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ophelia_autumn 's review for:
Otherlands
by Thomas Halliday
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Fascinating descent into the last eon. This book gives a sense of perspective and awe and wonder for the ancient history or Earth, cycles, and shows how we can learn from past extinctions to think about the consequences of human-induced climate change, including why we need to reduce consumption and change our mindset to avoid the worst.
Each chapter is a prehistoric slice of life snippet from ancient life forms, going deeper back in time each time. Some explanations and comparisons along the way really make the writing shine. Sometimes, naming something removes it from our direct experience. Here, the author is quite intentional in trying to make us "feel" these beings and their interactions, their environment and their fate, while still giving a lot of scientific insights and food for thought.
The amount of knowledge and work in this book is staggeringly impressive - maybe even dense at times, but always fascinating.
That said, as an animal lover, I rose my eyebrows at the mention that cattle breeding can be "mutually beneficial" and at the lack of direct mention about the impact of the meat industry / factory farming, apart from the fact that most mammals and birds on Earth are now human beings, and species bred to exploit.
I wish there were more illustrations, in fact, I even wish it was some sort of a graphic novel as even though the descriptions were mostly good, I still found myself googling every living being I didn't know to look at pics of fossils and their artistic renditions.
Overall, it was a great book and I recommend it.
I want to thank netgalley and Penguin Press UK for providing me with an ARC book for free in exchange for a fair review.
Each chapter is a prehistoric slice of life snippet from ancient life forms, going deeper back in time each time. Some explanations and comparisons along the way really make the writing shine. Sometimes, naming something removes it from our direct experience. Here, the author is quite intentional in trying to make us "feel" these beings and their interactions, their environment and their fate, while still giving a lot of scientific insights and food for thought.
The amount of knowledge and work in this book is staggeringly impressive - maybe even dense at times, but always fascinating.
That said, as an animal lover, I rose my eyebrows at the mention that cattle breeding can be "mutually beneficial" and at the lack of direct mention about the impact of the meat industry / factory farming, apart from the fact that most mammals and birds on Earth are now human beings, and species bred to exploit.
I wish there were more illustrations, in fact, I even wish it was some sort of a graphic novel as even though the descriptions were mostly good, I still found myself googling every living being I didn't know to look at pics of fossils and their artistic renditions.
Overall, it was a great book and I recommend it.
I want to thank netgalley and Penguin Press UK for providing me with an ARC book for free in exchange for a fair review.