The Snake Charmer

A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge

By: Jamie James

Narrated by: William Hughes

One of the most brilliant biologists of our time, and a charismatic daredevil, Dr. Joe Slowinski had been obsessed with venomous snakes since his youth.

In 2001 Slowinski led a team of young scientists deep into the wilds of Burma on a final tragic expedition. Immediately after being bitten by the many-banded krait, the deadliest serpent in Asia, Joe knew his life was in grave and imminent peril.

Thus began one of the most remarkable wilderness rescue attempts of modern times, as Joe's teammates kept him alive for 30 hours by mouth-to-mouth respiration.

The Snake Charmer is at once a brilliant biography, a pulse-pounding adventure story, an exotic travel book, and a fascinating introduction to the bizarre world of snake science.

©2008 Jamie James (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

really tried to love it

I was very excited for this book but there was so much detail iinto the politics of herpatology at the time and so little interesting personal infor.ation and biological information on the dnakes that it just couldn't hold my interest.

Haunting

I have listened to this book three times and I am going to listen to it again. Full of scientific information as well as tragic true events.

Distracted by Mispronunciations

As someone who worked with Joe and studied Herpetology, I was really thrown off by mispronunciation of snake words that were used hundreds of times in the audiobook. For example elapid and krait were both pronounced wrong. Voice actor should have ideally listened to scientists say the words.

Good book.

I wish the reader would have taken time to learn the pronunciation of scientific names.

A Strike!

Jamie James in his informative book "The Snake Charmer" tells the story of how herpetologist Joe Slowinski was killed by a snake bite while studying in Burma. Along the way, James tells the listener more about poisonous snakes than one would think available. Technical knowledge is shared with the reader in a fine way. The description of how Slowinski came to be bitten, his final hours, and the effort his team made to save his is heart rending. Of greatest interest to me was how Slowinski worked with his team as he was dying, held them together and prepared them for the inevitable.

Well read and wonderfully written this book is a wonderful change of pace. It will inform, entertain, and inspire.