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A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
- 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters
- Narrated by: Henry Gee
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
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A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
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Publisher's Summary
For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea.
From that first foray to the spread of early hominids, who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you’ve never seen it before.
Life teems through Henry Gee’s lyrical prose - colossal supercontinents drift, collide and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from ‘gregarious’ bacteria populating the seas, to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period, to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long-extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life’s evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.
Critic Reviews
"A dazzling, beguiling story...told at an exhilarating pace." (Literary Review)
"Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!" (Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel)
"Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years.... Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account...[making] clear sense out of very complex narratives." (The Times)
What listeners say about A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Margaret M Mitchell
- 28-03-2024
Very Interesting but Mildly Irritating
The author's dramatic! language!! is at times irksome as are the unnecessary sound effects. Overall worth a listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Martin
- 04-01-2022
Fascinating, comprehensive, without bogging you down in detail.
I have a science degree, and knew most of this content from university, particularly the geology, but the way it was all sewn together to create a narrative was fascinating. I never wanted it to end. I’m going to start it again from the start and when he mentions the scientific names of species I will look them up so I can have a mental image of what he’s talking about. Sometimes they can all start to blend together in your head.
The future of life at the end of the book was great. A little depressing but fascinating.
A must have book, this would even be suitable for teenagers wanting to learn more about biology and evolution. It’s very accessible.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- stuart
- 22-08-2022
fascinating.
One of my all time favourite books. So fascinating to think of the creatures that existed and the scale of time that this book covers. I loved the quirky sound effects and the narration style.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-05-2023
Entertaining and Enlightening
I was transported into deep history by this very entertaining tour of the past and future of life on earth. I find myself re-reading it and getting even more out of it on the second read.
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