Places in the Heat

Swim with man-eating sharks in treacherous ocean passes, wander through lost civilizations on high desert plateaus, leap off high cliffs over awe-inspiring waterfalls, hike through forbidding jungles on sparsely civilized isles, choke on volcanic fumes inside smoking calderas, and tiptoe along mountain walls on half-inch-wide ledges. As Dennis Foster tells it, traveling in hot places is adventurous, but not always intentionally so. It's also often humorous, but never intentionally so. It's sometimes hazardous, both to the adventurer and to the fragile ecosystem of the island, desert, mountain, rain forest, green shallow, or blue depth where the adventurer happens to venture. After returning from Papua New Guineau, the author decided to write a novel about just such a remote land untouched by "civilization," populated by Stone Age tribes. The result was the humorous adventure,"Stalking the Bird of Paradise," which is included in its entirety.