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A review by ketreads
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
5.0
The World Without Us:
I started reading this book during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time in which we as humans have had to reevaluate how we live our life and have come face to face with the real impact on our world from minor changes in our behaviour. (Such as pollution levels plummeting in cities from less flights and time spent in vehicles). I mention this because during all this stress, changes, and time of realisation, I've found reading a book about the world recovering (in some places) from our inpact both reassuring and calming in some strange way.
The World Without Us follows our current Inpact on this globe and what would happen if we all disappeared, each chapter being dedicated to a specific type of impact.
I was honestly fascinated by this book, which is wholly unexpected from someone like me as a fantasy lover who hasn't read much else. I was almost worried at one point near the begining of the book that the author would focus too intently on one area of recovery (such as he focuses heavily on the natural world and its recovery during the first 20% of the book). I worried it would lack detail or neglect certain realities (such as nuclear plants and how they would potentially melt down in our absence) in an attempt to make the book more cohesive as a narrative but found none of that here.
The author makes all attempts to go into as much detail as possible, interviewing experts in their fields over the most minute details such as house hold piping. I loved this attention to detail and truly helped immerse myself in this "what if" reality.
My only minor gripe is the history sections where a new chapter will begin and as an introduction the author will recite a part of specific human character history relating to this chapter in some minor way. I often found these would take me out of the immersion and while sometimes interesting, felt almost like a completely different type of book. Not one I personally would enjoy due to its social and political nature. Though this is wholly my (probably) uneducated opinion.
I loved this book and will definitely reccomend it to those I think will enjoy it.
I started reading this book during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time in which we as humans have had to reevaluate how we live our life and have come face to face with the real impact on our world from minor changes in our behaviour. (Such as pollution levels plummeting in cities from less flights and time spent in vehicles). I mention this because during all this stress, changes, and time of realisation, I've found reading a book about the world recovering (in some places) from our inpact both reassuring and calming in some strange way.
The World Without Us follows our current Inpact on this globe and what would happen if we all disappeared, each chapter being dedicated to a specific type of impact.
I was honestly fascinated by this book, which is wholly unexpected from someone like me as a fantasy lover who hasn't read much else. I was almost worried at one point near the begining of the book that the author would focus too intently on one area of recovery (such as he focuses heavily on the natural world and its recovery during the first 20% of the book). I worried it would lack detail or neglect certain realities (such as nuclear plants and how they would potentially melt down in our absence) in an attempt to make the book more cohesive as a narrative but found none of that here.
The author makes all attempts to go into as much detail as possible, interviewing experts in their fields over the most minute details such as house hold piping. I loved this attention to detail and truly helped immerse myself in this "what if" reality.
My only minor gripe is the history sections where a new chapter will begin and as an introduction the author will recite a part of specific human character history relating to this chapter in some minor way. I often found these would take me out of the immersion and while sometimes interesting, felt almost like a completely different type of book. Not one I personally would enjoy due to its social and political nature. Though this is wholly my (probably) uneducated opinion.
I loved this book and will definitely reccomend it to those I think will enjoy it.