"An extraordinary and vivid interpretation of our planet’s history."
Otherlands succeeds in covering millions of years of paleobiological history and life on earth in a way that is more accessible and enlightening than any previous written attempt to do this that I can think of. That is a remarkable achievement when you consider that if the entire 4.5 billion years of our geological history were condensed into just one hour, then human history would only last two thousandths of a second.
Halliday’s approach is to drop in on specific moments in time on this planet and then create a reconstruction of what that would have looked like.
Each reproduction is detailed, beautifully imagined and vividly portrayed by this scientist with an extraordinary writing talent.
There are sixteen chapters, starting with the Northern Hemisphere 20,000 years ago and concluding with Ediacaran Earth 550 million years ago. The effect of this approach is to explain the title of the book - you really do feel as though you have travelled through time to other lands and that you are witnessing our deepest origins.
I found myself thinking of the parallel worlds of Philip Pullman, or even the planets visited by Captain Kirk - often they would be familiar but unrecognisable, our memory scrambled and repurposed in a way that makes some sort of sense, like a weird dream. The moon may be brighter, the penguins may be larger, there are camels in what is now Alaska, and so on.
Otherlands is an incredible achievement of the imagination, anchored in scientific fact and travelling through time.
"Immersive . . . bracingly ambitious . . . rewinds the story of life on Earth-from the mammoth steppe of the last Ice Age to the dawn of multicellular creatures over 500 million years ago."-The EconomistLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE "One of those rare books that's both deeply informative and daringly imaginative."-Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky
| Primary Genre | History |
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In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life on the page.This book is an exploration of the Earth as it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history, and the ways that life has found to adapt?or not. It takes us from the savannahs of Pliocene Kenya to watch a python chase a group of australopithecines into an acacia tree; to a cliff overlooking the salt pans of the empty basin of what will be the Mediterranean Sea just as water from the Miocene Atlantic Ocean spills in; into the tropical forests of Eocene Antarctica; and under the shallow pools of Ediacaran Australia, where we glimpse the first microbial life. Otherlands also offers us a vast perspective on the current state of the planet.
Otherlands features in the following genres: History, The Earth: natural history: general interest, Dinosaurs and the prehistoric world: general interest, Palaeontology, Evolution, Ecological science, the Biosphere, History and Archaeology, Nature and the natural world: general interest, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Earth sciences, Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning, Life sciences: general issues, Biology, life sciences, Mathematics and Science, Non-Fiction Books of the Month, Recommendations
Paperback, Ebook, Hardback. £19.80, down from the £22.00 cover price. Not Available.
Otherlands was written by Thomas Halliday and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks an imprint of Random House Publishing Group
Otherlands has 416 pages
£19.80, reduced from £22.00. Not Available.
