Earth

An Intimate History

De: Richard Fortey

Narrado por: Michael Page

In Earth, the acclaimed author of Trilobite! and Life takes us on a grand tour of the earth's physical past, showing how the history of plate tectonics is etched in the landscape around us.

Beginning with Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in Roman times helped spark the science of geology, and ending in a lab in the West of England where mathematical models and lab experiments replace direct observation, Richard Fortey tells us what the present says about ancient geologic processes. He shows how plate tectonics came to rule the geophysical landscape and how the evidence is written in the hills and in the stones. And in the process, he takes us on a wonderful journey around the globe to visit some of the most fascinating and intriguing spots on the planet.

©2004 Richard Fortey (P)2020 Tantor

Captivating and interesting - excellent all around

I loved the way Richard Fortey writes. A ton of information is craved into this book. Very well-written. Author and reader do a fantastic job making the content captivating and woven together in way that brings you full circle. Highly recommend for geology and science fans.

Prose denser than peridotite

This is a truly fine book despite the headline I gave this short review. It covers an array of geological features with creativity and, at times, adroit explanation. At first, I feared I was in for page after page of geological tourism. The book opens with a description of Mt Vesuvius and Italian history that did not intrigue me at all, but once done with principles of extrusive igneous rocks, the book moves on in ways that were more geology with less cultural overlay. When Fortey did pick this thread up again in describing the San Andres fault and Los Angeles, he was far more entertaining and much briefer.

Fortey’s prose stands out, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes because he places more value on the stuff of words than rocks. However, when one of his similes or other figures of speech works, it really works, like this one describing how the pressures deep in the earth transform minerals: “The mineral olivine undergoes more than one transformation in its journey towards the center of the earth. Deeper and its atoms are forced closer together, jostling for accommodations like crowed passengers on a rush hour subway train performing subtle readjustment as more and more of their fellows join them.”

In the end the book works because of its breadth and Fortey’s erudition.

very interesting and well read

this audiobook was very well put together a lot of information well-organized and very well-read

If you liked A Short History of Nearly Everything..

You’ll probably enjoy this audiobook. Maybe a little quirkier than Bryson’s, but if science, the history of science, and a sense of place is your thing, this book delivers. The science piece goes deeper than usual general interest books, but done great here.

Impressive

Fortey's combination of technical expertise with his gift for story telling make this subject matter relatable and so intersting even for the unintiated.

Well-read Fortey is a treasure

Wonderful overview of the geological history of our planet, narrated admirably in a way that revealed some geological pronunciations I would have otherwise struggled with.

I did also get the paper book from the library, and the photo plates were helpful, but also woefully inadequate! You will want to have Wikipedia and Google Earth handy at times.

This book would honestly best be read by a digital globe with speakers. I’m tempted to go invent one to do just that.

Random Geology Verbose History Jumbled Tours

Unfocused prose regarding a random tour of some geology material, local history, because the author had been there. Tedium and verbosity- not my cup of tea!

Lyrical

This was a fascinating approach to what could be a heavy topic. I feel that I now have a Birds Eye view OS the earth.

Terrible narration. Totally stuffy.

I like geology. This is a technical book with new terms and concepts that are covered in a way that uses poor comparisons. Forte, who is a pioneer in geology and Earth science introduces geologic concepts and land formations continuously throughout this book but when attempting to explain these concepts by means of comparison uses trite examples that are dated and generally more complicated then just spending a moment describing what the reader is supposed to see.

The narrator is wonderful if the listener is expecting a Shakespearean or Chaucer sonnet but is totally stuffy and challenging to understand when talking about geology.

The Royal Geological Society is problematic in love with this performance because it creates a nuanced distance due to the accent of the narrator. But books should be inviting and Invigorating. The book should be challenging the narration shouldn’t be even more.

As a consequence, this is terrible and I am upset that I invested the time, emery and money.

Bloated, overwrought, and tiresome.

What a disappointment this book turned out to be.

It's clear that the author understands the subject matter intimately, but the book itself suffers from excessive rambling and overwrought prose that mostly amounts to distracting filler.

At one point, the author, in an effort to indicate the degree to which it is isolated from outsiders, describes a private island in Hawai'i as being "beyond the dominion of Colonel Sanders." This sort of wordy, meandering nonsense is typical. For every actual piece of information revealed here, there is at least one tiresome anecdote or unrelated observation the reader must get through before it is revealed.

While this book is (explicitly) intended for non-experts, it's clear the author has never actually met or spoken to such a person, as he tends to both over- and under-estimate their intelligence. For every dopey pop culture reference (i.e. "Colonel Sanders"), there are an equal and opposite number of technical terms ("gneiss," for example) that the author just drops into the text with zero explanation of their relevance or meaning.

If you're looking for a clear, concise, popular science book about the geologic history of the earth, you'd be advised to avoid this one.