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twistedflower2357's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.5
I simply adored this book. Black offers a fresh and unique perspective on the K-Pg extinction that, rather than getting caught up in the tragedy of one of Earth’s greatest losses, highlights the beautiful resilience of life. Her technique of weaving a fiction-adjacent narrative is novel and immersive—serving as both a gateway that inspires earnest imagination, and a built-in acknowledgement that our current understanding of the late Cretaceous and Paleocene periods will become increasingly outdated in 10, 20, 50 years (so why not commit to the picture we have now, filling in the gaps with extrapolation?). At some points while reading, I felt that this approach doesn’t go far enough, thinking “if this is meant to read like a fantasy novel, it reads like a very exposition-y one”. In these moments the prose seems to grind it’s gears a little too much, where additional environmental storytelling could have instead smoothed out the narrative. In that way, the central gimmick of the book fails to reach its full potential.
That being said, Black’s perspective is too valuable and, honestly too magical, for me to say these flaws took away all that much from the experience. The concluding chapter drives home that this book isn’t just a Paleocene romp, but a heartfelt journey through grief and recovery—the grief that any dinosaur lover feels over the loss of this world. It definitely had me crying for reasons I couldn’t have predicted when I was picking the book up at the library. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested who is okay with working through a few more tangents than expected.
That being said, Black’s perspective is too valuable and, honestly too magical, for me to say these flaws took away all that much from the experience. The concluding chapter drives home that this book isn’t just a Paleocene romp, but a heartfelt journey through grief and recovery—the grief that any dinosaur lover feels over the loss of this world. It definitely had me crying for reasons I couldn’t have predicted when I was picking the book up at the library. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested who is okay with working through a few more tangents than expected.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
yegua_blanca's review
2.0
The story seems familiar, almost banal: great fearsome creatures, all wiped out by an even more fearsome, more destructive hunk of rock. A few tentative mammals survived and began to thrive. The meek inherited the earth.
In her book, The Last Days of Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, Riley Black sets out to enrich this story and bring it to life. She uses a narrative style, developing characters out of organisms that have been dead for millions of years. Her objective is ambitious: to retell the story of the famed extinction and the life that emerged in the next million years. Amidst this larger story, we are given snapshots of organisms trying to survive as Black attempts to inject as much life as she can into her book. She dedicates a great deal of pages to the ways organisms interacted with their environments during the drastic changes caused by the asteroid impact; these glimpses are representative of wide-ranging and extreme changes to ecosystems.
Black’s enthusiasm and love for dinosaurs is evident. She writes about organisms that are long extinct with a sense of wonder, painstakingly incorporating details of their life history and ecology into narrative-style writing. This works better in some cases than others. The story is at its best when Black writes about the interactions between organisms, using their actions to show, not tell. When she turns her focus away from a single organism and writes about the interactions between changing plant, animal, and arthropod communities, the narrative proceeds at a brisk and interesting pace. At these points, we begin to get a story that feels organic, as Black seamlessly integrates facts about the environmental conditions and the biology of the organisms with her narrative. However, much of the time, this writing feels clunky. Black often relies on methods of info-dumping facts in the midst of an organism’s story. The action comes to a stuttering halt and reading feels like a slog at those moments. Enthusiasm on its own cannot make a compelling story. In fact, Black’s enthusiasm can exacerbate the problem, as she expounds on details that feel like unnecessary tangents. Amidst these smaller clunky stories, the book feels at times like a loose collection of facts rather than the overarching story of life after extinction. The broad scope of the book demands a tight, careful focus in order to create a narrative. The tangents deal a significant blow to the creation of this narrative.
Though this book has its weak points, I believe it is a compelling read for those who already have a strong interest in paleontology and dinosaurs. The language is accessible for people who do not have a background in science, and the book contains a passion and love for life at its core. Black’s lucid, life-affirming perspective informs every facet of her work. Black goes beyond the doom and destruction trope of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that the asteroid caused. Rather, her story is a celebration of life and its resilience. She illustrates the extinction as an end and beginning: “the conclusion of the dinosaurs’ story, [and] a critical turning point in our own.”
