No Beast So Fierce is the compelling tale of the cat’s fateful collision with a lone human challenger, certainly a trope with archetypal roots. But unlike many of its fictional prototypes, it attempts to deal evenhandedly with the inevitable showdown, in effect telling both sides of the story. That’s why this book succeeds. Author Dane Huckelbridge guides the reader through a wide-ranging excursion into history and jungle ecology. He also supplies rich detail on the social conditions informing the plight of tigers both then and now, and he colors in some chilling background concerning the formidable power of panthera tigris ... What turns this solitary creature into a stalker of human prey? Huckelbridge offers a rich and compelling explanation here, weaving in natural and political history, jungle ecology, and a discussion of sound land management.
Relying on period writings and on-the-ground interviews, Huckelbridge paints a vivid portrait of the forces that coalesced in British colonial India at the dawn of the 20th century ... Huckelbridge writes with authority and clarity, deftly weaving strands of economics, sociology and history, explaining how changes to a land and its people upset natural systems that had held for millennia ... No Beast So Fierce excels as an intelligent social history and a gripping tale of life and death in the Himalayan foothills.
... well-written, informative and at times thrilling ... The final confrontation between Corbett and the murderous tiger is as exciting in Mr. Huckelbridge’s account as it was in Corbett’s own memoir...
