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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5 ⭐️
A very interesting and informative view of the Earth throughout it's history, narrated with scientific description and poetic reflection.
this would have greatly benefitted from a lot more images. there is of course some value to having to imagine these things for yourself, but i think that's unfair when we know what we know of these eras because of things that we've found, seen, and reconstructed.
ALSO - i understand the intention, but my god it would have been a million times easier to follow if we had gone in order from earliest to latest eras, building upon the past. especially with the epilogue focusing on the present, there's no reason we couldn't have started from nothing.
A very interesting and informative view of the Earth throughout it's history, narrated with scientific description and poetic reflection.
this would have greatly benefitted from a lot more images. there is of course some value to having to imagine these things for yourself, but i think that's unfair when we know what we know of these eras because of things that we've found, seen, and reconstructed.
ALSO - i understand the intention, but my god it would have been a million times easier to follow if we had gone in order from earliest to latest eras, building upon the past. especially with the epilogue focusing on the present, there's no reason we couldn't have started from nothing.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Otherlands has been described as vivid, evocative, and cinematic, and I can see why thanks to Halliday’s incredible writing style. The prose really made me feel transported to the various places and eras of geological time covered, and immersed in the intricate webs of life in these worlds. That said, I did feel at some points that more illustrations would have been a useful addition; some of the prehistoric organisms, ecosystems, and landscapes are so unlike anything that exists today that it strained my imagination to try and picture them. However, I’ll concede that I’m not a very visual person, so this may be less of an issue for other readers.
I felt the strongest chapters in the book were the middle chapters - far enough back in time that it felt instantly different to our own time, but not so far back that the world and lifeforms in it felt completely unrecognisable. Perhaps I’m just too vertebrate-centric, but once we moved into invertebrates in later chapters (and even more so when were at single-celled organisms) I found it a little harder to be engaged.
Overall though, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Otherlands for its strong writing style and its unqiue combination of ecology and geology, used to explore the diverse lifeforms that have lived on our planet.
Otherlands has been described as vivid, evocative, and cinematic, and I can see why thanks to Halliday’s incredible writing style. The prose really made me feel transported to the various places and eras of geological time covered, and immersed in the intricate webs of life in these worlds. That said, I did feel at some points that more illustrations would have been a useful addition; some of the prehistoric organisms, ecosystems, and landscapes are so unlike anything that exists today that it strained my imagination to try and picture them. However, I’ll concede that I’m not a very visual person, so this may be less of an issue for other readers.
I felt the strongest chapters in the book were the middle chapters - far enough back in time that it felt instantly different to our own time, but not so far back that the world and lifeforms in it felt completely unrecognisable. Perhaps I’m just too vertebrate-centric, but once we moved into invertebrates in later chapters (and even more so when were at single-celled organisms) I found it a little harder to be engaged.
Overall though, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Otherlands for its strong writing style and its unqiue combination of ecology and geology, used to explore the diverse lifeforms that have lived on our planet.
Strong 3.5 stars. In desperate need of paleoart landscapes to illustrate all the creatures, but wonderfully written descriptions of the actual landscapes themselves.
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Has dinosaurs in it, I give it 5 big Boooms!!!!
I listened to the audiobook of this and loved the narrator! This book is mind-blowing and brilliant. I need to get the actual book to see the pictures of all the bizarre creatures mentioned.
An astonishing work, conjuring up the landscapes, flora, and fauna of the last 500 million years and the factors influencing evolution and environment.