In her book, The Last Days of Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, Riley Black sets out to enrich this story and bring it to life. She uses a narrative style, developing characters out of organisms that have been dead for millions of years. Her objective is ambitious: to retell the story of the famed extinction and the life that emerged in the next million years. Amidst this larger story, we are given snapshots of organisms trying to survive as Black attempts to inject as much life as she can into her book. She dedicates a great deal of pages to the ways organisms interacted with their environments during the drastic changes caused by the asteroid impact; these glimpses are representative of wide-ranging and extreme changes to ecosystems.
Black’s enthusiasm and love for dinosaurs is evident. She writes about organisms that are long extinct with a sense of wonder, painstakingly incorporating details of their life history and ecology into narrative-style writing. This works better in some cases than others. The story is at its best when Black writes about the interactions between organisms, using their actions to show, not tell. When she turns her focus away from a single organism and writes about the interactions between changing plant, animal, and arthropod communities, the narrative proceeds at a brisk and interesting pace. At these points, we begin to get a story that feels organic, as Black seamlessly integrates facts about the environmental conditions and the biology of the organisms with her narrative. However, much of the time, this writing feels clunky. Black often relies on methods of info-dumping facts in the midst of an organism’s story. The action comes to a stuttering halt and reading feels like a slog at those moments. Enthusiasm on its own cannot make a compelling story. In fact, Black’s enthusiasm can exacerbate the problem, as she expounds on details that feel like unnecessary tangents. Amidst these smaller clunky stories, the book feels at times like a loose collection of facts rather than the overarching story of life after extinction. The broad scope of the book demands a tight, careful focus in order to create a narrative. The tangents deal a significant blow to the creation of this narrative.
Though this book has its weak points, I believe it is a compelling read for those who already have a strong interest in paleontology and dinosaurs. The language is accessible for people who do not have a background in science, and the book contains a passion and love for life at its core. Black’s lucid, life-affirming perspective informs every facet of her work. Black goes beyond the doom and destruction trope of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that the asteroid caused. Rather, her story is a celebration of life and its resilience. She illustrates the extinction as an end and beginning: “the conclusion of the dinosaurs’ story, [and] a critical turning point in our own.”
eliasaurus's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
5.0
I can't say enough good stuff about this book. The writing is clear, down to earth, and entertaining; Black makes this subject accessible for everyone, regardless of their science background. I learned SO MUCH: about dinosaurs, about evolution, and about resilience.
Each chapter was centered around a vignette where a couple of species got to be the main characters. This allowed for the kind of storytelling that actually sucks you in, rather than just spouting dry facts. That said, don't skip the appendix, where Black discusses how much of these stories were speculative and why she made the choices she did. (This section, too, is very readable.)
I really appreciate that the author didn't make any grand pronouncements about how we should react to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals. There's no life lesson here, except that life does indeed find a way. That's plenty of inspiration for me. I also really liked the author's brief mention of her gender transition as a form of evolution and the parallels she draws to an event that could only take place once a previous way of life ended.
Truly outstanding work overall.
Each chapter was centered around a vignette where a couple of species got to be the main characters. This allowed for the kind of storytelling that actually sucks you in, rather than just spouting dry facts. That said, don't skip the appendix, where Black discusses how much of these stories were speculative and why she made the choices she did. (This section, too, is very readable.)
I really appreciate that the author didn't make any grand pronouncements about how we should react to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals. There's no life lesson here, except that life does indeed find a way. That's plenty of inspiration for me. I also really liked the author's brief mention of her gender transition as a form of evolution and the parallels she draws to an event that could only take place once a previous way of life ended.
Truly outstanding work overall.
ttodd86's review
1.0
Despite my best efforts, I abandoned this mess. It's written at maybe a fifth or sixth grade level +-and reads like a poorly written junior high term paper. No noting of sources, lots of speculation and lots of redundancy to meet some kind of word count goal.
Based on other reviews, I've been led to believe there is actually some science and explanation in a lengthy appendix, but I'm not going to waste more time on this one. Some advice to the author: while you seemed intent on writing full chapters of speculation about what may have happened, perhaps a better way to handle this would have been a couple of paragraphs, and then transition to the science.
Based on other reviews, I've been led to believe there is actually some science and explanation in a lengthy appendix, but I'm not going to waste more time on this one. Some advice to the author: while you seemed intent on writing full chapters of speculation about what may have happened, perhaps a better way to handle this would have been a couple of paragraphs, and then transition to the science.
shontellereads's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Interesting but also a little dull