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A review by eliasaurus
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black
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.