Otherlands
A World in the Making
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:2nd Feb '23
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback - Signed Bookplate Edition£10.99(9780141991146-SB)
Thomas Halliday's Otherlands offers a captivating exploration of Earth's ancient ecosystems, revealing the rich history of life through vivid landscapes and narratives.
In Otherlands, award-winning palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the Earth's history, exploring ancient landscapes that have long since vanished. From the mammoth steppe of Ice Age Alaska to the lush rainforests of Eocene Antarctica, each chapter immerses us in environments teeming with life, including giant penguins and the vibrant ecosystems of the past. Halliday's vivid storytelling allows us to experience the beauty and complexity of these worlds, highlighting the incredible diversity of life that once thrived on our planet.
The narrative captures the essence of deep time, conveying how the Earth's landscapes have transformed over millions of years. As we traverse through epochs, we witness the birth of humanity and the emergence of life following catastrophic events, such as the asteroid impact that led to the age of mammals. Halliday's work is not only an exploration of the past but also a reflection on the fragility of ecosystems, urging readers to consider the delicate balance of life that exists today.
Otherlands serves as both an educational resource and a captivating read, inviting us to understand the last 500 million years as a series of interconnected worlds. It challenges our perceptions of time and existence, making the distant past feel both wondrous and alarmingly relevant. This book is a powerful reminder of the resilience of life and the importance of preserving our planet's ecosystems for future generations.
This book takes us through the natural history of previous forms of life in the most beguiling way. It makes you think about the past differently and it certainly makes you think about the future differently. This is a monumental work and I suspect it will be a very important book for future generations -- Ray Mears, Chair of the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing
The word "original" is really overworked. But Thomas Halliday has produced a book the like of which I have never come across -- Jeremy Paxman
An extraordinary history of our almost-alien Earth... Epically cinematic... The writing is so palpably alive. A book of almost unimaginable riches. It is a book that will make its own solid and lasting contribution. It could well be the best I read in 2022 - and I know it's only January -- James McConnachie * Sunday Times *
A poet among palaeontologists -- David P. Barash * Wall Street Journal *
A mesmerising journey into those vast stretches of Earth's pre-history that lie behind us, on such a scale that you experience a kind of temporal vertigo just thinking about it... [Halliday is] a brilliant writer, his lyrical style vividly conjuring myriad lost worlds... It's obviously a bit of a gamble choosing one's Book of the Year in March - but there's a very good chance already that mine will be Otherlands. Stunning -- Christopher Hart * Mail on Sunday *
An impressive, tightly packed, long view of the natural world. In cinematic terms, this book would be a blockbuster... Riveting scientific reading; a remarkable achievement of imagination grounded in fact -- NJ McGarrigle * Irish Times *
An immersive world tour of prehistoric life... Halliday never loses sight of the bigger picture, nimbly marshalling a huge array of insights thrown up by recent research. Each chapter gives not only a vivid snapshot of an ecosystem in action but also insights into geology, climate science, evolution and biochemistry... Mind-blowing -- Neville Hawcock * Financial Times *
A sweeping, lyrical biography of Earth -- the geology, the biology, the extinctions and the ever-shifting ecology that defines our living planet -- Adam Rutherford * BBC Radio 4 Start the Week *
Superb... [An] epic, near-hallucinatory natural history of the living earth... Dazzling -- Simon Ings * Telegraph *
Remarkable... Ingenious... A work of immense imagination [...] rooted firmly in the actual science -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman *
ISBN: 9780141991146
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 23mm
Weight: 303g
416 pages