Otherlands A World in the Making
Otherlands: A World in the Making by Thomas Halliday, published by Penguin Publishing Group on February 2, 2023, is a comprehensive exploration of Earth’s ancient landscapes and ecosystems. This 416-page book invites readers to journey through time, revealing the diverse environments that have existed long before our own, from the mammoth steppe of Ice Age Alaska to the lush rainforests of Eocene Antarctica. Halliday, an award-winning palaeobiologist, presents a vivid narrative that highlights the evolution of life and the intricate connections within ecosystems.
In Otherlands, readers will encounter a rich tapestry of prehistoric life, including the emergence of mammals following cataclysmic events and the unique habitats that shaped their existence. The book delves into themes of nature, evolution, and ecology, providing insights into the resilience and vulnerability of life on Earth. Through Halliday’s engaging prose, the last 500 million years are depicted not merely as a vast timeline but as a series of interconnected worlds, each with its own story to tell. This edition offers a detailed and imaginative perspective on the history of life, making it a significant contribution to the field of science writing.
Official synopsis Publisher
FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING – HIGHLY COMMENDED
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, TELEGRAPH, PROSPECT, THE NEW YORKER AND BBC HISTORY
WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
‘The best book on the history of life on Earth I have ever read’ Tom Holland
‘Epically cinematic… A book of almost unimaginable riches’ Sunday Times
This is the past as we’ve never seen it before. Otherlands is an epic, exhilarating journey into deep time, showing us the Earth as it used to exist, and the worlds that were here before ours.
Award-winning young palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday immerses us in a series of ancient landscapes, from the mammoth steppe in Ice Age Alaska to the lush rainforests of Eocene Antarctica, with its colonies of giant penguins, to Ediacaran Australia, where the moon is far brighter than ours today. We visit the birthplace of humanity; we hear the crashing of the highest waterfall the Earth has ever known; and we watch as life emerges again after the asteroid hits, and the age of the mammal dawns.
Otherlands is a staggering imaginative feat: an emotional narrative that underscores the tenacity of life – yet also the fragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems, including our own. To read it is to see the last 500 million years not as an endless expanse of unfathomable time, but as a series of worlds, simultaneously fabulous and familiar.
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