Rating: 
Summary: For Students and Traveler's Alike!
Review: Kricher's prose is easily read and digested with fascinating details of the workings in a tropical forest. A delightful read for both the student wishing to understand tropical ecology and the traveler who wishes to get a better feel for the environment in South America. Highly recommened.
Rating:
Summary: Accessible, Rational, Fascinating
Review: This book will make you feel close to the Neotropics, to the great scientists (Darwin, Wallace, Humboldt) who have visited there in the past, and to those scientists who are conducting leading research in the Neotropics today. It would merit 5 stars even if there were similar books out there, which there aren't.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful companion for rainforest trekking
Review: We have just returned (Dec. 1998) from an eight day trip on the Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers. Kricher's book is the perfect companion. Can be read in advance to prepare yourself for the astounding diversity of species and environments or consulted for immediate information through an excellent index. The well written and thorough text is a joy to read. Be warned the variety of animal, plant and insect species is unbelievable and Kricher's book is not a field guide. He does cover many of the common species, but if you are a bird, plant, reptile or insect nut, then bring appropriate field guides.
Rating:
Summary: A good companion to other books
Review: Wonderfully researched, if sometimes silly in the execution. Like the other reviewers here mention, the incompetent use of puns is distracting. This book is best as a companion to other books on the subject or on a specific country.I went to Costa Rica recently and I brought this book along with the coffee-table book, Costa Rica: The Last Country the Gods Made. The essays, " New Conservation in the Costa Rican Parks System" and especially "House Made of Rain" touch on many of the subjects discussed in Kricher's text, albeit with MUCH more elegance in the writing!
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