Dark Star Safari is the work of four kindred spirits, their open modus operandi, and a remarkably interconnected creative nerve system. Key to their collaboration is an organic freedom that enables the music “to fill itself in”, to be self-actualizing via the musicians as medium. The music of the 10 songs resulted from a two-stage process: an initial phase of free flowing open improvisation, and a subsequent exploratory phase where hidden potentials were discovered and nurtured.

His first novel, Waldo, was published during his time in Uganda and was moderately successful. He published several more novels over the next few years, including Fong and the Indians and Jungle Lovers. On his return to Malawi many years later, he found that this latter novel, which was set in that country, was still banned, a story told in his book Dark Star Safari. When I was very young ­– 10 or 11 – I read travel books by Richard Halliburton, The Royal Road to Romance and others. They don't stand up to rereading, but they thrilled me then. For example, his swimming through the Panama Canal, his night at the Taj Mahal. Composed with passion, eloquence and insight, Dark Star Safari is travel writing at its most eye-opening, thought-provoking and heartfelt." - Merle Rubin, The Los Angeles Times For all its carelessness, Dark Star Safari is free of many of the routine faults of travel books about Africa. There is none of the authorial self-mythologisation or romantic primitivism of Ryszard Kapuscinski or Laurens van der Post. There's nothing dishonest in Theroux's account. It is frequently diverting and sometimes moving. His journey through the continent was long and hard and one can admire him for it. No one could accuse him of not doing the footwork. But he should have done a lot more homework.Uganda almost counts as a success story in Africa, but even here Theroux finds "everything was on the wane". Theroux also visits small, crowded Malawi, where he first taught, and finds a place where there still isn't a surgeon in the whole northern half of the country. Neither of these statements is correct. Although Mengistu killed a large number of government ministers, some of whom were related to Haile Selassie, and imprisoned his daughter, most of the royal family survived. (They were much in evidence at the emperor's long-delayed funeral in November 2000, soon after Theroux's visit.) And the present Ethiopian government, which has conducted a lengthy trial - in absentia - of the former dictator, on charges that include responsibility for the death of the emperor, has never claimed that he killed him with his own hands. Nelson Mandela is from Africa and his story was made into a movie, too. Was it "The Green Mile to Freedom?"

Theroux seems to be very critical with regards to the aid industry, and while I am only going by his word, in a way I am not surprised. The question that is raised is why is it that many of these countries are still living in abject poverty despite all of this money and all of the agencies working here tirelessly for decades. Theroux suggests that a part of it is because aid is big business, and if these countries were lifted out of poverty then there would no longer be any work for them. Another suggestion is that these organisations don't educate the local population, but rather do everything for them. For instance they dig wells and the build schools, and then they leave, and while the community may have this brand spanking new building, they don't really know how to keep it in good condition, and as such it begins to decay. Another thing is that these countries are really cheap and this provides young aid workers an adventure that doesn't cost all that much. Thus they can sit in their resorts sipping margaritas by the pool, and then go out performing some project that in the end will do nothing for the community. I guess it all comes down to the old axiom – give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. This is probably for the best -- much of travel is quite boring (and repetitive -- one bus ride much like the next) -- but it's surprising how little sense of the actual hardship of travel Theroux is able to convey.Theroux's peevish passages on aid set the tone of Dark Star Safari, but they are not its main drift. (...) There are compelling episodes, when the author's prejudices melt away and the spirit of place asserts itself. (...) There's nothing dishonest in Theroux's account. It is frequently diverting and sometimes moving. His journey through the continent was long and hard and one can admire him for it. No one could accuse him of not doing the footwork. But he should have done a lot more homework." - John Ryle, The Guardian Theroux is good at complaining, and there is much to complain about in Africa" - Lewis Jones, Daily Telegraph Q: "You are a trigger happy little bastard," Hunter S Thompson once wrote affectionately to you. Did he influence your approach to travel at all? The older traveler knows it best: in our hearts we are youthful, and we are insulted to be treated as old men and burdens, for we have come to know that the years have made us more powerful and streetwise. Thus the Africa described in The Last Train to Zona Verde turns out to be an even harsher, more miserable, more depressing place than the one depicted in its predecessor Dark Star Safari. There have been "few improvements, many degradations," the author notes. And in the end, it all proves too much.