZINE, 3½ stars (out of 4), July 7, 2008

BOOKLIST, July 1, 2008

Like the more famous wildlife adventurer Steve Irwin, biologist Joe Slowinski, an expert in snakes, died as a result of his professional passion. On a 2001 expedition into the Burmese jungle to locate rare snakes, Slowinski was bitten by a many-banded krait, a reptile with a paralyzing neurotoxin venom that spells near-certain death for the victim. This book, which falls firmly into the same true-life tragedy genre as Into the Wild or Into Thin Air (also about people who died doing the thing they loved), tells us about Slowinski’s life and career and the frantic efforts, after he was bitten, to keep him breathing until he could be rescued. At the end, we feel as though we knew Slowinski, that we understand what made him tick. It’s a dramatic and moving story, told by an author who clearly understands that his subject is not simply about a man’s cruel and ironic death but also about his life, his spirit, and his dreams.

      —David Pitt

KIRKUS REVIEWS, June 1, 2008

*THE SNAKE CHARMER

Absorbing, stylishly written account of the life and career of a celebrated young herpetologist whose reckless fascination with venomous snakes ended with his slow death in the sub-Himalayan wilderness of northern Burma.
Born in New York City in 1962, Joe Slowinski was a bright charmer who grew up yearning to be a scientist. Being bitten by a pet boa constrictor didn't extinguish his youthful passion for venomous snakes; before entering his teens, he had already watched a Hopi snake dance in New Mexico. Slowinski got a doctorate in biology at the University of Miami and began his career as a college teacher and field researcher, studying the snakes of Asia and dreaming of an expedition in search of new species in Burma. (He would later visit the region 11 times in four years.) Fearless in his barehanded handling of dangerous reptiles, he soon had a reputation as a knowledgeable—and macho—snake freak. James (Andrew & Joey: A Tale of Bali, 2002, etc.) focuses in on Slowinski's last Burma outing, made in 2001 under a $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Then a curator at San Francisco's renowned California Academy of Sciences, about to become chair of the museum's herpetology department, the 38-year-old scientist was enjoying a heady local celebrity after his work was featured in National Geographic Channel documentaries. Nonetheless, he embarked with 15 naturalists on a grueling trek through remote Burmese jungle in search of the many-banded krait, one of the world's most venomous snakes. Drawing on interviews, the author recreates that final expedition and the 29 hours it took Slowinski to die (on 9/11) after reaching into a bag of snakes and being bitten by a krait. Without impeding his narrative, James frequently veers into wonderful stories of snake lore, academic rivalries, rattlesnake roundups and other pertinent herpetological matters.
An exquisitely crafted book that will grab even those who have no interest in snakes.

* A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, April 21, 2008
James (The Music of the Spheres) tells the gritty and sad story of Joe Slowinski, a flamboyant and well-known herpetologist who died in Burma in 2001, aged 38, from the poisonous bite of a krait snake. Different snakes—from the first black rat snake he encountered at age five to the cobras on which his professional success was built—anchor different phases in Slowinski’s life, as James paints a portrait of a man filled with ambition, intelligence, passion and recklessness. The account of the expedition into an unexplored region of northern Burma is chilling—it “set a new standard of misery” for scientific expeditions. After Slowinski was bitten by the krait, he was kept alive for 30 hours, through his companions’ heroic efforts, with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But the snake’s potent neurotoxin did its work, and Slowinski died deep in the jungle. In the end, this book is both a tribute to Slowinski’s spirit and scientific accomplishments, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of an overly passionate ambition. 8 pages of color and 8 pages of b&w photos.

OUTSIDE Magazine, April 2008
Required Reading

Joe Slowinski knew more about Asian snakes than almost anyone; the California Academy of Sciences herpetologist discovered dozens of new species in more than two decades as a field biologist. So on September 11, 2001, when he was bitten by a poisonous many-banded krait, deep in the jungles of Myanmar, he knew what to expect. He lay down in his tent, called in his expedition teammates, and, as the American embassy frantically tried to orchestrate a rescue, calmly prepared to die. Outside covered Slowinski's death in April 2002 (see "Bit," by Mark W. Moffett). In this frequently gripping narrative, journalist James fills out his life story, from his reptile-chasing childhood to his chilling final moments.